Anyone for salt?

Salt pakers in Bolivia
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It took us three hours to cross the border into Bolivia but when we arrived we immediately felt like we were somewhere unlike any other place we had ever been. Women were dressed in traditional costume of felt hats, stockings and layers of layers of embroidered clothing, there were little towns surrounded by complete nothingness and everything so ridiculously cheap.

In the border cue we met four Irish girls (Catherine, Aoife, Mairead and Riona), a Dutch guy (Stan) and an Australian couple (Jacinta & Chris). We all travelled to Tupiza and that night saw a bizarre Bolivian carnival where men dressed in drag and everyone walked through the street covering each other in shaving foam.

Rock climbing in the desert
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Two days later we left Tupiza and began a four day tour of the lakes and salt plains. Our group was Pod and I with the four Irish girls and so for 10 hours a day Pod was stuck in a mothers meeting. However we slept in remote villages where all six of us shared one room (which Pod was delighted about!)

Apart from the 10 hour bumpy jeep rides and the altitude headaches (we were at 4000 ft) it was a brilliant trip. Amazing red lakes in front of rust coloured mountains with lines and lines of pink flamingos. We travelled through deserts, had lunch with llamas and bathed in warm thermal pools before freezing around hug mud pools and geysers. The ultimate part of the trip was the salt flat which covered an area the size of the UK and which when covered with water created the most surreal place you could imagine!We spent about an hour lying in the salt and creating optical illusions!

Our group for the tour
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Next stop Potosi which is the highest city in the world and a chemist for some altitude pills!