Bolivia...wow....

Hola Chicos!

How are you all going?? Lately Ive got quite a few emails from you all saying that youre keeping up to date with my blog......thanks guys!! Its nice to know Im not just writing this for me......you guys are the best =)

Well as you may have guessed from my title I am now in Bolivia!!! I arrived here last Thursday with Thelma and Eileen after a looonnnnggg day of travelling. Its so bizarre, as ssoon as you cross the border from Argentina to Bolivia it is totally different. I really feel like im in South America now, Argentina was fantastic and I loved it, but it is very westernised. You walk down the dirt roads in little villages here past small thatched roof houses, little kids playing on the streets and women with huge petticoated skirts and bowlers hats on, carrying babies on their backs. It really is amazing!

We (Eileen, Thelma, Catherine, Jim and I) took off from Tupiza (in the south of Bolivia) on Friday for a 4 day tour of the desert, volcanoes, lakes and salt flats all nestled high in the Andes. We had a great tour guide and cook for our trip who spoke NO english and so I tried my best to translate being the only Spanglish speaker. Friday was alot of driving, climbing into the mountains and checking out the barren desert scenery. That night we stayed in a little village and had a llama wandering around our room (very friendly little guy!). The altitude started to affect us that night, as we all froze and struggled to breathe as we were trying to sleep! Kinda scary!

Saturday we had a bit more of an exciting day. We warmed up in some hot springs in the middle of the desert (sssoooooooo nice) and we saw loads of beautiful coloured lakes full of Flamingos! We also went and checked out some Geyseirs (spelling?) bubbling mud and sulfurous gas. Cool. That night we stayed in another little village at 5000m, and were all pretty knocked around by the altitude. It was REALLY FREEZING and the whole night I felt like my head was going to explode. Anyway luckily we survived through the night!

Sunday we saw an amazing red coloured lake (which also had flamingos in it) and the local volcano. We saw a bit of the salt plains and stayed in a hotel made of Salt. SO cool. Monday we got up before the sun rose and headed to the Salt plains to watch the sunrise. So beautiful. We spent the day driving through the salt plains and taking some really cool pictures (see above).

We arrived in Uyuni Monday arvo and last night had a nice farewell dinner as all my lovely Irish people are headed to Potosi today, and Im off on my own to Cochabamba and then Villa Tunari where Ill be for a couple of weeks volounteering in an animal refuge. Should be something really special and different, this is the web page if you want to check it out:

http://www.intiwarayassi.org

It should be amazing!! Keep posted for future blogging about this.

Take care guys, missing you all from home and all you lovely people Ive met travelling so far!!!!

xoxoxoxoxxo