Leaving San Pedro de Atacama and entering into Bolivia was an incredible way to cross borders! We met up with our group and our driver, Franz, and drove along our first lake, Laguna Blanca, with the amazing mirror reflections. Stunning.
Our first stop in the Dali Desert was at Laguna Verde for some cool views and onto Agua Termales (hot springs) for a quick dip. The altitude here was quite something and we were roughly 4,500m above sea level – it was a lil difficult to breathe.
We visited the smelly Geiser Sol del Manana, which were bubbling away, and made our way to our accommodation for the night. Lunch was served and shortly followed by lil nap before our afternoon trip.
This was my favourite place so far, Laguna Colorado. It was absolutely stunning (freezing of course) with the range of different colours from red, blue, green, white and the picturesque pink flamingos – incredible!
We wandered around a while taking in the incredible scenery and walking back along the top of the hill for great views. Back to our accommodation for a warming dinner and an early night – I was feeling pretty rough from the altitude.
Our second day involved a lot more picturesque lakes with flamingos and some cool rock formations including the stone tree, Condor Rock and mushroom-like formations.
A stop in Colcha K Village to wander the abandoned train tracks and taste some quinoa beer and then we proceeded on (passing a few llamas crossing the road) towards our salt hotel, Hotel de Sal Tambo Lomo, which was pretty cool (yes we licked the walls to check that it was actually made out of salt).
An early morning rise in the dark meant for the most incredible sunrise reflections as we drove out over the saltpans, which had roughly two centimetres water on the top. The views were absolutely amazing and left most of us speechless. It was beautiful.
Franz pulled up in the middle of the water and we hopped out for some awesome snaps – wow the reflections were stunning.
As the sun rose, we continued our drive to the dry saltpans where it was time for the typical photos with the props that Franz provided.
Franz knew his shit and set us up for some pretty funny pics – he had done this a few times before!!
We made it to Isla Incahuasi for a walk around the cactus-filled island, which was pretty bizarre being in the middle of nowhere, followed by a yummy breakfast (and spectacular views).
After making the most of the salt flats, we continued on to the mound of flags and the ‘Dakar’ Salt Monument before heading into Uyuni for the train cemetery.
We had fun exploring the train cemetery and the abandoned trains left to rust away in the desert, climbing in and out of them all and snapping a few pics along the way – my type of playground.
This was our last stop before being dropped off in Uyuni town – what an incredible three days we had. A trip highlight so far for sure!
We booked our night bus to Sucre and chilled in Salar Luna for the afternoon until it was time to jump on the bus. Luckily the bus was super comfy and easy for the eight hours overnight to Sucre.
After dropping our bags off at our hostel, we spent our first morning in Sucre in the incredible Condor Café with amazing food and coffee – yum!
Wandering around the streets, we made it to Recoleta for a great view over the ‘White City’, then onto the main square before heading to the local markets for a yum feed of chicken, rice and salad.
Sunday meant a visit to the Tarapuco Markets which involved quite a drive but once there, the town was something else. There were three different markets, the livestock, the fruit and vegetable and the textile markets, all located throughout the small town.
The town was full of stunning people which fascinated me – their lives were so colourful with what they wore and their faces held so much character.
We arranged a three-day hike to the Maragua Crater with Condor Café and set off early in the morning via bus to the start of the hike, Chuquisaca, which was roughly 2,800m above sea level.
Edwin led us on our hike down the Inca Trail stopping and filling us in on the medicinal plants along the way. The day was pretty awesome with a few pretty stops as we made our way all downhill until a waterfall amongst the layered rocks, where we had a quick dip in the refreshing waters.
We finished off the first day by walking up and into the crater – this was stunning and we arrived just as the sun was going down.
Dinner was shortly followed by a small performance of singing and dancing by a few local children who were known by our guides. This was pretty special and magical sounds before we crashed out after a big day.
We made it to the top of Maragua Crater early the next morning after a difficult climb (I was not feeling well) for a stunning view before continuing onto the dinosaur footprints.
Now these footprints were pretty cool and there were three separate sets of footprints to be seen, some more easily than others, considering they had been there for thousands of years – I was pretty impressed.
The last of the hike towards Potolo consisted of condors flying as we ate lunch, more uphill and downhill and the last stretch through a ‘labyrinth’ of sand dunes – finally we were in Potolo!
The last night was rough for myself as altitude sickness randomly hit me pretty hard – luckily the only walking that morning was to the main square for our bus back into Sucre (the magical altitude pills of Sorojchi saved me).
It was a struggle arriving back in Sucre as a strike had just started and numerous roads were blocked. This only turned worse and worse over the next few days and we were blockaded within the city unable to leave with all busses cancelled. This suited me fine as I spent the next few days in bed thoroughly unwell and unable to eat.
Eventually we booked a flight to La Paz and ordered a taxi for 4am in the morning (whilst the road blocks were lifted for a couple hours) with a few friends.
We got through till roughly 7km away from the airport where the blockades actually involved people sleeping across the road. Out the taxi we got and started the 7km journey to the airport. Still only about 5am in the morning.
A rough walk in the complete darkness (after not eating for four days I was pretty weak) but we finally arrived shortly to find out that all flights were now cancelled. Ahhhhh!
Eventually we managed to make it out (following a local dude who needed to get out also), bypassing the blockade, jumping in a mini van and getting the hell outta there!! We got to Pototsi where we booked an overnight bus to La Paz. Finally out of Sucre – what a journey!
Our first day in La Paz was a big one. We wandered around, grapping some saltenas for brekky, and meeting up with Red Cap free walking tour, which started out the front of the La Paz prison (which alone was pretty fascinating and finally I put a picture to the book Marching Powder).
We walked through various food markets, the Witches Market (with llama foetus’ hanging up), ate delicious papa rellenos, drank yummy fresh juices and wandered through some pretty cool streets with colourful textiles everywhere.
We finished the day by riding the numerous cable cars, first stop being the top of El Alto for incredible views over the city. Was pretty spectacular views from 4,150m above sea level!!
Of course I could not leave La Paz without riding down the ‘famous’ Death Road. We booked with Ride On Bolivia (who were amazing and definitely recommend) and were picked up super early for the bus trip to the starting point at over 4,650m high!!
We were kitted up with full body protection and started down the winding road with stunning views. A few stop for photos and we actually got to an uphill point so the bikes were loaded back on the vans and we drove to the start of the ‘old’ death road which is where the asphalt ended and the cloud cover meant we could hardly see more than three meters in front of us.
We had a break at one stage and as we stopped admiring the views, one of my tyres let off a loud bang – it popped!! Didn’t take long for our guides to change it and off we went again.
The road was stunning and it was crazy to hear about all the deaths along the road – there were many!!
Eventually we made it to the bottom and were rewarded with a big lunch before the journey back to La Paz.
Next up was an early morning bus (Peru Hop) to Copacabana, the highest lake in the world standing at 3,840m above sea level. This involved a ferry crossing and a quick stop for awesome views of Copacabana as we arrived.
I dropped my bags at the hostel, had lunch and met with everyone for the afternoon boat trip to Isla de Sol (Sun Island). It was a long journey out there but we were rewarded with great views as soon as we were at the highest point of the hike.
The walk did not take long but we were pretty high up so there was no rushing and enough time to chill in the town of Yumani before our boat ride back to Copacabana.
A couple of us had dinner before I went for a wander around town – there was a strange festival which involved the locals drinking plenty of beer and eating lots of food whilst dancing along the streets. The music was pretty loud.
I spent my last day in Bolivia walking to the top of Cerro Calvario, which was hard work – almost at 4,000m above sea level, but I made it. The views were well worth it and I spent some time here before wandering back into town for a yummy brekky at El Condor & Eagle Café.
My overnight bus was that evening and the border crossing was pretty straightforward – I was excited for my first stop in Peru, Cusco!!
