Salteñas and Bolivia

Salteñas are basically little sweet-pastry pasties with chicken and vegetables but they are probably my favourite food in the entire world... those of you who´ve had them before will understand. I made it my mission to eat as many as possible in Bolivia, which makes the best ones and was delighted on our first morning when I saw a little old lady with a cart in the street selling them. Loretta was shocked as I dropped my bag and ran across the road shouting ´Salteñas!´... funnily enough the lady wasn´t there the next morning.

Anyway, diverting from my stomach for a moment. La Paz was exactly as I remember it, crazy, fascinating, and easy to get around. Thankfully this time I wasn´t ill (in fact I have been totally healthy the whole trip - touching wood). Lyns and Fig (my beloved sisters with whom I last visited La Paz) accidentally bought me laxatives as a cure for my diarrhoea last time and then proceeded to abandon me as they travelled on to Paraguay... charming. However, Loretta was feeling a little peaky and so we chilled for a day having booked a bike ride for the next day.

The first section of the ´world´s most dangerous road´doesn´t feel that dangerous, it´s fast (60-70kph downhills on a big downhill bike is fun but not too taxing as you just sit there) but the second half was brilliant on a dirt track (1.5m wide in some places) which has a drop ranging from between 800-200m on the left hand side. Loretta´s more patient approach soon meant that we were at opposite ends of the pack for the middle (and very wet) section, me just behind the guide storming down the path at (probably stupid on reflection) speeds racing 4x4s and at one point leaning into a curve, and misjudging it. I made the mistake of looking down directly into the 400m drop that I was hanging above about three inches from the edge, overcorrected and very nearly came off the other side... decided to stick with Loretta for the remainder of the stretch! Lots of fun.

We did have a flight from La Paz to Santiago booked but decided to overland it instead and go to travel through the Salt Flats. The scenery in Bolivia is mind blowing, from bright white salt flats that stretch as far as the eye can see, to moonscapes, deserts and red, green, white and black lakes. It was brilliant to see it this time in the other direction seeing the geysers, hot springs (lovely and warm!), flats, deserts, etc at different times of day and in a different season to the last time. There were many, many more jeeps this time (I remember only seeing one or two last time) but it didn´t detract from the experience one bit.

I´ll definitely get the photos uploaded soon, just proving difficult as the files are pretty big.

So, we hopped of the jeep at the border with Chile and headed into San Pedro de Atacama which used to be a one dusty (and unpaved) street village and is now completely different with loads of streets (paved) a main plaza and dozens of gringos.

Bolivia is definitely our top visit so far for spectacular scenery! Chile is next!