End of Bolivia

It's only been 2 weeks but we are departing Bolivia today and heading into Argentina. Last winter we visited the Kimberley area of W. Australia and were treated to unbelievably beautiful landscapes. For the last 4 days we have travelled 1200kms through Bolivia's remote south east (on gravel roads) and our experiences last year could only be preparation for what we saw in Bolivia. The South East borders both Argentina and Chile (Acatama Desert) and is a huge volcanic region, rich in minerals. Hence the lakes (many frozen over) are multi coloured, the snow capped volcanoes tower over 6000m, the landscapes change from desert to eroded rocks (also multi-coloured), flamingoes wading in semi frozen mineral rich lakes, coral islands covered in cacti, vast areas of salt flats (the biggest in the world at 1200sq kms with the biggest Lithium reserves in the world ), dried river beds deeply eroded by ancient rivers, volcanic larva flows and llama grazing on semi frozen marshlands. It was absolutely incredible and …….. incredibly cold! The cold is dry with winds blowing frequently. We had enough clothes but spent little time out of the Toyota – just to take the photos. Accommodation (at 3700m, 4300m then 3700m)was as basic as you could imagine. No heating (a ‘little’ wood burner on Night 2 which could fit 50% of the travellers huddled around in the evening), hired sleeping bags with extra blankets provided. We went to bed with all our clothes on, in fact we never took much off in 4 days! Bottles of water froze overnight on the window sill. We were in a convoy of 5 Toyotas with an combination of travellers from all over the world – we were the only Kiwis (as we have been throughout our trip) and old enough to be everyone’s parents but it was a good group.

A.J.’s description of the S.East is being a cross between the Tongariro Crossing (multipled by 10,000) with thermal influences and Antartica with it’s frozen cold. It’s sparsely populated (understandably) but there are brave souls living in this environment and farming llama and working in mines.

We are now on the road to Argentina and hopefully a better internet network so that I can sahre some Bolivian photos with you. Bolivia has been harder work than Peru for travel and communication. We would have loved to have stayed longer but then that would sacrifice our time allocation for Argentina. A.J. is over the dry cold and looking forward to a change of food and ……wine!