bolivia!

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dont panic we are still alive!

sorry i havent written in a while. we are in bolivia where as you can impagine the internet is sub par, therefore this will be semi point form just in case the internet crashes (again)..


soooo since i wrote last

- we went to iguazau fgalls, ah-mazing!!! so much water, true jaw dropping, well worth the 30 hours in transit! will post pictures.. probably when i get back to canada as i cant see the internet situation improving in the next couple of weeks..

- we also caught some carnaval in puerto iguazu... awesome! kids running around spraying eachother with compressed foam, amazing drum groups (you would have loved it morg!) and women of all ages in the feather bras and thongs... so much fun!

- from iguazu we headed to cafayate argentina where we spend our time drinking amazing wine. they are famous for the torrantes and we now understand why! awesome! we did a tour of a vineyard which was neat to see as well.

-in cafayate we also did a tour of the red rock valley which is unreal! the pictures will not do it justice! the red rock also has layers from zinc, copper and sulphur which give it a neat rainbow effect. there is also an area that is an ánfiteatro´.. which has 80 percent of the acoustics that teatro colon in buenos aires has.. colon is said to have one of the top 5 acoustics in the world.. anyway the agrentinian symphony plays a concert there once a year which i think would be amazing! we sat an listened to a man play the flute there.. which was cool too.. anyway good cafayate and red rock and you will probably pull something up..

- from cafayate we headed to salta for a night and then on march 11 (alys birthday) bright and early (7am) caught a bus to la quiaca which is on the arg bolivia border. also on that bus ride we managed to climb significantly... up to 3600m above sea level.. so i got a bit of altitude sickness- not so fun, just felt pukey and dizzy... aly managed to retrieve a plastic bag out of nowhere in lightning speed... and our bus also managed to breakdown four hours in.. but we were send a new bus in quick time so that was good! then we waited in the heat (while feeling sick.. aly was fine though! thank goodnes it wasnt both of us feeling it!) so we exited argentina and then walked to the bolivia border town of villazon. so the joke was that for alys birthday i gave her,¨b´s¨- broken bus, barf, border, bolivia, etc. anyway we got into bolivia okay! and that is where we are now!

- so we caught a bus from villazon to tupiza.. and got into tupiza around 10pm.. it was a long day..our hostel in tupiza was really nice! it had a pool and nice hot showers! we spent a couple of days in tupiza to acclimatize which helped dramatically! we also used our time there to book a tour which is where we have been for the past four days!

- the tour started in tupiza and ended in uyuni (the salt flats).. the tour was not really a tour. it was more a most extreme roadtrip! it was awesome!!! we were in a four wheel drive landcruiser with a father and son duo (adam and michael) from the US... they were great! we really lucked out! of course there was our guide, milton (we paid extra for an english speaking guide) and our cook, karen. they were all great! we had so much fun. the whole trip was off road and we saw some amazing things! from tupiza we drove to a small village san lupiz which is a village of llama farmers, about 250 people which we stayed in a local dorm area. the next day we got up bright and early, 4 am! we visited the ghost town of the old san lupiz, (everyone left after they gain independence from the spanish), we also drove to some hotsprings and took a dip, exhausting at 4500m), and many many lagunas (google them, laguna verde, laguna roja) etc... many volcanoes, gysers (at 5000m above sea level) it was a crazy day! we stayed at a basic housing complex right near laguna roja which was neat! then the next day we drove to the ¨rock tree¨, the valley of rocks, more lagunas and more volcanoes.. that night we stayed in the tiny village of cochani which is on the edge of the saller, or the uyuni salt flats, the biggest slat flat in the world! we stayed at an accomdation made of salt! it was crazy! (dont worry it wasnt the illegal salt hotel!) then the next morning we got up to see the sunrise over the salt flats (awesome!) the flats are so crazy! since it is wet season they are flooded so the reflection off the water makes for some awesome photography plus playing with the depth perception of the salt makes for some really sweet photos... so needless to say we spent the entire day there taking photos! we also have made friends with the other jeep group on our tour.. a couple (nicole and malcom from the UK, felicity (also from the UK). we really lucked out, they are all so much fun! (we are still travelling with all of them, and michael and adam too!)..

- anyway so the tour ended yesterday so we all spend the night uyuni. we went to explore the train graveyard near the slat flats... rusty you can imagine! and the we all took a bus from uyuni to potosi this morning!

- we are spending the day tomorrow in potosi- the highest city in the world (4070m) and might check out the mint... they are known for their silver mines here but we are opting out of the tours as it sounds like most of them are dangerous and not very sustainable... then we all have an overnight bus to la paz! sooooo thats whats new, whew, so much for point form... sorry i cant reread this or spellcheck it.. anyway still happy and healthy we have both acclimatized well and are loving bolivia... such a great country!

so much love to home! thinking of you all and we will be back soon! (18 days- whoa!)

much love!!!

mon!

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