Bolivian altiplanos

The Quebradas in the north of Argentina were great! Unbelievable how many colors are hidden in the rocks. I´ve walked part of the Inca trail, which goes from Tucuman Argentina all the way up to the north of Peru. The guide had a lot to tell and lead us to many caves with paintings: four hours of walking in the burning Sun.

From Humahuaca I hooked up with Paulo from Cordoba Argentina, to cross the border to Bolivia and find our way to the Salt flats. A four day tour from Tupiza would show us all there is to see of the altiplanos South east of Bolivia. A spanish couple and a Swiss couple shared our luxurious jeep. It was quite a rollercoaster ride that started at 6 am in the morning and ended past 6pm, but it was incredible. The altiplano is such a vast and dry never ending land, it´s scary to think what would happen if you would get stranded. With an average of 4500 meters the days are very hot and the nights are extremely cold.

The first day was die-hard driving through the puna. We ended at a very small and primitive town in the middle of nowwhere, and stayed at a families house. The surroundings are so dry that there was no water: the skins of the childrens faces were white of dehydration. A nine year old girl requested money in case of more pictures... At nine o´clock the electricity was turned down and candels had to lead the way.

The second day we saw a lot of lakes and the first pink flamingo´s. Half way we were all very glad to swim in a hot spring, although it was very cold to get out of it! The third day was the hardest: our jeep broke down so we had to change our tire and we became very late. Half of our group was sick of the height: we reached 5500 meters! Thank god for coca and herbes: drinking tea of it makes your head feel a little better.

The last day was definately the climax: getting up at 4am to see the sunrise at the salt flats. Unbelievable how huge the flats are : we drove for 3 hours to get to the other side of it!

At 2pm we arrived in Uyuni, to find out that the night busses to la Paz only leave at 8 pm, and there is absolutely nothing to do in that town! But I arrived in La Paz, it´s a crazy town, with markets spread out all through downtown and people and minibusses crawling in between.

Now I have reached Peru already: the Peruvians are much friendlier and honoust then the Bolivians and the food is also much better :D They have a great empenada for breakfast, lotst of soup, and rice and baked pasta and patatoes to go with it. You can get a whole diner with mate for 1 sol! At the moment I´m in Puno to see the Titicaca lake, so beautiful!

I´m planning of spending a lot of time in Peru, going all the way to the north and back again. That´ll keep me busy ;)