Where in the world?

The city is nice and explored the markets. the most novel thing we spotted were cake stalls in the full sun with over the top cakes for whatever occasion!!!! amazing

The highlight of the stay was the silver museum on avenida ecuador www.museoplatapt.com.bo
The guy who runs it was really cool and showed us how he melts the silver - active participation is encouraged! He tells the story of how the siver was originally discovered and then you get to see his collection (pretty impressive!).
Well worth visiting but phone beforehand to check if he's there. We were lucky and we even got to leave our big backpacks while we visited. I got to wear one of the silver crowns he had made.

After much messing around and changes of bus times we arrived in Sucre. pretty town at lower altitude than Potosi, the judicial centre of Bolivia. Stayed for 1 night before we went out to the countryside to see the local weaving in Candalaria. (thanks to Claire for arranging it). We set off with our driver Xavier and had a brief stop in Tarabuco where we would visit the market the following day. On to Candalaria where we visited the weaving museum and then went to see one of the ladies work. Santusina invited us to lunch and arranged for us to stay overnight and have dinner with her family, then her husband Damian took us for a walk in the local area. really beautiful and quiet. They are in the process of building a hostal for tourists to stay in, so we stayed in a kind of building site although it was warm and clean. If you're interested its the 1st house on the right as you enter the village. The next day we gave them a lift to the market in Tarabuco which was heaving with stalls of weaving and othe crafts.

We had been told that a lot of the things for sale weren't locally made so we had the advantage of having seen what to buy in Candalaria. All in all an excellent 100 bolivanos well spent on the private transport and another 40 for lunch, dinner and a bed. The people were so friendly, I'd recommend staying in candalaria unless you really need an inside toilet and hot running water!

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Finally in Bolivia after a freezing cold morning in La Quiaca on the Argentinian border and the crossing into Bolivia in Villazon. So glad that I brought fleeces as temperatures here in the mornings are below freezing!
Spent a quiet day acclimatising to being at over 3500m and then caught the train to Tupiza.
TIP FOR TRAVELLERS: change your money in Villazon as much better rates than in Tupiza!!!
The train journey to Tupiza was only 3 hours but the scenery was absolutely spectacular. We paid 22 bolivanos for the salon class instead of 55 for 1st but the train was excellent. Just as good as GNER anyday! and the toilets were spotless.
Arrived in Tupiza and found a quiet hotel!!! Explanations later!!
Managed to sort out a 4x4 trip from Tupiza to uyuni for only $150 for 4 days and 3 nights with la Torre hotel. The next day we went on a horse-riding trip into the nearby canyons.......WOW

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HORSEBACK TRIP NEAR TUPIZA

Set off on the trip with my pal Claire from france and Rebecca and Roland from Switzerland. Driver was Daniel and his twin brother Urwin. Just after we left town we picked up a lady on the side of the road to take her to her house 3 hours away. Eventually we found out that it was their mother and all her belongings were already on the roof before we left town!!!! Good plan eh!
The road out of town was a little hairy and I was trying not to look at the drop on the side of the car. Fabulous scenery everywhere you turned. Stopped for lunch with a herd of llamas and many small flies. managed to get half of them in my salad but I'm sure the extra protein didn't hurt!

LLAMA

Stopped in several small villages where the children were demanding money for photos! Instead I put money in a donation box for the local school but that apparently didn't count towards photos.
We pulled up for the night at a 'hostal' at 4200 metres. We weren't expecting much but the food was great. Played a fab game where you play with pigs instead of dice....v. funny
The 2nd morning we were up at 5am and it was baltic! Wore all of my warm stuff and then it snowed!

SUNRISE AT 4700M

Saw an old village near a mine where they had found tons of gold and silver and apparently they had all gone crazy because of it? Only had it in Spanish so details a little fuzzy. Headed through more fantastic scenery and saw beautiful lagoons with flamingoes.

LAGUNA VERDE - COLOUR DUE TO LEVELS OF ARSENIC AND MAGNESIUM (anyone for a swim?)
Entered the national park and went to Aguas Calientes a natural hot spring where we stayed for 10minutes so we didn't faint. Didn't do much walking about on the trip as the altitude makes you very breathless quickly.
On the 3rd day we had to push the landcruiser as starter or battery were playing up. This was just the beginning of the days events. Saw several more lagoons and pulled up for lunch with some other 4x4's. Disaster struck!!! One of the drivers from the other trip was working on the landcruiser but the handbrake hadn't been engaged by the other driver. We were by the lagoon when we heard the scream. The poor guy had been hit by the car as it rolled forward. Luckily there was an anaesthetist and his nurse girlfriend around. We decided that he had broken his left femur and dislocated his right hip. The poor guy was in agony and we had already given him all the analgesics available (sadly only paracetamol and ibruprofen) Managed to get the seats out the back of the truck and manoeuvre him in after splinting his leg. the doctor said he would go with him but the stupid younger driver said no. What an idiot. We found out later that they had taken him to Sucre and it had taken nearly 24 hours to get there! Hope that he is OK. The company he works for couldn't organise a p*** up in a brewery and they're the most well known!!!
As a result we ended up lending our 2nd driver to the other company and taking some of their passengers as they were now 11 with only 1 car. This was OK until the final day when our car refused to start and after several turns around the football pitch (which nearly made us vomit) we had to resign ourself to watching he sunrise from the village (BUMMER). The salt flats are vast covering many km2 tis is where everyone takes silly photos because there is no perspective. One of the other cars came back and ended up doing shuttle runs so that everyone could take photos on the salt flats. Eventually our car turned up which was good because one of the others had run out of fuel!!!! After a tiring 4 days we arrived in Uyuni. will report further when bum has recovered from the bumpy roads!!!!

Greetings from Mendoza, wine capital of Argentina. At last count there were 1271 wineries in the area, but we only managed to visit 2, plus an olive oil factory and chocolate/liquer place. Found a great hostel in the centre of town near the main square, although bathrooms here lack something......, somewhere to actually put your clothes so that they don't get wet!!!!

PLAZA INDEPENDENCIA, MENDOZA, ARGENTINA

Met 2 girls from Pitlochry and a girl from New Zealand who were cool and hung out with them for a few days.

THE GIRLS, MENDOZA

Have been pretty tired so some of the 6am back to hostels have been passed on by little old me!!! managed 2am the other day which was plenty! Visited a couple of museums and the remains of the San francisco convent from the 1861 earthquake which killed half of the population. Pretty nice city, with 1million population. The only down side was trying to get a taxi to the bus station and ended up arriving with minutes to spare. Next time I will book!
Headed overnight (again) for salta. Found an absolutely fab hostel - Into Huasi not far from the bus station with another couple from the bus.(ANDY AND jACKIE) Didn't look much but the people who own/run it were the best i've met so far. They couldn't do enough for you and the hostel is fairly small so everyone got on real well. The bathrooms are ok but he guys are gradually doing everything up as they can.

SOME OF THE GANG, INTI HUASI, SALTA

Went off for a investigation of the town and its pretty compact. Nice Plaza with a beautiful church.

CHURCH SALTA

The next day, me, Jackie and Andy headed to the local artesans market for the morning and up the Cerro san Bernardo in the aftrennon. It was a pleasant climb and only took 30 minutes although we shared the path with several hundred spiders.

ARACHNAPHOBES BEWARE! BEC, YOU WOULD HAVE HATED IT!!
Spent some evenings in town watching local rock band and in the hostel just chilling. Pretty good crowd so hope to catch up with them at some point. Would be perfectly happy staying in Salta forever but need to push on . Bolivia here I come!!!!