reluctant traveller

The train ride from Oruro to Uyuni was hot and dusty (movie playing was chinese with spanish subtitles) but the landscape outside was beautiful and just the beginning of what were about to see for the next few days. We reached Uyuni close to midnight and checked out a few hotels and hostels before deciding on the HI there.

Didnt really explore Uyuni but looked like there wasnt much to do other than begin the Uyuni trips here. I got some goodies at the art store and I should have also gotten the gringo pants (light cotton pants in bright colors popular with the tourists) but didnt. Sitting pretty in Chile now and wishing that I had. Getting back to Uyuni, the city only gets water in the morning or something so we had to wait till 8 AM before we could take a shower the next day. Then got expensive breakfast for 20 Bs where the little boy wanted me to pay 3 Bs extra for the onion in my normally onionless scrambled eggs and finally let go because I said he could have the banana back instead.

Trip day 1:
The tour (booked in La Paz) began around 11 AM with 5 others. Our tour like most tours would last for 3 days in a 4WD jeep with 7 ppl plus our driver, Edward who would also be our guide and food procurer. Rest of group included an annoying retired Japanese guy who refused to flush once and was mostly just repeating himself, a brazilian couple, a kid from Canada and a Californian on this way to Mendoza to work in the vineries there.

We first stopped at a deserted railway and then visited the Salar de Uyuni which is this vast expanse of salt flats (6 m deep with salt according to my guide) that looked like an artic ice field. Being the wet season, there was about 2-4 inches of water. blindingly white and unreal. there was also a hotel out here made with salt bricks. smelled of salt inside. obviously. : )

Spent the night at small village where we were subjected to watching replays of jackie chan action scenes by the daughter/sister of the woman who owned the place while we waited for dinner.

day 2:
Drove through a stretch with some crazy rock from the wind erosion, stopped at a few lakes with flamingoes, and finally laguna colorado where we also spent the night (hostel in the park)

day 3:
woke up super early (was freeeezing!) to visit the geysers. was cool to be able to walk through them. the ground felt a little light like it could crack any time in some places and the whole place did smell of sulphur and you could hear the bubbling. we then stopped at some hot springs nearby and last stop a laguna verde before driving to the Chilean border where Chinni and I boarded a bus to San pedro de atacama, Chile

The journey from Puno, Peru to La Paz, Bolivia took us almost the whole day. Though we made sure we had a very good bus leaving Peru we forgot to ask if there was a change involved. We had to change buses in Copacabana (Bolivia) right after crossing the border. We wasted an hour there and then had to get on a super crappy bus : (
There is a fun part to the journey though... a part where we have to get off the bus to cross Titicaca on a boat while the bus is transported on a barge.
We checked into the Adventure Brew hostel... ok rooms and clean and seemed like a really fun place though we didnt stay long enough.

La Paz! What shall I say... city of a million, city in the valley and growing up the mountains (the new city is called El Alto), Bolivia´s capital, somewhat crowded, plenty of taxis but still hard to get one, mini buses and micro buses make up the public transportation, plenty of street food, and most noticeable of all - a line for everything : line for food, line for money (outside banks), line for taxi, line for gas (cylinders), lines for things I couldnt understand. And some great wollen clothes.
I didn´t really find the much talked about witches market but I did see a few stalls with dried llama foetuses while shopping for Uyuni tours. Must have been the witches market.
The whole city stops working from around noon to 2 or 3 which is siesta time. So spent most of day trying to get train tickets to Uyuni (our next destination) only to find that the tickets are sold only a day in advance so had to come back the next day and that they sold out fast so had to come early. (none of this made much sense to me either).
We did watch a soccer match between Bolivia and Peru.. so that was kinda exciting. The game wasnt all that but the experience was fun.
Also visited some super pre inca (1500 BC?) ruins near a village called Tiwanaku some 70 odd km outside La Paz. There wasnt much there but our guide made an interesting half day tour out of it. Chinni had some errands to run so he couldnt make the guided tour but visited them himself taking the public buses.
We didnt manage to find very many good food places here but that could also be because we were here only for a few days.
I would have liked staying a bit longer here but didnt as I was running short of time.

Took the bus to Oruro on the 7th and then the train from Oruro to Uyuni.