Blown away by Bolivia

Hello everyone!

I went from Salta into Bolivia about a week ago. I thought I would be by myself but there were two boys from my last hostel on the bus so I wasn´t even alone for the bus journey! We crossed the border from Argentina into Bolivia in the morning and got the train up to Uyuni in the afternoon. Bolivia is absolutely incredible. The culture is so rich and the scenery is breath taking. We arrived at midnight and stayed the night in a hotel before starting the most incredible tour in the morning. There were 6 of us in a 4x4 Jeep along with our driver and cook! We drove through the salt flats which were absolutely fantastic. It is so sureal driving through thousands of miles of salt surrounded by beautiful mountains and bright blue sky. We spent a while taking perspective photos and exploring the island full of cacti in the middle of the evapourated lake. We kept driving through dessert and beautiful scenery. I can´t begin to describe it, you will all have to come out here and see it for yourselves to truely appreciate it! The altitude took me a bit by surprise...our guide thought it would be funny to make us walk up a hill which we were all dead at the top of! I am always short of breath, it´s really strange and it gets very cold at night. Luckily I have bought alot of Bolivian clothes (llama jumpers etc!) so I am very warm but look like a bit of an idiot!

We stayed in a tiny village in the mountains with more llamas than people! The stars are huge in Bolivia and absolutely stunning so we star gazed for a while. In the morning we began bright and early and set off to see coloured lakes full of flamencos, strange rock formations in the mddle of the dessert, multi-coloured mountains, active volcanoes and more! I have never seen such an incredible variety of scenery and nature in such a small amount of time. Completely breath taking! The next morning we woke up really early (4 am) to see the geizers which were bizzare and pretty cold and smelly! But all was worth it as we swam in the natural thermal baths at sunrise! Such an incredible experience and such great people to share it with! We then drove back through more unbelievable scenery, to the border of Chile then back to Uyuni.

I got the bus to Sucre by myself getting a seat for the small price of holding a Bolivian baby the whole way! I did offer the mum a seat but I think she was more excited that a white ginger person was holding her baby! I arrived in Sucre and spent a really great three days in the beautiful Colonial town. I have been a bit ill so it was nice to relax and spend some time by myself (the first of my trip!). Sucre is really beautiful and further increased my love of Bolivia.

I spent the weekend in La Paz with my friend Rachel who I met in the airport of Buenos Aires which has been fantastic. Such a crazy city with so much culture and herritage, so interesting. We spent today at a pre-inca sight Tiwanacu which was incredible. Bolivia is so great, I can´t rave about it enough! It is the real south america and I absolutely love it!

Off to Lake Titicaca tomorrow to make you all jealous! Then up to Cuzco this time in a week for my next project which I can´t wait for! I love it here (as you can probably tell!)

Love to everyone xxxxxx

Post-Birthday update

These are just afew photos of the beautiful scenery (one from the bus and the other the waterfall that we swam in after our trek). These are my travelling friends, Will, Emily and Kerri.

Since last writing I have had a very busy few days! We went on a huge bus journey up to Tucuman from Valparais which was great as we got a "full cama" bus which means you get a proper bed and nice food so we slept well and arrived refreshed in Tucuman (northern Argentina). We went white water rafting and on a trek up a mountain in the forest to a secluded and beautiful waterfall where we swam and relaxed which was very much needed after the extremely sweaty and difficult trek (which our guide did in flipflops!). We explored Tucuman and took a tour around the Yungas which are the surrounding mountains. The scenery is aboslutely breath taking in northern Argentina, I can´t even begin to explain how beautiful it is up here.

We arrived in Salta on the 13th and my friends bought champagne which we drank at midnight and the whole hostel sang happy birthday (in several languages!) . On my actual birthday we had a picnic in the park and relaxed because my friends paid for this incredible tour as a present the next day which left at 7am! We had birthday cake though which was great and meant the whole hostel sang happy birthday again! The tour was incredible. We followed

the route of the train to the clouds, up mountains to 4100 metres, through dessert, across salt flats, into beautiful old villages, through gorges....litterally unbelievable! Again I don´t really know how to describe it, it is just something you have to see. Our tour guide made us promise to tell our friends and family to come and visit his country so there you go!

I am off to Bolivia by myslef tomorrow which should be great if it all works out!! I can´t wait to see a new place athough I feel pretty exhausted by the pace at which we are seeing everything. I only have afew weeks until my next project though so I am trying to see as much as possible.

Take care everyone, xxxxx

more backpacking tales....

Sorry for the lack of photos, it is pretty tricky to find a place to upload them. Anyways...We went to Santiago for a few days after Mendoza which was great. The 6 hour bus drive through the Andes was incredible and I was glued to the window the entire time taking photos! In Santiago we met up with Will´s sister who is living there and had a fiesta at her house and met some locals which was great. We explored for the next few days. Santiago is a really cool place surrounded by mountains. We got a cable car to a mountain in the middle of the city which gave us amazing views over everything. The Chilean accent is pretty different to the Argentinian one though so my Spanish is not great at the mo...but I´m trying to meet local people and practice, they´re all very patient! We then went to to Valparaiso, a really quirky and eccentric town built up the hills surrounding a port. It was great to explore this crazy place but unfortuneately the weather wasn´t great (for the first time on my trip!) so we couldn´t go to the beach. We are now off on a big bus trip up to Tucuman (northen argentina) and into Salta for my birthday! Can´t really complain! I am loving the spontaneity of backpacking and now knowing where to go next. Carrying everything in my backpack is so much fun, if not a little heavy! The four of us are getting on so well and it will be sad when Emilie and Will have to go (they are meeting Emilie´s parents down south) but I am sure I will meet lots more people.

Overall having a fantastic time and couldn´t ask for anything more! Hope everyone is well at home, I think about you all lots and wish you were here to see all the incredible things that I am seeing! Can´t wait to tell you all about it when I come home.

Happy Easter!! xxxxxxx

Travels....

I LOVE TRAVELLING!!! Kerri (and english friend from BA) and I left BA on Saturday morning after a crazy last night! We arrived in Rosario (a town 4 hours northwest) and went to an awesome hostel where we met really nice people and chilled out away from BA. We went to a great beach on an island opposite the city and chilled out there for the day, watched the sunset over the city and went home. The next day we explored Rosario and left to Mendoza on Monday night. We had a 12 hour bus trip which was actually really good because the buses here are like buisness class in planes! We arrived in Mendoza on Tuesday morning and met Emily,Will and Cheyne. We are staying in an amzing hostel wth a pool, hamocks and its own wine cellar! Mendoza is beautiful; vineyards and olive groves with the back drop of the andes! On our first day we explored the city and parks then had a wine and empanada night at the hostel so met lots of nice travellers and drank lots of Malbec...the next day we went wine tasting which was great and had a huge meal. We have just come back from a trek in the Andes which was fantastic. The scenery is absolutely beautiful and it was so refreshing to be surrounded by such amazing nature. We climbed a peak called Andesito (we should have done more but a really unfit Australian girl couldnt make it so we had to do a smaller one!). I am off to Chile on Saturday with Kerri to Santiago and Valparisio then off upwards....

I am loving it here and just enjoying myself so much. I love meeting all these new people and seeing such amazing things every day. I feel so lucky to be here and I really am loving every minute!!

I hope all is well in sunny England!
lots of love to everyone xxxxx (ps. photos to come)