Left Bolivia on day 30 of my 30 day visa, luck rather than careful planning. Actually the country is now called estado plurinacional de Bolivia as Evo Morales changed the name to allow him to stand for President a third time as the constitution for Bolivia says you can only stand twice. The last three days have taken me through the most amazing scenery I think I have ever seen. We crossed huge expanse of salt plains in Salar, once a sea with coral islands but now only salt as far as you can see. The islands remain with long dead coral ,only cactus, hundreds of years old , survive there. 50% of the worlds lithium is thought to be under these salt flats. Could be a wealthy future for Bolivia . Then the volcano belt starts, everywhere you look there are perfect cone shaped mountains , most now inactive but the Martian like landscape doesnt make it hard to imagine a time when these were erupting and spewing out rocks and lava in a time of constant change. Every so often we came across a Laguna , green, blue, white, coloured by the chemicals and minerals in the rocks around them, borax, copper, sodium,magnesium,gypsum and god knows what else. The mountains change colour too as the sun rises,no vegetation for miles in some places, just dry rocks in an artists palette of colours. The land is still changing with obvious Geo thermal activity in places, geysers spray hot steam high into the air, the smell of sulphur is nauseating at times,bubbling mud pools simmer , large holes appear in the ground, warnings not to walk on cracked ground are ignored as people wander around amidst the steam, as if drawn into a land which time forgot. H&S is a concept which hasnt hit here yet. Occasionally on slighter better ground ,we see vicuñas in small groups grazing on short tufts of grass and amazingly even at 4200m and freezing temperatures ,some lagunas have flamingoes in their bright pink feathers adding another dimension to this weird and wonderful place. Even at night if you can brave the freezing temperatures to venture outside to look at the clear sky, you will be mesmerised by the night sky. Stars spangled Milky Way, shooting stars, planets, satellites ( could be!) , no wifi so I couldnt get an app to help identify what I was looking at, but a few nights to remember for ever. It is Impossible to sum up the Estado plurinacional de Bolivia ,suffice to say that I enjoyed my month here. The warnings I got in the east of the country where the illegal cocaine trade is flourishing ,faded as I got more into the west where people were friendly and very welcoming and the only danger was maybe disappearing down a crack in the earths surface!
Posted on: Mon, 15 Sep 2014 20:03:54 +0000
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