Scowie

I suppose upon arriving in Bolivia the first thing you notice is the cold. I crossed the border with some friends, all wrapped up in our sleeping bags and ready to take on the tourist-friendly Salar de Uyuni. It´s a huge flat region which used to be a salt water lake but has since dried up and left the salt behind. The first night in Uyuni, the village from which we would be departing on a 3 day tour of the surrounding slat flats, was a real frosty experience. I was starting to see what Boliva would be all about... First of all, we arranged the jeep and driver and all for the tour. Unfortunately the only ATM in town was out of order. I had anticipated this so I had changed a bunch of Argentine ... read more

Warning. The following blog contains images of water cascading over edifices. A lot of images of that sort. Sorry, but that´s why you go to a national park which contains dozens of sets of falls. I bet it´s cooler in person, so just try to imagine yourself at the mercy of natures most dangerous weapon: sheer beauty. Haha I have to start blogs that cornily more often. I arrived in Argentina from Brazil....tired, hungry cuz I was holding out for the cheaper food in Argentina (travelling turns you into a money-conscious freak), and eager to see some waterfalls! The national park at Iguazú is situated on the tri-border of Brazil, Argentina, and Paraguay. I heard the Argentinian side of the falls as the best so there I went. The pictures can speak for themselves I suppose, ... read more

Wow I´m supposed to be partaking in a game of cards at the moment but I feel I should tell you a tad bit about my time in Columbia. It´s been great from start to finish. The thing that I noticed most is how nice and helpful the people are. My first day after crossing over from Ecuador I had some troubles finding a bank where I could withdraw money. So the cleaning lady from one of the banks just left work and took me around to all the banks in the area until we found one that worked. I appreciated it so much after getting no help in either Peru or Ecuador with these matters that I went out and bought her a big bouquet of flowers. I think it made her day, but she ... read more

I don´t have a whole lot to say about good old Canoa. It´s just a village on the beach, not much going on. I just wanted one last chance to do some surfing before heading inland so Jaakko and I stayed 5 days and hit the water as much as possible. I guess the most memorable part was the full day journey it took to get there when we estimated to be about 3 hours. We took a bus (they told us direct to Canoa) which stopped in some random town. They tole us to get off and that we´d have to change busses sometime within the next 2 hours. Turns out our next bus broke down before it even got to the bus station for us to get on it. So we had to ... read more

Man I´m a sucker for the beach. I guess when you´ve lived thousands of kilometers from the nearest ocean your whole life you have to soak it up while you can. Mancora has been good times. It´s a little town on the coast in the north of Peru, not far from the Ecuadorian border. I was lucky to find a room right on the beach, or just to find a room period. The place was pretty full and there aren´t many single rooms available. Harldy anyone travels in South America is traveling alone and I can see why. It´s quite a bit more expensive for accomodation when you can´t split a room with someone. I think the most common form of work is selling chiclets on the beach. People from 8-80 are out there making ... read more