A record-breaking week

After some respite in La Paz on arrival, Me, Steve, Dave and Guy decided to book a round of golf to treat ourselves (as we live such hard lives at the moment). This wasn´t to be any round of golf however, set at over 10,000ft we undertook a hack around the World´s Highest Golf Course. With our guide, Pablo, giving us the politcal low-down on Bolivia on the way, we arrived, met our caddies (yes, even invested in some caddies), and were instantly awestruck by the views of this course set in the mountains (and how posh it was!) Unfortunatly due to a lack of practice our golf didnt match the surroundings or the caddies expectations, but this paled into insiginifcance with the weather and the course providing the perfect setting to spend our last day in La Paz. Guy showed us how to play with Dave, Me and Steve a fair few shots back but great fun was had by all, even with ´a bit´ of sunburn!

That evening we headed on a night bus to Uyuni on the World´s Bumpiest Round, therefore sleep was at a premium. Our reason for heading south was to undertake a two-day tour around the ´Salar de Uyuni´, the World´s Largest Salt Flats. Bleary eyed our saviour ´David the tour operator´ got us a good deal for the 5 of us on a tour and we headed to see some salt, or rather alot of salt. After quick stops at the Salt Hotel (made completely out of salt) and a small salt mining town we reached Fish Island for some lunch and a look at the incredable vistas. Now its worth mentioning I cannot do the views justice in words, to have a 360 degree view of white with backdrops of Andean Mountains is something that needs to be witnessed. After lunch we moved away from the hords of other 4x4 and undertook in the abligatory, crazy salt flat photos where perspective can be manipulated before reaching our hostel for a well earnt night in a bed! Just before the needed sleep, we poped out and witness probabily the World´s Greatest Sunset, keep an eye out for the photos! (note: unfortunalty still no photos due to Bolivian Internet, the World´s Slowest Internet, we promise we will put them all up in around a week when in Brazil)



Day 2 started early with an accent up a Volcano near our Hostel on the egde of the Salar, this took us a few hours and to a new record height for the trip so far of approx 5200ft. Not much oxygen up there! This again gave us some more breathtaking views of the Salt flats and surrounding mountains, before heading down via some 1250BC Mummies! After lunch we cruised along the salt for an hour or so (Me and Josh sunbathing on top of a 4x4 as you do...) and saw some Lithium mines, cold water Geysers, and the Train Graveyard of old abandoned British and French Trains before arriving back in Uyuni to grab a shower and give David our photos before undertaking World´s Longest Bus Journey....

I am currently writing this in Santa Cruz, Bolivia where we are 2 out of probabily 4 consectutive night buses down to reach the coast in Brazil (still not set an exact destination yet). We are tired and smelly but the dream of of the Brazil lives on........