Left Arequipa at 8.30 on saturday morning, spent 6 hours on the local bus to Puno which is the same time as the tourist bus takes except 4 times cheaper and lots more interesting as its all locals! Saying that could have done without the chiuld puking in the seat in front of us. Was a very scenic drive over the altiplano which is high altitude plains that are basically desert. Mostly its just all huge flat valleys, with hills on the rims and not much there except the odd llama/alpaca/sheep farm ... these people seriously live in the middle of nothing in the middle of nowhere. There´s the odd river of green with little lakes and we saw our first flamingos!
From Puno, we got the bust to Cocabana .. well after a ritual of ´theres no bus until tomorrow´followed by ´there is a bus and its 30 soles´ followed by us saying we we leaving tothe other bus terminal and then ´miracously´ there is a bus ALL the way to La Paz for 25 soles! Saying that we had to sit on little stools for 2 hours to Cocabana (which we will stop properly at some time later as its really nice looking there). Also Cocabana is in Bolivia so we had to cross the border which is all very relaxed. Had to get off the bus and get 2 stamps in Peru, then walk over to Bolivia for 200m and get another stamp there. There´s stalls and stuff for sale all the way and locals pushing bikes both ways. From Cocabana we had to change bus to La Paz which was another 5 hours ... 2 hours of this was spent waiting for the ferry across Lake Titicaca. BTW ferry is the largest exageration todate. For the people on the buses there was little boats with a motor smaller then a lawnmower and for the buses there was large floats/barges with a slightly larger motor that held a bus each. Throw in the added bonus of nighttime and NO lights on any of the boats increased the sense of adventure lots ... especially when our boat driver couldn´t start the motor. Anyways we made it. Got into La Paz 2 hours later then we were told at 11pm so that was a bit dodgy. The police met all the tourists, get ya a taxi, take his number etc (which isn´t the safest feeling) and then we went straight to the hotel (which we actually had the foresight to book).
Stayed in Tambo de Oro which is right next 2 the bus terminal and worked out very handy for the next day. Spent another 4 hours on a bus to Oruro. The drive there is much less spectacular then in Peru or maybe I was getting tired of seeing nothing but desert with the odd llama and unbeleivably remote looking village. In Oruro booked our train tickets to Uyuni but then got ´latched onto´ by this kiwi fella - now its good meeting people along the way and I have no problem talking to someone travelling on their own BUT not if they turn out to be one of those tight arse, ´I carry 2kgs of stuff´, ´only use the toilet when its free´´ kind of blokes. We were STARVING ... seriously had no hot food in 2 days and had only eaten biscuits, bread and snacks the day before SO we wanted to get a nice hot dinner before the train. Yer man tags along and suggested this place outside the train station ... now I dont have a weak stomach but jayus the food looked like it had been frying in the oldest oil in Bolivia for 4 days continously .. so we said NO. Eventually found a lovely little pizza place open and went in there. So we ordered pizza and he said he{d have a bit of ours cos he had already eaten (ok fair enough we´re getting a big pizza). After that he vanished to the toilet for 15mins and then came back and said dont use the toilet as he stunk it out! and then he proceeded to tell us on ways to save backpack weight for the next half hour .. eg dont bring a change of clothes just wash them every night - like seriously what a muppet ... we didn´t say too much as really no point. He was ASTONISHED when Dunk ordered icecream for dessert ... like I mean how extravagant are we ... must have cost us all of 1 euro .. seriously like. Anyways in fairness he did throw in some cash for the meal and then told us to use the toilets as they were free!!!! Baffling. After that we managed to lose him on the train but did see him lurking about Uyuni today ... we made sure there was no kiwis on our tour just in case!
So ye we made it Uyuni. The train trip was really good (altho screaming brat of child was annoying but was worth it to see the bolivians telling the mother to shut him up - no words spared seriously!). It was like being in a wild west movie as the moon was full and we could see the plains going on and on and on. Uyuni is grand. Got an unbelivable good brekkie (fresh fruit and yoghurt and the best pineapple juice, Dunk got an omellete that much have had 5 eggs in it!)this morning (the kiwi would have freaked at the price) and 3 day tour to salt plains sorted so we´re all good and happy. Have had a post brekkie nap and think a post lunch nap (altho dont think there´s room yet after brekkie!).
Booked our 3 day trip with Oasis but all the tours here are allegedly unreliable so could be an interesting few days. Watch out flaming flamingoes here we come!!
PS we´ve started to met the ´extreme backpackers´ and I dont mean the ones who do extreme sports BUT the ones who harass, are rude and horrible to all the locals they met just to get the best deal ... is arguing over 2 bolivianos(about 20 cents euro) REALLY worth p1ssing off that many people. Ah well as long as the locals dont think we´re all like that!
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