Catch Up

Looking back on the last few posts I realize I have been really lazy!! Time to catch up on some details. First of all my current location is Salta, Argentina. Just crossed over the border from Bolivia last evening. The bus from Uyuni departed around 530am and was supposed to take 6 hours. That's not including the transfer and 2 hour layover that we were not informed about prior to purchasing the ticket. We spent the layover time in a quite a shithole of a town, in fact that is how I would describe all of the towns that I passed through yesterday- but that is to be expected of border towns.
I suppose I need to go all the way back to Copacabana, which already seems like sooooo long ago. I think that I mentioned the strike that created a huge and uncomfortable delay and I also don't wish to re-visit the bus condition issues in Bolivia- needless to say the buses are pretty ancient, filthy, and crowded. Couple that with mostly unpaved roads and no shocks and you can imagine what kind of ride that would be.
Copacaban itself is the major town located on the Boivian side of Lago Titicaca. I don't have much to say about the town itself but the lake really was beautiful. It is said to be one of the world's largest navigeable lakes. I don't have a clue what that means, but there it is. It was truly beautiful to see it from the bus window as the sun was coming up on the way to the border- the surface sparkled as though it were covered with diamonds!
Luckily I met a guy on the bus with which to travel and pass the time- Layth from Toronto. We split a hotel room in arguably the filthiest hotel I've stayed in but which cost a mere 15 Bolivianos (approx. $2 US). The following day we took the slowest boat I have ever been on to Isla del Sol, which is where the sun is said to have been born, according to the Incas. I didn't mind the length of the boat ride because the scenery out on the lake was spectacular. Once on the island, we hiked over to see the museum and then on to the Inca ruins. Afterwards the trail continued to the other end of the island where the boat left for the return to Copacabana. It was a really nice hike, although a bit rushed and made more difficult due to the altitude and the inclined path.
Due to the altitude, Copacabana was quite chilly at night and I was glad to have a sleeping bag, not only to protect me from the filthy hotel bedding. In fact, most places that I visited in Bolivia cooled off to an uncomfortable temperature at night. I'm lucky to not have suffered from altitude sickness as some travellers do. There were times here and there where I found it difficult to catch my breath but this usually only lasted a few minutes and didn't come with the vomiting and headaches that I've seen some people suffer from. I also learned quite quickly that the altitude can affect how the body metabolizes alcohol and I found I wasn't able to consume my usual amount of beer (of which the countries of Latin America have proven to produce satisfactorily).
After Copacabana comes La Paz. As I know I've mentioned, my 3 nights and days spent there were consumed mostly by socializing in bars and visiting the markets. I stayed in the Loki hostel which was equipped with a great bar and restaurant and is known to be a very social/¨party¨ hostel. It was what I needed after spending the previous few weeks quite sick and unenergetic. There I met Chris from Australia who I spent the past few days travelling with on the salt flat tour and here to Argentina.
The markets in La Paz were unlike any I've seen before. They stretched for blocks and blocks and I'm quite sure you could find anything there that you could ever wish to buy. It included a small ¨witches´ market¨ in which you could buy any kind of herbal remedy or good luck charm imaginable, including llama fetuses, armadillo feet, and various other animal corpses or portions thereof. The food market was also incredible and included meats, fruits, vegetables, etc. of varieties that I have never before seen in my life. It was nice to see the huge piles of seafood being kept chilled by one small chunk of ice on top of the mounds.
Following my time in La Paz, I travelled with Chris to Uyuni which is where we booked our 3 day Salar Tour. We ended up paying 450B which is approx. the equivalent of $80US including all food, transport, and accomodation. We were asked not to tell the others in our group what we payed, as they were charged 700B each (reminiscent of SE Asia tours).
The other members in our Jeep which we got to know quite well due to the quantity of time spent in very close quarters were 2 guys from France (Alex and Yanel), a couple in their 60's from New Zealand (George and Claire), along with the driver and his wife who was our cook. I would safely say that Alex was a certain friend from back home's French counterpart- possibly the witiest person you'll ever meet but occasionally taking a joke a bit too far. Within minutes of meeting, he responded to my comment that I loved wigs by saying- ¨if I had your hair, I would love wigs too¨. Luckily I thought the comment was absolutely hilarious and took no offence to it, in fact it broke the ice and everyone got on really well from there. That is until the last day of the trip when he went too far with a joke and made the old woman in our Jeep cry.
The first day was spent visiting the salt flats, which is essentially kms by kms of blindingly white salt, at points as deep as 10 metres down. The area used to be a giant lake- many, many years ago. After lunch we were allowed a few minutes to photograph the flats which was amazing because of what you can do with depth perceptions- you'll have to wait for the photos to see what I mean. The rest of the day was spent visiting various lagoons of insane contrasting colours due to all the salt and other minerals in the ground and water (again, wait for the photos- words cannot describe). We saw pink and red lagoons, followed my a blue one and then a green one. Along with the lagoons we were able to see hundreds of flamingoes, llama, vicuña, an ostrich, and a really weird animal that was that a cross between a rabbit and a kangaroo.
Once in the tiny town that we were to spend the night in, we had the opportunity to visit a Necropolis. This was essentially an ancient grave-yard; the corpse enclosures being above-ground and made of porous rock. Inside some of the enclosures were human skulls and bones, one of which Chris and I couldn't resist touching (he dared me first!) The accomodation the first night was alright, better than the next where all 6 of us had to share one room. In the morning we learned that Yenal had been up all night throwing up, likely from altitude sickness, and his second day of the tour was spent mostly getting to know the inside of the Jeep.
The second day we visited some more amazing desert landscapes and lagoons, as well as some volcanoes and incredible rock formations (photos). The third day we were awoken at 430am by militant old George who hadn't slept and was just waiting for his chance to inflict some pain on us young people. We drove huddled up in the Jeep in the freezing cold to see some unimpressive geysers, and then on to some hot springs. These I couldn't bring myself to enter because I knew it would mean climbing out wet into the cold air, where there was frost and ice around the rim of the nearby lake. After breakfast we began the 9 hour journey back to Uyuni, which I have to admit was pretty miserable and uncomfortable. There were still a few sights, but the biggies were definitely visited the first 2 days. Just before arriving back to Uyuni we visited a rusty old train graveyard, which was admittedly pretty cool.
An early last night was spent in Uyuni, followed by another 430am wake-up for the bus. As I mentioned, it was hideous and we only finally crossed the border as it was getting dark. After the 2 hour wait through customs in the freexing cold and in sandals (I had washed my shoes and they were still wet), we booked another 7 hour night bus to Salta. Thankfully 2 really cool girls from Slovenia that I met for the first time in Mexico City (Petra and Nastja) were doing the same route, which made things more interesting. And here I am in the internet shop in Salta for the third time today, waiting for my flight to Buenos Aires at 710pm. I just couldn't bear the thought of the 22hour busride, even though the buses in Argentina are deluxe ¨cama¨(bed) buses.