Salar de Uyuni

Being in a 4x4 for 4 days and seeing so many different lagunas and flamingos gives the average tourist the feeling of deja vu. I am no super tourist, and found myself in the same camp as many of the people that we had talked to to figure out if the tour was for us. Fortunately along with the sameness of the lagunas and flamingos there was a huge variety of other things to see.

This is an area that is toxic. These geysers don´t erupt as consistently as ¨Old Faithful¨ but they sure were interesting to look at. We were only able to stay here for a short time though because of the toxic atmosphere. It´s funny to see someone lay on there stomach to get as close as they can when they know that the fumes are toxic.

I figured you all could use a picture of a cute little baby llama. Really. This little baby was hard to corner because of his protective mamma llama, but he finally gave up the good picture. The elusive vicuna, was much harder to take a picture of. Vicuna´s were everywhere, but impossible to get a good photo of. Imagine an antelope, sleek and slender with a long matchstick neck and a tiny llama head on top. Thats a vicuna. And they run like antelope, but with a long goofy neck flailing about.























And here it is, The Salt Flats of Uyuni. This is the selling point of the whole trip. These pictures are of the Ojos de Agua (eyes of water), an ostrich thing that lives on an inhabitable island in the salt flats, the crew, and a great 6am sunrise.


Kathy and I hemmed and hawed when we first thought about doing this tour. If we had known all the other things that we were going to see there would have been no decision to make, it is so beautiful, diverse and amazing. If you are ever in Bolivia and miss the chance to do this...then you missed out. Really.

Approaching Salar de Uyuni

In Southwest Bolivia there is a province called Potosi. Aside from the city Potosi, which had the richest silver mines in history, there is also an incredibly diverse and seemingly hostile environment. Not to mention beautiful. In this area there is an enormous amount of strange and wonderful things to see. Thats why we took nearly 400 pictures in less than 4 days.

Our tour started at the super early hour of 9 am. Paired up in a 1990´s Nissan Patrol with our blind date travel companions, Lance and Simon. Our captain, driver, safety officer, guide and early morning motivater was Jaime(Hi Me). And last but not least, probably most important, is Sara, our executive chef and doler outer of snacks and candy.



This is what an oasis looks like. And I would say life here is still less than easy. Being in a 4x4, running over unpaved and rough roads for hours at a time is really not that fun, but every time you stop there is a great reason. At this oasis there was such a wonderful contrast between the windswept volcanic wasteland and the realatively lush and green spring that fed the llamas and wild vicunas.


On the first day we reached the highest peak that we would have to bear. It was 4855 meters high. Which is, according to google, 15,930 some odd feet high. It´s hard to breath up there. But according to Jaime we were all ¨mas fuerte¨, which means ¨thanks for not being cry babies about the altitude sickness¨.
An interesting thing about the elevation and the vehicles was that Jaime had to adjust the timing every time the elevation changed more than about 1500 meters.

This is me playing basketball with some children at the first village that we stayed at. The other people playing basketball are our competition. Believe me there is competition, because there are no less than about 20 4x4´s from Tupiza and 60 or so from Uyuni all doing the same thing we are. So after the first sleepless night we woke up at an ungodly 4am to get some breakfast and get out the door. Jaime was great because we never felt rushed and we never had a zillion other tourists ruining our pictures.


If you have ever wondered where Salvador Dali recieved his inspiration for many of his surreal landscapes it was here. Being able to see the Arbol de Piedra, the surrounding desert, and the surrounding volcanoes that rained down all the interesting rock formations was my favorite part of the 4 day trip.


This is Laguna Colorada which is colored red. It is colored red from all the minerals and such from the volcanoes. The whole are has incredible amounts of mineral deposits and the small lagunas that exist are blue from minerals unknown to me, red from I believe algae and green from magnesium.

What water shortage?

Much delayed, here is our posting on the Iguazu falls, which we saw from Argentina. Alas, no Brazil on this trip.

We were definitely amazed at the sheer power and imensity of the falls. Never having been to Niagara, neither of us have any basis of comparison. It really is a sight to see this much water in motion.

I´ve never really been a fan of an endless series of waterfall photos... Here´s a video to give you a better idea of the scale of the falls. ***After trying for over an hour, I gave up on the video. Sorry folks.***

That tiny boat filled with people is going onto the convergance point of 3 smaller falls (Salto San Martin, Salto Mbigua, and Salto... something I can´t read), which pales in comparison to the main attraction: Garganta del Diablo. That was actually so huge, that we couldn´t get a decent picture of it.

Sadly, we weren´t able to take the boat ride, which, depending on the specific route, cost anywhere from two to three times the entrance fee. In addition to being a general tourist trap (forgeign visitors also pay almost 4x the price of Argentinian residents), there was a surprisingly informative walk through area describing the local flora-fauna, it's indigenous history, and more importantly, the decline of the amazon over the generations and the need to preserve it.



Okay... one more picture just for kicks...

What a town...

A few words about where we are staying: Hotel Carley. Although it´s a "hotel" it's about half the price of any of the other places here with great charm. "Charm" should be understood as saggy mattresses, little temperature control, minimally stocked kitchens, and great atmosphere. The bathrooms bear mentioning, which have showerheads coming right out of the walls over the toilets. If so inclined, you should pee, shower, and brush your teeth all at once.



If you´re lucky enough to get down here sometime soon, you just might also get to meet Adrien. An artist and a resident here, he meets everyone who comes in the doors and makes sure to introduce anyone worth meeting to each other.

It's located right at the heart of things in San Telmo, so there is almost always something going on outside (the weekly antique fair is happening at this very moment). For New Year's, residents at the hotel had a pot-luck and then headed outside to watch the fireworks. Safety laws be damned, they were shooting them off right above our heads, raining occassional little lead pellets down on the onlookers.


And of course, what is a party without dancing? Bands played in the square well into the night, my favorite being the drummers. The style was a blend of Brazilian and African influence and was so raw with energy everyone had to dance (even Jon!).

We´ll be heading out of here in a couple of days, and I am not looking forward to heading up to the heat, or leaving all the cats. This one that we encountered in the botanical garden was my temporary Lewis replacement for a few minutes. Much like Lewis, he took a swat at me after he was done with my services.

As it turns out, many of the cats that roam the cemetaries and parks are abandoned. It has been an increasing problem, and signs have been posted that the cats are NOT fed by the city. There seems to be a general distaste for neutering animals in South America, and in Buenos Aires, people have been dropping off kittens at the parks assuming that they are being cared for. Even when I ask locals why they don´t just have their animals fixed, I get a shrug for a response.



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Note: The painting below was on a huge wall inside the MALL as part of their permanent decor! ...damn American Puritanical values!

To the zoo!

Earlier this week we had the opportunity to go to the Buenos Aires Zoo. I don´t particularly like zoo´s, but am drawn to them for some reason or another. I usually leave feeling mildly ashamed, and sadend for the larger animals and the predator types as well.


With that said I do enjoy seeing animals up close and I fall in love with all the cute things that I come into contact with. The creature on the left was particularly cute. I´m not sure what it is, but it was sort of like an otter and a rat combined. They ran all over the zoo and we were encouraged to feed them biscuits that were on sale for 5 pesos a bucket. Which we chose to not buy. But if you see children feeding the animals you can usually wait until they scare all of them away and then pick up two or three biscuits for later use.

The zoo had an abundance of pettable animals from chickens and normal barnyard animals to some rather interesting gazelle and antelope like animals as well.