Welcome to our Trailfinders adventure in South America and Mexico.

5 days to go....

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Salar de Uyuni Where do I begin? This place is enormous,  over 10,000 Km² Millions of years ago this area was part of the Pacific, and after a movement of tectonic plates the sea got trapped here. Throughout the millennia it dried up leaving a surface of salt now between 2 and 20m deep. The largest deposits of lithium in the world are down there! The salt is constantly coming to the surface and you can see it seeping through, always forming pentagonal or hexagonal patterns, with a few exceptional 4 sided figures. I haven't investigated the science, but I'm guessing that it has something to do with the composition of NaCl.  We tasted the flat surface, salty. We tasted the new salt - whoa, extremely salty!   We stopped at the first salt hotel built here, called Playa Blanca! Rooms here cost $20 per night. Electricity goes off at 8pm, you can guess what other creature comforts are lacking! There was a Dakar style race here, but very few finished it. The flag area is still ve...
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LAKE TITICACA  What a day! I might let the photos tell the story here. We had a private charter to bring us around to various points of interests on the lake. The lake is over 8,000km² and 300m deep. For swimmers reading this, the water is crystal clear and 9°C, rising to 13°C in summer. 60% of the lake belongs to Peru, and 40% to Bolivia, although that might depend on who you are talking to! The altitude here is 3,800m or 12,350ft in old money! First stop: a floating island, one of 150 on the lake (tax avoidance again!) These islands are built from reeds called Totola and we got a demonstration of how they are constructed. They last for 20 to 25 years. The island we visited has 15 inhabitants, in three families. Of course we went for a trip in their boat! Note the cellphone!   Totola stem is the local paracetamol!    Tastes a bit like cucumber. Give me credit for trying everything!! The next stop was a spot where we got a two-person kayak and did the Kayak on Lake T...
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  The Last Tour in Bolivia 😢😢 Up i n the Cordillera de los Frailes We had no idea what to expect today, apart from being told to bring our swimming togs! As we set off through the local town of Uyuni, we noted the by now familiar sight of the queue for petrol.    I had the opportunity to get a photo while our guide went to collect a tank of oxygen!!! "Just in case!" So, we were going up higher than we had ever been before. We set out along very rough roads in the direction of Tomave, a sleepy village with a 17th century, adobe built church. It took 89 years to complete it. The round window over the door is 'glazed' with quartz! Unfortunately the church was closed.       Street in Tomave   Tomave street. Don't judge the book by the cover, or so we're told.   Tomave central square.   It's like something from a film set!   The best B&B in town. Moving on from Tomave we drove over very rough terrain, through countryside broken up by st...
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