Valparaiso, Chile to Cochabamba, Bolivia

Here are some pics way back to San Rafael and up to a few days ago.
Leaving off from the last entry...

We left Valparaiso and drove north through Chile along the coast, then into the interior (which was all desert) and then back out to the coast. It was a pretty unbelievable drive. Eventually we made it to the tiny desert town of San Pedro de Atacama, which was kindof a cool place.. all the buildings were really basic - low and made of stone, yet they had quite the tourist appeal.. so some cool open air restaurants where you could eat by a fire while looking up at the stars.. almost an apres ski crowd in this place. We woke up really early to go see the geysers at sunrise.. pretty spectacular sight.

The next day we left for a tour of the lagoons and salt flats that lie between San Pedro and Uyuni, Bolivia. We were basically ripping through the desert for 3 days by Jeep.. did some serious off-roading over huge rocks, through (small) rivers, up and down mountains. One time we had to get out and trek by foot because the road was in too bad a condition for the tires to handle our weight. We reached about 4800m and could definately feel the effects of altitude - despite it being sunny and me wearing almost everything I brought, I had a chill pretty much the whole time. Except at night when my mec sleeping bag saved me. And the air is noticeably thinner when you are up there for a few days ... kindof a scary feeling having your heart beating like crazy. Accomodations the first night were super basic (to be expected) but we were served some hearty and delicous bolivian food.

The second night was spent at a place made completely of salt (from the flats) which was kindof neat and definately novel. The last day we packed up and headed to the salt flats for sunrise.. I guess everything looks better at sunrise. It was pretty amazing - white as far as you can see. Apparently they are the result of a huge ocean drying up.

At the end we were droped in Uyuni, Bolivia. It was an amazing little adventure for what we paid - unbelievable sights, pro-star driver who had to jump the truck a couple of times, change a few tires, and prepare our meals.

From Uyuni, we split up - James and our friend Sebastien headed to Potosi, and I left for Ororu. I wanted to do some volunteer work at this wildlife refuge about 20 hours away. Once I got to Ororu, in the middle of the night, I was told that there was a road block and no rides to Cochabamba until morning. So I wasnt too happy about that, but just sucked it up and set myself up in my sleeping bag at the station. But a guy came and told me that he had found one, so I scrambled to get everything together, and hopped on. This was a huge relief. The trip is supposed to take about 4 hours, so by hour 6 I was a little concerned that maybe I was on the wrong bus. Lots of second guessing when you are travelling alone! Pretty scary drive too - dirt roads right along the mountains edge, roadblocks etc. At one point, we came upon a flipped truck with the driver lying on the shoulder all bloody. Scary stuff.. but he was (reasonably) ok. I mean I had heard bad things about Bolivian roads.. but this was worse than expected.

Eventually I made it to Cochabamba where I tried to track down a shuttle to Villa Tunari (the village where the refuge is about 4 hours east). But I was informed that there was another roadblock and there wouldnt be any buses that day. So I trudged across town, eventually finding a nice little hostel where I treated myself to a private room with tv and my own bathroom - amazing (and less than $10). Can´t tell you how exhausted I was at this point. The next day (yesterday) I checked out and hauled all my gear back to the station, as the guy at the desk told me the block was down. But I was kindly informed that again, there would be no service that day! So back to the hostel I went.

After careful consideration I realised that this volunteer thing wasnt going to work out because of the unreliable buses.. even if I could get out the next day, I couldnt guarantee getting to Cusco in time for the Inca Trail while giving them the 15 day minimum commitment. So Im bummed about that - I was really looking forward to it, and it was a pretty big hassle to get here. Really frustrating not being able to count on getting to a certain place at a certain time. So im still in Cochabamba, my next move will be to la Paz I think, which I will hopefully be able to get to in the next couple of days. It´s kindof scary being in a strange Bolivian town by myself, and not knowing when I´ll be able to get out. But im trying to make the best of it ... atleast it´s a big city with amenities... and atleast i found a good place to stay. Plus it is much lower in elevation and so the weather is beautiful. The bonus to all of this is that I now have two extra weeks to do some things in and around la Paz that I would have otherwise missed out on. And maybe I can get some volunteer work in Peru or Ecuador. We´ll see.
Miss home now more than ever, but doing fine and looking forward to lots of cool things ahead.

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