"Bolivia" a Bolivia Travel Page by nivo

Bolivia was my favourite counrty that I visited in South America. It is the poorest country and the highest country in Latin America. I was there for their Summer which means a lot of rain but the sun is usually out for a few hours during the day.

When arriving into La Paz most of the gringo buses stop for photos. The city looks spectacular. Before arriving in La Paz I heard lots of stories from other travellers who said that it was dangerous but if you just don't bring out a camera/bag and lots of money you should encounter no problems. The shoeshine boys wear balaclavas which gave me a scare at first! Also remember that you could be prone to altitude sickness here and it takes awhile to get used to the altitude. The poverty in Bolivia is very apparent in La Paz, there are lots of families begging on the street, even on Christmas day they begging with nowhere else to go, it was heartbreaking. The city was very busy with lots to do. There is a witches market where you can buy anything. A little outside the city there is the zoo and valley of the moon which is worth a visit. At first I found the city a bit daunting but after a few days I really liked it.

In order to see the salt plains you need to go with a tour company. We made our way from La Paz to Uyuni which was a little adventure in itself. There is no roads so the bus journey was pretty bumpy all the way. When we got there we booked our tour, there are plenty of agencies but be sure to get all the relevant info and ask to see the jeep that you will be in.
We left the next morning on the jeep and drove for what seemed to be a longtime. We reached the salt plains and it was an amazing sight. We stopped for food at the house/bar made of salt, from there we drove to cactus island which had great views. Because it was the wet season it started to rain pretty heavily and we found ourselves stuck in the water for about an hour. Eventually we made our way to our destination about midnight. At night it gets very cold and the next morning we had an early start (5am). We carried on and saw the most spectacular scenery I have ever seen. That night we stayed in a national park which was so cold that we had about 10 layers of clothes on us! We left there about 3 am to go for another drive to see geysers and the blue lagoon. From there you could continue back to Uyuni, Chile or Argentina.
There was a lot of time spent in the jeep but the whole experience was definitely worth it.