The long and bumpy road... Part 1

Having finally got my (mildly damp) washing back from the hostel at 8.20am, I quickly packed my bag and headed to the pick up point for the tour. Hannah and Rodger arrived shortly after me and, a little bit later, Leo turned up. Once we'd passed our backpacks up to the roof we settled into the jeep, spreading our various damp towels and laundry around to dry in the sun.

The fact that the driver had trouble starting the car was a little disconcerting, however, he didn't seem worried so I decided to take the same approach. After driving for about an hour, we stopped to get out and admire the incredible scenery, and for the drivers to tamper under the bonnet of our jeep. I felt a little concerned (again) that we could end up stuck in the salt flats but our jeep was soon pronounced fit to continue and the drivers turned their attention to one of the other jeeps from the same tour company. This jeep did not fair so well and, after removing and replacing various bits of engine, it was announced that the group would have to head back to Tupiza and get a different vehicle. Although we felt bad for them, we were all secretly glad the same hadn't happened to us.

We continued on a very long, windy and bumpy ride. The roads were really no more than a track and the lack of the suspension, combined with the altitude, had made me feel somewhat nauseous. We stopped for lunch amongst a herd of grazing llamas and took lots of photos of them - then they started getting curious about us. This would have been fine, except that the llama that came closest to us had blood on his nose. We were all wearing various garments made of llama wool and wondered if he might want it back! Fortunately, there wasn't any llama meat in our lunch.

We stopped briefly in a small town, which seemed a ghost town. Our driver told us that everyone was just inside because it was so cold. We did see one small boy, who was out playing with an old bicycle wheel, but all of his friends were inside.

As we drove further into the middle of nowhere, we started to see lots of groups of vicuñas. These are now very rare so we were surprised to see so many. We also saw a couple of ostrich running by. We arrived at our hospedaje before nightfall, and (having slept in the gaucho hut in Chicoana) it was better than I expected. The beds were comfy, with lots of blankets (although not quite enough), although there was no heating, and limited electricity.

Shortly after we arrived, two young girls turned up dressed in traditional garb, one of them carrying her younger sister on her back. They wanted to sell us hand-knitted alpaca goods so a couple of people bought socks and gloves. We sat down to tea and biscuits (thankfully I had my supply of Yorkshire Tea to hand) and chatted until dinner time. After a warming dinner of soup, followed by a main course of mash and meat sauce, we only chatted for a bit longer before deciding we were cold and tired enough to head to bed, especially as we had to be up at 4.30 in the morning.

Steeve (a French guy from the other jeep) had advised us that, to keep warm in our sleeping bags, it is vital to remove all clothes but our base layer and put them in our sleeping bag with us. This allows your body heat to warm the sleeping bag, and the clothes in the bag push out any cold air pockets. We were all slightly dubious about this advice, but were cold enough to give it a try. I can't say it worked brilliantly (I was awake most of the night) but I guess I could have been colder.

After a very early morning, we headed off  in the jeep, huddled under our sleeping bags, waiting for the sun to rise to bring us some warmth.

When we arrived at the national park we had to pay to get in. We also had to pay to use the toilet here, which was staffed by a girl who couldn`t have been older than nine. We drove past some small lakes before stopping at Laguna Amarillo. As the name suggests, this lake had a yellow tinge, and was completely frozen. The French group were taking lots of silly photos on the ice, and wandering out quite far onto the lake, I was cold enough already, without adding the risk of the ice cracking and falling into freezing water.

After this we headed to another 'lake' where a soapy substance is harvested and used to make shampoo. The next lake contained a substance used to make Borax cleaning powder! I certainly wasn't expecting this remote corner of Bolivia to produce so many cleaning products.

Our third stop of the day was Laguna Verde on the Bolivian/Chilean border, where we had lunch (thankfully as I was on the verge of breaking out the emergency biscuits!). It was a beautiful spot for lunch, with the green lake, mountains and volcano in the distance.

Following lunch, we headed back past the desert of Dali to the thermal pools. I wasn't feeling particularly well, so decided not to go in. The water looked amazing, but the thought of getting out and trying to get dry in the freezing wind wasn't so tempting! The boys didn't seem to mind though, and even got out and raced across the pools, before jumping back into the main thermal pool.

We then headed on to the geysers, these looked incredible but the smell was foul and didn't help me feel any better. I ventured out of the jeep for a few photos, but it was absolutely freezing!

I was looking forward to our next stop, Laguna Colorado, where we would see flamingos! Although it is 'low season' for the flamingos, there were still plenty on the lake. The lake itself was bright pink, but it's the creatures in there which make it pink and, when the flamingos feed on them, that is what turns them pink.

After photographs and appreciation of the flamingos, we headed to our hostel for the night which, thankfully, had a fire! There were a few other groups there and we all moved our tables to huddle around the fire and play cards. When we headed to bed (early again because of the cold) we all wondered why it was that flamingos stood on one leg. Was it because they didn't want to get their toes wrinkly? Or to practice their balance?

To be continued...