Bolivia: Top Ten Memorable Things, Moments, Sights or Smells

As per the usual tradition:

1) Standing at the top of the mountain, looking down on the Red Lagoon, peppered with hundreds of bright flamingoes, every so often flying low over the water, exposing the black stripe to their wings, with superior looking llamas, adorned with their bright earrings, grazing around it. Beautiful. And amazing.

2) Bolivian cultural dress, as worn, especially by the women. The brightly coloured pleated skirts worn with bare legs and often an apron, little bowler hats (though these were less ubiquitous), brightly coloured fabric worn tied around the neck and shoulders to make a bag or a baby carrier, and two long dark plaits with tassels on the end. I loved the colour of it, and the fact that it is still worn and has not been replaced by the dull black bomber jackets and jeans which seem to be the cultural uniform of basically all of Europe.

3) Eating lunch in the middle of nowhere in the Bolivian Salt Flats, nothing for miles around except white.

4) Lying on a rock at the bottom of the Toro Toro canyon, heart still beating furiously from the fear of getting down, and the anticipation of getting back up, gazing at a beautiful waterfall made up of many streams of water, cascading down from bright green moss and overhanging greenery.

5) Standing in a similar state of nervous tingling at the top of the highest rock in the Ciudad de Intas, watching condors wheel above us.

6) Wriggling on my stomach across slippery rocks, ceiling only a few inches above me, by the light of my head torch in the Toro Toro cavern.

7) Climbing to the top of a rocky, cactus covered island in the middle of the salt flats, just the two of us, and watching the sun set on the salt flats, spreading pink and mauve and indigo lights across the horizon.

8) The Cochabamba markets, with the noise and bustle, the colour and sunlight, the meat blood mingling with stray vegetables and stray, hiding cats in the gutters, the incredible street food being dished up and eaten everywhere you look, and the piles and piles of everything imaginable, waiting to tempt you to buy.

9) Having a flat of our own. I know it sounds pedestrian but we needed a hide out, because we came to Bolivia tired. It gave us what we needed to rejuvenate, and face the remainder of our journey with ooomph.

10) The overnight train journey from Uyuni. I sort of let it pass me at the time, being tired and anxious about losing our bags. But it was amazing, sleeping under a blanket with a bunch of strangers, on a rattling, shaking, bouncing train, the like of which you just cannot find in England - and waking up somewhere else entirely.

Which is what this journey is all about. Ditching the ruts and holes we fall into, changing things, braving things and finally, at long last - waking up.

Somewhere else entirely.