It has been approximately 3 weeks since the last post and I'm sure you were just hitting refresh on the blog...or just living your life. You can do that too. There's been a thousand reasons for the hiatus:
1. I had to do so much travel from Lima to Charlotte and then to Boston with a cat, which, by the way, makes you an instant celebrity, anywhere.
2. I was homeless for 4 days because our subletters were too busy destroying my rug and towels to leave early.
3. I went to Maine.
4. SCHOOL STARTED!!! That'll be a separate post for me.
So many things have hit me at once and the blog just hit the back burner. But, I'm here now, and isn't that the important thing? So, let's talk about Bolivia.
Bolivia. It was such an interesting adventure that I can only compare it to Alice in Wonderland, where I went to a strange alien place with a Mad Hatter (Paul), chased a white rabbit (viscacha!), and met the Red Queen playing croquet with her flamingos and scarring our lives in a way. I'll explain.
We did a whole week of travel and started it off right by doing a late night flight to La Paz, Bolivia and slept in the airport while we waited for our flight to Uyuni, which is where the salt flats or Salar de Uyuni are located. Let me say, La Paz is no joke on the elevation. It is high and you feel like it is hard to breathe at points.
We make it to Uyuni, take a taxi to the city heart, and the moment we step out, we are overrun with tourist companies trying to get us to take their tour. Overwhelming. After several trial and errors and a lot of intense shrugging episodes, we decide on Alkaya tours. We are in a jeep with 2 guys from France and 2 girls from Israel. No worries, the Alice in Wonderland references will come...
The first stop in Wonderland is the railroad graveyard. Pretty much, just old trains come here and rot.
We then hurried on to the salt flats themselves, where we learned about mining (a little) the salt and how it used to be a salt lake, but it evaporated or something of that sort and now it is just the flats (by the way: done completely in Spanish. High five Paul and Rachel).
Everyone knows how much I love salt
Our jeep
Trapped!
Pretty neat right?
It was so surreal. We lunched here and learned a legend about how the salt flats came to be. Won't go into it, but it's a pretty okay story.
Next, was the Pescado Island, where we saw a whole lot of cacti, that grow a centimeter each year. It was an island oasis back when there was a lake.
More salt flat fun...
That night, we stayed in a salt hotel. Yes, it's made of salt. This is where is gets cold and gross fast. It was cold. Extremely. We had at least 50 lbs of blankets on that were hard to breathe under (elevation makes it hard to breathe too) and clothes and our body heat and it took awhile to get some warmth. So, yes. Cold.
Cold.
I also showered my hair because this place had some heated water. We will later learn that hot water is a loose term in Bolivia.
Next morning, we are up and going, this time to lagoons with tons of flamingos. And volcano stuff.
Volcano! Not exactly dormant, but not the most active guy.
Beyond, is Chile, Paul's next stop.
All of this lovely landscape surrounded by mountains. Gorgeous.
What.
Are.
You doin' here, flamingo???!!!!
Am I the only one who thought flamingos lived at the beach?!
This lagoon was frozen
The white stuff is borax. Flamingos love borax.
Don't worry, the Red Queen reference will come.
This sign is just awkward
Snow
After lagoon hopping, we lunched at a rock formation, where we saw tons of viscachas (my white rabbit). Paul went crazy, because he hasn't seen a squirrel in a while.
Then I found this bush and made a funny picture.
Arbol de piedra (rock tree)
Laguna colorada (colored lagoon). This is where we stayed for the night.
This is where the Red Queen shows her face in the form of one of the Israeli girls, who I will never forgive.
The group stayed in one big dormitory style room with a bathroom. After dinner, we all went to sleep. However, at one point, one of the girls got up and vomited in the sink. Violently. Repeatedly. Paul and I just stared at each other as we listened to this girl having a rough night. Then, one of the French guys went to the bathroom. Violently. Repeatedly. This night is forever seared into our memories. We counted our lucky stars for our good health. Little did we know...
Next morning, we went to a volcanic sight where we saw mud pots and smelled some sulfur, which the Israeli girls enjoyed (sarcasm) immensely. I would pity them, but no. I'm Alice and that girl is the Red Queen. Not after what happened.
Hot springs
Then, on to the Salvador Dali desert, not because he's from there or even visited, but because it looks like his paintings (I agree).
We were at the tri border of Bolivia, Argentina (me pointing left), and Chile (pointing right)
Our trip ended with a rock formation city like place that had been formed by volcanic rock.
Face!
Find the viscacha
We finished the tour and headed back to Uyuni. It was a wonderful adventure. I just wish I could end it there.
That night in Uyuni, I got sick. Not violently, but repeatedly and I could not shake how nauseous I felt. The entire next day, as we traveled to La Paz, I did not feel good. As soon as we got to the hotel in La Paz, Paul started to feel bad. We went 4 days without showers and the "hot" water in the hotel was not hot at all. The ability to not cleanse ourselves after a gross trip, I feel, made us feel terrible. And then, Paul got ill. Violently and repeatedly (emphasis on the violently). I never heard him so vocal in my life. The Red Queen got us both sick and that's why I don't pity those girls. They got us sick! Poor Paul could not keep anything down until we went to Iguazu Falls.
So, on that revolting note, I will leave you with that image in your head.
Oh who am I kidding? Here's an ostrich like thing!
Good trip, but not one to repeat. Or reflect too much about. Because of the vomiting.
Looks like another world! Beautiful!
ReplyDeleteLove ya,
Mom