Sajama National Park and the High Bolivian Altiplano and pass into Chile

6-27
Took a bus to Patacamaya from La Paz and then switched to a minibus for the journey to the little village of Sajama. There is only one minibus a day, and I just made it by 10 minutes.  The minibus had seats for 15, we managed to squeeze in 23 people. Most traditionally dressed women with their cool hats. It was a gorgeously scenic drive to Sajama with towering volcanoes all around as we drove along the mostly flat and rolling altiplano that at times looked like badlands.   We drove passed lots of traditional mud villages and tons of llamas and alpacas as well as some ancient ruins. Back when Peru and Bolivia were more or less joined as one, Bolivia was known as Alto Peru (high peru) and it is easy to see why.
When I got to the tiny village of Sajama (4250m, 13,940ft), I took a little walk in Sajama National Park which is surrounded by huge glaciated mountains and volcanoes.  I also explored the tiny traditional village of Sajama and climbed up the bell tower of its old mud church.  At this altitude and in the middle of winter, it is freezing here.  The room isnt well insulated and even though I have 3 thick blankets and 2 lighter ones I shiver a lot when I first go to bed, so I even sleep in my fleece, which is very unsual for me.  I of course could have gotten my sleeping bag out, but once I was under the covers, I didnt want to get out.  In the morning the windows were all iced up from my breath.

6-28
Today I did a big hike in Sajama NP.  I first hiked to what they called geysers.  Instead it was more of a big field of bubbling and boiling water holes and some steaming fumaroles.  Maybe one could have been classified as a tiny geyser.  Along the way I had tremendous views of the 3 volcanoes that dominate the sajama altiplano valley: Sajama (the highest peak in Bolivia at 6520m/21,386ft), Pomerape (6240m/20,467ft), and Parinacota (6350m/20,828ft).  The latter two sharing the border with Chile.  On the way, I also saw a herd of wild Vincuñas.  I also wanted to visit some hotsprings.  The normal way would be to walk all the way back to town and then head out to the hotsprings.  To cut off distance as I was quite far from town, I went crosscountry over a couple of ridges at about 4700m (15,400ft) or so and into another canyon and then back down to the Sajama valley. The hotsprings were perfect: that perfect temp where you are warm and comfortable but not too hot.  I could stay in there forever!  The spring was really big and quite deep, almost like a swimming pool, and it of course featured 360 degree views of volcanoes.  On the way back to Sajama I went through a huge herd of llamas and alpacas that must belong to the village of Sajama.

At night I had trouble finding food in Sajama.  I was the only tourist in the whole town as this is off the beaten track.  The only tourists that really come here are packaged tours to climb Sajama.  The first night I was able to easily get food bc my hospedaje served me dinner.  The owners of my hospedaje had been in La Paz both nights, so the place was run by their little son (10 years old!!)  The first night they had asked when I first arrived if I wanted dinner, so they were able to prepare dinner for me.  The 2nd day, I assumed they would make it for me again, but I guess In needed to tell them early and when I came back in the dark from my hike it was too late.  There was one other tourist hotel, but thy also werent serving.  There was one restaurant in town, but it was closed.  Luckily a man saw I was looking into the restaurant and he called the Señora of the restaurant and she came over and made me some food.

6-29
The only minibus out of Sajama left at 6am.  So we set off in the dark and cold for the 40min or so ride on the dirt road to the international highway.  I got dropped off there.  It was still mostly dark and freezing.  I stood there in the cold (in my shorts bc my pants were wet and dirty) just waiting for the sun to rise.  Luckily some guys packing a truck with soy at a random building nearby invited me into the shed.  It was marginally warmer than outside until the sun came up.  The intl buses from La Paz to Arica, Chile were supposed to come by around 9am.  Between 9 and 10 the 3 buses came by, but they all flashed me the full signal as they flew by. So I decided it was time to hitchhike.  I was thinking I may have an email regarding the Lab Job so I wanted to get to a town with internet before the Denver office closed.  There wasnt  much traffic on the road at all.   Really only big semi trucks. 

At first I was a little picky not putting my thumb out for old looking trucks or the big gas trucks with the big red signs painted to on them: Peligro Combustible or Peligro Inflammable (Danger, combustible or flammable).  Once over the pass, we faced a huge descent, so I was wary of older trucks.  However, after noon, with little luck and little traffic and the thought of having to set up my tent on the freezing altiplano,eating crackers and getting water by breaking ice in the nearby lake, I became less picky.  After 8 hours of my thumb out, first in freezing cold then in brutally intense sun (no trees on the altiplano and at 14,000ft and within the tropics zone (we are at 18 degrees south), I finallygot a ride.  With a nice trucker driving gasoline to Chile, but in a fairly nice looking Volvo rig.  He was a nice guy and we had some decent conversation in spanish.  Being picked up at 3, I figured I would still make it to Putre before the Denver office closed (theyare 2 hours back).  The road and pass (Tombo Quemado, 4660m/15,284ft) were very scenic.  Right after the pass was the border patrol.  I have been on a lot of beautiful Andean border crossings on this trip, but this one may take the cake.  The border was right on a big lake (LagoChungara) with 2 perfect volcano cones towering over it (the 2 P volcanoes that I saw from the otherside).  There were other mountains around including a volcano with smoke coming out of it.  I was through immigration in 10 minutes, but unfortunately, bc he was a trucker, it took my driver and his truck and hour to get through. 

From the border, we entered Lauca National Park, and we descended past a couple more lakes and then had to wait a full hour for construction.  We then descended through an ice covered steep canyon.  The intl road goes close by Putre, but not to it.  So I was dropped of 5km from Putre.  Putre was so cloe, but a steep canyon was between the road and the town, so I was looking at an hour walk with all my bags on a winding up and down road in the cold.  And the sun had just set, so I would be walking in the dark for part of it.  Luckily, however, only a  half click into the walk one of the contruction trucks passed by and picked me up.  From the little village of Putre, I still had a nearly 1km walk to a highly recommended hostel (by Heidi from the jungle). 

I finally checked in and got to the internet, by about 5:40pm Denver time, so too late for the Lockheed offices likely.  But I did have an email that they requested a 2nd interview with me.  It was sent wednesday at noon (I had last checked my email at 8am on wednesday in La Paz), and when I called no one was there.  I am hoping the 2 to 3 day delay isnt a problem.  I really want that lab job!!

6-30
Since I arrived too late lastnight, I couldnt book any tours.  So today is just a chillout day in tiny Putre.  It's an Aymara village (the same people living across the border in Sajama NP.) and quite rustic. This whole area all the way to the ocean used to be Bolivia, but when valuable guano and nitrates were found here, Chile defeated Peru and Bolivia in the battle of the Pacific and thus completely landlocked Bolivia.  From my nice hostel, I have a good view down the precordillera.  Back behind and up towards the Andes, you can see some snowcapped peaks from Putre.  Putre, is at 3520m/11,550, so it's not quite as cold, but it still freezes hard enough at night to get ice on the creeks.  There isnt much to do here except for tours into several national parks in the area, so hopefully I cant get one, though I am the only gringo tourist in the town at the moment, so it may be difficult.  I guess I will just hang out and relax until the interview (skype works surprisingly well here and I dont want to risk that it doesnt work out in the big city of Arica...internet doesnt always make sense here.  My worst skype connection to my mom was in Buenos Aires).

The Amazon Rainforest!

6-23


I had decided to do the much more expensive tour with Madidi travel to Serere reserve rather than the very touristy jungle trips to Madidi National Park, partly bc of my conservation concious and partly bc I knew it would be better.



It was just 3 of us, Yousef and Heidi from Germany and myself. We had a very nice guide named Jamie. They were 15 or more years older than me, but very nice and quite funny. We boarded a boat and headed down the River Beni for 3 hours to reach the Serere reserve. When we disembarked, we had an hour walk to the lodge. It is a true ecolodge and with as small of a footprint as possible. No electricity, just candles. Almost all the food was taken from the jungle (other than meat), so we had honey from the tree, fresh bananas, fresh papaya, fresh coconuts, spices from the jungle. Totally amazing. There was a big lodge with hammocks and such right on a lake (lago san fernando) and then the cabanas were a 10 minute walk (through mud of course, they gave us rubber boots) away so that you had complete isolation in the jungle. The cabanas were quite cool and a little more luxurious than what I was used to as they had private showers and bathrooms (cold water of course, which is nice in the jungle) and nice beds with very good mosquito netting. The cabana had no walls, just 360 degrees of screen. So from everywhere, whether in your bed, in the shower, or on the pot, you had a nice view of the jungle and the butterflies flying around and the monkeys eating overhead.



In the afternoon we went for a jungle walk. We saw a jungle squirrel, capuchin monkeys, frogs, lots of amazingly huge trees, and we learned a lot about how different plants are used by indigenous people. We came back with an appetite and as it would be the whole trip, the food was absolutely amazing. And if I was ever hungry, I could just go pick baby bananas from a tree or cut down a coconut and use a part of a plant as a straw and suck up the sweet coconut milk. There was even a chocolate tree. The fruit of a chocolate tree is really interesting. It tastes a lot like mangos, but then you take the seed and dry it to make cocoa.



We had this cute baby Coati (raccoon family) that was the lodge pet. It's mom had been killed by poachers and so they were raising it. Yousef called him Doodle, and it stuck. He was a fun little guy. A lot like a cat. Always climbing up on us and then curling up on our laps to fall asleep. He would even sometimes follow us on jungle walks.



At night, Jamie and I paddled around on a canoe on the river and looked for caimans. We saw some and quite a few baby caimans as well. The stars were amazing. It was actually a clear night and they were so bright in the darkness of the jungle. And they reflected magically off of the calm lake. Choruses of so many species of frogs were music to our ears. And at night I fell asleep to the soundtrack of the jungle, but not before I had seen a snake and some frogs on the walk to the cabana



6-24

Woke up to the sound of the jungle waking up, especially the howler monkeys. And from my bed I watched monkeys run across the treetops overhead. Did a jungle walk to another lake, gringo lake. Then took a paddle out in the lake (which was thankfully free of mosquitos). In the jungle the mosquitos are so thick bc of all the recent heavy rains, that it is just crazy. You completely cover up and put on repellant and still get smoked by the skeeters. On the walk we saw Capuchin monkeys, squirrel monkeys, howler monkeys, and the very endangered spider monkeys. We also saw a couple of frogs and a coati. Along the way we saw some incredibly fresh jaguar tracks and scat (when we came upon the scat there were no bugs, on the way bag you could hardly see the scat bc of all the bugs, so in the insect filled jungle for scat to be bug free, means it was really fresh). We followed the tracks for a while, but never saw the jaguar. We spent the afternoon in hammocks on the top floor deck of the big lodge overlooking the lake. Lots of monkeys around the lodge in the afternoon.



In the afternoon, we paddled out onto the lake and did some pirahna fishing. We didnt do too well. I caught one and Jamie a couple but the germans just had bites and dreamed of catching an anaconda. The paddle back was gorgeous with the sun lighting up the sky and the water. And tons of these fishing bats came out and were swooping and flying all around in the sunset. And it was just so peaceful and quiet.



Jamie and I did a night walk looking for nocturnal animals. We found some frogs, including a tree frog and a cool false coral snake. Also a tree mouse and tons of huge spiders. And a quick glimpse of a giant armadillo. We could hear the night monkeys, but couldnt see them.



6-25

Another tasty fruit filled breakfast with good empanadas, fresh squeezed juice, and other tasty things. Paddled across San Fernando lake to do a jungle walk on the other side. On the walk saw capuchin and squirrel monkeys as well as a huge huge tarantula. During lunch, around the lodge we saw this Tayra creature (looks like a mix between and otter and cat) running around. On my hike back to the boat, I saw more capuchin and squirrel monkeys, lots of lizards (it was the first really hot day as the effects of the huge storm may have passed), and the tayra up in a tree eating honey with bees buzzing all around it.



Had a 4 hour ride back up the River Beni to Rurrenabaque. Along the way, besides tiny boats plying the water with locals, I saw a giant caiman, lots of turtles, and a lonely capybara (worlds largest rodent).



Back in Rurre, I checked my email. I saw an email titled Fire, by my mom, but I didnt think much of it bc I knew there were some big fires near Ft. Collins and other places around Colorado and figured she was just probably telling me how hot and dry it was in CO. So first I checked ESPN and saw some awesome news that my Arizona Wildcats won the College World Series. I then chatted with my brother and found out he had signed on as a full PRO cyclists. Congrats bro! Finally got around to my emails and saw that the email from mom was about a fire in the high drive area...where our house is. Apparently the fire had gotten within a couple hundred yards of our house. I saw my friend Rob's parent's house had escaped by 20 feet. Apparently 22 houses were burned to the ground. SUch a terrible tragedy. The last I heard the fire was under control, but I havent heard from my mom since that email. I see people I know in photos helping out with the victims in the epapers and I wish I was there to help. Estes Park is a strong and close community and it will pull through, but I am very much saddened by it, yet relieved at the same time for my parents house and the house where I grew up with so many memories and have everything I own stored at. The people back home are certainly in my prayers.



6-26

Had an early morning flight back to La Paz. I learned this time that the one runway did actually have an airport building, it's just that when I landed the route to the airport was flooded so that is why we got picked up in the bus. By the way, just as CO is dealing with it's hottest and driest summer ever, the Amazon basin of bolivia is dealing with one of the wettest (and mosquitoest) dry seasons ever). The ride back was just as scenic, those less bumpy. I checked into my favorite hotel and then did some errands in la paz like laundry and buying a new pair of sunglasses. I lost my sunglasses in my excitement to dive in with the dolphins. Also catching up in internet stuff of course.



by the way, here is a blog from zach's friend who I ran into while climbing huayna potosi. He has more time to blog I think and has a nice blog with lots of good pictures, so if you want to see pics of what the climb looked like, check this out.

http://www.cbguidesblog.com/climbing-mountains-in-bolivias-fabled-cordillera-real/

River trip into the Pampas of the Amazon Basin

6-19


Caught a bus up to the airport in El Alto to catch a plane to Rurrenabaque. The flight ended up being delayed for 4 hours because the president of Iran was arriving. They shut down the whole airport and did a big production where they rolled out the red carpet and had a band playing when he arrived. There was of course lots of military and military police there. I also got to see the Bolivian president as he was waiting at the airport when Ahmadinejad arrived.

It was a tiny little plane with an open cockpit. It bounced around an awful lot as we flew right over the Andes and you could see that the pilots were working hard with the steering. We flew right past Huayna Potosi which I had climbed which was very cool. The flight was less than 40 minutes and we were soon descending through the clouds to a tiny runway. There were no buildings are anything at the runway, just a bus waiting to pick the 12 or so passengers up.



I walked around Rurrenabaque trying to pick out my tours for the pampas and jungle. I visited Madidi travel owned by Rosa Marie Ruiz, a top conservationist. She was the one mainly responsible for the establishment of Madidi National Park. But since the government took over the national park, it has gone terribly downhill. There is lots of illegal logging and even the rangers poach animals which sets a bad example for the rest of the people. Back in 2000, she had initially blocked a proposal for a dam, but there is now a new government in Bolivia who is highly influenced by Brazil. Brazil plans to build over 300 new dams in the Amazon, so of course Bolivia wants to do the same again. It is really quite tragic. She says it is so sad that she can hardly go back there. She has now set up a private resereve called Serere in the Madidi/Amazon Mosaic. It was originally a trashed and dumpy area, but with lots of reforestation and other things they now have a very healthy forest. One jaguar in the area is often a sign of a healthy forest, and she said they have at least 4 in the area. It was really cool sitting there talking to a famous conservationist. And she was excited I was headed to UFlorida to pursue zoology and conservation. And the experience was added to by the fact that during the whole conversation she had a baby spider monkey cuddling up around her neck. Spider monkeys are highly endangered bc their meet tastes good and this one was orphaned when a poacher killed its mother. After the discussion, she convinced me when I was going to do the jungle tour to go to Serere reserve instead of the corrupt and highly degraded Madidi national park. Even though the tours to Serere are much more expensive than the traditional tour I felt it would be a much better experience and also my money would be put to good use for conservation.

It is really sad about the Madidi National Park bc it was one of the most biodiverse national park's in the world since it stretched from the high peaks at 19,000 feet in the Andes down through cloud forest and into the Amazon Rainforest. Unfortunately, I think this is a common thing among national parks in developing countries. Even more developed countries like Chile have NP's under threat to mining and other things.

Rosa Marie led an expedition into the Madidi rainforest for national geographic several years ago, and it was the cover story for March 2000 in Nat Geo.



If you are interested in reading the Nat Geo article (one of the most interesting in the journal kept by the photographer of just all the nasty bugs and such that he encountered in the jungle) or learning more about Serere and the Madidi Mosaic and Rosa Marie's conservation, check out this website http://www.ecobolivia.org/en/home.php



6-20



Joined a Pampas tour. There were 8 of us and a guide Tas. Tas had grown up in the jungle his first 7 years of life in the most traditional way (i.e. living off the forest and not wearing clothes.). We were an interesting group. Sandra and Mayra from the Canary Islands of Spain, Li and engineering student going to Georgia Tech from Korea, Susan a naturalist and dive instructor from Milwaukee, Nigel and Karen living in Hong Kong but from New Zealand and England, and Clay a student from Humboldt State unversity from LA. He has parents from Bolivia and Mexico and he is in La Paz visiting his Bolivian grandparents. First we drove for 3 hours to Santa Rosa on a very muddy road with lots of stuck trucks. We then drove on to the Yacuma river and the pampas. The pampas are basically a huge flooded grassland area with trees just lining the bank of the river.

We took a long boat ride to get to our cool river camp. Along the way we saw lots of green turtles resting on floating logs, squirrel monkeys, pink river dolphins, black caimans, alligators, and lots of birds. During the boat ride, a group in front of us saw a jaguar along the river, but when we got there, we just heard the splashing of it running away. In the evening we took the boat out to a good spot to see the sunset, and we ended up playing a game of volleyball there. At night we took a boat ride looking for caiman eyes. We saw some baby caimans as well. As would become a theme in my entire stay in the Amazon basin, there were tons and tons of mosquitos due to more rain than normal for this time of year. And they were hungry guys, willing to bite through even two layers of clothing (I got bit on my but many times). Some people ended up with several hundred bites by the end of the pampas tour.



6-21 Happy Incan New Year!



Today we went further up the river. We saw Capuchin monkeys, squirrel monkeys, and 2 types of howler monkeys. We saw 5 three-toed sloths just chilling up in the trees We saw some blue and gold mccaws, lots of turtles, lots of dolphins, and several caimans. In the afternoon we went swimming with the river dolphins. It was fun bc they would swim around you and playfully bite you. The nice thing about swimming with the dolphins is that although there are pirahnas, caimains, alligators, and anacondas in the river, if there are dolphins nearby, you know none of the other dangerous animals are around. The water was amazingly warm, and it was just fun splashing around with the dolphins. I have always wanted to swim with dolphins, and I was so excited to jump in with them, that unfortunately I forgot to take off my sunglasses and lost them. This is the 3rd time I have lost sunglasses to quick water entries. One on the mekong river with Conrad and Whitney when someone lost something overboard on our party boat and I jumped in after it and one time in Utah on our rafting trip at the end when we were packing our stuff up and blaring the Michael Jackson free willy song and I jumped into the river pretending to be free willy.

We also went anaconda searching in the grass with no luck. Just plenty of mosquito bites. In the later afternoon we took siestas in the hammocks by the river before going pirahna fishing. I had luck catching 2 pirahnas, but most people just got mosquitos that were made worse by an afternoon rain shower.



6-22

It rained like the dickens overnight. Crazy rain! In the morning it stopped raining long enough for us to do a short bird watching tour. Then it started pouring again, so we decided to do more dolphin swimming since we were already wet. It continued to just pour and pour and we had fun mud wrestling and then showering and shampooing in the heavy rain. After that we had the 2 hour boat ride back to the land cruiser. Most people wore their rain jackets which was useless with how heavy the rain was. I just war my swimsuit.



The ride back to rurrenabaque was wild and fun since the road was deep mud and flooding in places. We passed tons of stuck trucks and stuck buses (you may ask why this budget traveler chose the more expensive flights to and fron La Paz and Rurrenebaque, well partly bc of safety as although the buses no longer use the death road, they still use a nasty road that often has buses fall off the cliff. Also bc it is a cramped and crappy bus and it supposedly takes 20 hours though most people who took it said they took 30 hours and some had taken 48 hours. If you had been on one of these stuck buses you were looking at at least 48 hours. Plus they dont have toilets and rarely make toilet stops so kids and babies just pee in the aisles. Li had his backpack peed on by a kid. They say that everyone who takes the bus to Rurrenabaque always flies back, it is that bad). At some points the road was too bad that there is no way we could have made it through so the driver chose to just plow through jungle, making our own path. Our group had really bonded and we had tons of fun together so we were really having a ball cheering and yelling as the land cruiser slipped and slid and nearly got stuck, passing other stuck cars. We passed bulldozers just trying to push trucks out of mud, trucks that were stuck way above their wheels, but even some of the bulldozers were stuck. I dont know how we made it out. But there was lots of cheering and we made it through the hardest part. Nearly immediately after this adrenaline rushing part, the driver suddently skidded to a stop and sprinted out of the car. We of course piled out quickly too and saw him holing a large anaconda that he had caught that was trying to cross the road. We all took turns holding it before we let it go back into the grass.

The road and all the stuck cars and bulldozers actually reminded me a lot of the road to pegasus and the transition with all the stuck vans and the challengers pulling us out.



When we got back to Rurrenabaque we all hung out before sad goodbyes at night as everyone was going off in different directions.

Biking down the Death Road

6-17




Today I did the bike ride woth the "Death Road" or "World's Most Dangerous Road" I did it with 8 Israelis an 3 Germans. Of course the Israelis had a big flag they carried with them and I had to laugh in my head at the group pictures with 3 germans, an American, and the Israelis waving their flag.



The death road goes from 4700m to 1050m (15,400ft to 3,400ft), thats an amazing 12,000 feet of descent. To put it in perspective, the bike ride that bro used to guide from the top of trail ridge was from 12,200 to Estes at 7500. It would be like he went from Trail Ridge to sea level. Even Mt Evans at 14 thousand something to Denver at 5,200 cant quite compare.



The road is called the death road bc up until 2007, it was the main road down to the jungle and on average 26 cars (cars, not people, you know how bolivians pack cars and buses) used to disappear off the road (at places there are sheer 3000ft drops into the mass of messy jungle below). The road is a narrow one lane road, so it would have been crazy when a big bus met a big truck going opposite directions. I think I heard over 10 years, 300 people died. Now the road is mainly used for bikers and tourist cars. Still some people die biking. I think my guide says about 3 people per year die while biking. But in truth, for bikers, it is not that dangerous. It's a road wide enough for a bus and it's not super technical nor super steep. As long as you are good on a bike and control your speed, you dont have to worry about flying off the road. The truth is, I have been on much gnarlier dirt road passes in Colorado in a car and on a bike than this, that were more narrow and more exposed, but we probably drive a bit less crazily and have better upkept vehicles so accidents are less. Although it wasn't too technical nor singletrack, it was still tons of fun. I mean descending that much is going to be great. The scenery was cool starting in the alpine and snow, going through cloud forest and ending in jungle with banana trees and papaya trees. The road does have crazy cliff drops that make it cool and a few times waterfalls come crashing down onto the road and onto you as you go biking by. And it was definitely fun to go cruising down this road with a pretty nice bike with nice front shocks and good hydraulic disc brakes. They also outfitted you with full knee and elbow pads, a motorcross helmet, and riding pants and jacket and gloves.



Once we reached Coroico at the bottom, we had a big buffet lunch and went swimming in the pool. It was then a 3 hour drive back to la paz on the new road which features a few tunnels. At night, I found a place to get a steak for a buck fifty.

Trying to make it to Antarctica again

6-15 When i got back to La Paz and civilization, I had an emai from Bev with the Crary Lab in Antarctica that she wanted to interiew me for the assistant lab job and that Monday would work. Well phones here in La Paz arent that great (when I called Bev I could only hear 80% of what she said), so I am sure they wouldnt be good in tiny Rurrenebaque in the jungle, so I cancelled my flight with the military airline TAM that was supposed to be on Sunday and changed to Amazonas for Tuesday morning instead. The cancellation was free and the Amazonas flight is only 20 bucks more, so it's not a huge deal.




6-16

Spent the day eating some great market food and trying to find a place where phones would be better. Phones are cheap here, 7 minutes for a buck, but they are through an internet connection which is hopelessly slow here, so that makes the connection bad. Asking around I think I found some places that are not connected via internet. They are expensive. 2 minutes for a a buck twenty five, but it will be worth it if I can get the job bc I really, really want this job! I also might go to the big phone companies office on monday to call from there. They were closed today as it was Saturday, but I will try later. I am also going to try some of the other places by placing some practice calls to my mom who is vacationing in Vail.



6-17 See next blog



6-18

Moved hotels this morning to the sister one of one that Laura and I had stayed at. The one I had been staying at was pretty crappy, although dirt cheap. Problem here in La Paz is that hostels, which I usually stay at, are just crazy party hostels here. No one sleeps, lots of drugs, so I am staying in a hotel. It was nice with Laura bc we could split a room and its cost. I guess the hotel I was staying at wasnt that bad, but it had no breakfast, no hot water (its cold here and I am wanting a shave too), I dont feel too secure about leaving my stuff there while in rurrenebaque, and the kicker was all the sex I could hear going on above me and to the sides with the paper thin walls that made it hard to sleep. The place I am moving into has awesome rooms, cable tv (sometimes its nice to watch some american stuff), the sweetest breakfast ever, water that is so hot it burns and has full pressure, really cool art, and a secure place to store bags. Plus just really nice people. Not so creepy of a place as the last one. It costs 20 bucks, which is way over my budgedt, compared to the 7 of the last one, but sometimes I guess its okay to treat yourself especially after all the stress of the interview. I wish I knew someone here bc my room I am paying for has a queen bed and a twin bed. My Hong Kong friend matt got held up in Brazil, so he is coming in a few days, otherwise that would have worked out.



So anyways, after changing hotels and dropping off laundry, I did some more test calls to my mom. I went with the expensive phone, and I am glad bc the connection was good the whole time. I felt the interview went well, quite well actually. Now I just have to hope, pray, and wait that I get the job. I want it sooo bad! I was so nervous for the interview, but I think it went well, and one thing is for sure, I made the owner of the shop's day. I dropped 175 bolivianos (25 bucks) on the call. That has to go down as one of the top paid calls he's ever had.



After the interview, I felt good and went out to eat a lot. I stopped at an Almuerzo place and for 1 buck got a tasty pasta soup, chicken, some steak, and a desert. I then went to the market and got a delicious mango shake for 50 cents and then had a steak sandwich and an avocado and cheese sandwich for a total of a buck 25.



I also toured the witch's market which has all these things to cast spells, magic potions, magic stones and many other things including tiny llamas, well baby llamas that are dried, some of which I think must have died right at birth others are so so small they could only have been taken from a pregnant llama. One of the witch's I asked told me they were aborted before birth, but I am not sure if the llamas were dead or the witch's aborted them. My spanish only goes so far

Ski Descent of a 6000 meter peak (Huayna Potosi) and Trek in the Cordillera Real

6-11
Today was day 1 of my 5 day trek through Bolivia's Cordillera Real (Royal Range), It was a two hour drive to the base of the range, where my guide, Tomas, and I got dropped off in the middle of nowhere on a crazy road. We trekked towards the Condiridi mountain group going past several pretty lakes, including Lago Tuni, lots and lots of llamas and alpacas, and a few isolated and scattered one family settlements made of rock. I am not even sure what they could subsist on other than a tiny bit of farming and selling llama wool (or feathers as Ling form Antarctica would say) to the people lower down. Bc of the elevation the altiplano and of course the foothills and mountains above have no trees and very little vegetation. It snowed the last hour of the trek until we arrived at Lago Chiarkota (4650m/15,250ft). Even though it was snowing and cloudy you could see some of the Condoridi mountain group rising up above the lake. There was another guy camping at the spot with a guide. He was from Australia and we laughed how we had both been promised llamas for the trek to carry our gear which of course didnt happen. I think it is just something the tour operators tell you, but rarely happens. When I asked my guide about where the llamas were, he just pointed up to the wandering llamas on the hillside. Tom, the aussie, was interesting. He had won about 50,000 bucks on the Australian Deal or No Deal game show. He had given half to his girlfriend so she would travel with him for a year from south america to the USA, but she left him (with half his money) after 3 months. The clouds parted at sunset and we got a great view of the whole Condoridi group including the picturesque Condoridi and the Alpamayo pequeno.




6-12

Said goodbye to Tom in the morning as he was going a different way and Tomas and I climbed above the lake and up a pass and then up to the top of Austria Peak (5350m/17,550ft). It was a gorgeous morning, and we had great views down to several small lakes and even out to giant lake Titicaca. And right at our nose were several large glaciated peaks of the cordillera real. We could see some of the huge peaks such as Llampu, illimani, and Huayna Potosi which I would be climbing. Up in the rocks we saw some of these cute little mammals called viscacha which are a mix between a rabbit (ears), squirrel (tail), and marmot (body). After we descended, I hiked to another lake, and then I spent the afternoon reading and napping in my tent as it was snowing pretty hard.



6-13



Today we trekked over two consecutive passes of about 5200m (17.050ft) as we got closer and closer the Huayno Potosi. The majority of the trek was in snow due to all the snow the previous night. It was a clear morning, so the views were nice. We passed several lakes and of course lots of llamas and alpacas just wandering aimlessly around the mountains. Eventually we did a big descent down a cool and deep canyon to arrive at the small village of Boltilaka. From here a car was waiting for me and it drove me to the base camp of Huayna Potosi at 4700m (15,400ft). Here I met back up with Tom and his friend Ed from the UK who had been driven in from La Paz. We also met Gabriel a PT from Quebec who was minus his girlfriend Sophie (I had met them earlier on the trek) because she was feeling sick. As it was cold and cloudy we just hung out in the base camp playing some board games and drinking hot cocoa. It was fun to hear the stories from Tom and Ed about La Paz as they are staying in one of the big party hostels. Apparently (as laura and I had heard from the little canadians in Iguazu), La Paz is a huge party place. There is actually a bar called Route 63 where you can go in and order different types of cocaine from a menu. The people here (and trekkers) chew a lot of coco leaves and have it in their tea. Although it is supposed to give you energy and help with altitude, I have been avoiding it bc of the possibility of drug tests with Antarctica. The amount of cocaine in coca leaves is really tiny, but you just never know.





6-14



We hiked up to high camp, a small refugio, known as rock camp, at 5130m (16,820ft). We had nice view of the mountain we were to climb and of the glaciers tumbling down from it. There wasnt much for people to do up at high camp other than to write on the walls of the refugio and complain about the cold. For me it wasnt too cold, and I went out for a few ski runs as I had rented some old 1970's skis (that lacked much of an edge and were less than shoulder height) and boots (that were at least 3 sizes to small). As we would be leaving in the middle of the night for the climb, we spent the afternoon napping and reading. We had an early dinner around 5pm and then everyone in the refugio went to bed. There were about 11 of us up in the attic of the refugio all sleeping or trying to sleep (an early bed time combined with altitude and cold can make it tough to sleep). One of the funny things of the night was what I described as a frog's chorus of farts. In the expanding air of higher altitudes, most people become much more gassy. That combined with bolivian camping food made it even more so. So all through the night everyone was farting a lot and it sounded like a chorus of frogs. And as Gabriel said, you could tell whose fart was whose by the sound and length. Anyways, it made for a good laugh



6-15

I woke up at 130am to leave by 230am for the summit. I dressed in lots of layers, loaded up my pack, laced into my plastic climbing boots and donned by crampons. I was one of the last to leave on purpose bc I remembered the last 6000m peak I climbed (Mera peak in Nepal) where my feet were so cold and I was so acclimated that I went up the peak so fast I arrived way before sunrise. This time I expected to be a bit slower because of the skis and boots. I had actually paid a few dollars for a porter as at high high altitudes you want to avoid taxing your body as much as possible to be successful, but there had been a miscommunication, and I was my own porter. We trudged through the snow and cold up the snowfields and glaciers in our crampons with our ice axes. I was tethered to my guide, Iban, as a safety measure in case one of us were to fall on a steep section or one of us fell in a crevasse. One by one I slowly passed the 30 or so climbers on the mountain. It was funny every time we passed someone bc the guide would say something to my guide in spanish about the gringo carrying the heavy skis (muchas pesas esos esquis). I think they were quite impressed by it. And my guide said much more than once, tu estas muy fuerte, no? (you are very strong no?) bc of the fast pace I was going and the gear I was carrying. We watched the moon slowly rise and I prayed the sun would soon follow as my feet were starting to get cold and I feared a repeat of the Nepal experience (it didnt happen though as the plastic boots were more insulated. In nepal the largest plastic boots they had were a couple sizes too small and cut of my circulation so I hiked up Mera peak in my lightly insulated day hiking low cut shoes). We eventually got high enough up to see La Paz's suburb, El Alto's lights shining brightly. La Paz is tucked down in a canyon, so you cant see its lights. At about 6000m I left my skis, boots, and poles as we were approaching the final summit push which was a very narrow and somewhat steep knife edge to the summit. I loved this knife edge bc you had to be very careful (tough for some people at altitude) and it made it feel much more like you were really climbing a peak. It was one person at a time on the ridge to get to the summit. We were the first to arrive to the summit (6088m/19,969ft) and we timed it perfect. The sky was aglow with light, but the sun had not risen yet. We sat on the summit for a while watching the sun rise and soaking up the views which included seeing El Alto, Lake Titicaca, looking down on the magnificent Cordillera Real range, seeing all the tallest peaks in Bolivia (which arent much higher than this one) including Illimani, Llampu, and Sajama (near the chile border and the highest in Bolivia around about 6500m I think), the moon, two super bright stars which must have been planets, and of course the sunrise. I took some pictures of the scenery and some photos with the Bolivian flag I had hauled up. The views were so stunning that I stayed up as long as I could (until the other 3 guys I had been hanging out with arrived), but then I had to go down as the summit knife ridge was kind of a one way street and you had to go down when you got the chance, and the summiot wasnt very big to fit everyone.

The sun was soon bright and strong at the altitude and I was sweating by the time I managed to squeeze my feet into the tiny boots and click into my old school skis. The ski down was fun, although a bit tiring at the alitude and bc of the varied terrain and poor equipment. The top actually had some nice powder from a recent snow, but the bottom was a bit icy mixed with just glacier ice. The terrain was really sweet as it went through all these huge snowfields and glacier fields. The view with the sun out of the mountain was breathtaking bc of the deep snows and hanging glaciers. It was definitely cool to ski from 19,700 feet down to 16,800. Made the going down quite fast. But my legs definitely felt the hardwork of skiing the difficult terrain and my lungs still felt the altitude. Once back at base camp I relaxed in the sun, drinking, and reading, and recovering from the altitude and enjoying all the guides of the people who didnt make it and the people in charge of the refugio coming to congratulate me on my ski (I learned later from the owner of the climbing agency back in La Paz that a french guy with his own fancy ski equipment had tried to ski it but had a lot of trouble so they were a bit worried about me back in la paz with my junky rental equipment). I waited several hours until Tom, Gabriel, and Ed made it back down. Tom and Ed were absolutely spent. It was all they could do to just crawl on top of their sleeping bags. They couldnt even get their boots off or their climbing harnesses.



My guide decided he didnt want to wait too much longer for them, so we headed down from high camp to base camp. On the way down, since I had the noticeable skis on my back, I got lots of congratulations by the climbers coming up as they could see my tracks (luckily it was mostly the nice powdery spots where my tracks looked good that were visible from below. and were impressed by the ski and then even more impressed when they saw my skis and boots. On the way down, one of the guys contratulating me asked me if I was from CO after he noticed by beaver creek hat. He looked vaguely familiar, and he said he was from Crested Butte. I told him my bro is an avalanche forecaster there and that maybe he knew him. Of course, he knew Zach, he (Jayson), worked at the Irwin snowcat tours as a guide as well. That is why he looked familiar bc he had been one of the guides the day Bro got me on for free on the snowcat tour. Small world!



I waited some more down at base campe before a van arrived to take me back down to La Paz.

Goooooooooaaaaaaaaaaaaaalllllllllllllllllllll!!!!!!!!!

6-9


It snowed a bit overnight in Copacabana, and we spent the morning walking around the market streets of Copacabana for a bit before heading back to La Paz as we had an important game to get to. When we got to La Paz, we first took a taxi up to a big viewpoint of the city from a suburb calle El Alto. From here you could see all of La Paz as well as some of the big mountains including a good view of Huayna Potosi (6088m) which I was planning to climb. After this, as it was saturday and a big market day, we walked through streets and streets of streets closed off to traffic for the markets as we walked to our hotel. They sold anything and everything and it was like a supertarget or superwalmart, but on streets.



We made it back to our hotel just in time to get to the Bolivia vs Paraguay soccer game. Right now they are having the South American qualifiers for either the london olympics or for the 2014 world up in Rio. We weren´t quite sure, but anyways, the teams in South America are competing to get into one of the big tournaments. Before we entered the stadium, we had some less than a dollar brats and got our faces painted for Bolivia. The tickets to the game cost us just 7 bucks. It was a fun game as Bolivia won 3-1 and we had fun joining in the cheers such as Bo---liv---via, viva bolivia, and yelling Vamos, which is one of Bolivianos favorite phrases to yell whether on a crowded street, in a stopped bus, or at a soccer game. I also enjoyed pretending to be like one of the rich fans in my dad's section at CU games by ordering a lot of food that vendors were selling in the stands. Hey, when you can buy steak sandwiches for less than a dollar and mango icecream for 40 cents, why not? It was Laura, the foodie food scientist's last night, so we of course headed out at night for some tasty street food.



6-10

In the morning we explored some more of La Paz including the central market and of course more street food. One of the cool things about traveling with Laura is that unlike other people she is not afraid to hit the streetfood which is almost always more delicious, always cheaper, and actually probably cleaner anyways bc you can see it being cooked over the fire. We also enjoy finding these places that serve what is called Almuerzo (lunch) which is a 4 course lunch with meet that is always less than 3 bucks. And you just find one hopping with locals and you know it is good.

In the afternoon I sent Laura off in a taxi to the airport. I immediately did feel a bit sad and lonely. We had traveled a lot together and she was a good travel companion, not only bc we had similar travel styles but bc sometimes it is just nice to travel with an American as weird as that may sound. We have our own inside jokes and culture and its nice to talk about it. And on top of it, she was a scientist and you dont often get to talk with people in a more intelligent way past the usual travel talk, so I enjoyed that. And I definitely ate well with her bc she wanted to try everything, but rarely finished anything. After she left I set to work preparing for my trek the next day.

Lake Titicaca

6-7


I had been having this pain in my chest for a couple of weeks. Of course when you have a pain in your chest, you worry that it might be something with your heart. As I am at high altitude and am going to be doing some treks, I decided to check out yet another 3rd world hospital...I guess I should write a book about visiting them. Add bolivia to the list of the philippines, several in thailand, nepal on a couple occassions, malaysia, and argentina.

The doctor was a really nice guy. Super friendly and nice. He ruled out heart problems really quickly. In fact he said my heart is so very healthy that I am like a boy in that sense. And he said my blood pressure was super healthy and that I had no altitude affects. He narrowed down to what I have as either plueritis (and infection of the outer lining of the lung) or neuritis, (some straining of the nerves by my sternum), the last being the most likely, especially with awkward lifting of a giant backpack. He gave me some medication, and I am feeling much better. He is such a nice guy and wants me to check in with him when I come back to la paz from my various trips. And when I did come back, he actually sent one of his assistant doctors to my hotel just to check up on me. Bolivianos are just so nice.



After the hospital and a cheap tasty lunch, Laura and I caught a bus to Copacapana on lake Titicaca. Lake Titicaca is famous as being the highest big lake in the world. The shores sit at about 3950 meters (13,000 feet). The drive took us along the high altiplano for a while with grand views of the giant Bolivian peaks of the Cordillera Real. We arrived at a small town and had to cross a small portion of the lake to get around an unpassable part of the shore. Everyone got out of the bus as the bus went on a sketchy little wooden ferry and we took a small motorboat across. The road climbed up hills as it skirted the lake as we headed towards Copacabana, giving nice sunset views. We arrived in to Copacabana at night and after we had checked into a hotel, we quickly hit the night streetfood scene



6-8

We got up early to take a boat ride to Isla Del Sol (island of the sun), which is a very important island for the Incas as it is the birthplace of the sun god and the location of their creation story. At Isla del Sol, a hilly and treeless island, we did a hike along the entire island that took us past traditional villages with tiny adobe and rock houses where the crazily colorfully dressed people scraped out a life farming, past some pretty sweet ruins overlooking the sparkling sapphire waters of Titicaca, past the rock that was the birthplace of the sun god, and past a huge sacrificial table. At the village where the trek ended, there were some famous inca steps (I am sure mom and her hips thing of inca steps with a slight frown) as well as an important spring. Views all around were amazing as the coast of the lake was jagged and rough. The lake stretched out further than you can see in some places an in others you could see the giant snowy mountains in the distance.



When we got back from the two hour boat ride to Copacabana, I hiked up a viewpoint/stations of the cross hill between the town and the lake while Laura went to take a shower before it got too cold. The view from up on the hill was nice and it was cool to watch the sunset from there. I ran into two Australian friends (Clinton and Laura) from Puerto Natales who got me all excited for going to the Galapagos someday. That night we had a most amazing trout dinner (recommended by the aussies) by the lake. Fresh trout straight out of the lake for 2 bucks fifty.

La Paz...the peace

6-6  Arrived into La Paz early in the morning.  Our bus actually broke down before it made it to the bus station, but it was only 1km short, so no big deal.  We dropped off our bags at a hostel and explored La Paz.  We walked up to a sweet viewpoint of the city. The city is gorgeous!  It sits amongst mountains with the sky scrapers down in a canyon and buildings built up all along the mountain sides.  Giant 6000m (20000) plus peaks tower behind the city.  And you can often catch glimpses of them between the skyscrapers.  But up on the viewpoints, you can see the whole city, its stadium, and the big mountains.  The city is colorful and everyone is so amazingly friendly.  The people here have been so friendly and both Laura and I agree that this is one of the coolest countries we have been to.  We walked the city and enjoyed lots of tasty and cheap streetfood.  We also bought tickets to the upcoming Boliva vs Paraguay futball match which is part of the south america olympic qualifying cup.  I also talked with some tour organizers to set up my climbing and trekking trips.

the crazy Salar De Uyuni

6-3
Got up early to head to the desolate border with Chile and Bolivia that wasnt too far from San Pedro for our 3 day 4wd Salar de Uyuni trip.  The border crossing was high, about 4000m (13,000m), and cold.  We had breakfast there and met our Bolivian guide and the other 5 people (4 isrealis...Tom, Shai, Nir, and Isha as well as a brazilleno named Isabella).  We were supposed to just have 6 people on the tour and we told the chillean guys dropping us of this, but they said it would be okay and that we would all have seats in the land crusier.  This trip is notorious for having issues partly because of it being run by very 3rd world bolivia and partly bc companies are trying to undercut prices as much as possible to get more tourists.  Problems have included people not having seats in the land cruisers up to having drivers that were drunk and got in car accidents.  Actually several tourists had died on the trip before bc of drunk drivers.  Laura and I had read and heard all of this so we paid a bit extra to try and ensure a better tour.  We were frustrated to see that there were 7 people instead of the 6 promised, but it seemed okay bc we had enough seats in the land cruiser.
We could tell we had arrived in a 3rd world country right away.  Since Bolivia doesnt particularly like the USA for some reason (we probably had some shenanigans at some point with their govt), Americans are the only nationality required to have a visa (and a steep one at 135 USD).  Well, bc the border post at this area was so small, they are unable to give you a visa.  So what they do is write down your name, take your passports, bundle them up in some cardboard stapled together, and give them to the driver.  After going through immigration, we hopped into our red landcruiser and set off.  The "road" into bolivia can hardly be called a road.  At times it was a rough dirt road, at others a 4wd road, and much of the time you just kind of drove over sand or dirt or rocks with no tracks or hundreds of tracks spread out everywhere.  The scenery was of course stunning.  It was high, high barren desert with red mountains and towering snowcovered volcanoes everywheds, often rising above salt lagoons.  Vegetation was sparse. Occasionally  we did see some vicunuas (the little wild llama like animals). It was like another planet.  Bc of the altitude, it was cold and some of the lakes were covered in ice.  Luckily the Israelis had brought a memory stick with music that could plug into the radio in the land cruiser, so we got to rock out to music (a lot of 80´s and current dance music) during the whole trip. 
On the first morning, we drove by and stopped at Laguna Blanca and Laguna Verde.  The names white and green of course corresponding to their colors.  We also stopped by a small lagoon that smelled like sulfur. 
Around mid day we stopped at another lake (laguna chaiviry) which had hot springs along its edge.  They were marvellous, being the perfect temperature and having an amazing view of the lake and the snowcapped mountains in the distance.
After the soak, we continued on the trail.  We passed by a valley, called Valle de Salvador, bc the valley and hills were completely smooth except for these giant weird shaped rocks, which someone thought looked like things from paintings of Salvador Dali.  As we continued driving, we descended upon Laguna Colorado, named of course bc its waters were red.  Here we stopped as we would be spending the night here in a tiny, tiny 4 building settlement.  We were there pretty early which seemed suspicious, and I saw on our itinerary we were supposed to stop at a geyser field.  Isha, who had done the trip before and was re-doing it bc her first trip had been such a bad experience also knew we were supposed to go to the geyser field (named manana del sol) and drive past Valle de Mars.  We told our driver this (his name was Sebastion and he spoke no English), but he said we couldnt bc since we had 7 people instead of the normal 6, we didnt have enough fuel to go on that trip.  This caused all of us to get quite upset bc we had been told there would only be 6 people and we had all paid the full price, and I had an itinerary of where we were supposed to go.  It was clear that the company and maybe even the driver to an extent were trying to pull a fast one on us to make some extra money in unused gas.  Unfortunately for them, however, they had picked the wrong group to mess with.  Israelis are notorious for getting everything they can out of every penny.  They are ferocious bargainers and hagglers, and are not afraid to get a bit crazy.  So you had 4 israelis, plus 2 Americans who had made sure to get an itinerary and everything that was included written down in writing, and then on top of that we had 2 good spanish speakers (Isha and Laura) and one expert Spanish speaker (isabella), so we could easily communicate and the driver couldnt play dumb.  There was a lot of arguing and discussion amongst us, during which a couple of the israeli boys, fresh out of the army were going so far as to say they were going to steal the land cruiser or at least break some windows of it at the end of the trip.  I of course thought this was a bit too far, but eventually we worked out a thing with the driver where we would buy some extra fuel there so we could go see the geysers and the rest of the sights.  We all agreed that we wouldnt mind paying a bit more so that we could see everything. 
So we hopped into the land cruiser and set off.  The geysers were cool with lots of bubbling mud pits.  They are supposedly the highest geyser field in the world at 16000 ft.  The drive was amazing as well as we climbed up through a martian type landscape.  Bc of our tardy departure for the geysers, we were rewarded with an amazing sunset over the laguna colorado and then an absolutely stunning full moon rise over the mountains and lake. The colors at dusk, with the moon rising, were just unreal!
We arrived back at the little place we would be staying, very happy and glad that we had been able to convince Sebastion to take us on the trip.  We found out that petrol was about 5 bolivianos per liter (about 80 cents), so we were glad that for just a bit more money we had been able to go.  When we asked Sebastion how much we owed him, he said that we had used 30 liters (7 gallons)!!! of petrol.  We immediately knew this was bogus as we had driven about 10 to 15 miles in one direction at the most.  And we knew that the landcruiser got better gas mileage than like 2mpg.  We knew he was just trying to get some money.  So we called a meeting of just us tourists in our dorm room and discussed what we should do.  Should we just pay him for how many liters we thought we used, should we give him nothing and say we will deal with it with the company in Uyuni, or should we give him a small tip for being nice and taking us and tell him the tip was just for him and that we would deal with the money later in Uyuni with the company.  It was funny bc it was a big discussion and we didnt know exactly what to do.  We knew if we paid the full price, which was way too much, we would never see the money again.  We also knew that we didnt want to upset Sebastion too much or the rest of the trip would be bad.  We ultimately decided that we would pay for how much we thought we would have used.  We called Sebastion into the pow wow (it felt like some council from survivor) and told him what we had decided.  He of course countered, in a way we had predicted, that he had no money to pay for all that 30 liters so we had to pay it.  Luckily, at the border, I had seen the Chillenos give him at least two 100USD bills, so I knew he had lots of money.  We also figured he must have emergency money in case of a break down or some problem with the vehicle.  He wouldnt accept our money and we argued some more and finally we got through to him that we knew he had enough money to pay the petrol and that we would discuss it with the company when we got into Uyuni and pay for it then. 
We appeared to have everything settled when we asked him about the itinerary for the next day.  Of course it was different that what we were supposed to do.  Again it was bc we had 7 instead of 6 people.  This time he told us the normal route would take to long bc with 7 people, the car was too slow.  It was true that our car was slower, as we got passed by others, though not that much slower.  But we convinced him we would start earlier and that we would take less pictures and less time (the israelis took a BILLION pictures at every stop).  He was okay with this and of course even with the israelis taking lots of pictures the next day, we still got there 2 hours earlier than he claimed it would take us.  Luckily that night they served us wine with dinner as we had had a pretty crazy afternoon and evening.  But after this we would have no more issues with the driver and he actually lightened up a bit and became more fun.  I think he realized he wasnt going to get money out of us.  When we did arrive in Uyuni, there was never any mention by him to come to the travel agency and pay for the fuel, although he had talked to them on the phone, so it was obvious that he had had the fuel to do it as part of what we had all paid.
6-4
We got up early and our first stop were the shores of the large Lago Colorado.  After that we continued on the scenic and gorgeous high desert road (like I said, not really a road at all, ust some occassional dirt tracks) until we came to an area with some giant rocks just sitting in the middle of the desert.  They had unusual shapes, and one was called piedra del arbol (stone tree).  We had some fun climbing up and playing on the rocks.  We continued along the track with a cool viewpoint of disierto de Siloli which looked like it had been painted in varying shades of red, orange, and yellow.  We visited several lakes today including Laguna charcota, Laguna Honda, Laguna Hedionda, and Laguna Cañapa, all with great mountain views and all teeming with pink flamingos  Further along we had another nice view of Volcan Ollague which was active and steaming.  In the foreground were more unique rock formations, similar to rocks you see around Moab and Capitol Reef.  It looked ripe for some exploration via mountain bike.

From there, we drove some more until we reached a large salt flat (salar chiguana).  We raced across the salt flat.  Of course here there were definitely no roads and you could just driver wherever you pleased on the completely flat surface.  At one point we reached some traintracks that crossed the middle of the salt flat.  They seemed to be just in the middle of nowhere.  After we left the salt flat, it wasnt long before we came across a small settlement, though much larger than the first as this one had a cute little adobe chapel, built up into some hills above the GIANT Uyuni Salt Flat (Salar de Uyuni).  In the hills were also giant Saguaro type cacti.  They place we stayed here was a salt hotel....a hotel built completely out of salt.  The floor was salt crystals and the tables, chairs, and walls were made from salt bricks
6-5
We woke up at the crack of dawn to witness the dawn and sunrise from the Salar de Uyuni.  The sunrise was absolutely magical.  We drove out to this shallow lake in the salt flat, so shallow that you could walk out into it in your shoes without the water rising above the soles of the shoes.  This shallow lake created an amazing reflection effect. It reflected everything perfectly from the rising sun to the setting full moon, to the snowy mountains, to us.  And as the sun rose, it lit up the water brilliant shades of orange and yellow.  It was freezing, but we had fun jumping around in the shallow water and taking some photos.  It was just amazing to me how perfect the mirror reflections were.
After that we just drove out to the middle of the salt flat.  Being out in this huge and endless expanse of perfect white salt crystals with perfect blue sky above was surreal and amazing.  It was perfect flat white as far as you could see.  We stopped at various places to take pictures.  Bc of the limitless flat and white expanse, you can take cool optical illusion photos where you can do such things as make it look like you are giant and eating the land cruiser, or small and climbing up a backpack or hiking boot.  I will try and put up some pictures some time.  I thought I was going to today, but I am having a bit of  crisis in that my backup hardrive some how got some virus and I am trying to recover the pictures, but it is taking literally hours and hours.
We had lots of fun trying to come up with crazy photos and otpical illusions.  Driving on the salt flast reminded me a whole lot of driving on the ice shelf in Antarctica. Flat white as far as you could see with mountains in the background with mirages and phantamorganas
Along the way across the humongous salt flat, we stopped at the salt museum.  We also stopped at a place they were mining the salt and had piled the salt up into little hills.  After that we left the salt flat and visited a place called the train graveyard which was full of old and ancient train engines left to rust in the desert

After this we arrived inthe town of Uyuni.  you could tell we had definititely arrived in a non western country.  Women dressed in cute colorful outfits with these crazy top hat things and all had pigtails.  Lots and lots of streetvendors as well.  Laura and I walked through a cool market and had some very tasty street food including llama meat.  It felt like we had come to a much more exotic place.  And of course everything was dirt cheap.  After exploring the town a bit and having some food, Laura and I took the overnight bus to La Paz.

San Pedro de Atacama: The strangest place on earth..or am I on another planet?

30 May

Took the early morning bus from Salta, Argentina to San Pedro de Atacama, Chile.  It was an absolutely GORGEOUS ride.  We got lucky because we got the top floor of the bus and the front row, so we had the best view.  We went over two passes, including one at 13,700 feet that had plenty of ice.  We drove through completely white and flat salt flats and passed gorgeous snow covered volcanoes towering above everything (6000m plus peaks).  The landscape was extremely desolate.  No houses or signs of civilization for 10 hours.  Really hardly any vegetation, just a high, high desert.  But we did see heards of guanaco.  And the desert was gorgeous. We left behind the saguaros as we climbed up a winding crazy pass and then it was just landscapes that could have been areas of Nevada, Utah, the moon, or mars.  Of course it made it even cooler with an ever fuller moon hanging out over the mountains.  Seriously one of the coolest rides I have ever been on.  Just rocking out to Josh Ritter and other music while enjoying scenery.  Hard to beat.
We arrived into San Pedro in the evening and found a really cool hostel with hammocks, tiki torches at nights, and the friendliest of cats (one that I call Tigre de Pedro snuggled with me all night).  They also had a fire (its very cold here in the high desert at night) with free hot cinammon wine

San Pedro is in the Atacama desert which is the driest place on earth (though I have also heard parts of Antarctica are drier).  Some places haven't had precipitation in several years.  San Pedro is at an elevation of about 7900 ft, so quite similar to Estes Park

31 May

We explored around the tiny little town of San Pedro in the morning and made sure to beat the rush to the ATM.  There is only one visa ATM here and they were refilling it this morning, so we made sure to make it early enough before it ran out, as cash is hard to come by here.  San Pedro is cute with all the buildings made out of adobe and the streets narrow and dusty.  Our hostel is actually a bit out of town in a little adobe neighborhood.  We also checked around for tours and such, especially the tour to Solar Uyuni Bolivia. 

In the afternoon we took a tour to Lago Cejar, a very salty lagoon, similar maybe to the dead sea, though much smaller.  You can go in for a swim, and of course you can just float without doing anything because of the high salinity.  The lake had some hot springs, so it was surprisingly warm and nvery nice to float around in.  Of course the scenery around the lake was amazing with towering, snowcapped  volcanoes all around, and crazy barren desolate scenery. 
After the float in the Lago, we headed off to a tiny lake set in a big hole in the ground.  This was very cold freshwater, but had some good cliff jumping.

After that we headed to another much larger lake, but one that is very shallow...A Jesus lake as the tour guide called it bc the lake was so shallow in the whole lake(not more than 6 inches), it was like you were walking on water.  The sunset on the reflecting lake and on the soft pink mountains was amazing and we ended the evening by having pisco sours and chips beside the lake.
At our hostel at night, we sat around the fire and some of the workers at the hostel had a chicken asado.  It was the best chicken I have ever had...seriously!

June 1

Went with a group out to some pretty big sand dunes, where we waxed up some snowboards and hiked up the dunes to sandboard down.  It was actually quite a lot of fun, and we could get some good speed.  I am lucky bc I have come to San Pedro from the Salta area (about 1 mile high) as opposed to near sea level in Santiago, so I am more acclimated.  Most of the people could only do 4 runs because they were so winded and tired, but I was lucky and was able to do 8 runs.  Up on top of the dunes there were of course great views of the desert and of the snowcapped volcanoes.  To get to the San Dunes, we went on a cool narrow 4wd road through a narrow canyon.  Laura wasnt too into snowboarding, so she spent the morning shopping for warm clothes for our 3 day trip to Solar de Unyi in Bolivia

In the afternoon, Laura and I did a tour to Valle de Luna (moon valley).  We stopped at several viewpoints and hiked up a ridge in the Valle de Luna National Park.  We also did a cool little hike through a very narrow slot canyon that was made almost entirely of salt.  It ended in a cave that we explored.  The views were surreal, always with the volcanoes in the background and the unique deserty and moon-like landscape all around.  Because of all the salt, a lot of the land had a whitish tint covering the red dirt and rocks.  It is the combination of this white color and the unique landscape that make it look like the moon.  Of course it was cool because a very nearly full moon rose over the volcanoes and the Valle de Luna.  At the end of a tour we hiked up a big sand dune to watch the sunset and light up all the volcanoes a soft pink and purple.

June 2

We woke up at 4am for the tour to Tatio geysers.  After a 2 hour drive, we arrived at 13,780 feet.  It was very cold (about 15F), but as the sun started to rise, we were able to see a huge geyser field full of fumaroles, small to midsized geysers, and bubbling calderas all set in a basin below large mountains.  It was cold enough that when the water was far enough away from the geysers, it was frozen.  We spent some time walking around the huge geyser field, and then had some breakfast up there.
After we had seen the geysers, we headed to another geyser area and in this area we soaked in a small hot springs lagoon, set at nearly 14,000 feet and below the huge mountains.  On the way back home we stopped at a traditional Machuka village and also some some Vicunas (a wild relative of the llama, but smaller than the guanaco).

In the afternoon, Laura and I spent some time getting supplies for our next trip. We are leaving tomorrow to go to Bolivia via the Solar de Uyuni.  It takes 3 days in a 4x4, and is supposed to be epic.
After we had purchased our supplies and changed some money to bolivianos, we took a short walk out of San Pedro for some nice views.
Now we are watching the Bolivia vs Chile soccer match.  I am pretty sure at this moment there are no Chileans out on the street.  Our hostel is packed with the workers of the hostel watching it