La Paz and Uyuni

Finally finishing my time in South America in Bolvia. The tour has stopped now, and I'm on my lonesome again, which is kinda cool.

This stone faced fellow is from a pre incan civilisation, the Tiwanacu. They were around for thousands of years, and the Incas ripped off alot of their ideas, like the crazy stone work. I like these guys. They had another god named chichipuma or something, who was the god of war. Anyway, its this guy with a puma head holding a decapitated human head.

La Paz is the highest capital city in the world, and its situatated in a basin amongst some big ole mountains. Its pretty spectacular when you first see it.

La Paz at night. The whole city seems to be made of people selling stuff from under tarps. Like Paddy's Markets.

Anyway, I had hardly anytime in Boliva, so I thought I'd smash the Salar De Uyuni, mainly because everyone seems to rave about it. The Salar De Uyuni is a big salt flat, with a few other things to see around the area. It was such a battle getting there, my bus from La Paz arrived two hours early, so I was hanging out in Uyuni, which is without a doubt the world's worst town from three in the morning waiting two from some chick named Sandra to meet me at the bus station. Of course she didn't show up, and I had no other contact details.

Anyway, eventually spoke to enough people to work out that Sandra had a travel agency there, so it turned out ok. She was a lying she devil though, and I offically place a pox on her family.

After all the drama, the tour was amazing. The salt flats are basically a massive lake that has dried up and is just uh, salt now. It looked like snow.

The hotel made of salt.

Some crazy, random cactus growing out in the middle of literally nowhere.

We also passed through a whole lotta desert. Which was cooll, because it looked amazing.

Flamingos on one of the lagoons. The reflections were amazing.

Uh, more desert.
Oh. This rock is really famous because it apparently looks like a tree.

This is an actual lagoon. The red bits are micro organisms, the white bits are some chemical buildup and the blue bits are well, plain old water really. But together, they look amazing.

Close up of the red water.

Our guide / driver, Mario. I liked this guy, he went through bucketloads of coco leaves, and was buzzing around all the time.

Some geysers.

Back in La Paz. These little things are llama fetuses, which people buy from witches at the witches markets. They are suppose to help protect your house.

Real life witch. Seriously. She sells talismans, love potions and use to date Harry Potter.

Lake Titticaca

Lake Titticaca, besides sounding a bit saucy, is notably for being the highest navigatable lake in the world. It falls within both Bolvia and Peru.

The lake was surprisingly massive. But being a lake rather than a shoreline, the edges tend to get a bit moldy, due to the lack of waves.

There are about 40 islands on the lake, some of which are inhabited by demons who sold their souls to the devil in return for ungodly knitting abilities. If you don't believe me, I'd like to see you make a beanie like the one this guy is rocking.

Ok, I lied. There are actually normal people living on the lake too. Like these two kids. And the beanies actually have a significance. The one the old guy in the photo above is wearing means he is one of the leaders of the island.

Oh, and its also cool because guys are the only ones that knit. Apparently, girls chose their mates based on how bad ass they are at knitting. A real stud was a guy that could knit a woollen beanie so fine (fine in both the queens english meaning as well as the way a black american would mean it) that it would hold water.

It was really interesting actually. They don't pay taxes to anyone, because they are pretty much self sufficent. The island is divided into four uh, quadrants, and each quadrant is responsible for growing one type of food, be it potatos or other grains. They also operate on a cooperative system, where the profits from products sold to tourists go directly back to the family that made them. I bought a bag from this dude, just so he'd bust out that smile.

This was really cool. I spent one night with a native family on Amantani island. The ladies on the island met us as we landed. They have funny expressions on because they were probably wondering who would get the funny looking tourist with slanty eyes.

The guys dress like matadors.

This was the family the kitchen of the family that I stayed with. Its pretty full on, they only got electricity a few years ago, and they cook their food by candle light. They were the NICEST people too, they were a really close knit family. The guy in the photo is the son, and he has a hot girlfriend apparently.

After dinner, we all got dressed up in traditional dress to bust a few moves with the mummies at the local disco. It was really fun, but each song went on for ten to fifteen minutes and required alot of handholding and running around. This was my mum for the night.

And this is her with her husband. It was a bit melancholy in a way. These people have lived like this for generations (without the tourists I mean), and I wonder how much longer they will maintain their traditional lifestyle, with all the gringos coming in and influencing the youth. It was a great experience though, it really made me appreciate growing up back home.

We also went to the Uros Islands. There is a whole society of people who live on islands they make themselves, out of reeds. They live on floating reeds, they make their houses out of reeds and they make boats out of reeds. They also eat them too, because they are good for your teeth.

Anyway, I loved this part of the trip. Staying with a native family, and just seeing how they live was amazing.