BOLIVIA!!!!!

Hi guys....long time no speak...people have been badgering me about doing another blog...i think one every 2 weeks is sufficient!! haha

So since you last heard from us we have been in Bolivia (which we have just left). We headed to Bolivia from Arg on surprise surpise another bus.....this time the bus was just to the border which we got to at some unearthly hour in the morning. Border control here is literally the most disorganized thing I have ever seen....all they had to do was stamp us out of Arg and into Bol....But of course it can´t be that simple. We had to wait in 2 queues whilst we watched Argentinians skipping to the front and climbing over the fence down the hill...pretty classic. I have no idea why we didn´t do that! After about 3-4 hours we were into Bolivia!! WOOOOP We decided to head straight for the bus station to see when/book our bus to Tarija which was our first stop. The bus station was rammed with people and we found out that our bus wasnt until 8pm that night....approx 12 hours later. We had to wait in this hell hole of a town for 12 hours...i should mention that this town is called Villazon and there is NOTHING to do there besides sit in a park the whole day.....and eat. To much eating is occurring on this trip we feel. Especially chip related eating....they serve chips with everything....they are amazing though...thats half the problem.

So we got to Tarija in ze middle of the night as per and went straight to this hostel that we knew the name of....there were Christmas decorations everywhere and statues of Jesus....I didn´t really know what to do with myself. The bus journey to Tarija was SO scary. After coming off the amazing Arg buses we were in for a massive shock. I was actually praying on the bus and almost sent some final goodbye texts to people. We went to Tarija because it boasts the highest vineyards in the world!! Nothng like a bit of wine tasing when you´re on your travels! We wandered around the town for a couple of days, went up the Mirador (viewpoint) and ate ´Fillet Mignon´a couple of times for only 4 squids as you do! On the last day before our bus we went to the ´Campos Solena´vineyard...one of the most famous wines in Bolivia. Before midday we were trying the Reisling which was delicious. We had a private tour and an english speaking guide which was handy! They told us about their sister vineyard...´Casa Real´ which produces Singani...which is basically Ouzo....we had a spanish speaking guide here which was pretty interesting... but we got the gist of what he was saying....and then we tried it.....that is never good before midday...Han felt sick the rest of the day and I stupidly took a massive gulp...after our vineyard trip we had another Fillet Mignon and headed for the bus....which to our dismay was the same coach we got on at Villazon....little did we know that this journey to Tupiza would be worse and that Han would experience one wheel of the coach come off the road.....


Tupiza was a sizeable chunk of our trip and we stayed there 5 nights and booked our Salt Flat tour from there! We were staying in Hotel Mitru....pretty much the best place in town which had a pool and we had a really nice twin room for.....wait for it.....4 pound a night!!!! We basically just chilled out by the pool topping up the old tans!! It was pretty beaut! We got to know these 3 English guys who were on their GAP YAHSSSS and then 6 South African/Zim girls arrived which was pretty sweet!! We tested the local ´nightlife´there....nae ideal...2 karaoke bars one of which we got chucked out of at 11 and the other of which we tried what was meant to be the best shot of our lives...´the springbok´ (it wasnt) and then me and Han got serenaded by the owner...pretty weird....esp the part where we tried to do karaoke to Shakira in spanish....A couple of days later we did this ´triathlon´ thing where we did a jeep ride to ´penis valley´ in the morning, a 3 hour ´horse´ ride and then we got driven up this 17km long mountain pass where we had to jump out at the top and mountain bike back down....the day was awesome and we did it with the english guys and the SA girls so it was alot of fun....pretty sore at the end of the day mind.....We all had dinner together on the last night....and this is where we learnt never to put a time limit on how long Bolivians take to cook for 12 people.....it took about 2 hours for the food to come....as you probably guessed I was almost dying from starvation by the end..it was worth it though ´pique macho´or male itch was the plate of choice.....SERIOUSLY YUM.


SALT FLAT TOUR!!!!!!!!!!
We spent 3 days 4 nights on the Salt Flat Tour with the SA girls which was AMAZING....it involved driving round the Bolivian volcanoes....staying in pretty funny accommadation and seeing the most INCREDIBLE scenery you will ever see in your life. Bolivia is BEAUTIFUL and has so much varying scenery...we drove up into the mountains and onto the Altiplano where we went swimming in hot springs and went to see Lincancabur and Laguna Verde...which I have been told so much about...me and Breen were reeling with the geology! hahah the whole area was literally breathtaking! Probably some of the best 4 days of mine and Breens life! We had a really funny guide who when he spoke English...spoke in a gay accent...priceless!Han had a bit of a mare on the beginning of the tour as we were driving by really steep drops and she is REALLY scared of heights...i swapped seats with her but typically so did the side the drops were on....the food on the tour was EPIC some of the best food we have ever tasted!! That was a relief as we had been told that it was really dodge....we even had afternoon tea!! On our last night...the night before the we headed onto the actual salt flats we sacked off the tea had wine instead....you get pissed seriously quickly at altitude...especially when you start at 4.30.....LADETTES hahah. We were also staying in a hostel made of salt!! The loos....we will not discuss...picture hovering.. and special places to put your feet. The last day of the tour we went onto the salt flats which had a couple of inches of water on them so it just looked like this HUGE mirror...it was awesome! Even though there was water on them we still managed top get some pretty sweet perspective shots which you will see on faceyb soon enough!!! After the tour finished we headed up to La Paz to stay at WILD ROVER a hostel which is essentially just a massive irish bar!!


La Paz was a lot of fun....i don´t want to bore you...i probably did about 3 paragraphs ago...it basically involved buying lots of Bolivian goods for practically nothing, getting really pissed on the first night and being so hungover at altitude it was horrendous and having no memory....a riot in the city which meant we left and being woken up at 4am on the last night because the guy in our room was having sex.....OH MY GOD i am literally scarred for life. We realised some sort of riot was about to occur when we headed for lunch as this place called Olivers Travels....the barman said he was locking us in as the riots got dangerous and they had dynamite...that would explain the amount of riot police we saw the huge explosions me and han heard as we were walking to the place....It was safe to say we were leaving the next day. We then headed up to Lake Titicaca on the border with Peru and spent a couple of days there....on an island called Isla Del Sol which apprently was the birth place of the sun......not sure about that one....there wasnt much to do there so now we are in Peru!!! Updates in about 3 weeks me thinks?! hahah


brrrrappppppp xxxxxx