Altiplano-uyuni-la paz

Our 4 day trip across the high desert and salt flats in Bolivia was amazing but exhausting! The desert is beautiful and the mountains are al kinds of collies, with flamingoes, borax lakes, yellow, pink and green lakes, and lots of guanacos and llamas! Our first night we stayed at someone's house in a small village around 4200m. The man that owned the house was very sweet, and the beds were quite an experience! Our door didn't close and it gets very cold at night, so not many people got much sleep. We had to get up at 4:30 to get on the road so this didn't matter much anyways. Over the next few days we continued to climb to around 5000m, where there are lots of gyesers from the volcanoes near the border with chile. Lots of people on our trip got really sick, including sandro, one of the swiss people I have been traveling with. I think Sandro had the Flu but other people seemed to be suffering a lot from the altitude or possibly the food... It's hard to tell what's from what that high up! Our next night was also around 4300m and after more than 24 hours this high up my head was killing me but after taking some drugs and a good night sleep I was feeling great! We saw lots of amazing things again and finished up our day at a train graveyard in uyuni, where I ran into Kathy and mark, some good friends from home.. Small world! Our hostel I. Uyuni was half under construction, and we were lucky to be the first ones to jump in the shower before the water was shut off for the night. Turned out they were having problems and thre was no water or electricity in town the next day! We woke up at 4:30 again to catch to sunrise on the salt flats, which was amazing! The flats are all under water at the moment because it's rainy season, so it was harder to take all the cool perspective pictures that everyone takes. We got some good ones and had breakfast in a hotel made completely of salt. After taking lots of pictures we returned to uyuni and spent the rest of the afternoon at a cute outdoor bar with some other people on our tour. After a really good sleep in we bought tickets for a train north that didn't leave until midnight, so we had a whole day to kill In uyuni! There isn't much to the town, but we found a market and discovered how delicious mangoes are here! So we spent the day hanging out in the park eating mangoes! We also found an Internet cafe., where I ran into Kathy and mark for the second time!
The train ride to oruro overnight was very long.. It was definitely more like sleeping on a trampoline with someone bouncing beside you.. It was hard to stay in your seat let alone sleep! I was sure that the train was going to bounce off the tracks at some points, and of course this is the time that my stomach decides to act up so I'm wobbling down the aisles trying to stay on my feet and make it to the washroom far too often. At least there was a bathroom! :) so we decide to get straight on the bus to la Paz, 3 hours away, the bus was better than what I was picturing from all the horrible stories that I've heard about buses in Bolivia!
La Paz is awesome, we're staying at bacoo hostel which is close to the center and has a big bar with ping pong and pool, comfy beds, and hot water! I really love how the city is set in the mountains, the views are beautiful and the culture in the city is really neat. There are tons of markets with lots of cheap things to buy and some good resturaunts with decent food that is really cheap! Last night our hostel had an eArth hour event with a dinner and no electricity, and live music. It was really cool! We bought a few. Bottles of Bolivian wine (not as good as argentinean, but not bad) listened to the music, and hung out at the bar! At some point they started giving out free shots.. And this is when you learn that alcohol has much stronger effects at altitude! Needless to say today has been a really lazy day for all of us and we're now planning on heading to lake titicaca and copacabana on tuesday morning since we didn't make it to the bus station to get tickets today!

In to Bolivia

We got up very early to get on the bus to the border with plans to walk across into Bolivia and then find some way of getting to tupiza. Quite a few people from our hostel were heading the same way so we all went to the bus station together. Before getting into the bus an Israeli couple who was with us got pickpocketex and lost everything.. Money, bus tickets and all. We felt really bad for them as they were stuck with nothing but had to get on the bus because we had our tickets. After 7 hours we made it to the boarder, which is between 3500 and 4000 m high. Lots of people were feeling the altitude but I was feeling ok. Some friends who were crossing th boarder just after us got quite sick and decided to go to the doctor.. Who sent them to the pharmacy to get their own syringes filled with mystery medication, which they had to get injected in to their butts. They don't speak any spanish so they said they had no idea what it was, but it ended up knocking them out for 12 hours or so and then they felt better ( minus not being able to sit down very comfortably for a day or so) needless to say they got stuck at this little border town for a night, and I'm really glad I haven't gotten altitude sickness so far! The waits at the boarder were really long, standing in the hot sun with all of your bags for hours, when we finally got through we found out that that was only the line to get out of Argentina, and now we had to go through customs to get into Bolivia! Turns out they don't really care too much who goes into Bolivia since the boarder guy didn't even read the papers we filled out or look at us.. Just threw a stamp on some paper, gave us another tiny piece of paper not to loose and sent us on our way. We decided to find a cab to the train station and got ripped off (of course) after arriving at the station our cab drier. Decided that his price was per person, not for the ride and got really angry when we started to argue with him. We decided it wasn't worth it and gave him the money. The train ride to Tupiza was like stepping back I. Time.. I don't know what year the train was built but it certainly was not modern.. We bought the upper class which came complete with a really loud fan and even louder love songs from the 80's and 90's! It was a good experience!
Tupiza is like stepping into the wild west, with giant cacti and canyons, and lots of dust! Internet is scarce and very slow, which is a bit of a culture shock after Argentina. Here are tons of indigenous people here, and they don't sem very interested in interacting with tourists at all. I'm also surprised that they don't really barter here much.. When you try they usually just get angry and tell you to get lost. The town is quite small... Enough so that when our altitude sick friends. Sent us an email saying they were going to eat pizza all we had to do was look in every resturaunt until we found them about 15 minutes later. On st. Patricks day we wanted to have a party, but it turns out no one in a tiny town in bolivia is interested in an irish holiday. There was no where to go and nowhere open to buy booze even! The hospital across the street from our hostel seemed to be having the biggest party around, complete with marching bands that would parade around every half hour or so.. We couldn't quite figure out what was going on, but im learning that random marching bands are the nirm in Bolivia! The next day, Sandro and I decided to try to go for a hike so we wandered through town to some really poor areas until we found a hill to climb, it was a little eye opening to see how some people live with so little. We climbed up to the top of a hill above town with a beautiful view and were planning on going farther until a thunderstorm ruined our plans. It is amazing how quickly roads turn into rivers when the rain comes! We were soaked but made it back to our hostel in time for the sun to start shining. Our hostel is connected with a hotel, so we can go use the pool there, which is quite nice compared to the standards in The rest of the town! After a relaxing afternoon we went for dinner to a place that had a huge menu, but really only madaa few items that they felt like making. We had to order several times before the waitress was satisfied that what we chose was easy enough to make! E also met a blind partially deaf traveller who has been to 58 countries and has published a book about his travels. I don't remember his name, but it's pretty impressive that he's able to do all that when I find it really hard Because my Spanish isn't very good! From here we are booking a 4 day tour through sw Bolivia finishing in uyuni.
Ps. I'm writing this on my phone so sorry if it's really hard tomread! I can't always see what I'm writing.

Northwest Argentina

Again, it's been a really long time since i've written so I'll try to do my best to remember the good stuff! From bariloche we got on a bus and headed north to Mendoza and then got on another bus to head all the way north to Salta. Salta is a really nice city, with some nice parks and churches.. Northwest Argentina has a different feel from the rest of the country.. More cultural which I really like! It feels far less European and more exciting. On Friday night we went out to check out the town and there was a huge crowd gathered in the square so we got closer to see if we could see what was going on. We figured out too late that it was some mass religious ceremony and they all started marching and chanting and we were stuck in the middle of all this. Finally we got out and headed to check out some of the other busy streets with lots of shops and bars. From salta we did amday trip north to some really neat little indigenous villages called purmamarca and humhuaca. There were some cool markets and really cute little houses. We also visited some inca ruins at tilcara that had been partially rebuilt so you could see what the houses would have been like. The altitude gets much higher here so we had our first coca leaves to help with the effects. The next day we did a day trip to cafayate through these beautiful red canyons. We went to some wineries and saw the last celebrations of carnival in cafayate.. Wishing that we had brought our drivers licenses so that we could have rented a car and done these trips on our own. One night we got a bunch of people from
Our hostel together and had a big barbecue... I don't think I've ever seen so much meat in one place at one time. We asked for some steaks at the supermarket and ended up with what appeared to be the whole side of a cow, topped it off with a shopping cart full of beer and it was a good night! From here Sarah and I part ways.. She is heading back to buenos aires and I am heading to Bolivia with some people from Switzerland and Germany!

Bariloche

Bariloche is in the lake district at the very north end of Patagonia. It reminds me of a mix between Banff and sproat lake or Penticten. It´s fall already but we lucked out and got some really hot weather while we were here. Our first full day we did some hiking, and then the next day we rode our bikes around this 30km circuito chico.... the guy we rented bikes from claimed that this was a really easy ride, but there was not a single flat bit the entire way! I swear 2/3 of the circuit is uphill. The ride was worth it.. there were some beautiful viewpoints, we saw the most expensive hotel in Argentina (Banff Springs is Nicer), and stopped at a really nice beach for lunch. We were really tired at the end of the day but it felt good to get some exercise after all that drinking! The lakes are a bit chilly for swimming.. we did stick our legs in to cool off but weren´t brave enough to go the whole way. Bariloche is a chocolate-lovers paradise.... every other stofe is a chocolate factory so of course we´ve been eating our weight in Chocolate every day.. and it´s all sooo good! There are also lots of good resturaunts... most of the food in Argentin is very European.. and so hard for me to eat.. there is delicious looking and cheap pasta and pizza everywhere, and the fast food places sell hot-dogs and hamburgers, just like at home. Breakfast here is croissants or bread, coffee, and dulce de leche.. which they eat with everything. Our hostel serves eggs as well for breakfast, which I love!
One night we went out to a traditional rgentinean boliche (bbq type place) they eat soo much meat as well. Sarah´s half portion of steak was 2 steaks! She said that it was amazing, but I tried some and it still isn´t something that I would want to order..
We had a whole day to spend at the beach.. nice and relaxing after the hiking and biking. Still not brave enough to swim in the chilly water, pretty much only the kids are and everyone else is wearing a wetsuit.
From here our plan was to head to Chile to see a penguin colony, which is why we came so far south, but we talked to a girl who was just there and she said that the penguins have pretty much all left already.. and she didn´t see any. So we´ve decided that it´s not worth our time to go if we won´t see any, and we´re heading all the way back up North to Salta, which is supposed to be beautiful. We leave this afternoon and will probably be spending 2 or 3 days on the bus to get all that way. yuck! Today it´s cool and rainy, like a fall day at home, which will make it easier to leave.

Punta Del Diablo- Mendoza-Bariloche

It seems that I´m about as bad at this blogging thing as I thought I would be. Obviously it´s been a while since I´ve written anything. We´re currently in Bariloche, and we leave this afternoon on an overnight bus to Mendoza and from there we´re hoping to jump on a bus to Salta.. it´s gonna be a long ride, but we´ve heard great thinga about Salta so hopefully it´ll be worth it when we get there!
Let´s go back to Punta Del Diablo...
Punta Del Diablo is this amazing little surf town on the eastern coast of Uruguay (close to Brazil). Beaches are nice, water is pretty warm, and the people there are great. We stayed at a hostel a few blocks away from the beach. The weather wasn´t great while we were there.. there were some big storms that washed away parts of raoads etc. so we spent most of our time drinking (too bad)! We spent most of our time with some Aussies, a deaf english drug dealer, a very flamboyant Brazilian, some Americans who were living in Buenos Aires and a Canadian couple from the Youkon who happened to know Scott and Di (not helping the àll canadians know each other stereotype).We spent most of our time between the hostel and beach, had a great bbq one night and a game of football (the american kind) on the beach one day. Sarah and I were the only two girls brave enough to play, and the Captains. Of course, my team won and of course, I didn´t do a damn thing to help them win... ,mostly just ran around in circles and couldn´t catch the ball. There were these cool little blue jellyfish everywhere that apparantly get poisonus when they´re big but look like little blue sunshines when they´re little. One day we went to check out a Turtle rehabilitation project just outside of town and had lunch on the beach. The pickup that we rode in the back of didn´t have a tailgate, and there were quite a few of us shoved inside, so we were hanging on pretty tight so we wouldn´t fall out! It hurts the face a little when it´s raining and you´re going highway speeds in the back of a truck, but we made it, and had lunch on the beach after checking out the turtles! Then, of course the truck breakes down and we have to find a bus that will take us back to town. After we made it back we found out that there´s a club that opens on weekends about 20 minutes down the road from our hostel. it´s kind of in the middle of nowhere but you still have to pay cover! So of course we started to have some drinks and headed down to this club around 230 or 300... only to find out that it´s empty because we´re so ´¨early¨ .. good thing we were drunk enough that we didn´t care, and we danced the night away anyways. On the walk home we watched the sun rise and then went to have a nap before heading to the beach to have another nap.. or so I thought. Turns out that Gary, who never went to bed, is more interested in dragging Nina aound the beach by our heels than letting us sleep.
We had to book another night here because of an impromptu decision to have a <toga party for one of the staff´s birthdays. so we put on our sheets and started all over again. One guy broke his leg that day trying to learn how to skimboard, and he still managed to make it back in time for the toga party.. what a trooper. Around 200 we decided that it was too early to head to the club so we went to check out this bar down the same road and then made our way to the club. Headed home around 800 for a quick nap before we had to catch our bus at 11. It was a close one.. my alarm didn´t go off but luckily we woke up and made it to the bus in time! Then when we arrived at the ferry terminal we almost weren´t allowed back into Argentina. The customs lady was asking me for a peice of paper, and I had no idea what she was talking about, so she showed me the paper. I was sure that I didn´t have one, but I dug though my whole pack and found this paper somewhere at the bottom. When we came to Uruguay no one told us that we needed to keep this peice of paper that they gave us or we wouldn´t be allowed out.. it just happened that I hadn´t emptied any garbage out of my pack so it was there. Gary, who we were travelling with wasn´t so lucky, and he doesn´t think that he even got the paper in the first place. After lots of waiting and some arguing they let him pay a bunch of money to get into Argentina. So we ran for our ferry and just made it on. Back in Buenos Aires we said our goodbyes to Gary and walked to the bus station to try to find a ticket to Mendoza. After wandeing forever through this massive bus/train station we finally found the place to buy tickets and booked a bus to Mendoza!
Mendoza was very nice.. the first night we were there there was a tequilla party with free shots.. the only catch is that you have to lean backwards over the bar while they pour the tequilla into your mouth for as long as they feel like. The next day we signed up for a bikes and wine tour in Maipu, one of the wine reigons just outside of Mendoza. Some americans that we met on the bus signed up with us. After 3 Winey (Bodega) tours the group was leaving, but we decided that we wanted more wine so we ditched our tour and continued on our own. We tasted some more wine and walked to a liquor and chocolate factory for a tasting. We bought some delicious wine and liquor, and then went to find a bus back to Mendoza! On the way back to or place we found a little diner and had lunch and more wine for about 10 pesos (2.50). The rest of Mendoza isn´t this cheap.. you usually have to wander away from the tourist areas to find good prices like this.
The following day we went on a tour in the Andes. We saw some really cool old inca bridges and went to the ounta del inca (the furthest south that the incas settled). We went to Aconcagua national park and saw Aconcagua, the highest mountain in the world outside the himalayas (6900 m or something close to that). Back at the hostel we met a guy from Poland who had just come back from guiding an expedition up Aconcagua, who was shocked that we would come to mendoza and not climb it! (hah). Later that night there was some festival going on in town so we grabbed a bottle of wine and headed to the park to check it out. The festival reminded me a lot of somethign that you would find at home.. a stage with a band, some people dancing and lots of food vendors.
Our last day in Mendoza we decided to have a relaxing day. We bought some wine and strawberries and headed to the park to lie in the shade and enjoy our wine. While we were drinking in the park these two girls were riding their bikes by and hollering the sound of music out, when they stopped and wanted to take a picture. We offered to take one for them and chatted for a while, then they lent us their bikes for a few minutes. Turns out that one of the girls is the manager of Loki hostel in Mancora (Peru). I promised that I would go visit. At the end of the afternoon we packed up our things and headed to the bus station to head to Bariloche!