Through the looking glass

And... we didn't die!!!!

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.

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Colca canyon and all things disgusting

Howdy guys!

Time for another rip-roaring, adventure-packed weekend with the Meggses.  This time, at Colca Canyon, the second deepest canyon in the world, only surpassed by the Cotahuasi or however you spell it.  It is twice as deep as the Grand Canyon...so getting too close to the edge can be a little on the intimidating side.  Although beautiful, this trip was another exhausting, fast-like-lightening trip.  So, it'll be a short description.

Friday night we flew into Arequipa, a city in the mountains. Saturday morning, we work up at 3 AM for a bus to drive us five hours (!) to Cabanaconde, a remote mountain town that could only be described as "the real Peru".  The inhabitants still dressed in traditional clothing, which is colorful and lovely to see.  Wifi is not around and the main form of entertainment is playing volleyball in the street, which doesn't get interrupted a lot due to the lack of cars.  Horseback is still the main form of transport around town.  Yet, everyone was kindly in directing us where to go to see things.  I mean, they didn't have many signs to begin with, so I'm sure this is the norm for them.

The first thing we saw on our ride (and I think the only thing...we were tired) was the point Cruz del Condor.  Here, you can see condors on their flight before they go hunting for food for their babies in the nests.  Condors look like terrifying, flying turkeys, but they are quite majestic.

Look at that face.  Turkey.  Ugly turkey.

When we finally made it to the town, our hostel had to give us a room in the neighboring hotel because an earthquake a few weeks back had made the second floor inhospitable and probably not very safe for us to sleep.  So, we got an upgrade for the same price.  Neat.

After settling in, we decided to go for a look at the canyon, and maybe do some hiking.  This is how I describe the walk to try to just get to the canyon:

Poopy

We had to walk through farmland and tons of crap ridden, muddy "trails", just to get to the starting point.  It was gross and I did not approve.  Paul just laughed and said how I wouldn't last one second on the farm.  Then I proceeded to throw the poo at him.  Kidding at that last part.  I would've spewed.  

We get to the canyon and find a "guard" just sitting there.  Unfortunately, we forgot our passes into the canyon and he was being most aggravating.  However, we did convince him just to let us have a look...for a tip of 5 soles.  Peru is great and I understand how poor it is, but this demand for tips is ridiculous.  Granted, it cost us $1 and some, but sometimes just hearing it grates on the nerves.  Whatever.  The canyon was splendid.

It's almost surreal, looking at it.  It almost looks painted, as if we are just standing at a backdrop.  Lovely.

We then decided, ok, since hiking into and out of the canyon is something we can't do, let's just do another trail to see the neighboring dormant volcanos and some Incan ruins.  Our hostel's guide gave us directions that were just awful.  We started walking around and got lost in this one road, goat town a lot more than we care to admit.  Pretty soon, we just gave up and went to a wonderful overlook that was much easier to access.

My little piggy friends!  I started snorting to talk to them...and they loved it!  At least, I'm going to say they did.  They ran to me and it was so cute.

On our way to the look out, there's a bull fighting ring.  I'm a bull.

Hiking

Oh look!  Paul's here too.

Crazy bird that was doing weird things

Sweet bear.

That night, we learned to play a couple of games with a couple of girls from our earlier bus ride at dinner.  Then, we decided to see what the stars looked like, as lights were so few here.  This was one of my favorite parts.  The stars were dazzling and it really humbled us as to how small we are compared to the universe.  You could even see the Milky Way.  Also, remember, we are looking at a different set of stars, since we are in the southern hemisphere.  In the bottom picture, we were weirded out because there wasn't a cross there earlier...later we figured out it was an electricity pole. 

Then, I was pretty sure I saw an axe murderer because there was a guy with a flashlight on a neighboring ridge and I got skittish and told Paul we had to scoot.  Paul pointed out later that it was just a house without electricity.  But I knew better.  Flashlights on a ridge= murder.

The next day, we had to return to Arequipa via bus but we did get to see a few more things before we left.

Ridges made by the Incans

We drove through this.  There was a longer one that at points the driver would shut off the headlights.  Terrifying is the only word for those moments.

Then, the bus stopped for an hour to the hot springs.  These were better kept than at Machu Picchu.  However, we weren't interested in getting into hot springs when it was hot outside.  So, we walked about.

This is where we saw the tons of neighboring volcanos.  These rocks were actually set up by the Incans so that when they went on new walks to discover new places, they had a way back home.  Although, I don't know how they knew which rock pile was their's.  

Mismi volcano-the reason why Arequipa is called the White City, is because of all the volcanic white rock that they used to build the city. 

And now, the elusive vicuna.  They are little camelids that are indigenous to this area.

That evening before the flight home, we ate at Crepisimo, which was delicious.  For less than $20, we each had our own crepes and then a dessert crepe.  Wonderful and I recommend it, even though it's French.  Sometimes, we need variety.  

I will have to say, Paul and I are now crying "uncle".  Since the end of May, we have been on the go nonstop, seeing, traveling, tasting, exploring...it's exhausting.  Although we love our adventures, we are taking a break this week and staying in.  Our plan is to shop, sleep, eat at fabulous restaurants, and watch movies...specifically Harry Potter because I've been in the mood.  So, next week, there will be a post, but not of the adventure sort.  

In two weeks, Paul and I will be doing major travel for a week plus, which is super exciting.  But then, I leave for the US.  Which is thrilling and saddening at the same time.  But mostly thrilling since I will be starting my new master's in Theatre Education at Emerson.  I'm ready.

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