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!
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!
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