Oh BOLIVIA (and, especially, Oh LA PAZ)

Hello, hello and welcome back to Bolivia, specifically La Paz. HOORAY. What a city, full of amazing bacon and egg breakfasts, bad brass bands, steep streets and fantastic friends who allow us to stay in their flat.

After biffing around northern Argentina for a few final days (among other things, seeing many-coloured hills in Purmamarca north of Jujuy) we headed for the border like the desperate villains we are. There we received a heartwarmingly Bolivian welcome in the form of blockades (those crazy truckers) and an almuerzo of yellow sludge, the highlight of which was an undercooked potato. We spent a few days in the not-very-charming border town of Villazon kicking our heels, before jumping on the overnight train to Uyuni. Uyuni is a small dusty town whose only raison d'etre is as a base for trips to the giant salt flats and surrounding altiplano. So, after meeting up with Owen and Caitlin (from La Paz. Well, Luton and Toronto actually - almost as glamorous), we duly set off in a jeep for to see the aforementioned sights.

First we saw some abandoned rusty trains, then Caitlin got spat on by a vicuna and then we reached the Salar. Which is enormous, flat, white and...wait for it...salty. Very surreal and impressive - you want to skate on it, swim in it and drink it all at the same time. Which of course you can't, as it's salt. We drove across it, stopping for lunch at Isla del Pescados which contains many large cacti which we pottered about among. After that, over the next two and a half days, we saw many strange shaped rocks, lakes of blue green and red, geysers, vicunas, viscachas (big rabbit creatures with long tails), many many llamas, we swam in thermal pools but, most of all, we watched the altiplano go by. Which is a very pleasant meditative experience - the terrain shifts imperceptibly from scrub to quinoa crops to desert to desert with rocks to gravel and on and on and on....the sun is bright, the sky is enormous and very blue, the road is very bumpy but the experience overall is very tranquil.

Then we returned at long last to La Paz which is where we are now. All is well. We're popping down to the jungle in a few days. Lots of love, Sam X

P.S. Tons more photos on the website