Bolivia by www.born2travel.it

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23.02.2015 La Paz (Bolivia)

We are ready to leave but our two friends are missing, and from the clinic there is no news... Our bus is ready to depart just as in the distance an ambulance appears! Here are our friends, 'battered' but ready to continue this wonderful journey together!

On an old public bus we leave the city behind and, skirting Lake Titicaca, head towards Kasani: the border between Peru and Bolivia.

The entry formalities are very slow and the police do not seem very cooperative; we even have to pay for the forms to fill in for immigration! Absurd!

[Stefy]: 'We enter La Paz immersed in its ruleless chaos; cars, vans, people everywhere, women in black bowler hats at the roadside selling fruit and vegetables... we settle in at the Hotel Sagarnaga, right in the centre!'

24.02.2015 La Paz (Bolivia)

[Stefy]: 'We set off early in the morning for the Valley of the Moon. The sky is clear, the sun warm and the air crisp... no name was more apt for this lunar landscape very similar to Cappadocia!

In the late morning we pass through La Paz again and it takes us more than three quarters of an hour to cross it... the road starts to climb and at first with no sheer drops... then little by little it starts to narrow and at the side a great precipice... there's a bit of tension but twenty minutes later we reach an altitude of 5335 metres! The view is stunning! I drink a mate de coca in the refuge and we meet Adolfo, the keeper who lives there day and night...

On our return to La Paz we get what we need for the next three days in the Salares and in the late afternoon we set off from the bus Terminal towards southern Bolivia: Uyuni.

We'll travel all night!'

25.02.2015 Uyuni (Bolivia)

[Stefy]: 'We reach Uyuni around 06.00, when it is about to grow light and the little town is completely deserted. We find everything closed, it looks like a Far West scenario! We stop to eat a little something while little by little the town begins to wake up: children come out of the houses to go to school, all in uniform, the first stalls of handicrafts or spices appear, everything starts to come alive...

A little later we are aboard our three off-road vehicles, ready to live this umpteenth unforgettable experience!

Train cemetery. Wagons abandoned along a rusty railway, witnesses of a bygone era!

At last we set off for the salt flats! The light is blinding, it feels like being in an enchanted world! We set foot on the ground and our shoes fill with water and salt... our cameras go wild! The reflection of the light and the clouds on the water created very evocative effects!

We are spellbound and stay until sunset... the sun goes down and tinges everything red, yellow, violet... everything reflects and disorients us...

We return to our salt camp; yes, it is made of salt bricks, even the bed and the chairs are made of salt! We're exhausted!'

26.02.2015 Laguna Colorada (Bolivia)

[Stefy]: 'We set off at dawn for the Siloli Desert at 4800 metres! Here is the Laguna Canapa and the first pink flamingos... Laguna Honda with its borax quarries.

We spend the whole morning among surreal landscapes... we stop in the middle of nowhere and our drivers prepare an excellent spread which we enjoy with pleasure! We resume our journey crossing boundless, magical spaces until we reach the Arbol de Piedra, a natural sculpture among tall rocks of the strangest shapes!

In the afternoon we reach the Laguna Colorada, where our eyes are literally captivated by the red colour, the strips of borax in the background and, like pink brushstrokes, dozens and dozens of elegant flamingos appearing on this perfect canvas!

A strong cold wind is blowing; we decide to move towards our new camp, even more spartan than yesterday's, but it doesn't matter!'

27.02.2015 Uyuni (Bolivia)

The dusty roads lead us, while it is still growing light, to the discovery of the last treasures of this part of southern Bolivia. Teodoro, the driver, tames our off-road vehicle and, skirting yet another picture-postcard lagoon, shows us, in the distance, tall vapours sprayed towards the sky.

There is a strong smell of sulphur and the scene is very evocative. These geysers, these fumes coming out of the earth, almost like the breath of a giant when it is cold outside... and outside it really is cold; by now it's days since we dropped below 4000 metres and it seems our bodies have grown used to it!

Not far away the background changes again, almost as if I were leafing through a photo album with a thousand images taken in distant places and all different from one another!

Suddenly immense sandy dunes adorned with gigantic rocks, very characterful and out of place... almost as if dropped from the sky in disorder. These are the Rocas de Dali, so called because they inspired the famous Spanish painter.

Some relax a little at the Polques hot springs, soaking at 38 degrees, before reaching the Laguna Catal! Teodoro is very keen to show us this enchanted place! A veritable Eden! Llamas and donkeys grazing peacefully while various species of birds fly cheerfully over this fantastic lagoon! But our destination is more than eight hours of rough road away: we return to Uyuni but only for a couple of hours; tonight we have the night bus to the city of La Paz!

28.02.2015 La Paz (Bolivia)

[Stefy]: 'After a whole night of travelling, at dawn we enter the already bustling outskirts of this little city! From Plaza de Espana we take the cable car and go up, ever higher, where we enjoy a wonderful view of La Paz, the only city where the poor neighbourhoods are up high and the well-off people down low. On reaching our destination, a political demonstration greets us, where we see men and women dressed in white and blue, the colours of the propaganda, filing past! Women in local dress with the black bowler hat worn askew, kept in balance by goodness knows what magic.

We change area and go to a fair we had seen earlier from the taxi. Here we are among stalls selling Barbie dresses or miniature products; women cooking grilled meat and potatoes; many fortune-tellers warding off the evil eye... it really is true that wandering aimlessly takes you to unexpected and characterful places!'

[ to be continued: ]