Bolivia.

Ok, hopefully third time lucky with the comments if the wifi holds up... 

We drove into Copacobana, Bolivia to encounter the largest festival of the year in progress, Bolivia's independence week. The whole place was packed, including all the camping spots and hostels. We ended up driving a way out of town and camping on the shore of Lake Titicaca.

Every street was closed for parades. It was huge fun just being part of the chaos.

Nice view from our camp spot.

This dog and his friend decided that we owned them. They just hung around sleeping and playing the whole time and guarded our car from any passing vehicle or pedestrian. We have no idea why they decided they were our dogs, we just pulled up and they appeared. 

Titicaca is the worlds largest high altitude lake. At around 4000m its pretty high and looks incredible with the surrounding glacial peaks.

We spent a night on the Isla del sol on Titicaca and hiked across the island. We splurged and stayed in a stunning b&b, which cost $30 including a huge breaky. Bolivia has the cheapest living we've come across. 

This is part of the main route to La Paz. You pay a few dollars to cross the lake on the sketchy barges whilst buses and tracks bob past.

Sorata was a beautiful little town in the valley of the cordillera. The blessedly warm weather was a refreshing change from the typical alpine climate we've been living in.

Special wiring in La Paz. Also the steepest roads I've seen. We had to use our washer bottle as a fuel tank because the roads were so steep for so long that the fuel pump couldn't draw the fuel.

It was actually a really fun city with friendly locals and surrounded by the mountains. Its the highest capital city in the world, but then again all of Bolivia seems to be the highest or biggest or coldest something or other.

Our favourite buskers.

Looking down at the death road. It was officially the most dangerous road on earth for vehicles before the built the new road. We were happy to tackle it on downhill bikes rather than in the van. The first day we tried the city git blockaded and the second day Laura got gastro and couldn't come. It was awesome to finally descend the 3000 vertical metres unscathed. 

Contemplation. 

40 cents buys 2 tall glasses of strawberry smoothie in Sucre.

I don't think these two were talking. 

Happy anniversary. We went out in Sucre and had real steaks for the first time since home. It was an awesome night in a really cute town. Sucre its full of food, music and art.

Out of order but this is looking across a wet section of the Salt flats near Uyuni.

Camping at the Tarapaya hot spring. 

The salt flats of Uyuni are mind bending. In typical Bolivian style it is the biggest in the world. Its made of 7m of salt sitting on 20m of water. 

We saw Godzilla there so I kicked him.

The isla de pescado in the middle of the salar is home to 14m high, thousand year-old cacti and is the only break in the horizon in that direction. 

UYUNI, get it...

Yep... and in the other direction the sun was setting equally spectacularly. 

Laguna Colorada. This was our first stop in a tour of Bolivia's southwest. This area is hundreds of km beyond civilization on 4wd roads and at incredible altitudes. We really had to think this section through and prepare carefully. The sights and experience really made the effort a drop in the pond though.

Thousands of pink flamingos on a red lake surrounded by mountains? Laura was super excited to see real flamingos. 

The sol de la mañana geysers. Incredible in their own bloopy steamy smelly way. The heat coming from them was unreal.

We spent a night camped by this awesome thermal pool. Nice view huh.

Laguna verde. We decided to camp one last night here before heading to the Chilean border. This was both a good and bad decision.

Good because we saw this. We've seen some sunsets but this is the ultimate. It was so cold by this stage we put on every layer we have and still were only able to duck out of the van for a few pics.

Bad because we woke up to this. It was the worst in 50 years, it actually snowed in the Atacama desert, the driest place on earth. After 2 punctures and 40km driving with a flat through a blizzard, pushing the van at times to overcome the deep snow and incredible altitude we ditched the van and were incredibly lucky to be picked up by a vehicle coming up from Chile. We made it out, and got our van back but later found that we were literally the only people to make it out. The 4wd tour groups were stranded on the mountain for the week. There's a lot more to this story but it will have to wait for a campfire.