For Mom, Love Steve

What a smooth day I?ve had. It was a bit warm for a sleeping bag last night so I ended up test driving my new bag on top of it rather than in it. It puffs up rather nicely when given a few shakes, so I think it will work out fine. I am very happy that it fits in the my backpack with no problems. It was actually a good trade-off since I left my fleece jacket in Tupiza on my drug induced travel day.
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After a complimentary breakfast of sweet croissants and coffee con leche, I was out the door by the 10am check out.

At the bus station I was sticker shocked again for the 3 hour bus ride south. I checked every company and they were all the same price so I was pretty much stuck. I asked one of the ticket touts what the best way to go was and he told me that there were combis that went there as well. I checked them out and they wanted the same as the buses, except that it was by car and a half an hour faster, plus they left right then. I went ahead and went with the guy and three other passengers. We zipped through the very California central valley looking scenery on the very California looking freeway. Instead of dreaming about how to build my own wooden mini blinds out of scratch like I did in Bolivia, I passed the time thinking about how to make it through the Darians Gap (the overland border crossing between Panama and Colombia.)
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You know you are in a more civilized country when you get on the bus and: The road is paved. There are painted lines separating the directions. There are guardrails on cliff side turns. The window trim ... [Continue reading this entry]

Day one: Photos of the Salar (Salt Plains) This is where salt comes from. A salt processing farm. View image The ?dry? salt flats. View image Me on ... [Continue reading this entry]

The entrance to the Potosi mine that we visited. Say goodby to these guys because in ten years they will be dead. The lack of any breathing equipment causes a ... [Continue reading this entry]

I had a decent nights sleep with bouts of getting up and playing Counter-Strike and watching Spiderman. I figured I would just laze around and doze in and out. It did turn ... [Continue reading this entry]

OD= Overdose. I don't know if that is the right description, but maybe it would be best described as the reason for those ten thousand words squished on the one inch square label ... [Continue reading this entry]

We both were pretty tired and woke up a little later in the morning. I had neglected my Counter-Strike playing, so I played a little while Gabriella ... [Continue reading this entry]

The train pulled in at the ungodly hour of 5am and then forced us out as it had one more stop to go. I woke up feeling fairly good with a ... [Continue reading this entry]

Dark, freezing, and inhospitable are the only way to describe the plains at 4:30am. No time for morning tea or anything. Just pack up everything and hop into ... [Continue reading this entry]