Day 61

Ok so it has been a pretty wild ride so far. The journey is coming to an end and I still have much to write. The last 11 days have been quite fun for our group. After Mendoza, Argentina we traveled back to Santiago and took a bus to San Pedro de Atacama shortly after. We arrived in SP with no problems except one. It was nearly impossible to find accomidations. Apparently when the rest of SA is in low season due to winter it´s high season in the desert. SP is a very nice little desert oasis stuck right in the middle of nowhere. Hot, cold, dry, and dusty, four words most commonly used in this part of the world. Whilst in SP we took the moon valley tour to see a magnificent sunset and in the morning a tour of geysers and hot springs. It was no yellowstone but still quite amazing. A couple days later we started our 3 day tour of the Bolivian salt flats. Also known as Salar de Uyuni. The first two days were pretty cool apart from going as high as 5000 meters (16404ft) in which I became quite sick and could hardly breathe. That fortunatly only lasted one night and afterwards was mostly down from there. There is nothing that really compares to 3 days of off roading in a jeep in the deserted mountainscapes of absolutely nowhere. The third day we arrived at the salt flat known as Salar de Uyuni and were amazed at its sheer size and flatness. Imagine a giant lake or small sea that is entirely white and flat. In the middle there is an island of prehistoric coral and thousand year old cacti. This is where we made lunch and soon after departed for uyuni. On the way to Uyuni we stopped to take some very bizzare, mind bending pictures. Because of the flat all white surface of the salt your mind plays tricks on you and it really is different. Arrival to Uyuni. Not much to say other than Boliva is cheap and busses are horrid. We took a bus from Uyuni to La Paz and it was 10hrs of hell. The bus was cramped and smelled as bad as the people on board. My brothers seat had no headrest and istead there were two large metal spikes. There were no empty seats and locals forced their way on board just to stand in the aisle for the entire journey. People were rude and would force their way past you not caring whether or not they stepped on you or pushed you over. Once we arrived here in La Paz we booked our selves into a pretty nice hostel which happens to have its own microbrewery. SWEET. Brock is biking down the most dangerous road in the world today and I am booking flights to our next destination...Rurrenbaque for a couple of days in the jungle before we say goodbye to Bolivia and head back to Peru. Until then, go see Batman its worth it.