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 hasn’t vibrated off making it able to hear… everything.

Now that has nothing to do with knocking Bolivia, but just crossing the little border town of Villazon to La Quaica was like hitting a light switch. The roads were not the only thing different. The buildings looked like real buildings and not made with compacted earth blocks. The roofs of the buildings also used those cool Spanish type tiles versus either thatch or aluminum sheets.

The negative difference was the costs. The five hour bus ride to JuJuy cost $20A or around $6.75US. (The exchange rate is right around $3A=$1US.) The same bus ride in Bolivia would have cost around $2.50US.

My exodus to Argentina was put off a bit because of a morning rain shower, but around 11am it cleared up so I grabbed my stuff and headed out. I stopped by a Casa de Cambio to change the $60B I couldn’t spend and a $20US bill I had, so that I had a little bit of traveling money to get me to a real town and a hotel room for the night when I got there.

At the border, there was a long ass line for Immigration. I thought it was some sort of weird Black Market thing again, but it was a whole shitload of Bolivians trying to get into Argentina. Unfortunately, that meant that they were extranjeros just like me, so I just got in line. It was about an hour and a half wait before I got served. Talk about getting lucky, but at the stroke of 12pm, they closed down for lunch. The good thing was, after I was the next person to be served, the guy must have announced that they would be closing and the line behind me started to walk away. They were still processing a few more Visas when one of the guys who got finished with his stack looked up and saw me and decided to be my savior and quickly stamped my Passport and sent me on my way. Feeling oh so lucky, I quickly snapped back into reality when I found out that the other long line was the inspection line which anybody who was carrying anything had to go through. Apparently, the thousand people lugging massive bags of flour and such were not hassled, but the normal people were. I sat in that line through the lunch hour. Finally, when the people came back to start the processing, the line started to move. A regular guy walked up to me and said that I was a tourist and didn’t have to wait. I was questionable, but I followed him up to the open line where people who did not have anything went through. The officer smacked my pack and asked if they were clothes. I said yes and he passed me through. The guy who helped me turned out to be a taxi driver who was just being proactive. He pointed out where the bus station was since I told him I was going to walk. I tipped him the spare change that I had and I was off.

I grabbed a bus that was just leaving and headed South to JuJuy (Huoy Huoyy.) One big difference also was the interaction I had on the bus. Usually, I am pretty much left alone on the bus. Actually, pretty much in all situations people pretty much never make an effort to communicate. Twice on the five hour drive did two older ladies start up a conversation with me. One was with a more typical Andean older lady who was with a few others who had done some black market shopping in Bolivia and were on their way home. They were a fun group who were chomping down on the Coca leaves. The other was a more modern lady who was a missionary for Bolivia and Argentina. I had some decent conversations with both. It was nice.

Once we got into JuJuy, I went into civilization shock. I hadn’t realized how far out of it I had been until I was just standing there amongst all the things that everyone reading this probably takes for advantage.

There were cars all over.
There were street lights.
The roads were all paved.
There were street signs.
There were street lights.
Signs had lights.
Shops had lights.
There were people all over.
There weren’t dogs all over.
There were arched walkways.
There were overpasses.
There were blonde (pretty much all fake) women.
The women were in heels and had make-up.
There were nice stores.

It was nuts but nice. It took a few minutes to get the redneck out of my system, but I transversed quickly. I could tell Argentina was going to be a lot different than Bolivia, Peru, and Ecuador. Colombia was the last place where modernism was in play. I was both happy and sad, because I knew I would get sick of it quickly and would miss the Bolivia type environment.

After three hotels and being sticker shocked on prices $7-15US, I started getting worried. The northern part of Argentina was supposed to be the most economical and these prices were higher than any of the above listed countries. I wandered through the streets hitting up the recommended locations and some off the side street ones as well. Finally, I gave up and stopped at a place for $4.66US. I would have paid around $1.50 in Bolivia, so it kind of buggered me. Oh well, I wanted to get settled quickly so I could do som blog work.

I spent a good two hours getting everything I had uploaded, before I realized that Argentina was one hour ahead of Bolivia. Instead of 10pm it was 11pm and I hadn’t gotten anything to eat. What a good surprise when I learned that Argentinians don’t usually start eating dinner until after 8pm. Pretty much all the restaurants were still open, so I grabbed a burger to go at a little diner. At least the food price was still reasonable.

And with that, my first night in Argentina was done.

Day one: Photos of the Salar (Salt Plains)

This is where salt comes from. A salt processing farm.
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The ?dry? salt flats.
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Me on a salt mound.
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A salt Hotel.
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The ?wet?salt flats.
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Fish island.
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Lake driving through the flats.
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Day two.

A spice field with a rainbow.
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llamas at lunch and for lunch. They also have these runty llamas called Alpacas that have the softest fur. Jackets made from their fur start out at $2000.
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For the Flamingo lovers out there.
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Weird formations.
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The red lake and more Flamingoes.
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Day three.

The geysers at pre-dawn. Freaking cold.
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The hot water lakes.
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Hot girls in bikinis, at 5000M, in the freezing cold, at 7am, not so hard if you live the good life. Steve?s beer commercial. Make that Fanta commercial.
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These are the must see before you die spiritual shots.
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The blue lake with the blue fog.
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The white lake next to the blue lake. It was cool when the two fogs were side by side. Missed it though.
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The regular lake. Just had a good background.
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Me and the girls.
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This shot represents the 11 hour ride back to Uyuni. It suuuuuuucked!!!!!!!!!!!
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I just wished our crazy guide would have put the cigarrette out before showing us the big bags of dynamite and nitro gels.
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A wall ready to be blown up.
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We actually got deep into the tunnels climbing up, down, and around for city blocks.
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To the gods and prayers for the guide to stop smoking with the dynamite.
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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 out to be a cold when my nose started to get stuffed. Usually it takes about another day to finish the cold cycle. Even without the sniffles, I knew that I would need at least another day before I crossed the border.

Villazon is Bolivia’s border town with La Quiaca being Argentina’s. Pretty much your basic dusty border town. The weather was nice and sunny so that made it pleasant enough. Being up at 3440M still catches you every once in a while with the breathing, but overall it was an okay break place.

I spent the day going in and out of the hotel for short walks. One of the more interesting things I did was to walk to the border and see how much black market was going on. They literally had hundreds of people being human mules carrying flour and other goods across the border. The people formed one big chain with them going to the Argentinian side picking up whatever merchandise and then walking across a side bridge to Bolivia, dropping off the goods, and then running back to the Argentinian side via a secondary bridge with the whole time never using the main transportation bridge where the immigration offices were. At least a lot of people were getting some kind of income even though it was probably very little.

I also spent some time at the Central plaza and the market, just wandering around buying cups of Jello and fruit, trying to spend the last $100B bill I found in my other wallet. Although it is only about $12.50US, and $30B is going toward the hotel, it is virtually impossible to spend that amount here. Bolivia is just so grand in that regards.

The rest of my time I spent locked in my room trying to get caught up on the blog since I am almost two weeks behind. They don’t have very good internet here so I will wait until I go to Argentina tomorrow to upload all my stuff so I can close out Bolivia.

So as I sign off, a couple of swigs of mystery elixir, a pear, some C-S, and off to lala land I go.

After some playing, I headed out to stop by the store to pick up some drugs since I would be heading out of Bolivia and wanted to take advantage of the cheap drug prices. I had picked up a cough on the tour to the Salar but had written it off as three days of inhaling dust. That morning I could feel the other indications that it might be a cold so I wanted to pick up my usual drug concoction of liquid flu medicine. Most of the time pharmacies sold tablets of special drugs for colds/flu (gripe). I had read the ingredients of one of them before and it was basically just some vitamins. I had picked out some stuff before that resembled what would be in Robitussin and had good luck before. At this pharmacy I did the same thing and searched the wall for the little bottles of liquid. I saw a bottle that had Dextrometorfano an antitusivo. Now that sounded like something which would fight a cold and antitusivo sounded kind of healthy, so I bought the $10B bottle. The active ingredients were dextrometorfano, bromhidrato, and jarabe aromatizado. I also loaded up on my Dramamine substitute and the Norfloxacina which has been my miracle cure for the suspicious food that I have been eating. I also picked up a bottle of Fanta for the ride coming up. On the way back I took a swig of the elixir to ease the coughs that I was going through. Again, I am pretty sure that the dosage was not drink straight from the bottle.

Back at the hostel, I had some more play time with Jade before I learned from the Hostel manager that it was a good idea to pre-buy my bus ticket. I excused myself and took a walk down to the station to pick a ticket for later that day. When I got there I found out there was a bus leaving in an hour with the next leaving four hours later. Being three hours away, I didn’t want to arrive in the evening, so I figured it would be best to leave on the early bus, so I bought the ticket and ran back to the hostel to get my stuff.

It was kind of a bummer having to leave so quickly especially since Jades family had decided to go on the later train rather than the early bus and would spend the evening there. They all went into the room to see me pack and say our goodbyes as I only had a few minutes before I had to leave. We got a few photos, exchanged our info, hugged, and I was off.

At the bus station I wasn’t sure about the ride to the next town so I figured that I should play it safe and popped a Dramamine pill. Now one thing with these alternate Dramamines that I am taking, is that they are about half the size and don’t allow you to cut them in half. On a short journey, I usually take just a half. Well, with only a full option, I took a whole one. We had about twenty minutes so I just sat in my window seat with the sun blaring down on me.

The first part of the ride I remember, and I even took a quick snapshot of one of the valleys and gorges. I got my usual dreariness and dozed off while bouncing down the dirt road. Now the roads weren’t overly curvy or with many ups and downs. It was not too bad for a dirt road. Well, we came to a stop at a river crossing where the bus had to stop and wait for some earth moving equipment to do something on the other side of the small creek. Well, I woke up feeling out of it. Again, not so out of the ordinary because Dramamine kind of puts you in a bit of a groggy state. I felt real thirsty so I went to grab my book bag which I had wrapped around my leg. I just couldn’t get the thing unwrapped from my leg. I thought it was weird that it was wrapped so many times around my leg like the way Gabriella described her fear of snakes. Finally, I got it loose and got the Fanta out and took a swig. It went down fine, but then all of a sudden I got that “I’m going to puke feeling,” and my body started to sweat. I tried to control it with my breathing, but I could feel it building up in my chest. I hate that feeling and wasn’t going to stay on the bus and puke, or stay on for another hour and a half and end up being sick the whole way. I was planning on just saying screw it and getting off at the little village and finding a place to stay there until I felt better, or even if I had to, walk to Villazon. The feeling of being sick became overwhelming so I remember telling the guy next to me that I needed out of the seat. He got up right away and I remember walking the few steps past the four or five rows to the front. The last thing I remember was getting to the front and seeing the steps going down and the door being open. I also vaguely remember seeing the water from the creek and perhaps a truck or something just on the other side moving some dirt. After that I remember seeing a guys face talking to me and then nothing again. Then I remember waking up and asking if there was a hostel around and that I needed my backpack because I was staying there. Then, the guy was telling me we needed to get on the bus and I was staggering around trying to catch my balance. Then all of a sudden everything was clear and I was able to see and do everything without any problems. The driver had me sit up front with him so that he could keep an eye on me so I wouldn’t pass out again. I was fine for the rest of the drive with the exception of being cold because my shirt was all wet from I assume them trying to wake me by splashing water on my face.

We got to Villazon and I grabbed my backpack and told the driver thanks for taking care of me expecially since he could have easily just rolled me under some tree and taken off. I talked to a lady who was sitting up front and she asked if my chin and face was alright since I must have landed on them. I couldn’t feel any problems with the exceptions of a scrape on my left knee and left elbow. She said I was only out for a few seconds but they were very surprised.

I gathered my stuff and found the first hostel and grabbed a room. The plan was very easy at that point. I was going to sleep and sleep until I burned through whatever jacked me up and I wasn’t going to get on another bus until I was back in line. I slept for about four hours, and then got up and went out for some food. Luckily they had fruit places so I stocked up on apples and pears. Later that night I had the munchies for some hearty food so I had a greasy hamburger at one of the street stands. Using the mystery elixir, I was able to sleep on and off for the rest of the night. I figured that if I passed out again, I definitely wouldn’t take any more of the mystery drug. Smart huh.

So kids, what did we learn from this little story? Don’t go to foreign countries and buy strange drugs and then mix them. I bet Jade already knew that and she is like four years old.

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 went outside to check out the sun. She came back in excitedly to tell me that there was a couple on a tandem-bike with a trailer and a little girl. I heard her go out and talk to them in English for a little while and then a excited shrill when she found they spoke French as well. They were from Switzerland and were on a two year tour going from the south of Argentina to Alaska. They had a little girl who rode in the trailer attached to the bike. They talked for a while outside and then came in to check out Gabriella’s bike. While they were talking, I was sitting on the bed listening to them chat away in French about each others travels. While they were talking a little girl with big blue eyes, and almost white blonde hair peeked in through the doorway. As soon as she saw me, she was hopping on my feet, playing with my bright yellow rope, and then hopped on my bed dancing to the music and playing with the laptop keyboard. From then on we were the best of friends with me being the big Teddy bear that just followed her around. The parents were pretty happy with someone else to hold her attention for a while and we were in an enclosed patio, so we had free will over the place.

Dominique, Sara, and little Jade were from Switzerland. They were nurses back at home who decided it would be good to do a bike riding tour from far south to far north. They had a special tandem bike with trailer which was basically a family u-haul with peddle power.

For the rest of the day we pretty much hung out together with me and Jade just running around the complex, or more specifically, with me following Jade around. She spoke French but had picked up the word “Vamos,” so basically, she said “vamos”, and I followed her around.

In the evening Gabriela and I hit the market to pick up some stuff for a vegetarian dinner for the five of us. Later we hit a local market for some more stuff. Back at the hostel, we all split up dicing, chopping, and stirring. We had a vegetable soup with a second of vegetables and rice and fruit for desert. It was really refreshing for all of us to be able to cook a meal since we spent a lot of time eating at market restaurants or from street stalls. After dinner, Jade and I played run, fall, and laugh until I couldn’t do it anymore and she was worn out. When she went to bed, the grown ups pulled out the tandem bike and we took turns riding around the streets. Later we just chilled on the patio and exchanged travel tales.

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 shower being the only necessity. The Oreos and apple I had leftover from the tour really hit the spot.

Surprisingly, there were a couple of young touts working the trains looking for backpackers needing hostels. One grabbed me and we were off. He took me down the road with the promise of a nice hostel for $20B. When we got there, the place was booked with a bunch of Israelis. On the way back to another hostel, we ran into a girl with a tout who also went to a hostel which was full. Together we walked to another hostel. This one had a double room with bathroom so we decided to share it. It was a bit expensive at $30B each, but it was nice and it included a bathroom with a hot shower. I took a shower while she jumped into bed. The shower was heaven. I could feel the different layers of muck oozing off. In bed it was coming on six and I wasn’t feeling super tired, but I fell fast asleep.

Around 9am, I woke up and headed out to stretch my legs and take advantage of the sun that was pouring through the curtains. It was a beautiful day, and in sunlight, we were in a very nice Hostel which had a nice common area, a kitchen, and a free breakfast. The front office was also a tour agency so the manager hit me up if I was interested in doing something. I knew the area was famous for Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (where they were killed), so a quick tour of horse back riding sounded good. He gave me some quick prices and destinations. I had my breakfast of tea and bread. While hanging out in front, the girl came out and asked about tours. She was interested in doing a horse tour, so we agreed to check out some other agencies to get a good price. She was bike riding down South America and was on a budget. I liked that right away that she had an adventurous spirit. She needed to get some money, so I went along with her. We went to the only bank in town where she realized that she did not have her bank card. She got mighty distressed as you might imagine. She knew that she had it in Potosi and that she must have left it in the atm machine there. When she started to get a bit panicky, I stepped in with my management skills and started assuring her things would be okay and all the different options that she had. So after a couple hours of internet, phone calls, and a lot of connections, she got through to the bank and they were able to shift her money to the visa account that she still had the card for. With that off her shoulders, everything was back to being grand. At that point we finally, acquainted ourselves by telling each other who we were.

With Gabriela in a much better mood we went back to tour hunting and got the pricing information we needed. We found a better price than the hotels so we went back and told him. He said no problem and set us up for the tour. We would leave in a couple of hours for a three hour tour to the canyons.

The horse tour started with a walk around the corner which looked like a regular house but which actually had our horses waiting for us. Both of us had ridden horses before, but it had been a while for the both of us. My horse was named Espirit and was five years old. Gabs horse was 10 and a little gray. We got the basics and then we were off. The ride was very nice once we got outside the city. The canyons were a bright red and there were lots of rock formations to check out. I was fairly surprised that the horses were actually well trained and would actually gallop if you gave the right signals. I had a lot more fun once I knew I could get a good gallop every once in a while. Plus, the guide was pretty much incoherent to the fact that I was on the tour with the pretty blonde, so I got used to riding alone.

Three hours was plenty of riding for the time being. We both had a bit of a saddle sore in the end, but it wasn’t so bad as to leave any marks. Once we got back, we went our seperate ways. I figured I would do my usual walk around and pick up some fruits for a healthy lunch. I found the fruit area and picked up some apples, nectarines, pears, avocadoes, and bread. I was also out of Fanta, so I grabbed my usual bottle. Back at the hostel, Gabriela had the same thoughts and went and picked up some cheese, butter, and sweet spread for some sandwiches. It worked out perfectly because she had forgotten bread and I had picked up a bag. We finally had a chance to hang out and just tell each other what we were up to.

We pretty much hung out for the rest of the evening and then went out for some pasta since we were both craving it. We stopped in the first restaurant we came to and sitting there was John, the Australian house builder. They had just got in from the fourth day of the Salar tour. He said they had a long day as well, but it was incredible like the first three days. We talked and chatted for a while with me being the mediador as Gabriela spoke French primarily (French Canadian), Spanish, and basic English. With John’s Australian accent they had a fun time communicating. After dinner it was some internet and then to bed for the second time that day.

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 the frost covered jeeps. It was so cold that even the girls had stopped talking for a while.

We headed off into the darkness following some sort of guidance only the guide had. This is definitely one trip where having your own vehicle meant nothing. Because the area is so desolate, if you wanted to, you could just head off into whichever direction and the path you took would be just as smooth as if you went on a well traversed path. Therefore, there were tire treads heading into all sorts of directions with absolutely no way to get your bearings. A guide would be totally necessary here.

A couple of hours later and we pulled up to the steam spouts designating our arrival to the geysers. There was one sanitary geyser with a small perfect plume, but that was being used by the power company. The rest were bubbling mud spouts that with the cold air made a steam haven out in the middle of nowhere. Although it was different, the cold made it not so interesting and we lasted not more than a couple of minutes.

Our next stop was also steamish, but was a lot more appealing. The hot water lakes were our next stop. Here, underwater hot beds spewed out lightly sulfur scented hot water at around 85 degrees. They ran down little creeks and also filled little pools which became our little jacuzzis. At first everyone is a little shy about stripping down in the freezing cold to jump into some semi-noxious water. Myself and one of the girls just hopped right in and with our groans of pleasure, the others soon followed. Not having had a bath for two days it was nice to get the grime off even though it gave the hint of Easter.

We lounged around for about an hour while other jeeps arrived and joined our party lagoon. Finally, the breakfast bell rang and we were called to breakfast where they were serving up, you guessed it, eggs. I passed since the priors day eggs and potatoes did a number on my stomach. I spent the last possible minutes lounging with some people I had met in the mines of Potosi.

After breakfast we headed down the road to the equally mystic areas of the Rocks of Dali. Here were these mystical colored sand landscapes that looked like they came from an astronaut who painted pictures of the moon while on an acid high. We stopped and took some group photos.

Next was the colored lakes. One was white and the other was blue. There was a layer of fog on both and each reflected the color making the blue fog very un-earthly. It was going to be our last stop so we took some farewell shots before we headed to the drop off zone where people would head off into their different directions.

We stopped off at the frontier where Bolivia and Chile met out in the colorful dreamscape. Here, all the jeeps convened and people were shifted about depending on if they were going or coming to/from Chile, on the way to Tupiza and Argentina, or the return trip back to Uyuni. I still had not figured out what exactly I was doing. We had really screwed up because had I known that there was a direct jeep to Tupiza, I would have brought all my stuff and taken the Argentina route which was the way I was going anyway. Instead, the lady explained that I could take the Tupiza route, but it would be at least a fourteen hour day before I got back to Uyuni. If I went back directly, I could catch a train that night that was heading for Tupiza. If I did not, the next train would not be for two more days and a jeep being the only way to make it south. She offered to compesate my hostel cost plus a dinner for the loss of one day. I thought that was fair and ended up moving my stuff to another jeep. It was kind of sucky that I was leaving so unexpectedly so we only had time for a really quick goodby before they headed off. They were one fun group.

We waited at the check point for about a half an hour until a bus from Chile pulled up and five new people joined the tour. There were three Germans one girl and two guys, a 6′ red-headed Russian/Israeli girl, and a Canadian guy. They started out to be a very active group with the German girl a laugh a minute comedian who had a little finger LLama puppet that she had to make comments about every time we passed any llamas.

I say they started out to be an active group, because after 11 hours of being bounced around in a jeep, including one flat tire, and a subsequent broken stud that disabled our vehicle totally and required an hour of standing out in the freezing cold dusty wind, our nerves were slightly tattered toward the end. In all, it was a fifteen hour day for me in the back of a Jeep. Not the most pleasureable experience.

Since it was so late, I had pretty much written off my chances of catching the train to Tupiza. The guide talked to the Hotel owner and found out that there was a chance that we could catch the train and that it was no problem for me to get my money back for the night I had pre-paid. We hurried off to the train station to pick up my ticket.

In the guide book, it says that the lines for the trains can get pretty physical. There were only a couple of people waiting, but a few more people started showing up. Instead of a usual line, people would wander up towards the front acting like they were looking for something, hoping to cut in just at the right time. The train company was pretty smart in that they did not have a representative there until the exact time. People started pointing out who had been waiting. I figured it was looking like I would get squeezed out, so I started talking to the people in front of me. They took a liking to the Spanish speaking Asian guy and after some small chit chat, I felt comfortable in that they were going to look after me. The ticket ended up going smoothly and I grabbed my ticket and headed back to the hotel. Back at the hotel, the lady was trying to tell me she was going to only give me $15 of the $20B that I had paid, but I argued and told her it was the tourist agencies problem and they could pay her. She ended up giving me all of my money back. When I went back to the agency to get my re-imbursement, they were all locked up. Bastards. Fuck being nice from now on. If you screw with me, I will unleash all hell on everyone.

The train was a bit late so I hung out a little while until it was ready to board. There were three classes of train compartments. Executive which had bed type sleeping arrangements and a food car, Salon which was a recliner type set-up, and economy which was a typical bus layout. Since I had just went through hell in the back of a Jeep, I picked the Salon class which ended up costing $41B or $5US. It was really nice with plenty of room, reclining seats, and large aisle spaces with huge overhead storage. I don’t remember much more because as soon as we started moving I was out. We stopped one other time because they turn all the lights on, but after the ten minute transfer, I was back to sleep again. I was dirty, dusty, and smelled like eggs, but boy did I sleep good.

We had a fairly late start with a 8am take-off. Breakfast was the usual tea with bread and marmalade. The girls had brought Marmalite for one of them who had been traveling for the year. It made her day.

Todays tour would take a change from the Salar, and we entered more desert painting like environs. Our first stop was a Mirador of two distant volcanoes. It was pretty lame but we figured it was more of a pit stop than a view point. We then got into the lakes areas where all the Pink Flamingoes hung out. It was weird to see the desert flat lands with snow covered volcanoes in the backbround, and a swarm of pink Flamingoes hanging out in the salt lakes. We saw about five different lakes that were similar.

The next run took us through the sand lands. Here it was vast expanses of sand with the occassional rock formations carved out of stone in these indescribable forms. The winds picked up and made it tough to explore for long so we just made some quick pit stops.

Our final stops were to a park which held the Red lake. It was a huge salt lake that because of the microorganisms, made the lake a bright red color. It was also the main breeding grounds of the Flamingoes and the cause for their pink hue. Just a few km’s down the desert was our next hostel, a barren Pueblocito with little to nothing except freezing cold winds (-5C), rocks, and the shanty shacks that were our home.

We had a gourmet dinner of LLama and mashed potatoes. It was fabulous with the exception that I had the worse gas of my life and was only able to eat about half my meal.

Sleep was in an even smaller quarter, but no one complained since with the body heat, it was miles different than the freezing cold wind outside. We had a 4:30am wake up call the next morning so we were in bed by 9pm.

Oh yea, the stars from up there were magnificent with the Milky Way being almost a solid glow with all the stars glowing away to form one big hue.

I was up fairly early since I wanted to pick up some supplies before we headed off, knowing that there wouldn’t be many grocery stores to buy stuff. Toilet paper, cookies, green apples, and Fanta pretty much got me set.

When I got to the agency, I dropped off my bags and took a seat at the desk. On the desk was a paper with a list of people for the tour. All that was on there was four Bolivian ladies ranging from ages 45-50, and me of course. That didn’t look good.

When the guide came in he explained to me that he had a special deal for me. I could do the four day tour and instead of the usual hostel in the middle of nowhere, we would be staying at the salt hostel for one night. It would be an additional $15 however. The blood pretty much started to boil since I knew what was happening. He lied about the other people and now I was getting with this other group, all of which was now what I wanted. The four Bolivian ladies showed up all dressed up in their slacks and jewelry with suitcases in tow. It looked like they were going to Vegas rather than a desert tour. Right then I told the guide that I wanted what I requested the prior day. He tried to talk me into going on the tour because it would improve my spanish. The ladies were laughing as well and said the same thing. I explained to them that for a couple of hours it would be fine, but how would they like it if they had to spend four days in a group where the people only spoke English. They all quickly agreed that that was not the best idea. We had a good laugh as the guide went out to find another group. It was already past our time to leave when he came back and said that he had another tour for me. Two Japanese and two Israelis, but the tour was only three days. Fuck, that was it. I was pissed and told him that I wanted what I asked for the day before and that was it. Why would I travel half way around the world for a tour and then take a shorter tour. Thanks, but no thanks. He knew I was getting to the point of throwing things, so he said that maybe it would be better if he gave me back the deposit. Now for anyone that has dealt with a tour operator, giving money back would rate slightly easier than giving away their first born. For me, I was nice in the beginning to the point that if someone screwed me over I would be fine with it since I was making pentance for my actions in Potosi. This however went beyond the line. I grabbed my stuff and went back to the hotel.

At the hotel I got my same room, and then set off to scout out another agency. I knew I wouldn’t have anything solid until the night after the train and all the buses had dropped off all the tourists. As I was walking around the tourist row, a girl walked up and asked if I wanted to go on a tour right then. She had heard the conversations at the first agency. She took me to the agency to take a look at things. They had a listing of the tour Jeeps that they were taking that day. There was a four day and a three day, so it worked out just perfect for me. On the four day, there were three English girls, a guy from UK, and a guy from Australia. Right then I knew it was a good group and signed on. They wanted a lot more for the tour but after some negotiations I ended up paying $70US. The other people were paying $100, but they had reserved ahead instead of just showing up. She told me not to say anything and I was fine since $30 can pretty much buy me straight out these days.

The tour groups had already left, so she sent me off to the hotel to grab my stuff and a taxi would grab me from there. I had pre-paid for the night so I had to wrangle a deal with the owner to let me just pre-pay for when I got back. Luckily it was quick because the taxi was already out front with one of the ladies. We took a short ride to the edge of town and what looked like the edge of civilization since for all the eye could see was flat desert land.

Twenty minutes later, the two jeeps rolled up. Already I could tell the group was going to be fun because when they found out there would be one more person, they were laughing as they rolled one of the girls into the back seat with the other two girls.

The group was made up with the three English nurses who knew each other from London and school, a UK Anestheseoligst and a Australian house builder. The girls sat in the back and pretty much talked the whole time. I sat in the middle row with the two other guys and we would just grunt every once in a while and make fun of the girls. It was a perfect combination.

Our first stop was at a salt farm. It was on the border of the salt plain and they had a little salt processing plant that did something which I am not so sure of since I wandered off. I was talking to some guys who were willing to sell me a big truck load of salt for a $100US. I got them down from $200US, so I think it would have been a good deal. The people there survived off the salt that they sold to plants in LaPaz, and also off the salt sculptures they sold to tourists.

Next was to drive onto the actual salt flats. The guide had made me buy a pair of sunglasses because of the dangerous reflections off the salt. I am glad I did because it was harsh. The first section was a drier area where it just looked like snow covered ice. The salt farmers made salt pyramids to help dry out the salt before they were shoveled onto a truck and taken back to the manufacturing plant.

The prior night it had rained really heavily, so we got lucky and were able to experience both types of conditions. When their is water on the flats, it creates a mirror effect that makes an awe-inspiring view. Everything is reflective and it becomes a huge mirror. The photos will show what I mean.

We stopped in the middle of the lake at a place called Fish Island. It is called that because from the air it is in the shape of a fish. It was sort of little park where all the tourists stopped by and paid a park fee in order to use the bathrooms primarily and secondly to walk around the desert scape filled with cactus that were two stories high. Lunch was served on some salt tables.

We headed to the far end of the salt flats which were also the deepest in regards to the water. It was slow going with some parts causing water to splash over the top of the hood. It was a totally mystical ride expecially when another jeep drove along side of us in the distance.

We finally made it to solid ground on the other side. It was a short ride to a small Pueblocito where we stopped at our little hostel. The key part of this place was the hot showers which cost $5B. We had the evening to wander around before dinner. After dinner we stayed up fairly late and played card games like “99″ and “Black Bitch.”

Sleep was in a six bed dorm room which made for a comfy night.