Leaving La Paz...

After 3 months of intense study and relative luxury in our penthouse suite in Sopocachi, we're finally hitting the road. We've had a fun farewell week, playing Wallyball and hitting the clubs in La Paz, but it's time to stuff everything into our suitcases and head for the (apparently amazing) Uyuni Salt Flats which border Bolivia and Chile. Paid work in South America continues to prove elusive, but there have been hopeful signs recently, and certainly our spanish is improving out of sight - que bueno!

dancers at the Oruro Carnival

Cholita wrestling!

Balcony view of the Yungas in Coroico

We've managed to make some friends here too, and had some valuable english/spanish conversation swaps with a range of people, been to jazz bars, house parties and exhibition openings, visited museums, cholita wrestling and folklorica penas, mini-breaked in tropical resorts in the Yungas and the Inca heartland - the Isla del Sol where the sun was apparently born, hiked in the mountains and all around the vertical streets of La Paz, seen Bolivia's biggest street carnival, made offerings to the earth god Pachamama, celebrated the day Bolivia lost the sea in a war with Chile, watched KKK-resembling easter processions and heard distant dynamite explosions as half the workforce of Bolivia marched out in protest at their low salaries.

Semana Santa procession

A car dressed up for Palm Sunday

However, the nights are starting to get nippy up on the altiplano, and we are keen to get some beach time before we fly on to Ecuador for the next major stage of our trip. We'll be off-line for a while in the Salar but back in touch when we get to Chile - stay tuned!

Laur´s favourite lagoon in Bolivia

A giant turtle in the southwest desert in Bolivia