Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid

Tomorrow is the 100th anniversary of their.... last bank robbery.

The narrow european style streets of Potosi with Cerro Rico in the background. Spain took enough silver out of Cerro Rico to build a bridge, made of silver, from Bolivia to Spain and back again.

While I would love to be out doing the mine tour and seeing where Butch and Sundance met their maker I´m all curled up and tuckered out with the flu. Guess it had to happen at some point and I´m glad it happened in a town with a nice hostel than at forteen thousand feet walking our way up a mountain. Anna and the gang are out viewing the mine on Cerro Rico or rich mountain, apparently Spain took quite a bit of silver out of Bolivia and tempted Butch and Sundance to do the same. We should be heading to La Paz tomorrow evening and then jumping into a taxi the following morning to drive to Rurrenbarque where we will depart on a hot and humid jungle tour. Croc´s, monkeys, and cappaybarra Oh My. More to come chicos, paz.

last night I cried for joy

This morning I woke up on the floor of a small room in Sucre, Bolivia, three friends sleeping beside me, peace washing over us.

You won. We won. Barack Obama, you will be our next president. You, a man of great composure, vision, heart, wisdom, passion, and dangerous good looks, will be at the helm of our nation. I have never felt so proud to be an American.

Last night twenty of us, Peace Corps Volunteers of Bolivia along with friends from many nations -Bolivia, Germany, England, Australia, Nigeria, Norway, and Holland- huddled in a little hostel around a television, and we watched victory come down on you. On all of us. Tears rolled down as we watched your numbers rise, as Virginia, my home state, gave you her thirteen electoral votes (the fist time it’s gone democrat in over fifty years), as CNN declared you the victor, and as we listened to you speak of your gratitude for the opportunity you’ve been given, of your passion for making our country great again, and of the great tasks that lay before us.

The whole world was watching this race. The whole world was hoping. And now we’ve done it. We, the people of the United States of America, have elected a man we believe in, a man who has defied history and started a revolution –a wave of renewed hope in our nation, a belief in what America can be, can do, can give.

On September 14, 2008, the 113 Peace Corps Volunteers of Bolivia were evacuated to Peru. Because of political tension between the US and Bolivia, we could no longer live and serve and work in the country that had become our second home. A number of us went on to continue Peace Corps service in other countries, some returned to the States to carry on with life there, and many of us, myself and my husband included, returned to Bolivia on our own to carry out the projects we’d begun and to say goodbye to the friends in our village that had become our family. We are grateful for the opportunity to be back in this beautiful and impoverished country. And though it is so many worlds away from the USA, I am at home, and, today, I feel more American than ever. Throughout the campaign our Bolivian friends cheered on ‘El Negro,’ and last night, it was not only the Americans who felt the victory. There is much to be done to mend relations with the dozens of nations that the US has wounded and disregarded over the last eight years, and we will work with you, for you, to that end. We will work for peace, and we will work for a brighter future for the children of all nations.

In a few months we will return to the US. I am excited to come back home, to work hard there, as I have worked hard here, to increase community activism, to empower women and children to be leaders, and to protect the human rights and natural resources of the world. I am excited, too, to turn on NPR and hear your voice, to witness the unfolding of new education, health care, and environmental programs, to watch you extend a hand of friendship to the powerful and poor nations alike, and to work with you to make America the country it was born to be. It is a place of possibility and innovation, of astounding natural beauty, and of opportunity for all whom are born within or cross her borders. May it be forever so.

I extend my deepest congratulations to you and your beautiful family and the warmest welcome I can offer from afar. I hope one day to shake your hand. You give us hope for the future of our great nation; together we will serve it well.

south america the beautiful

Holy moly. I love this place. Since our wonderful week in Patagonia with Kirby and Patrick, Tom and I have been on the rampage to see all the beauty Argentina and Bolivia possess. There is plainly too much to see, but everywhere we’ve been has knocked off our socks and smeared smiles on our faces.

The first week we spent camping around Bariloche, cooking dinner over a fire on the shore of glacial lakes, and tromping across mountains and through forests and snow fields (breathtaking).

From there we headed north to Mendoza, Argentina’s wine country, where we met up with our friends Ben, Britta, Brittany, Mike, and Dan. We took a tour of the area’s wineries by bicycle, got decently hammered and nearly crashed our bicycle built for two many times, under the foot of the Andes and surrounded by grapes ate the most delicious picnic lunch of fresh bread and cheese, olive spread, apples, pears, salami, sun dried tomatoes, chocolate, and (of course) wine, then drank some more, swerved our way back to town, and immediately got on an eighteen hour bus ride headed to Salta (ill-advised, yet awesome).

In Salta we ate the delicious ice cream, sat in the plaza for a few hours, and then got on another eighteen hour bus ride headed for Bolivia (what are we thinking?).

We crossed the Border from Argentina into Bolivia at six in the morning, nearly kissed the ground of my second favorite country in the world, then got on yet another bus headed for Tupiza, land of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, gorgeous red cliffs, and rolling dessert hills (almost tired of bus rides at this point).

Argentina is stupendous, delicious, beautiful, hospitable, but Bolivia. . . Bolivia. . . I love her. I couldn’t wait to get back.

In Tupiza we met up with our friends Helen, Diana, Tiffany, and Emily and got ready for a four day trip into the Salar to see the crazy colored lakes and biggest salt flats in the world. Words cannot describe this place. Starting from Tupiza was absolutely the way to go –we began the journey in the wild red hills of south west Bolivia, then worked our way west and north towards Chile to see the lakes of blue and green and white and red. Finally, on the last day at sunrise, we entered the Salar de Uyuni, a vast and flat expanse of white that stretches to the horizon in every direction. It was once the floor of a sea, trapped high in the Andes with nowhere to drain but down into the ground. Over the last few hundred thousand years the sea has dried up and left its heavy deposits of salt and other minerals, creating what looks like the best snow fall Oklahoma ever had.

Words can’t do it justice, so I will pour on the pictures.

Tonight, the fourth of November, we will find a television, cross our fingers, and pray for salvation.

GO, OBAMA, GO!

they had the peace corps in argentina?

This place is amazing. Hard to believe just a few years ago it was considered a developing country. It´s certainly had its share of political and economical turmoil, but Argentina was as kind and hospitable as could be. Gorgeous country. We had an awesome time with Tom´s dad and bro. Hope they did, too.



Tom and Patrick in a pub in Buenos Aires.

On a boat headed to Isla Victoria, a national park in the lake district of Patagonia.

The pine forests of Isla Victoria.

Those boys are good travel companions.

i fell asleep playing my new charango. Sweet Bolivian instrument, similar to a mandolin.

up in the snow.

Villa Angostura has some seriously big dogs.

a sweet spot in the mountains on the way to Chile where we spent the night.




Pat running for mayor in Chile.

best bubble bath ever. Did you know you´re not supposed to put bubble bath in a jacuzzi tub? Turns out awesome though.

a walk by the pacific on the island of Chiloe, lake district of Chile.

After Patrick and Kirby headed home, Tom and I headed for the hills and spent the week in our tent. Which, turns out, is not particularly waterproof. No worries, it only rained for three days, and then we dried out and warmed up, and then headed for the snow.

the trouble with Patagonia is there´s not really anything interesting to do or see.

just kidding.

good free fun in Colonia Suiza.

anyone else think that´s a funny name for a fire department?

Flowers from the alpine forest.

Some glass art I made in our campfire.

Cooking dinner over the fire at our campsite on the lake near Colonia Suiza.

Bariloche at sunset.

a house built into a boulder half way up to the Frey, a beautiful outcrop of rocks where we hiked. We went to the same place last year with Matt and Maggie.

The Frey´s refugio (mountain hut) where we spent the night.

The resident cat of the refugion at the Frey. Resourceful critter.

Tom, resting his dogs after a long hike down the mountain.



From Bariloche, we headed north to Mendoza to meet up with some friends.

tom and ben and a cool old chevy.

springtime flowers.

Our crew in Mendoza -Dan, Mike, his wife Brittany, Tom, his wife me, Britta, and Ben. All former Bolivia Peace Corps volunteers. Those people make some good travel companions! Flexible, resourceful, delighted at the tiniest luxury (like toilet seats).

The cellar of one of the wineries we toured.



vineyards, with south america´s tallest peak in the background. Rising to over 22,000, it puts our little 14,000 footers to shame.

Mike and Brittany, taking thier perilous turn on the bicycle built for two. Tom reports that I am a very unstable back seat rider, but i´d blame that on the wine samples.



Plazearing. That´s a verb they use down here, which means to chill in the plaza. Why don´t we have one of those verbs?

Salta makes the best ice cream ever.

But Bolivia makes the best playground ever . . .

mars and the moon and lakes of red and green, white and blue

We left for our four day Salar trip from Tupiza, rolling through the red hills of Potosi up, up, up to the altiplano. There were six of us -Tom, me, Emily, Tiffany, Helen, and Diana- plus our driver Gonzalo, a great and capable driver who fixed all eighteen of the car troubles we encountered along the way.




in the altiplano we passed four thousand llamas and nearly five people or so. It´s desolate and beautiful.




These kids, used to tourists passing through, asked us for money. We offered them bananas instead, which they happily took. Not much fruit growing up in these parts.




moss and scruby desert shrubs are about the only vegetation up there.







We came upon an ancient Incan village called el pueblo de fantasmos, the village of ghosts. The story goes that the Incans worked here as slaves for the Spanish Colonialists mining silver. They booted the spaniards at some point and continued to mine for themselves, becoming incredibly wealthy. The riches went to their heads, they went a little crazy and started burning their wheat and generally wasting things that had been considered precious for generations. A grandmother in the town, seeing the destruction they were bringing upon themselves, went door to door one week and caste a spell on everyone. Soon, disease came and there were no more people in the village, just its empty, haunting houses and streets.

then we took a wrong turn and ended up on mars.

mars is lovely this time of year.

a few million miles later we arrived on the moon, which has great rocks for climbing. And is good for human pyramids.

on the moon we encountered big steaming, bubbling geysers. That sign, in case you don´t speak Spanish, says ´Danger, don´t get close.´ Tiff and Em don´t speak Spanish well either.




from there we headed back to earth, which has lakes. lakes of funny colors in southwest Bolivia. Some are red from iron, some white from Borax, some blue from arsenic (don´t swim in that one), some green from something green, and each is just a few inches deep all the way across and teeming with minerals.

The lakes and desert expanses between them are dotted with the beautiful animals of the altiplano, the Andean plateau chillin at 13,000 to 16,000 feet. The llamas didn´t appear to have a hard time breathing, but we were sucking for air.



Thank goodness for the hoja de coca. Que no es droga!



fuzzy baby alpacas. I think we´ll get one when we get home. Make good pets and lovely sweaters.


highland flamingos wading in the cold blue water.

on halloween we turned into altiplano superheroes. Helen and Emily were flamingos, Diana was a coca leaf, Tiffany was the sunset, and I was the wind. Tom took pictures and hardly made any fun of us at all.

Then the superheroes went to some fine hot springs and soaked themselves until they turned pruney. It was glorious.

After three days in the car bouncing down roads of rock and sand, we arrived at the Salar, the greatest salt flats in the world. Amazing.