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Denouement Diaries - Week 10

Denouement Diaries - Week 10

Essentially the ramblings of two adults that probably require adult supervision.

As usual, follow along at:

And...here. Anyway let's get into it:

13/4/23 - Day 64: La Paz, El Alto and The Cholitas

  • Bit of a slow day
  • Had a good sleep in
  • Then wandered up to the Selina hotel for breakfast and to use their internet for a while
  • Had a few coffees
  • Had a little wander around town, picked up some toiletries, life admin stuff
  • But spent some time chilling and reading
  • Hit another cafe on the way
  • Back at our hotel, we decided to book a ticket to go and see the Cholitas wrestling in the evening - it's like WWE
  • It was amazing
  • Bit of a ride up to El Alto in the bus with a bunch of other people going to the show
  • But it was awesome
  • Actually incredibly athletic, and nuts
  • Ladies in traditional Bolivian dress jumping from the balcony
  • Flips into the crowd
  • So cool
  • Worth it
  • Got the tour bus back into town and walked straight to the Japanese place near us for dinner
  • V good
  • Then back and packed up everything because we had to leave early in the morning

14/4/23 - Day 65: La Paz --> Uyuni

  • Early start
  • 0500 out of bed
  • 0530 in to a cab
  • Up to El Alto Airpot - didn't take too long as not a lot of La Paz traffic at that hour
  • Checked in fairly easily
  • And sat and had a coffee and whatever pastry was in the window of the airport loung cafe
  • Easy flight to Cochabamba
  • Where waited for a short while until the connecting flight
  • Also had to deal with an email form the tour operator in Peru - they have emailed me a bunch of times over the last week or so about where we are staying after the tour (irrelevant information to them by my likes) but had chose this time to ask about our in-tour flight details - something I didn't even know we had to do...
  • Anyway the flight in to Uyuni was fine - has a really nice view of the salt flats on the way in
  • The 'International Airport' at Uyuni is tiny - its basically just one shed
  • Easily got a cab
  • Easily to our hotel - the Tonito Hotel
  • Wandered in to town and found lunch - simple pasta and burger while watching Spanish dubbed reruns of the Power Rangers
  • Got some snacks on the way home
  • Then chilled and read in the afternoon in the hotel
  • Went for an evening walk around town and found a nice little place for coffee
  • Then back to the hotel to have dinner at the attached little restaurant - 'Minuteman'
  • Great pizzas
  • Run by an American and his wife who we realised run the whole hotel
  • Lovely
  • Back to the room to chill and eat our snacks while watching Spirited Away - first time I’d seen it, insane but awesome

15/4/23 - Day 66: Salar de Uyuni - Into the Desert

  • Had breakfast at the hotel - fantastic waffles, Chris cooked us some scrambled eggs
  • Then packed up and checked out and sat in the lobby area reading for a bit until our tour pickup
  • Picked us up around 1030 and drove up the road to the main office
  • Where we piled some bags into a car, signed some details, passport number etc
  • Then piled into a car with a north-German couple and some 19-year old lads from Berlin
  • And off
  • Awesome guide Marco
  • Stopped at the train cemetery
  • Saw the little local traditional salt refining shed
  • Then on to the salt flats
  • Very cool
  • Marco knew all the photos to take
  • Water over the salt flats but not enough to soak shoes
  • Up to the hotel with the Dakar statue for lunch
  • Then further along for lots of funny photos
  • Then cactus island which was amazing
  • Drove to a little point to watch sunset
  • Then off to our accomodation along some corrugated roads after some more snacks
  • Dinner straight away
  • Casey was happy we had separate beds...I stunk?
  • Hot shower
  • Ate some snacks
  • Bed


16/4/23 - Day 67: The Bolivian High Desert

  • Early start
  • We were out in the dining area by 0630
  • Ready to go by a little after 0700
  • Marco had to rush off to help another guide's broken down car
  • Saw a cute little fox while we were waiting
  • So we really set off around 0745
  • First stop was the old railway line through the desert - same as the line at the train cemetery
  • Casey did some splits
  • Heading up some altitude - stopped for a break and noticed oil leaking from our car
  • We had some llama sausage burgers while Marco and some other drivers fixed it
  • Then started arriving at some lagoons
  • Lots of flamingoes - I think 4 different types
  • Saw some vicuñas - like llama/alpaca/guanaco
  • Lunch at the ‘smelly lagoon’
  • Saw the desert fox ‘Antonio’ after lunch
  • Then up to where the little pikachu things live
  • Climbed some rocks to look at them
  • High desert
  • Then saw the ‘Salvador Dali’ style crazy rocks
  • More climbing
  • Then to Lagoona Colorada
  • Was very cold
  • But lots and lots of flamingoes
  • Last stop was the geyser hot spring therm things
  • Absolutely freezing
  • Temperature below zero at this point - and the geysers stunk of egg
  • Checked in to the little hotel thing that all the tours were staying at
  • 6 of us to a room
  • Dinner straight away - spaghetti was so good
  • Then we all went down to the hot springs for a swim
  • Lots of other tourists as well
  • Awesome in hot water under the stars in the freezing desert
  • All of us back and to bed

17/4/23 - Day 68: Reserva Nacional de fauna Andina

  • Early start in our dorm room
  • Casey last to wake, predictably...
  • Breakky was average
  • But we got going early
  • Drove towards the Chilean border
  • Noted the tracks that the drug dealers use to cross borders without passing immigration
  • Saw white lagoon, green lagoon
  • Drove over some frozen creek crossings
  • Then dropped of some of our German friends at the Chilean border
  • After, of course, a protracted delay at a National park station where they had to show passports and documents etc - ie the delay wasn’t even at the border, just at a made up gate in Bolivia staffed by bored soldiers
  • Back into Bolivia listening to German punk music
  • Saw some grazing llamas
  • More salt flats at a borax mining operation
  • AC/DC as we descended
  • Into a nice little town for lunch - Milanesas
  • Then we stopped at an amazing glade of spring fed paddock, grazing llamas and alpacas, walled by crazy rock formations, with the black lagoon at its end
  • A-mazing
  • Then just the drive back to Uyuni
  • With a brief toilet stop at a mining town
  • We said by to Marco and the Berlin boys
  • Grabbed some more cash from an ATM
  • Then checked back in to the Tonito hotel
  • Washed all of our clothes from the 3 days
  • Long showers
  • Then massive pizza and pasta dinner
  • The hosts of this hotel are so lovely

18/4/23 - Day 69: Uyuni

  • Very chilled day
  • Sleep in
  • Big breakfast at the Tonito Hotel
  • Then actually chilled in our room for a lot of the morning
  • Reading, cleaning clothes
  • Casey did some FaceTiming
  • It was only around 1130 that we headed out to wander around town for something to do
  • Found a little cafe restaurant thing
  • Got some coffees, hot chips, pancakes for snacks
  • Back and reading in the hotel for a little while
  • Just vegetating
  • Back out to wander town for a little while
  • Casey bought herself a new bright pink jumper
  • And we grabbed another coffee from the ‘llama cafe’
  • Was nice
  • Good coffee
  • Back to our hotel and we had a big dinner of pizza and pasta
  • So good
  • Then early to our room to watch ‘Howl’s moving castle’
  • I think we are in to anime now...

19/4/23 - Day 70: Uyuni, Bolivia --> Lima, Peru

  • Travel day
  • We’re packed up and checked out early so that we sort of started breakfast a little before 0800
  • So we could fit in some food before we had to go
  • Reception called a cab for us
  • Said goodbye to the Tonito hotel team first
  • It’s a fairly short cab ride to the tiny Uyuni airport
  • Took a while to process with one person checking people on then the security gate being closed as the departure lounge was just a full single room
  • Easy on to the first plane
  • Very short flight back to La Paz
  • Where we were sat for about 4 hours
  • Cafe, reading, more veg
  • Then the second flight to Santa Cruz de La Sierra
  • To switch into the international section is just a very South American process - scan the barcode for immigration, that no one does anything with, other than taking a picture of your ‘completion screen’ on their phone, multiple luggage x-rays for some reason, multiple stops where people look at your passport, then the doors to the departure area after immigration being shut, and getting sass when we ask where to go, and are directed into obviously taped off areas as if it should be obvious that was where we should go - idiots...calm down, Luke
  • Another short flight
  • Shorter layover
  • More food
  • Then the longer flight up to Lima
  • A much bigger airport
  • Excellent and well staffed immigration desks
  • Really easy - no carry on, we were basically able to just walk across the road to our hotel
  • Kind of slow checkin with all the usual double handling passport and immigration checking - as if we hadn’t just passed through Peruvian immigration...
  • Then to our room, showers, a bit of room service snack and finished a movie
  • Sleeps

Stay tuned...