Well it has almost been two weeks since our last blog and we have been having a ton of fun!! We have been pretty lucky throughout our trip. I am feeling 100% better from being sick in La Paz and it feels great to get back to traveling and enjoying South America.
-Again we are not able to upload our pictures and have trouble finding any pictures that capture what we have seen so we have taken a few pictures from online. We can´t wait to share the Photos we have taken along the way with everyone.
After we left La Paz we headed to Uyuni Bolivia to do a Jeep excursion to the salt flats. This is one of the most talked about tourist sites. We heard many stories about the bus ride being one of the scariest in South America but we knew we needed to get to the salt flats one way or another. When we pictured a scary bus ride we thought it would be winding roads over steep cliffs. It was actually just the opposite... It was a very bumpy drive. TEN HOURS of the ride was on dirt roads that had recently been re formed by the heavy rainy season. We took the overnight bus in hopes to sleep but woke up about 3 am to the bus shaking back and forth heavily. We were not able to go back to sleep for the remainder of the trip. Imagine turbulence on a airplane for 8 hours straight with no end in sight. When the sun came up and we arrived in Uyuni we were both very relieved. The town looked to be small and run down and not offering much. We decided to splurge on a nicer room since it was 8 am and we wanted to get a good amount of sleep before heading out on a 3 day jeep tour. We found a great hotel run by a very friendly American fellow named Chris. He was originally from Boston and his wife was a local to Uuyni. The met in the states while going to University. Our hostal had some really nice touches rare for South America. They had tons of recycling and solar powered showers and lights. We also had a great breakfast with Eggs Benedict, pancakes with maple syrup and pomegranates. We set out to look at all the tour agency´s for the jeep trip and find the safest and best option. While eating lunch we over heard two guys with heavy British accents (they were from London) and decided to ask them advice about the trip. They had not been on the tour yet but were planning the same tour as us so we decided to join forces and try to book the tour together. We ended up booking a tour and really stressing that it would just be us four in the jeep. Th company agrees to do their best. The next day when we met for the tour we found they had stuck two Argentinian girls who were similar ages to us in our jeep. At first we were not so happy about it. The Jeep did not come with a guide (just a driver) and the car was not as new and up to date like we had promised. But for less than $100 per person for 3 days, two nights of lodging and 3 meals a day all included we could not complain to much. We still went along with the trip as planned. We first visited a train junk yard with tons of old trains from many years ago then we headed out to the Salt Flats... During the rainy season (about two months of the year) the salt flats are covered in about 3 inches to a 3 feet of water. This gave a amazing picturesque reflection of the blue Sky's and the mountains in the background. We went to the middle of the salt flats and stoped at a very basic hostel that was made totally out of salt. We got a chance to walk around on the salt flats and take many pictures with our new friends. We then headed back to Uyuni to switch drivers and make the 3 hour journey to our hostel. We REALLY ended up enjoying all of our jeep mates company and getting along with them very well. We took turns playing each other music from our I Pods and then opening a bottle of wine for the end of our Jeep trip. We stayed in a Very basic dorm room style accomidations in what seemed to be the middle of nowhere, The next day we awoke around 7am to find our driver was still asleep and seemed to be hungover while all the other tour groups drivers were up and had started to serve breakfast. We then spent the next day driving around a mountainess area looking at many different color lakes and a petrified tree.We ended at the Red Lake and our hostel at about 4 in the afternoon with nothing much to do but drink and have more fun with our new friends. It ended up being a really funny night. We awoke the next mourning at 4:30 AM to conclude our tour and then get dropped off at the border of Chile. We had to get up early in order to catch the gysers which we were told only were in full effect in the mourning. It was FREEZING COLD and there was a tiny but of snow on the ground. We reached 5,000 metres (Over 15,000 feet) there were bubbling mudd was coming out of the ground and really steamy gysers shooting up in the air. It was really neat but we were all so cold that we only spent a few minutes there. We then drove on another hour and stoped at a amazing hot spring that fed out into a lake. We lounged in the hot springs while our driver cooked us breakfast and had a really relaxing time despite the chilly weather. We then got to see 4 more lakes included a turquoise blue lake and then headed off to the border of Chile. The Driver droped us off with a mini van that would take us the remaining hour to San Pedro Chile and we said goodbye to our recent travel buddies.
San Pedro Chile
We arrived in San Pedro, Chile a very pretty desert looking town. We were told it had not rained in San Pedro in the last 1000 years which was a nice change from the mountain rainy season in Bolivia. The town had a lot of charm. We could immediately sense the more modern feel and pretty fashionable people. We then found the prices in this tourist type town were pretty similar to American prices. We paid $35 for a basic hostel room with a shared bathroom and shower (which was not top of the line to be honest). We also found a decent dinner would cost about $30 for two people which was a shock to us since we had been spending about $10 for dinner in Bolivia. We were walking down the street and all of the sudden we ran into our friends (Andrea and Thomas) we had met a month earlier in Huacachina, Peru. They are a great couple who lived in Atlanta Georgia although Andrea was from Mexico and Thomas from Germany. They urged us to get in the car with them and head to the salt lagoons where we were told you could float. We decided not to pass up any opportunity and jumped in their car. When we reached the salt lakes they were pretty with snow capped Volcanic mountains in the background. We jumped in the heavily salty water and had a really fun sensation floating right away. You could not really stay upright and the water forced your body to float with little effort. It was really neat. We spent an hour or two just lounging and relaxing at this spot only then to realize we had a flat tire. After about 15 minutes to change the tire we were back and on our way. Kim and I were very ready to get out of the tourist trap of San Pedro and get back to the beach at sea level. We said our goodbyes and thanked Andrea and Thomas and headed out on a midday bus to the coastal town of Iquique, Chile.
Iquique Chile
After being on our rather nice chilean bus for about 7 hours it decided to break down and leave us on the side of the road. It was tough for us to understand the Chilian spanish accent on of the driver (as well as many other Chilians). I soon found a nice looking dreadlocked Chilian who was on our bus and asked him if he knew what was wrong. He said the engine was having problems and it would be a few hours. The nice Chilian named Miguel ended up taking it upon himself to make sure we got to Iquique. A new bus came about two hours after the original had broke down and we were back on our way. Miguel then asked if we had reservations in Iquique (which was something we were worried about since we were now arriving at 12 at night). When we told him no he told us he was the owner of a surf hostel located right on the beach with nice rooms, TVs and a Kitchen. Miguel even got us a ride from the bus terminal and we were met with his friends and family having a BBQ on their rooftop terrace where they had tons of meat, beer and wine going around. We ended up staying for 5 days at Miguel's hostel and cooking many meals on their rooftop Terrence overlooking the ocean. On our fourth day we awoke to the news of the earth quake in Japan and everyone was talking of a Tsunami. Miguel told us he would keep us informed but we would know many hours before if there would be a Tsunami in our area. At around 7 oclock we were told that everywhere near the beach was going to be evacuated and we would have to pack up our stuff and head to higher ground. Miguel made sure that everyone from the hostel stayed together for safety and he stayed behind to protect the hostel from people trying to loot during the evacuation. We stoped at a store on the way to higher ground and loaded up on wine and beer and headed to a park. We met a really nice Chilian family who told us the park was not the safest area for tourists at night and invited us to their home just a few blocks away. We spent the next few hours drinking and meeting our new friends. The father of the family even brought out his guitar and sang Chilian revolution songs to us... The evacuation was not cleared until 3am where we tiredly returned to the hostel. The next day we needed to leave Chile to stay on our budget and head towards Manchu Picchu. We stopped one night in another beach town called Arica, Chile which we found to be no where as nice as Iquique. We are now in Arequipa, Peru on a layover before we leave for Cusco. We are VERY excited about Manchu Picchu. We have a first class overnight bus booked leaving at 9pm tonight. We will update you on our trip as soon as we reach Lima. After Lima we plan to head up the coast to Equador and spend some beach time before returning to the states at the end of April. Much love to our friends and family as well as the people of Japan. Until next time.
