Bolivia, Uyuni, Potosi and many mountains.

Being on the road we do not have much internet access.  The drive so far has been pretty tranquil. We had an oil leak, fixed the steering, and had the breaks fixed after a tube for the brake fluid broke. The nights are cold at the moment as we are at altitude of between 3500 and 4100 m.

The mountains have been fantastic with stunning views and as we drive slowly and can stop whenever we want we have time to enjoy the scenery. The Andes have many colours and many of the mountains have many different colours in their strata layers.

The food on the road has been good with the majority of Bolivian food based around chicken! We have not been able to fill our gas bottle in Argentina or Bolivia so have a choice of raw food or restaurant food. Street food here is good and cheap, as we move to Peru next prices will go up, so hopefully we find a solution to our cooking needs.

Crossing the Bolivian Border was a long process with the computer not liking the fact a Paraguayan car was owned by a Brit, but we got there in the end, Police have been pretty easy on the road just doing normal checks.

We drove to Potosi which is the highest city in the world and immediately a girl came up to us and said she was part of the VW club and if we needed any help then give her a call.  Thanks Dani. From Potosi we take a bus to Uyuni salt lake and bought a two day tour ticket.  It was quite nice to not have to drive and just sit on a bus and admire the scenery and consider how long the journey would have taken in the kombi as some of the climbs were very steep and long.  With hindsight knowing now there was a problem with my brakes I am glad I did not do the journey either.

Uyuni salt lakes are really special and a must if you are in Bolivia.  During the day the salt being white is extremely reflective and quite blinding, at night time the temperature plummets and the landscape is more Arctic in feel, then the sun rises and the cycle starts again.

Our two day tour was more like a taxi ride across the salt to be dropped at the hotel then a taxi ride back to Uyuni via and island with huge cactuses. Our taxi on the way there blew a tyre have way across, which is the second time on our trip that it has happened, the other time in Australia.  This time changing the tyre was someone elses problem and he had a nice hard flat surface to do it on.  The night in the hotel I woke up to be sick and felt bad for a further 12 hours, I did manage to drag my sorry ass out of bed to see the sunrise but could not face the walk up to the summit of the volcano which was a shame.

Sun rise

The colours at sunset where amazing on the salt lake. Returning to Potosi we met Tuqui whom is the president of the vw club, we had a BBQ at his place with some other VW travellers that we had met at the Oja del Inca, a hot lake on top of a volcano.  Tuqui also took us to the Petrol Station and bought 40 litres of fuel for us at Bolivian prices. Bolivia has two prices a local price 3.6 Bolivinos and an international price 8.6 Bolivianos,  So getting a local to buy for you is a very worthwhile task. Usually I pay them 5 and they pocket the difference.

Next stop La Paz and Lake Tikitaka,