Bolivia or Dalí Land?

---

Dear amigos, the trip through northern argentina can be summed up as this- the land and people become more like bolivia as you approach. it is so different than say buenos aires that its hard to believe its the same country. also, i should mention, on the night bus ride northward, i was awoken by what sounded like apple pies hitting the bus, one especially loud. i looked outside the window and saw 50 or so people loitering around the road in the middle of nowhere at 3 am. i concluded later that those really werent apple pies after all, but rocks! and they shattered completely a passenger´s window behind me, and spidered a part of the windshield. i think they wanted the bus to stop to pay a toll at their make shift toll booth (kind of like a lemonade stand) but the bus driver just hit the gas and ran the gauntlet.

arrival in bolivia- there is much to say here but i have to go eat so i will write fast. bolivia turns out to be much more amazing than i ever expected. the first stop was the uyuni salt flats where i paid about 70 dollars for 3 days through the flats and the surrounding reagion in a four by four, room and board included. the flats are the largest in the world, and when covered by water, they become the largest mirror in the world. this mirror effect is quite amazing- it looks like there are two skies, one above and one below, and you are driving in some plane suspended in between the skies. i wonder if there were no clouds, you might feel like you are flying in blue space. it is the most surreal place i have ever been to, and i think the highest on my list of natural wonders. if this wasnt mind boggling enough, once you leave, it is like driving through his paintings one after another- large vegetationless deserts with a mountain in the distance with multi pastel colored and wavy red, grey, purple, white on some mountains, others just grey. lava rocks frozen in their melted like position in the middle of a plane in front of a mountain. colors flowing off some mountains like rivers...all dry and dead. melted clocks, and human parts blended into a mechanical aparatus dot the landscape and snoop dog appears for a concert. ok.. everything but the last part. i am not exaggerating- this place is fascinating.

i will write more about bolivia later.

---