BOLIVIA is absolutely amazing!!!!! (Part 5 of South American trip)

After Machu Picchu we bounced to Bolivia, our first stop was the Lake Titicaca the highest lake in the world situated at 3800m high (12500 feet).
Took few locals buses, a ferry ride and crossed through a massive thunders storm ouaw. Stayed few days in Copacabana cos the prices of our hotel was 4$ a night, Bolivia is one of the cheapest currency in South America.
Copacabana It’s a small hippy town with red roof houses next to the lake where you can enjoy fresh trout, trucha in Spanish, with salad and rice for only 5$, amazing.
Partied one night pretty hard but relaxed the rest of our time there, the 4 day trek in Peru was amazing but tough so we wanted to chill and relax at the highest lake in the world why not eh. Even though we were high in altitude we still wanted to swim, but the water was freezing, so we came up to have the great idea of wearing the beer jacket ahah drunk few beers and guess what at this altitude you get drunk twice as fast. Made our way to the water and jumped in, ouhhh cold but awake I was.

A short ride bud to La Paz capital of Bolivia, stayed in a very cool backpacker’s hostel called Bacoo, super cheap, few pool tables, ping pong, couches, Jacuzzi and very very comfortable beds, what a treat, for only 10$ a night. You can’t go to Bolivia without visiting the Salt Flat of Uyuni so we booked our tickets through our hostel.
We had to do a night bus until Uyuni, 12h took few sleeping pills passed out. Arriving in Uyuni, we jumped straight on the jeep for 3 days discovering the wild of Bolivia so pumped. We were 6 in the jeep 2 German couples, Jay and I. Salar de Uyuni is the world’s largest salt flat. It’s basically a lake that went dry through thousands of years, it’s about 11,000 square meter. The landscape of bright-white salt, rock formations and cacti-studded islands are absolutely stunning.

The Salar is at approximately 3650 meters (11,975 feet) above sea level. A true Wonder of the World. Sometimes there is a small sheet of water covering huge desert of salt, it reflects the sky and you can’t tell if you see things or the hot mirage is playing tricks with you. Great photo with its mirror effect.

Our first stop of our tour was the train cemetery of Uyuni. It used to be a crossing town and a key link in the transport chain connecting the mines of Bolivia with the rest of the world. The industry obviously crushed after the World War 2 and so the trains were abandoned and became this massive train’s cemetery. Through the decades of sandy storms, they rut and got rusty in the super duper hot sun of Bolivia. Most of the trains went back to the early 20th century, crazy eh. Now all of the metal carcasses are covered with graffiti and names from backpacker visiting through the years.

After that we drove hours to be in a field of rock formations maze style, it was amazing. Volcanos were everywhere and I am pretty sure we went up til 5000m high (16400 feet), the rock formations cause by the ancient rivers and constant wind sorms were so cool and bizarre at some places creating small canyons were we would stop to have lunch or snack.

Big rabbit desert were curious and came close to say hi. Night fall came and we stayed in this tiny tiny village, maybe 50 peeps max, were we enjoyed a delicious Bolivian meal and few beers, we had to pay extra money for taking a shower so we decided fuck it no shower for few days.

Our next day was driving by plenty of red and green colored lakes with thousands of flamingos, I was so surprised to see flamingos in Bolivia at this altitude. We got pretty close to some of them it was cool. Green lake was our last destinations of the day and stayed again in a small village where we played the game Yhazi with the Germans and few bottle of wines. We stayed quite a while outside observing the sky, behind so lost and high in altitude the stars and constellation were putting on a show by firing shooting stars… Breath-taking.

Next day was rough we had to wake up at 4am, but so worth it. We experienced the sunrise of the Salt flat at one of the highest pic where the famous hot geyser field is, you truly feel like on Mars. The biggest geyser was so hot, Jay and I made some funny pics.

After the guide told us to walk and take pictures in the geyser fields lol I asked “is it safe” he replied “yes yes of course” bahahah it wasn’t people but fuck it we live once, so we walked around geyser and small pools of bubbling earth water, the smell and steam and fogs made it so dramatic, I still remember few parts where the ground was shaking, what a scary but awesome experience.

After that we drove down the mountains and enjoyed after 3 days of jeep, hiking, no shower, a beautiful hot springs. Just awesome you know, you sitting in this pool of hot water coming from earth with this majestic view of the salt desert.

And here is the end of my trip with Jay in South America, Jay stayed few more days in Bolivia and went home to Canada and I flew to Thailand to meet with Nicole.
Stay tuned for our next blog where the TravelFreaks gets reunited in Thailand and travel through Cambodia and Laos.