Bonito Bolivia

September 2023
A short but fine adventure by KZKgoesglobal Read more
  • 4footprints
  • 1countries
  • 6days
  • 67photos
  • 7videos
  • 534kilometers
  • Day 1

    Day 1 - salt flat tour

    September 22, 2023 in Bolivia ⋅ ☀️ 19 °C

    📍Somewhere in Bolivia - day one

    We're back! After three days offline and a phone full of photos (mine not Adam's obviously, he took about one solitary snap of a cactus and that was all), we've had an incredible time on our salt flat tour from Chile into Bolivia. Day one started with us *freezing* to our core at border control at 6am, even with our new hats and gloves (!), and then we got started on the bumpy Bolivian tracks. White lagoons, red lagoons, geysers, thermal baths, heaps of llamas, and sunsets I couldn't stop taking pictures of. A real treat for the eyes!

    It was pretty high altitude all day at about 5,500 metres above sea level, which was the perfect excuse to promptly fall asleep in the car at any available opportunity. A 10/10 day all round.
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  • Day 2

    Salt flat tour - day two

    September 23, 2023 in Bolivia ⋅ ☀️ 20 °C

    📍Somewhere in Bolivia - day two

    Things are starting to get salty. Literally. Black lagoons, canyons and insane rock formations made up day two of our tour.

    And we made more pals! A real international bunch from Brasil and Chile which, selfishly, was great for my Spanish, but pobre Adam had great difficulty until it came to belting out the Shakira songs in the car. Up until this point, my Spanish had been alarmingly bad in Argentina where the accent is unrecognisable to that of mainland Spain and I appeared permanently confused at basic questions 😅 So it was a relief to be able to speak again. A huge part of the trip for me is getting to know new people and widening my cultural knowledge, so I loved the company!

    And then to top it all off, we stayed overnight in a hotel made of salt (hence Adam licking the wall, yum).
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  • Day 3

    The salt flats - day three

    September 24, 2023 in Bolivia ⋅ ☀️ 20 °C

    📍Salar de Uyuni, Bolivia

    Increíble - the salt flats summed up in one (Spanish) word. We effectively made the trip to Bolivia to see them, and it was pretty mind-blowing to experience it in real life where you can just drive for miles and miles on crunchy salt. We watched the sun rise, then hiked up a cactus hill before breakfast, then the green giant made an appearance for some perspective pics later. Oh, and then Adam climbed up some old trains.

    Overall, a fab experience over the three days which had us wheezing away at altitudes of more than 5000 metres above sea level, showed us a glimpse of life in Bolivia which at times looked tough, and gave us the utmost of respect to our guide who navigated the paths with no maps or directions.

    Some good news too, we've got the 'arms out' pose absolutely nailed down now, so we're sorted for wedding photos next year.
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  • Day 6

    La Paz

    September 27, 2023 in Bolivia ⋅ ☀️ 14 °C

    📍 La Paz, Bolivia

    Lots of travellers skip La Paz as it's got a dangerous reputation, and Ads did require a bit of convincing, but we settled for a two night stay here. Total culture shock at first - it's brimming with people wearing incredible traditional outfits, the traffic is literally out of control, and you could quickly see on the streets that Bolivia is South America's second poorest country - but it really grew on us and by the end we really liked the colourful chaos and we felt safe.

    It's hard to show the immense scale of La Paz. It just seems to stretch on forever, pushing itself into the mountain slopes. We used the cable cars like a fairground ride to explore whilst the locals were commuting to and from work (work, what's work🙃?!) We also managed to squeeze in a walking tour, a museum of folkore visit and a walk through the witches market where it was in fact, not cuddly toy stuffed baby llamas, but real-life dead baby llamas used as offerings to Pachamama (the Inca goddess of mother earth). Fascinating and horrifying.
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