Bolivia

Well Bolivia has certainly been interesting so far, the past few days have been pretty action packed so I will do my best to update.

The best thing would be to start with right now. I am in Potosí, Bolivia, which is appparently the highest city in the world. I am pretty used to the altitude by now, though, the only time I really feel it is when I walk to fast or climb up stairs outside, then I feel pretty winded. For much of the tour I went on the past fews days, we were hanging out at 15,000 feet about sea level. So being at about 12,000 feet doesn't feel so bad.

The major issue right now is what is going on here with the government. For some reason, they decided to raise the fuel prices by 73% which is causing all kinds of problems in the form of massive strikes and protests. All bus companies have gone on strike indefinitely, which is a bit of a problem for us as we were planning on traveling up Bolivia during the next several days. We were supposed to head up to Sucre today, but now I'm not so sure what we will do since buses aren't running. There is a chance we can get a taxi there since it isn't so far away, but it will probably be expensive, at least by Bolivians standards. Bolivia is really quite cheap and the poverty is very evident. That's why it is a very big deal here that the government is raising prices, people don't have the money. They have also raised the prices on bread and cement. I have seen many long lines in front of stores and the lines at gas stations are also quite extreme right now. So we shall see what happens, I don't feel unsafe, just a little worried about getting stuck somewhere.

3 Day Tour

Probably one of the coolest experiences I've had, saw a lot of incredible landscapes. I took literally hundreds of pictures, at some point I will share some. We took some with the iPhone hoping to be able to find wireless and upload them today, but the wireless at the hostal is not working.
Quick summary of what we did:
The first day we left San Pedro early in the morning, drove about 45 minutes to the Bolivian border, piled into a land rover and began our journey through the desert of Bolivia. We saw a few lagoons, one of them green, another turned red from the microscopic algae. These lagoons were full of flamingos, not a place where you would expect to see flamingos. We also bathed in a thermal, which was set against a gorgeous backdrop of mountains and blue sky. Later we found ourselves essentially inside a volcano, where you could see the sulfuric steam seeping from geysers, as well as gurgling lava. This was one of the only times I felt a little light headed, but then, what would you expect, I was hanging out in a volcano 15,000 feet above sea level, a place humans don't typically hang out. That night we stayed in a tiny little village where about 15 families live. It was very cold and the accomodations certainly weren't glamerous. But we were served a tasty meal and given a bed to sleep in, what more could you really need. That night was Christmas Eve, we shared a bit of an awkward dinner as the majority of the people there did not speak the same language so there was a lot of silence as we enjoyed our soup and spaghetti dinner. I was asleep by 9:00, pretty tired from the day's events.

The next day we visited several more lagoons and a variety of different rocky and desert landscapes. I was constantly amazed by the sky. It just looked so massive and the clouds seemed so close. The place we stayed at that night was really cool, it was made almost entirely of salt. The floor was covered in salt, which was kind of nice, it felt like sand. The walls, tables, chairs, everything was made of salt blocks. We were served a delicious meal accompanied with some Bolivian wine. It was certainly unlike any other Christmas I've ever had, but I couldn't think of any place I would have rather been.

The third day we entered the salt flat of Uyuni, the biggest in the world. It's massive size is just incredible. It seems never ending. It used to be one massive salt lake, so parts of it are still covered in some water. We were able to take some pretty cool pictures because the water created a mirror reflect. I have some great jumping shots of me and my reflection, I always love a good jumping picture. We also visited this island located in the middle of the salt flat which was covered in cacti, some as old as 900 years old. We continued on through the massive white space, eventually coming to a town where we had lunch. After a bit more driving we ended up in Uyuni. After spending three days pretty much in the middle of nowhere, it was a bit surreal to see people again. And Uyuni is kind of a strange town. The people mostly just stared at us and in general seemed pretty unhappy, maybe just about life in general. It wasn't too exciting of a town. In the evening we got on a bus to Potosí. That was certainly an interesting experience. We were the only non-Bolivianos on the bus which was completely full to the point where some people just slept on the floor. One of my friends described the smell as one you would expect in a chicken coop. And when we stopped for a ten minute break everyone dispersed to use the bathroom, on the side of the road. It wasn't so bad since it was so dark, I was only a bit concerned about the incline.

So far, I have realized that in Bolivia you have to lower your standards a little bit. It is certainly much less developed then Chile and Argentina. But you can definitely find delicious food for way cheap. Today for lunch I had a great meal with soup and a full entré for just over a dollar. If you ever visit Bolivia, here´s my advice (thus far): bring lots of bottled water, toilet paper, hand sanitizer, and an open mind about bathrooms.