The Inca Flag

Tiahuanaco Statue

Semi Subterranean Temple at Tiwanaku

Camping with the Swiss in the middle of nowhere!

Pozo (well) at 4900m altitude

It may look like snow but it's salt.

The extracted salt piles of the Salar de Uyuni create a strange and lunar landscape

Salt piles on the Salar de Uyuni

Hot Springs in the middle of nowhere

Laguna Colorada

Laguna Verde

Stani gloring on asphalt

The proverbial pinch of salt over one's shoulder?

Aymara New Year Celebration at Tiahuanaco. The highlight is the rising sun striking the Porte de Sol.

Tiahuanaco (or Tiwanaku) at 3850m, started as a small village around 1200BC. It grew to be the capital city of a powerful pre-Hispanic empire that extended over most of Bolivia, southern Peru, northern Chile and parts of Argentina, reaching its apogee between 500 and 900 A.D. Its monumental remains testify to the cultural and political significance of this civilisation, which is distinct from any of the other pre-Hispanic empires of the Americas. The Tiwanaku greatest contribution to humankind is probably the cultivation of the potato. More than three hundred varieties are now known.

The Temple measures 26m by 28.47m. It's walls are made up of 48 red sandstone pillars. The carved heads set into the wall are thought to symbolise the earlier practise of exposing the severed heads of their defeated enemies in the temple.

Geysers at 4800m emit stinking sulphurous fumes into the fresh mountain air and provide a roaring background noise only compariable with our MSR XGK stove. No matter how many layers you have on - it's still freezing cold.

As good as smooth asphalt for cycling

There's nothing like a boiling hot jacuzzi in the outdoors at 4800m knowing no one else is within miles except flamingos and foxes.

A vibrantly red lake caused by algae in the far southwest of Bolivia. It is situated in a treeless surreal landscape reminiscent of a Dali landscape. About the only thing that can survive on the saline lakes are flamingos. Temperatures drop below -20°C but the winds are so string that it is rare the lake freezes over.

A blue-green lake, situated at an elevation of 5000m is tucked into the southwestern corner of Bolivia. Behind the lake, Volcán Licancabur (5930m) is visible. At it's summit is an Inca crypt. Apparently young Inca men were marched to the summit without protective clothing and forced to freeze to death as a sacrifice to the gods.

Almost as rare as the scenery itself - an asphalt road in Bolivia!