Claire Leach 19/03/2017 Claire Leach 19/03/2017

Sucre, Bolivia

After a whirlwind few days exploring Salar de Uyuni, getting stranded in a tiny town and an unexpected stop in somewhat dilapidated Oruro we finally arrived in Sucre via Potosi. We had booked ourselves into Casa Verde for the festive season, I was looking forward to some quiet and uneventful days.

Our last Christmas away from home turned into a bit of a disaster; without internet I struggled to call home and was desperately homesick. Craig and I had an argument about something so laughably petty, but the emotional stress of the day blew it all out of proportion and we didn't speak for several hours. Eventually we realised how silly we'd been and had a picnic on the beach, I got to speak to my mum and all was well. Despite the happy end I didn't want a repeat of that day and so made sure we'd have internet to call home and a kitchen to prepare a lovely dinner to make being away bearable.

Casa Verde was beautiful. We had a huge double bed in a private room with hardwood floors and an en suite. The courtyard garden featured a small undercover pool, sun loungers and a variety of pretty pots filled with plants in bloom. The kitchen was like something from a country living magazine, Belfast sinks, a huge cooker and a beautiful central wooden table.

We spent Christmas Eve and the day before at the Central Market buying supplies for our festive feast. We decided to attempt to make a fruit crumble for pudding on Christmas Day and so bought the various ingredients from stall holders and the supermarket. We watched Miracle on 34th Street to try and get into the Christmas spirit, outside it was hot and so completely different to home.

On Christmas Day I woke up super early to call my mum, speaking to her was all I needed to make the day a happy one. I spoke to my little brother too and exchanged messages with my cousin Lily. I agreed to call again later in the day so that I could FaceTime my grandparents and family. After a relaxed morning we started work on our Christmas dinner, or as close as we could get to one with the ingredients we could find. After much Googling we made vegetarian gravy completely from scratch to go with our pile of roast potatoes and veggies. We didn't have scales to measure anything but our apple and cherry crumble with cinnamon looked pretty decent too.

We sat in the courtyard garden shaded from the hot sun and enjoyed our dinner. The crumble with ice cream was a triumph and I was so pleased that our day away from home was going well. Craig FaceTimed his family and I had a long chat with my Dad and FaceTimed my family too. The evening was spent watching films, playing games and stuffing our faces with Pringles and chocolate, just as it would have happened in the U.K.

We enjoyed our down time at Casa Verde but unfortunately couldn't afford to stay for the entirety of our time in Sucre. We moved just down the road to the Spanish School which was incredibly cheap. Our first of ten lessons took place on December 28th with the lovely Shirley. We went in knowing just a few Spanish words and could only count to about five. By day ten we could count upwards of 100, knew colours, days of the week and a whole load of new vocabulary. We took our new language skills to the market and immediately noticed that we got better prices by using Spanish and it was also a lot more fun.

We'd spend our days having a two hour lesson in the morning and then wander the pretty 'White City' in the afternoon. It felt more like we were citizens of the town than tourists, we were never in a hurry anywhere and milked the concept of 'slow travel'. It was so refreshing and in complete contrast to the rest of our travels, both backpacking and trips closer to home. We never go on holidays where you do nothing for days on end so this was a complete change for us.

Apart from a visit to Santa Clara convent and an evening at a traditional Bolivian dance show our two weeks in Sucre were blissfully quiet. Wandering, cinnamon tea, café stops and shopping at the market were our daily rituals.

While we had plenty of time to think and reflect we decided to change our plans somewhat. After four months of purposefully not planning too far ahead we decided to do the opposite and make some plans that would hopefully help us see more of the world in our year away. We thought about what we really wanted to see and do and decided that we really wanted to see some of Central America and India.

After a conversation with my mum and brother we decided to fit in a week in New York, my favourite city and meet them there. Flying directly from South and Central America to India was very expensive and involved long lay overs in various places. Combining a week in New York worked out the same price for us, and who wouldn't want to include the best city on earth in their trip?

We spent a stressful day booking flights from Mexico to New York and from New York to India. I booked the flights for my mum and brother and an Airbnb in Brooklyn for us all to share. We'd given ourselves just four full months to get to Cancun in Mexico, the challenge gave us a new sense of excitement and anticipation for what was ahead.

On our last day at the Spanish School we had our lessons and went out for ice cream with Shirley. As we left Sucre with our backpacks on the sun was setting; the city sky glowed pink. It was a beautiful end to our two weeks as guests in the 'White City'.

🎥 Bolivia:

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Claire Leach 11/03/2017 Claire Leach 11/03/2017

Salar de Uyuni, Bolivia

The border crossing from Chile to Bolivia is pretty basic to say the least. It was the first stop on our Salar de Uyuni tour which would take us from the desert of San Pedro de Atacama to Uyuni a town by the famous salt flat in Bolivia. Before embarking on our three day, two night tour by Jeep we had to formally exit Chile and enter country number six of our travels, Bolivia. The immigration office was a small wooden shack in the middle of nowhere surrounded by 4X4's and tourists. We queued in the wind to receive our stamps before breakfast by the Jeep and being sorted into our tour group. We were put with two Italian guys and two Brazilian guys and we met the man who would take care of us; for the next three days he would be our tour guide, driver and cook.

We jumped in the Jeep and first visited a clear lake surrounded by mountains, the next stop was a desert-like landscape. The third stop was a colourful lake, the yellow grass clashed with the azure skies. While many people took a dip in the thermal pool we decided instead to admire the stunning scenery. Craig was in awe of the colours in the landscape and couldn't stop taking photographs. We had lunch in a building by the lake and I for one was very impressed, mostly because there was mashed potatoes. I haven't had mash since leaving the U.K. and at home it is one of my favourite foods! We continued on to a geyser field and walked through the sulphur smelling steam, it was like walking among the clouds. The mud bubbled and the minerals stained the earth with bright colours. Our last stop of the day was to see flamingoes though they were quite far away and the wind was whipping at our faces. We shared a room with the rest of the group, I had trouble sleeping and so took a look out of the window only to see the brightest stars I think I've ever seen.

I completely forgot that we were in a new timezone and woke up an hour too early. I spent the extra time day dreaming before breakfast and packing everything back on to the jeep. We drove to a rock formation that looks like a huge camel and a lost city which was a joy to walk around. We climbed rocks and stood in huge holes in the cliffs, one of our stops was so beautiful and peaceful that I relished sitting alone away from everyone else to admire my surroundings. A visit to Black Lake saw us climb to the top of some rocks before spotting a type of rabbit and some llamas. A highlight of the day for me was a visit to a town with a railway line running through it. The weather had completely turned; from blue skies there were ominous black clouds and the landscape was very atmospheric. We walked along the railway lines passing a stopped train and took photographs. I couldn't help but think about my drawings and how this sight would make a wonderful series of work in ink.

We checked into a salt hotel which was a new experience; as described the hotel is completely made of salt, the floor is made from ground up salt and crunchy underfoot. We had a private room which was very pretty with a view over the salt flat. We woke before sunrise to drive to the salt flat, the stars were still twinkling. I couldn't believe how the flat terrain stretched on for miles into the distance. We watched the sunrise and then drove to Isla Incahuasi an island in the middle of the flat covered in cacti. We had breakfast after a wander amongst the cacti and then drove to a spot to take perspective photos. Now, I don't really have patience for moments like this. Perspective photos are hard to achieve, they require teamwork and also involve having to lie on the hard, rough salty floor with the camera. I found it difficult asking for help with the kind of photo's that I wanted and eventually gave up in a huff.

We continued to the final stop. We had been informed that Uyuni had been barricaded due to some sort of strike and would be inaccessible. The Uyuni train graveyard that I'd been really looking forward to seeing was a no-go. With the festive season just around the corner we had no idea how we would make it to Sucre and the nice accommodation that we had already booked. We were talking with our group and the group that we had been doing the tour alongside about what to do next, we tried bargaining with our driver to take us out of the little town and onto a bigger one and he said no. We had been stranded in a small dusty town just outside the salt flat with hundreds of other backpackers and nobody knew what to do. Another backpacker approached us to ask what our plans were, she said she had asked her driver to take her out of the town and he had quoted her $250 USD. I started to panic. We didn't have that kind of money to spend but maybe we'd have no choice? Our driver said that although he wasn't willing to take us any further he did know of a coach to the next biggest city Ururo. He drove us to the coach stop and we all snagged the last seats. The price was usually 50 bolivianos, when writing our names on the list it went up to 80 bolivianos, by the time we went to pay it was 100 bolivianos. It was frustrating but luckily £1 is equivalent to 8 bolivianos so it wasn't the end of the world.

Oruro, the unintended stop on our Bolivian itinerary was an interesting one. We found a hotel by the bus stop and all checked in. The room was dank and there was so much noise outside, the beds were hard as rocks and the bathroom smelt like raw sewage. I started to cry and tearily told Craig that I didn't want to travel anymore. Any situation outside of my control seems to have a negative impact on me, I'm apparently incapable of taking things in my stride and maybe thats something I need to work on, or maybe thats how i'll always be. In the evening we all went out for dinner via the massive Christmas market that took up all of the streets. The neon lighting and brash Christmas decorations were a sight to behold. The next day we missed breakfast accidentally by 9 minutes and went out in search of bus tickets. Even finding bus tickets wasn't straight forward so we bought tickets to Potosí in the hope of being able to continue to Sucre.

🎥 Bolivia:

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Claire Leach 03/02/2017 Claire Leach 03/02/2017

San Pedro de Atacama, Chile

After a restless overnight journey we arrived in San Pedro de Atacama, upon leaving the coach we could already feel two things; the intense heat and the thin air, San Pedro de Atacama lies at roughly 2407 metres above sea level. We walked with our heavy backpacks to our hostel and as it was too early to check in we sat on the dusty sofas in the outside courtyard with heavy eyelids and shortness of breath. After drinking as much water as we could manage to combat the altitude sickness we walked very slowly into the centre of town for breakfast before spending several hours talking to the many tourist agencies to set about organising a tour of Salar de Uyuni which we had learned could be done from San Pedro de Atacama. We found a tour operater that could organise three tours in the desert and also our Salt Flats tour.

Our first tour was to Piedra Rojas or 'Red Rock'. We were picked up early and did the rounds to pick up everybody else. After a drive the first stop was to a church tower made with old materials including cactus fibres. We then stopped at the beautiful Atacama Salt Flat where we saw flamingos perfectly reflected in the shallow water. We learned that the pink appearance comes from their diet of brine shrimp which gradually turns their grey feathers the pretty blush colour; the older the flamingo the pinker their feathers. We admired the birds and the otherworldly landscape for some time, the air was thin but bearable and the moon was out; it really felt as though we were walking on the surface of another planet. We returned to the van and had breakfast overlooking the salt, the sun had started beating down.

The next stop was the red rocks themselves. We had been warned by the helpful tour operator who booked the trip that the photographs advertised of the rocks aren't quite accurate, they are often photoshopped to look more red to entice visitors. Unless it has been raining the rocks are actually a dusky brown colour. Despite the colour the rock formations are still impressive. We were advised not to run and jump in the area due to the altitude as overexertion can cause altitude sickness and so we slowly walked across the landscape to the still lake reflecting the mountains. Colour remains ever present in my memory of the place, blue sky, white salt and brown rock.

We boarded the van again and drove on to a sight with large lakes, volcanoes and vicûna's; our wonderful guide was very patient and after explaining everything in Spanish repeated it again in English for us as we were the only non Spanish speakers on the tour. The locals attribute fascinating stories to the landscapes which were a joy to hear. After a short walk by the lakes we had lunch at a quiet little town with the tour group before the long drive back to San Pedro.

The following day I was awake before 4am. I could hear dogs barking, people in conversation walking by the wide open windows and cars screeching past. The air was hot and dry and the lack of oxygen made my head feel fuzzy. We had a sunrise tour of the desert geysers and so falling back to sleep wasn't an option. We got on the minibus and were squeezed between two large blokes. Everybody including us fell back to sleep for the journey as we were encouraged to do by the guide. We awoke at the geysers and disembarked, it was cold and we were grateful we decided to wear our under layers. The geysers were amazing, huge bellows of steam rose toward the moon as the sun slowly appeared shining light on the tips of mountains. We've been lucky enough to see geysers in New Zealand and Iceland on our travels but these were by far the most impressive. Walking through the worlds highest geyser field we watched as the mud bubbled and minerals caused brightly coloured water to shimmer under the sun. We had some breakfast and afterwards Craig took a dip in the thermal pool, it looked lovely and warm until he got out. The steam as his warm body hit the chilly air reminded me of why I wanted to stay a spectator in my warm thermal socks. We went to another geyser field a short drive away and saw two erupt right in front of us; we were in awe. We stopped again at a church and viewpoint before returning to San Pedro. We had a short time to organise many things before our afternoon tour to the Moon Valley. We had to have lunch, buy supplies for our Salar de Uyuni tour the following day, book accommodation for the end of the tour in Uyuni and arrange a place to stay over Christmas before places got booked up in Sucre, Bolivia. After a little stress we managed to organise everything with time to spare.

We were picked up for our Moon Valley tour which began just a short drive away as it is not far from the town. We found ourselves at some salt tunnels which we walked and crawled through; the entire tunnel is made from salt though we decided not to taste the walls. We then walked to a viewpoint where we could see volcanoes and huge sand dunes which really made us feel as though we were in the desert. As with our tour the day before we learned stories from folklore of the mountain and volcanoes which were fascinating. We saw the three 'Maria's' made from rock before watching the sunset at Mirador Coyote. The orange sun setting over the vast landscape was an excellent way to end our weeks in beautiful and diverse Chile.

Next: entering Bolivia via Salar de Uyuni.

🎥 Chile - Up's and Down's:

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A sweet little watercolour inspired by autumn in the forest. 🍂 Available at claireleach.com/shop for £140 plus postage.

An August Afternoon, 15cm x 10.5cm, ink on paper. Available to purchase via my shop; claireleach.com/shop. Full of light and leafy details, inspired by a walk on a summers day @lacocknt in Wiltshire. 🌞