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We left La Paz for Copacabana and Lake Titicaca, on the Peru/Bolivian border (it is 3,811 m above sea level) by mini bus, arriving there about 10 pm. We stayed in Hostel Imperador, Copacabana and despite the smell of sewage we survived for the night.

The next day we got a ferry to Isla Del Sol, taking about 2 hours where we hiked up to see the famous Inka ruins and then hiked back the length of the island (8km – our biggest hike yet!) to get to the main “town” where we were staying the night.

All the people living there use donkeys to cart their stuff up the ridiculously steep hills so we were really glad not to have our big rucksacks. La Paz was catching up on us so after some delicious quinoa soup and fresh trout it was bed time for us.

After our relaxing time in Samaipata, we arrived quite refreshed in La Paz ( Bolivia´s administrative capital). We stayed in Wild Rover hostel – loads of backpackers and a lively bar. There was much drinking. There was much fun. This explains why I´ve nothing more to say about La Paz.

None of us have become great fans of the roads here in Bolivia, even the main ones are largely unpaved so all of us were happy to take a flight from Sucre to Santa Cruz for the next bit of the trip. (There will be plenty of long bus journeys to come though I´m sure) From Santa Cruz, we got 2 taxis to Samaipata, a small town about three hours away.  Really great atmosphere here, very relaxed and much slower pace of life. It is a really veggie friendly town, with all the restaurants having a good varied menu, a novelty from what we´ve seen so far in South America. Tierre LIbre was particularly good aswell as Cafe Chakana and Latina Cafe. Also worth a mention is the French Bakery for yummy custard pastries!

And yes, we did actually do more than eat here. On the first day, we took  a tour to the inca ruins, “El Fuertes”.  Our tour guide Martin (a dutch guy, there are 25 different nationalities of expats living in the town) from Road Runners told us alot about the incas in general and about the site itself.

On the second day, we did a hike near Laguna Volcanes, very pretty with nice views. And so, that evening, came the big event of the year for the town, classical guitarist Piraí Vaca , apparently one of Bolivia´s most well known artists was on in the local church. We all trekked in, it was enjoyable but more of a Sunday afternoon activity than one for Saturday night. One of the local hippies broke up the boredom though when he decided to break out the rum and sit down in the middle of the aisle to clap out the beats on the floor.

For the four nights we stayed in Hostel Andorina, nice, clean and comfortable but the owners are a little weird and you would want to like cats!

We ditched our plans to get the night bus here after the tour – all of us were sick at some stage that day and the day before so we stayed in Uyuni and went for pizza. The next morning we got a bus to Sucre, arrived around 8pm. Here everyone gets to go on the bus – even the dogs. A cute puppy came on at one of the stops. A puppy on a bus for 6 hours, definitely going to pee…and ofcourse he did, right next to my seat! Me and the old lady across the aisle gave our best filthy looks back at the owners but I don´t really think they cared.

Sucre is the capital of Bolivia (population 247,300 in 2006). We are staying in a really nice guest house – La Dolce Vita, and with the nice sunny weather, warming up quickly after the Salt Flats.

We haven’t been doing much here, just enjoying the nice cafes, restaurants and chocolate shops! La Dolce Vita is our guest house, would definitely recommend, really clean and comfortable and a good location. We ate in Florian Cafe (good food and a good happy hour) and Cafe Mirador (really nice salads).

We arrived in Uyuni after a long journey from Salta, bus  to La Quaica, border town in Argentina, then walked through the border and on to Villazon, a small town on the Bolivian side. An immediate difference in the people, buildings and atmosphere there. Having booked our tickets we had to hang around for the morning waiting for the train – we did get to stock up on wooly hats, leg warmers and gloves!

We started the salt flats tour the next day – 6 of us plus a cook and a driver in the 4×4, a bit of a squish, specially in the back row! The Salt flats are pretty impressive – it´s like a white desert and theres a really stange perspective there so it was really good fun taking photos! Internet here is pretty slow so I will upload more photos later.

After the salt flats, we were driving for the next 2 days stopping at different points – pink lagoon to see the flamengos, the green lagoon on the border with Chile, different rock formations in the desert and geysers with hot springs.

The first night, we stayed in a hostel made of salt – even the beds were made of salt! The second night we stayed in a regular hostel but the cold was awful – I had dinner wearing thermals, leggings, combats, socks, leg warmers, string top, tshirt, long top, thermal top, hoody and fleece plus a hat and gloves. but besides the cold, it was a great trip!