Day 81 - On the gringo trail

La Paz (Bolivia) to Puno (Peru)

Mainly a travelling day today as we finally say goodbye to Bolivia and head into Peru on our overpriced bus tickets! The border crossing at Desaguadero was very busy and made worse on the Peruvian side with exits and entries in the same queue, and only three people working on passport control as busloads of people travelling in opposite directions all hit customs at the same time. Our bus then inexplicably stayed parked in the middle of the street for another half an hour or so after our passports had been stamped!

Queuing at the border with all the other gringos

Puno is known as a convenient stop between La Paz and Cusco on the shores of Lake Titicaca (the world's highest navigable body of water), and has the floating islands of Uros as one of its main attractions. We had been warned that the whole thing was very touristy, but of course we are tourists on the tourist trail through South America (also known as the Gringo Trail).

We had booked train tickets from Puno to Cusco on the Andean Explorer, feted as one of the great train journeys of the world (and priced accordingly of course). We went to the train station just up the road from our hostal to collect our tickets before walking down to the harbour to try and work out our options for visiting Uros for tomorrow. It was more touristy than we'd seen for a while, with touts trying to get us to book boat trips for the next day, but that also meant it was obvious there was no need for us to commit to anything now .... the touts will all be there tomorrow as well!

The clear blue waters of Lake Titicaca

Day 80 - Don't always trust the hotel guy .....

La Paz

Get your safety pins here!

Today was our last day in La Paz so we took it easy getting organised for our trip into Peru and planning the next few days of our trip.

We did make a tactical mistake though, we had asked the guy at the hotel two days ago how best to get to Puno in Peru, and he offered to arrange the bus tickets for us. It ended up being a mistake, since by this afternoon we hadn't seen the guy for two days, we were told by his assistant that he had the tickets for us, but we had to hand over the money first .... and it was at least twice as much as we thought they should cost. We hoped he was getting buses from a better company (we've found quite often then there is more variety and flexibility in bus quality and departure times when buying direct from the bus station, when compared with the internet).

After waiting all day he finally showed with the tickets, and of course they were exactly the same as the ones we could have bought online for half the price .... lesson learnt!!

Day 79 - Old relics everywhere .....

La Paz

Today we went on a day tour to the ruins at Tiwanaku, which is not that far from La Paz but because of the traffic it took two hours to get there. We were collected on foot from our hotel and walked down some side streets until we came to the concrete and metal divider between us and the major road. Here we were told to climb the divider and we waited on the edge of the road (no emergency lane) until our bus pulled out of the traffic and picked us up - no safety considerations here!

Not sure which of the faces in the photo looks the most bored

Tiwanaku is an ancient complex of ruins that is still being excavated, our guide told us that not enough money is available to complete the work required to uncover the ruins. There weren't that many tourists there, mainly school groups who all looked a bit on the bored side as they were marched around the ruins. The ruins covered a large area, and we did get some interesting information from the guide on the cosmological significance of the alignment of the various parts of the site.

Also, as it was K's birthday today it seemed quite apt to be visiting the ruins of an ancient civilisation .........!!!

Day 78 - Relocation time

La Paz

Letters typed while you wait

Today we changed accommodation as the airbnb we had been staying in was a bit out of town, the steep hills are a killer (especially when combined with the altitude) and the traffic noise meant we hadn't had much sleep. The traffic in La Paz is always bad, but it had been made worse by the protest/blockade. Everyone uses their horn continually even when it is obvious that no one can go anywhere. Horns are also used for information - to let you know they are turning or passing near you, and a multitude of other reasons, so staying on a major road makes sleep very difficult.

It also meant that it took about 30 minutes in a taxi to get to our new lodgings, we could have walked it in 15 minutes! Our new hotel was very close to the tourist centre of town, but we were given a room at the back so even though we now have a lot less room than an airbnb at least we can sleep.

There are still police everywhere because of the protest which is now into it's third week, the police seem to have an incredibly boring job, there are lines of them sitting in doorways and windowsills playing on their phones - all dressed up but nothing to do. At least their lunch is delivered - at lunch time they are all sitting down on the ground and in doorways, with their lunches in identical plastic bags.

Day 77 - Teleferico

La Paz 

La Paz has a new teleferico (cable car) with three lines so far, and many more lines under construction. The idea of this cable car though is not for tourism, but as a means of public transport, as La Paz is built all the way up the sides of the mountains surrounding the central city area. A ride on the teleferico is cheap and each car holds 10 people. We caught the red line from the old railway station to the end of the line at the top in El Alto, where the Sunday market was being held.

We wandered around the market and somehow found ourselves in a huge car parts section, all sorts of bits and pieces were there, including a stall selling only sun visors. Further on we saw all sorts of other products - lots of stalls with pirated movies and software, food, clothing, kids rides on miniature (young?) llamas, someone trying to sell something related to prostates (!), thousands of finger puppets and much much more.....

Anyone want to buy a finger puppet?

Back in the city centre, there are lots of souvenir shops and people selling all sorts of things on the street but there isn't any pushiness or hard sell, everyone seems relaxed and easy, apart from the driving! We noticed in Chile that pedestrians were treated courteously, you only had to think about crossing the road and the cars would stop for you. Not so here in Bolivia though, in fact quite the opposite, the cars will not slow down or stop, they honk their horn at you if you consider stepping out and if you find yourself stuck in the middle of multi lane traffic with cars whizzing past a couple of inches of you from you on either side not one car will slow down and let you cross the road.

Taxis are so plentiful that they are the majority of cars on the road, however they all (even the newer ones) do the same thing with the seat belts. They tuck the click into piece through and out the back of the seat so there isn't any way you can use them - don't want them worn out I suppose.

Day 76 - We are no threat to the president, let us in!

La Paz

Today we went to a bookshop/cafe to get a decent coffee only to be told we had ten minutes as they closed at 12.30, us and the many other tourists who wanted coffee and lunch had our normal tourist discussion on how difficult it is to be a tourist in a country that closes its doors so often.

We then headed off to an afternoon walking tour, this one wasn't free though, we paid in advance about $6 each, which is around what we would normally tip on a "free" walking tour, perhaps a little less in fact. This one was different in other ways as well. Generally we've found that walking tours have a good mix of ages, this one though was all backpackers in their early 20's plus us two oldies. The group was also huge, almost 40 people, we are used to groups this big being split - not a good start!

We did get to see the regular market (food etc.) as well as the witches' market again, this time with some explanation of the various potions you could buy (love potions being quite popular of course).

Obligatory market shot with brightly coloured food in sacks

There were still police everywhere, the main square with the presidential palace was still blocked to traffic and only a few pedestrians were being allowed through, the guide on the tour had to negotiate with the police for the walking tour to be allowed in. The pigeons had no trouble getting in though ... the square (Plaza Murillo) must have the highest pigeon density in South America - they were everywhere!

I wish these pigeons would flock off

The walking tour was supposed to be around two and a half hours, but it really dragged - long walks, then a long stop, and a very long stop at another market towards the end .... we bailed after three hours, it was getting really boring by that stage!

Day 75 - Enough with the foetuses already!

Cochobamba to La Paz

We had read that flying in to La Paz is an amazing sight so we requested a window seat and the check in guy was kind enough to tell us we needed the right side of the plane as well. It was the most beautiful scenery with a mountain topped with snow right outside the window, followed by the sight of La Paz with all the houses almost hanging on the mountains surrounding the town.

La Paz is back at altitude and we could feel the difference in the air in the terminal before we had even stepped outside. It is also a city with lots of steep steps and streets so combined with the lack of oxygen it's a good work out - we were in an almost constant state of breathlessness.

We wandered around town for the afternoon, and found the famous El Mercado de las Brujas (Witches' Market) which was similar to the one in Cochabamba, though it seemed a little less "authentic", and geared more towards tourists.

Spot the dead llamas

The main square and parts of La Paz were blocked off, due to a protest by the disabled citizens who want an increase in their pensions. They were wanting to talk to the president direct, but as he'd pretty much ignored them they had parked their wheelchairs across one of the main streets into the city, and we also found that the main squaure was heavily protected by police, they let gringos like us in and out easily, but some of the locals were having a bit of trouble.

Day 74 - No, we didn't take the stairs

Cochabamba

Third attempt today to get the teleferico to see Cristo de Concordia - this time we were successful.

This statue doesn't have the same feel as the one in Rio, even if it is larger. The surroundings and positioning isn't as beautiful as Rio, the ares could use some landscaping and beautification. Then there are the signs telling you not to take the stairs as you could be mugged .... it's a shame the presence of a giant statue of Christ isn't enough to shame the thieves into doing something else....

Day 73 - Foetuses and mummies

Cochabama

Cochabamba is known as the city of eternal spring, and so far it's lived up to that reputation. First off we tried to get to Cristo de Concordia, but when we were close enough to see if the cable cars were running it was apparent that they weren't - so that was put onto tomorrow's list.

Instead we walked up to the main market in Cochabamba, called La Cancha, which is the largest open air market in South America. Before we even reached the market itself the streets around it were full of people selling things, mainly produce, along the paths on either side. Then once we were in the market it was chaos - people everywhere, stalls selling almost anything you can think of. Apparently the place is infamous for pickpockets, but we were our usual cautious selves and didn't have any trouble.

Spot the dead llama

In our wandering through the market we came across the witches section with people reading cocoa leaves and cards, and many llama foetuses  and even what appeared to be baby llamas dried and hanging up, which are buried in the foundations of new houses as an offering. There was also a human hair area, which answers the question of how all the local women can have such amazing long black hair past their waist.

After the market we visited the Museo Arqueologico de la Universidad, which was small but had a good selection of mummies and other archaeological oddities (as well as the usual ceramics, textiles and tools).

I bet he never thought he'd end up here

To finish the day we visited the Palacio Portales, a beautiful old house built by a man who made a fortune out of silver mining, the house was in great condition and the garden was well kept. We had arrived in time for the English speaking tour, however our guide's knowledge of the language wasn't too good .... so the tour was a little frustrating. Then again we are in a Spanish speaking country so perhaps we shouldn't expect to be spoon fed all the time!

Day 72 - Mine is bigger than yours

Sucre to Cochabamba

Since we arrived at altitude (back in San Pedro de Atacama) the air has been so dry that we've had the occasional nose bleed, and our lips had become so dry and flaky, but a few days at a slightly lower altitude in Sucre has meant that our skin and nostrils have had time to return to normal before we travel to altitude again.

Airport mutt just before getting the boot

Cochabamba is only 330km away from Sucre but we had read that the road was horrendous, so we took advantage of the budget airlines and opted for the 25 minute flight option. While waiting in the upstairs cafe at Sucre airport we had the company of a stray dog - first time we have ever seen a dog (that wasn't part of border security) wandering an airport, and possibly the first time we have come across beggars inside an airport as well.

Once we arrived in Cochabamba we took the taxi to our accommodation. We had decided to stay in an apart-hotel, and we were given a three bedroom apartment with two bathrooms and a huge lounge area .... overkill when all we asked for was one bedroom! The weird thing though was that each room had a photo of the room on the wall, with people posed in "real life" scenarios .... creepy!

We went for a walk to see the giant Cristo de la Concordia (Christ of Peace) statue, it looked very similar to the Cristo Redentor statue in Rio, since that's what it was based on (surely they could have put their own Cochabamba spin on it). When it was built it was the largest Christ statue in the world, but now it's the second largest (the largest is in Poland).

Unfortunately when we arrived at the base of the mountain the chairlift was closed for maintenance. A taxi driver of course offered to drive us up but couldn't (wouldn't?) confirm if it would be open tomorrow. As we had a few days here we decided to try again tomorrow, and spent the rest of the day lounging around our apartment.

Day 71 - Jurassic Park

Sucre

We had extended our time in Sucre by a day to include Monday, as spending a weekend in a town is always limiting with so many things being closed. We planned our day and headed off to the Ethnographic and Folklore Museum only to find it was closed. The streets were strangely quiet for a Monday, the only people walking around seemed to be gringos. It was a public holiday of course, because May Day had fallen on a Sunday .... bummer!

We walked around town for a while trying to find something that was open without much luck, then decided that we should visit Cal Orcko, a dinosaur park where thousands of dinosaur footprints had been discovered, and the largest such site in the world. It wasn't high on our list but we were getting desperate!

Intro to dinosaur tracking

We caught a taxi with another couple, negotiating a price with the driver for the four of us for the return journey and a stopover of two hours - the price was a little high, but consistent with what we'd read online. The site was originally a huge quarry, the tracks were discovered while excavating, and eventually a tourist attraction was developed around it. The place wasn't that bad - things like the full size dinosaur models were probably aimed more at children, but we still found them quite interesting, there were all sorts of dinosaurs of all sizes represented.

Brontosaurus maybe?

We did the guided tour down to the cliff face where the dinosaur tracks could be inspected more closely, There were thousands of tracks, the guide pointed out the different types of tracks, the paths different dinosaurs took, and provided an explanation of the history of the site, and why the cliff face was now vertical.


After that we headed back to town with our driver, who on arrival decided to double the price and say the price quoted was per couple, it ended up in an argument and with us walking away - not the most pleasant way to end the trip. When will these drivers learn that with the internet the going rate for things like taxis is no longer a secret and an opportunity for overcharging .... five minutes online and you can work out what things are supposed to cost!

Something we've seen in Sucre that we haven't anywhere else so far is the young children (not older than 10 or so) working the city square for money - they draw very childish drawings in chalk on the pavement, or stand in front of cars at the traffic lights "juggling" (throwing one ball up and catching it). Gringos like us are targeted as a soft touch by our appearance, and the children seem so young to be trained in this business with no supervising adult ever appearing.

Day 70 - Pimps and Princesses

Sucre

We had low expectations for the day as almost everything is closed on Sundays in South America and Bolivia is a more traditional country that Chile. However the Casa de la Libertad was open for a couple of hours in the morning, so after breakfast we headed straight there. We were lucky enough to join a small English language tour that had just started and we were given a great Bolivian history lesson. One interesting tidbit we learnt was that Bolivia is named after Simon Bolivar, but Bolivar was actually from Venezuela - as was Antionio Sucre, after which the city was named.

I wonder what Simon Bolivar would think of this

Once we left the tour we found the the plaza full of people, multiple brass bands, lots of women in colourful traditional dresses and groups of men dressed in all sorts of ways - some of them looked like they were pimps or in the mafia. We discovered that being the May 1st it was the equivalent of their Labour Day and they celebrated in loud, colourful style. The parade went around the plaza and then down the street past our hotel. It was made up of groups of men and women all doing the same dance to the same song, most in traditional dress but some younger women in more western dress. The parade continued for most of the afternoon with fireworks being let off - first time we have watched fireworks in the middle of the day.

The women look so nice .....

and the men look like mafioso ......!!!

Day 69 - Slowing down a bit

Sucre

We've booked a few days in Sucre to slow down a bit as all of the early starts and long days while we were in San Pedro and on the Uyuni trip have caught up with us.

We slept in and wandered around the city, getting our bearings which was made easy by the fabulous location of our hotel. For once we were staying as close to the centre as possible, and in a nice hotel rather than a hostel.

We wandered over to the market, it was very busy and had all sorts of things for sale - from cakes to veges to fruit juice to spices to cow snouts ... just your average Bolivian market I guess.

Sucre is known as the white city because of all the white colonial buildings, pretty much every building in the central area of the town is white. We walked up towards the mirador (lookout) at the top of the city, it was very steep and made us feel we were back at Valparaiso, but this time with the complication of being at altitude.

On the way up we visited the very interesting indigenous arts museum and textile exhibition. Normally textiles wouldn't interest either of us that much, but it was amazing to see the intricate weaving done by the indigenous peoples of the area.

The mirador bordered a plaza which was obviously a teenage hangout, but it had a lovely cafe which pretty much had only gringos in it, with deck chairs overlooking the city, so we decided to stay for a drink while we admired the view. Of course, no gringo hangout in Bolivia is complete without a visit from some local musicians playing the pan pipes, so we had some musical accompaniment as well.

We tried to visit the church of San Felipe Neri a few times as it was meant to be open but the door was always locked. We later read online that you are meant to ring the bell and they come and let you in - but how are tourists meant to know that when there isn't any info anywhere about it, including on the map given to us by our hotel?

Day 68 - Now we can breathe again!

Uyuni to Sucre

Now that we are in Bolivia there is a much stronger presence of indigenous people. The women around town in Uyuni are a mixture of the traditionally dressed with their tall bowler hats perched on the top of their heads (it's not obvious how they stay there), wide pleated skirts, and hair in two long black plaits well past their waist, and the younger ones in western clothes. In fifty years will there be anyone left dressing traditionally?

After another $10 visit to the physio, we hopped on the bus to Sucre. Once we were out of town it became a bit of a rollercoaster ride, it seemed that the driver was taking the winding road downhill at up to 100kmh without using his brakes - we had no choice but to trust him, but without any seatbelts it got a bit hairy at times.

Clinic San Pablo ... for all your physiotherapy needs!

We had to stop and change buses in Potosi, the highest city in the world. We'd thought about staying over here, with the main attraction being the mines, but M had been here before (which was when he was able to buy and explode his own dynamite), and K wasn't keen on crawling on hands and knees in toxic mine air, so we just passed through.

We arrived in Sucre in the early evening, already noticing the difference, as Bolivia doesn't have all year round daylight saving like Chile. It is never fun arriving in a new city in the dark but our hotel was only 50 metres from the main square, so it was easy to find our way around.

It was also immediately noticeable how much poorer Bolivia is, there were children about eight years old running out in front of cars when the traffic stopped. They would throw a rock up in the air and catch it, then ask for money, all this is in the dark.

We had dinner at a nice gringo restaurant, M tried the Bolivian dish pique macho (sin huevo por favor!) and found it to his liking, while K played it safe with lasagna.

The lower altitude meant we had our first good night's sleep in a while, unsurprisingly it's easier to sleep when there is more oxygen in the air.

Day 67 - A salty time

Villa Candelaria to Uyuni

This is the final day of our trip from Chile to Bolivia and we had to be ready to go by 4.30am to see the sun rise over the Salar de Uyuni (Uyuni Salt Flat).  K felt she could easily live without seeing the sunrise but she was out voted (of course).

Photographer's shadow!

We were driven for about half an hour over the salt flats towards the Isla de Incahuasi, not an island in the traditional sense though, as it is surrounded by salt rather than water. You are immediately struck by how massive the salt flat is, at over 10000 square kilometres it's the world's largest. The sunrise was beautiful and we could easily see our long shadows grow shorter as the sun rose.

At the place where we watched the sun rise there were only a couple of other cars in the distance, but as we walked around the corner of the island to meet our driver for breakfast we found that we were just one of the many 4WDs with a horde of people just like us, all eating pretty much the same breakfast, and taking photos doing weird things with perspective on the salt.

After breakfast we took a long walk on the salt plain until we were collected by our car and continued driving across the seemingly endless salt flats. The famous Dakar car rally that used to be held in the Sudan has now been moved to here and you can see why, a great place for driving.

An island with no water

After being picked up, we were driven a little further to another spot where more photos were taken, then on to see the first ever salt hotel (now a dining room and mini museum), and finally to the small town of Colchani right on the edge of the salt flats where there was a long strip of souvenir stalls. We were given a bit of time to peruse the shops, before having lunch in one of the small restaurants.

Get your llama products here ....

After lunch we moved to our final stop, the railway cemetery in Uyuni, full of rust old trains (and backpackers posing for silly photographs). Then it was into town to drop the boys off at the bus station to continue to Potosi. We were staying Uyuni for a night, while Pan had a night bus to La Paz, so we were dropped off at our hostel by Rudolfo.

K was in need of a physio, but we weren't sure how to find one. Rudolfo had given us the address of a medical clinic to try, but had no luck there, though they directed us to another clinic on the other side of town. Incredibly when we walked in to the other clinic on the outskirts of this tiny Bolivian town we found there was a physio, and K could be seen immediately.

It turned out to be one of the best treatments K had ever had, and as a bonus the hour long appointment cost us less than $10! K booked another appointment for the next morning, and we walked back to our hotel.

Appetising, no?

Dinner for M was llama steak .....  salty and a little tough, but still quite edible. Our hostel was up a few fights of stairs which is really tough going in the altitude but it was comforting to see the young hotel staff were puffing as much as we were!

Day 66 - Barbie is everywhere!

Villa Mar to Villa Candelaria

We were told breakfast would be ready at 7.30 and we would be leaving between 8 and 8.30 - of course none of us were prepared for "Bolivian" time, which is pretty similar Island time, Indian time, African time, and lots of other international times!

Today the scenery on offer was quite different, today was a day of rocky landscapes and greenery in unlikely places, whereas yesterday was a day of lakes, mountains and desert.

First rock stop was to see formations like "World Cup" and "Camel Rock", and there was a little bit of rock climbing involved so we could get up high to see some great views.

Funny looking camel if you ask me

As it was early in the day we kept running into groups like ours at the same stops, not a bad thing in itself, but we had to be patient for our photos while waiting for some groups to finish with their "special" poses .... what is it with backpackers and stupid photo poses?  Arms in the air, everyone jumping in the air at once, one arm up and one down, the list goes on. There was one particularly loud group that K was sure was a bunch of Americans (yes, we have found on this trip that the stereotype is common), and poor Derek (who was nothing like that) said he was used to it .... we later found the worst person in the worst group was an Australian ..... lesson learned, you should never stereotype in public!!

The lunch stop was in a beautiful valley with great rock formations and icy water flowing over what seemed to be a type of grass, into a lake with bullrushes, with llama grazing close by. We did a bit of rock climbing while lunch was being prepared, and then relaxed in the sun until it was time to head off again.

We've been doing well with the lunch stops

After lunch there was a view of a huge canyon, then a bit of a drive during which the signs of habitation increased. At one point we had a flat tyre, but Rudolfo had it changed over in about 10 minutes, while we all stood around gawking like tourists! 

We stopped for a short time in the small town of San Augustin, where we were able to buy an ice cream, after which we pushed on to Julaca, an almost derelict railway town, where K saw a traditionally dressed woman hand in hand  with a little girl dressed incongruously in a pink barbie dress carrying a barbie bag.


We arrived at out salt hotel in what we think was the town of Villa Candelaria (based on Google Maps, we didn't see a sign). The hotel was amazing, everything was made out of salt - the floor (crushed salt), the walls, the pillars holding up the roof and even the beds!

After this, I think I would now like to stay at the world's first pepper hotel

The first room we were shown had two single beds with a shared bathroom and shower across the hallway. Neither K or Pan were happy with this, so with some money changing hands we were "upgraded" to room with a double bed, ensuite, hot (well, lukewarm) water, and electricity. Our fears of very basic facilities have proven to be unfounded, we've stayed in worse places (e.g. in Africa!).

Salt bricks ... lucky it doesn't rain much here

Dinner was held in the huge salt dining area, we sat at our salt table on on salt stools (with cushions) - an amazing place. Once again we had no trouble with the cold, although the altitude made sleeping a little difficult, and the dryness meant dry mouths and cracked lips - nothing we couldn't handle though.

Day 65 - Don't inhale

San Pedro de Atacama (Chile)  to Villa Mar (Bolivia)

The tour company we picked for the trip from SPdA to Uyuni in Bolivia takes people by 4WD in groups of 6. We were collected by a mini van pretty much on time at 7:30am. Our travelling companions for the next few days were three guys in their late 20s to early 30s - Glen from the UK, Michael from Switzerland, and Derek from the US, as well as Pan, a lady in her fifties from Thailand.

The driver took us to the border, where we sorted out the border formalities (exit from Chile, entry to Bolivia), then taken to meet our driver/guide for the trip, Rudolfo. Rudolfo made us breakfast, after which we moved our luggage to our 4WD, and started our trip through Bolivia.

Nice spot for brekkie, if a little cold

We had read enough to know it was going to be pretty basic, no phones, internet, heating and maybe electricity? We had chosen this particular tour company because of very good reviews (including no mentions of the drivers being drunk, which is apparently happens a bit), and because we were told we would have our own room.

The car wasn't as roomy as we'd hoped, there were seven of us including the driver, and we hadn't put our day packs up on the roof with the rest of the luggage, so space was at a premium. It was all bearable though, just a little uncomfortable at times.

We drove on to see Laguna Blanca and Laguna Verde, with the snow capped peaks of Volcan Licancabur and other mountains all around us. We then stopped at the Salvador Dalí Desert, with lone rocks rising out of sand, you could why it was named after Dali.

No, Dali was not here

The lunch stop was at a thermal bath, only Derek decided he'd give it a go, the rest of us were still feeling the cold and didn't think getting out of our clothes was a good idea, though Derek did tell us it was nice and warm.

Cold air, warm water - but not for us!

After lunch we drove on to Sol de Mañana, a geothermal field with fumadores emitting hot gases (we were told to go no closer than a metre, but that didn't seem far enough to us), boiling mud, and steam vents. At this point we were up around 4850 metres, and although we were fine, some of the others were impacted by the altitude, especially Pan, who ended up being given oxygen.

Glop, glop, glop

Our last sightseeing stop was at Laguna Colorada, reddish in colour due to algae living there, as well as sediments in the water. There were lots of flamingos here, but we also noticed a number of unhatched eggs, and many dead flamingo chicks. Rudolfo told us that there hadn't been much rain this year so the water level was low and this had also impacted the flamingos .... global warming strikes again?

How does that flamingo song go again?

We eventually arrived at our hostel in the small town of Villa Mar (at "only" 3990m) to find that we were the last group to check in, and that's when the issues started. We had been promised a private room as had Pan, however there was only one  empty room left - ours. Pan had been quite sick and didn't want to sleep in a dorm room, so we decided Pan could sleep in our room. Quite disappointing for all of us, although the upside was that we had a private bathroom, meaning we didn't have to use the outdoor toilet at all. We found out the next morning that the couple who stayed in the double room next to us were told on arrival they had to pay extra, when they refused as the tour was supposed to be all inclusive, the owner locked their ensuite and made them use the outside facilities!

Dinner was pretty basic, just some spaghetti followed by tinned peaches, but it was tasty enough and we didn't go hungry. We had initially been worried about what the beds would be like and how cold we would get, and though our bed had a sag in the middle, it had plenty of coverings and we didn't suffer too much at all!