Salt Flat tour (Days 2 & 3)

Hello!

Sorry we don't really keep up with our blog. When we were traveling through Bolivia we didn't have any internet! We are in Lima now but I'm going to try and catch you up on what we've done.

So Shane wrote about our first day on the Salt Flat tour and still hasn't written about the other days so I'm going to take a crack at it because I want to write about recent stuff! :)

Now, I don't remember a lot because I spent most of the time laying down in the jeep on Shane's lap!

So the second day we woke up bright and early around 6:30am.

Our group misunderstood the instructions the night before so we were really late and Lucas (our driver) wasn't too happy. He keep walking by the room yelling "It's a long drive!" so we quickly packed our things, through them on top of the jeep and went on our way.

That day was dedicated to the Lagoons. I can't quite remember the order because I was half asleep and I couldn't really tell the difference... but we saw a blue, green, red, and white lagoon that day. The first was the blue I believe and it was FULL of flamingos. Lucas told us they feed on the microscopic organisms in the slaty lagoons. The lagoons were all very beautiful and we stopped for

lunch at our second one. I'm pretty sure it was the green lagoon. Shane took some pictures while I sat on a rock trying to catch my breath. On day one, we started at 3800 m above sea level and then continued to climb from there. So by day two, and once we hit the second lagoon we were at around 4300 m. I know it sounds like I'm a wimp but if you lived on sea level your whole life and climbed 4000 m in two days then you would lose your breathe too!!

The boys we met and took the tour with were awesome. During lunch Shane and I learned some hebrew words that are not appropriate to type on here. It was pretty funny for me to try and say them because if you know me my accents are HORRIBLE! Shane was very good

, but the boys video taped me and made fun of me the rest of the trip. haha :)

After lunch we saw the other two lagoons then made it to our new hostel by 4pm. At this hostel

we sat at 5200m above sea level. As soon as we arrived there my head started to ache a bit and I felt a bit dizzy and sick to my stomach so I asked everyone if they just wanted to chill out and take a nap and do a walk around later. Everyone agreed and we all curled up in our beds in the freezing cold hostel. Before we all fell asleep the boys decided to try and make me laugh because I was feeling so crappy. During the trip we taught our friend Dudi how to say suicide, awesome, shut up, and few others which are also inappropriate to put on here. So, all three of the Israel boys started doing impersonations of me and Shane and I almost died laughing! So funny... and what made it hilarious was that Dudi started saying how if anything happened to me (because I was feeling so sick) that they would all do suicide. It might not sound that funny on here but it was actually hilarious!

After we woke up from our nap the altitude really hit me. It's worse when you sleep because of lack of oxygen. As soon as I opened my eyes I was running outside to throw up. Shane, like a

good boyfriend (note the sarcasm), started taking pictures! But after I yelled at him he started to take care of me... God love him. It was freezing outside (atleast 0 with the wind chill) and he stood right by my side rubbing my back and hugging me in between. After a cup of coco leaf tea and a dozen chewed up leaves in my mouth, my pounding headache eased up a bit, my tummy settled, and I was able to lay down and go to sleep. It was a very rough night!

The next morning we woke up around 4:30am. Lucas woke us up this time because we had to go see the geysers while it was still freezing out. I was still really sick but Shane packed my bag for me and sat with me in the back of the jeep while I laid on his lap.

Shane got out of the jeep to see the geysers while I watched from the window.

Geysers are a very rare phenomenon. What they are caused from are boiling water under the surface of the earth. The water runs over hot rocks, which are caused from active volcanos, and causes the water to boil. Once this happens the pressure causes the steam from the water to shoot up from the ground. We were told not to go too close to the Geysers because they can be very dangerous. Shane didn't listen of course and went right up to it and put his hand over the steam. He told us that it wasn't hot but a bit chilly.

Shane was lucky, because later I met a girl who told me on her tour a guy from Brazil stepped

too close to one of the non-controlled geyser. He stepped on a soft piece of earth and his leg sunk in causing his skin to burn. The girl told me that it was so badly burnt that they had to airlift him to the hospital and back to Brazil. Pretty scary stuff!

After the geyser we headed to a hot spring near by. I was feeling alright but it was so cold outside so I didn't get in. Shane and a

couple of the boys got in though! Shane said it was amazing and I'll take his word for it. There was ice all over the ground around the hot spring so that made me change my mind about getting in.

So I was very excited to head back to Uyuni and get out of that crazy place. As soon as Shane and I got back we booked our train ticket to La Paz and sat in a little cafe for 5 hours before it left at midnight.

This blog as turned out to be very long so I'm going to write about our trip to La Paz and then our trip to Peru later! :)

Maybe Shane will write one soon ;)

Love Ash

xo

Salt Flat Tour (Day 1)

Once we arrived in Uyuni we we exhausted. No sleep for days, being tossed around on a bus for 10 hours and nothing to eat but empanadas. We pretty much crawled to the nearest hotel. We managed to post up in a pretty decent spot as far as this town was concerned.

Uyuni is a town in the south of Bolivia. It's pretty much a gateway for tourists visiting the world's largest salt flats so they arn't to concerned about hospitality. We booked a tour with a company called Croque Tours the same day and fell asleep at 8:00 p.m. I know... boring.

The next day we woke up with the guys from Israel and got ready for our three day two nights through the desert. We hooked up with our driver, Lucas, and another traveler from Brazil.

We were riding in a Toyota Land Cruiser. Pretty comfortable compared to most of the other vehicles heading out that day. Lucas strapped the bags to the roof and we were off. I think we were 2 minutes in when I started thinking about what would be destroyed in our bags after Lucas rolled the vehicle onto its roof. Lucas was a crazy driver!

The first stop was what Lucas called the Train Cemetery. One of the major tourist attractions. It is located 3 km outside Uyuni. The town served in the past as a distribution hub for the trains carrying minerals on their way to ocean ports but in the 1940s, the mining industry collapsed, partly due to the mineral depletion so many trains were abandoned which created the train cemetery.

Then we started for the world's largest salt flat. Some interesting facts about the Salar:

• World's largest salt flat at 10,582 km²
• ^{Elevated 3,656 meters above the mean sea level.}
• ^{Formed as a result of transformations between several prehistoric lakes}
• ^{The crust serves as a source of salt and covers a pool of brine, which is exceptionally rich in lithium. It contains 50 to 70% of the world's lithium reserves}
• ^{The large area, clear skies and exceptional surface flatness make the Salar ideal object for calibrating the altimeters of the Earth observation satellites.}
• ^{Major breeding ground for several species of pink flamingos.}

We stopped at Incahuasi Island which is in the center of the salt flat. We had some lunch and hiked to the top. On the way up the air is so thin it was hard to breath and we had to stop to rest a number of times. While stopping we noticed some signs by some of the cacti. Some of them were actually thousands of years old.

After that we drove one hour to our first hotel. It was pretty basic due to its remote location. We only had 2 hours of electricity that night and one hour of hot water because the place ran on a battery charged by solar power. We went to bed shortly after the lights went out because our next day was to start at 7:00 a.m.

So far so good...

Bolivia!

So we made it to Bolivia!! But it wasn't easy...

In Salta we booked a bus for midnight because the guy told us that it would better to arrive at the border in the morning.

We got on our bus and were feeling that it wasn't too bad... a little dirty but fine. Once the driver started driving Shane and I both started fearing for our life. The bus driver must have been in a hurry because he kept passing cars even when you couldn't see what was coming the other way. Many times we thought we were going to have a head on collision. Just to give you an idea of how fast he was driving, we were suppose to arrive at the border for 7am. We got there at 5am! Two hours early...

So the border didn't open until 7:30 Bolivian time and Bolivia is

1 hour behind Argentina. We ended up curling up outside in blankets waiting for it to open. It was so cold outside as you can probably tell by the pictures. When you're high above sea level, and in a desert, the night times get way too cold! South America tricked Shane and I! We misewell be in Canada!

Once we finally crossed the border we met some cool guys from Israel. They were heading to Uyuni as well so we decided to catch the same bus... the more the merrier! Once we walked around for about an hour and the sun was fully out we found a bus that supposedly got us to Uyuni in 10 hours. We were going to take the train but the train wasn't running until 1:30pm and it was only 9am by the time we crossed the border.

So we chilled on the side of the street waiting for our bus to arrive.

We ate some empanadas (like pizza pockets) that a woman was selling right beside us. When our bus pulled up to the station we had to ask twice if it was our bus. It was seriously the most horrid bus you've ever seen in your life! It had monster truck tires and looked like it was all about to fall apart. The pictures don't even do it justice. We should have judged by the way the bus looked how the ride was going to be... Shane and I feared for our lives as soon as the bus took off. All of the roads were dirt from the border to Uyuni.

Also, we had to drive through some pretty crazy mountains. The bus driver seemed like he wanted to commit suicide. We were driving at least 100km an hour on the side of the cliffs. I will post the video at the bottom... even though you can't really tell how crazy the bus drive was from just that.

When we got to Uyuni we all pretty much kissed the ground. The town was nothing like I've ever seen before. The women in Bolivia have a very interesting attire. I didn't really get any pictures of them yet but I will and post it in my next blog!

Now I promised Shane he could write about the Uyuni Salar tour! So I will stop my post here and then write again to tell you about our trip to La Paz in Bolivia!!

Love Ash

xo

Salta

So I'm writing here tonight because Ashley has been hogging the blog...

Not much has happened since the last book Ashley published...

We made it though our 21 hour bus ride from Mendoza to Salta. Pretty much slept the whole way but woke just in time to see the drive through the mountains. Then wished I was still asleep when we drove down the other side. The road zig zagged down a super steep cliff. Prayed a couple of times, mostly for good breaks.

When we thought we were at the bottom there was one more descent into the city of Salta which is in the bottom of a valley surrounded by mountains.

It's to bad we don't have enough time to stay here a while. It's a beautiful city.

We booked our tickets tonight to Bolivia but found out that the buses aren't permitted to cross the boarder. We have to walk across and catch a 9 hour train to Uyuni in order to go on the salt flats tour.

We'll see how that goes. Hopefully up date you again on Wednesday or Thursday.

S

MENDOZA

Hey,

Our bus ride to Mendoza didn't seem too long. We had the best seats we could get where the se

ats went all the way back into a bed position. It was wonderful and we slept the whole time!

When we arrived in Mendoza and got to our hostel we found out that they didn't reserve a room for us!!! Our reservation had got messed up but it wasn't too bad because they put us in a private room. After we took our stuff up to our room and got settled in a bit we decided to go on a

horse back riding trip!

So it was Shane's "first time" on a horse. He was on a horse when he was younger but got kicked off and kicked by the horse... so you could say that it was the first time he didn't get beat up by a horse!

They took us up on the mountain and dropped us off at a horse ranch. It was really nice and there was a really large family that lived up there a

nd owned all the horses. They gave us some instruction on how to control the horse and then we rode off into the sunset. Literally! The sun was setting over the mountains when we went and it was really beautiful. We rode the horses until it was dark out and then we went back to the ranch for an ASADO and a camp fire. We stayed there pretty late and Shane and I were both exhausted. We went to bed as soon as we got back to the hostel.

The next day we were suppose to go on a tour of the Andes but things got messed up the night before and we couldn't go. So instead, we spent the day walking around town and looking for a pair of shorts for Shane. When we were in BA the laundry place lost one of our bags which had the majority of Shane's clothes in it. Anyway, we didn't find much but Shane bought a couple of shirts! woohoo!

That night we went to bed early because we had re-booked the Andes tour for the next day.

When we woke up we were told that once again our tour got messed up. The people at the hostel sent us on a rafting trip instead. This was the first time I've ever been rafting. It was CRAZY! I loved it.

Half the time I was screaming and trying not to fall in the river. Shane had a good time too. The place that we went rafting was really neat. After we went rafting the place had a swimming pool and restaurant where Shane and I shared half of a hamburger and then I got some sun. It was a really nice day.

Now it is the next day and Shane and I are just relaxing before we have to get on our bus to head to Salta. We're really excited because we are only staying in Salta for one night and then we are off to Bolivia to see some Salt Flats and Volcanos!

We'll keep you updated :)

Ashley

Back on Track

Hey everyone!

Sorry we haven't been writing. We weren't really doing anything exciting for the months of October and November. Now we are back on our traveling track. I'll just summarize what we have done in the last couple of months.

My parents came to visit in November to watch Shane compete in the World Championships in Mar Del Plata. That was really fun! We mostly relaxed when they were here and Shane trained. When we were in Mar Del Plata Shane one his fight for the team but Canada lost. It was a great experience though!

After my parents left Shane and I moved out of our beautiful apartment and back into the hostel to wait for Shantel's arrival. When she got here we attended a Tango show in Buenos Aires which was FANTASTIC! We had an amazing meal where Shantel had her first Argentinean

steak.

A day after that we got on a 20 hour bus ride to Iguazu Falls. When we got there it was 40 degrees and the humidity was almost unbearable. All three of us were a little cranky when we

got off our bus but once we arrived to our hostel and saw the huge swimming pool our spirits picked up. We spent the first day by

the pool where we met a couple of really cool Aussies, Matty and Linc. Then we made plans for all 5 of us to go see the Falls

together. We selected a packag

ed tour which was called the Green pass and it had three stages where we went on a safari, a boat, and a hike. We were super pumped that day and met a bunch of boys from Israel on our shuttle to the falls. They were hilarious. As soon as we arrived at the falls they named me group leader... I have no idea why! So I picked up the tickets for the whole group and we got on our Safari truck and headed into the jungle.

It was really amazing when we first drove into the jungle. Vines were everywhere and it was exactly what you expect a jungle to look like. The craziest part about this jungle was the gigantic spiders!! While we were driving there were HUGE webs above us with the spiders right in the middle of it! They were disgusting. Shane and Shantel were both freaking out... and that was funny :)

After the drive through the jungle we boarded a river boat. They told us that there were going to be rapids but there weren't. It didn't matter though because the view of the falls were so breathtaking we didn't even notice the river anymore! There were two sections of the falls that the boat took us to. The first one was too big and steamy that we couldn't boat underneath of it... but the second one was a bit smaller and the boat took us right

underneath of it. You could feel the energy and the strength of the falls before we were even under it so imagine what was like when that crazy driver took us right under it! We got SOAKED!!! Thank god for the waterproof camera or we wouldn't have captured the view of the falls when we were under it. I don't think I opened my eyes until we were almost parked by the bank to get off!

After we got off the boat it was like we walked into a world made up of just butterflies. They

were EVERYWHERE!! We were told by our guide that they would land on us because they like to lick the salt off our bodies. I seriously had like 50 on me at one time. I didn't mind! Linc started calling Shane the butterfly killer because he was so clumsy when he'd put his arm around me and he'd squish the poor buggers.

So we hiked around the falls taking in the beautiful landscape and the breathtaking views of the falls. It was a really long day for us and we were pooped when we got back to the hostel. For the next couple of days we just hung out by the pool and spent Christmas with our new Aussie friends. We had a blast!!

We said our goodbyes to Shantel last night and got on a bus to head to Mendoza. This is where we are now and we have some crazy plans for the next couple of days!!

We will be keeping the blog updated from here on in so stay tuned!! :)

Ash

Cementerio de la Recoleta

On Saturday, Sept 19th we decided to go to Cementerio de la Recoleta. It's known as one of the worlds greatest Necropolises. It has been the burial place of choice for Argentina's elite since the mid 19th century. Here there are presidents, military generals and artists. There tombs are made from granite or bronze, built close to each other and are visited by a maze of streets. We thought to ourselves that this would be the ultimate place for a game of spot light!

This city of the dead was built in 1822 and what was then the Northern limit of the city. The land was confiscated by the Argentinian government from the Recoleta monks of the adjacent Pilar Church. It was the city's first public cemetery. It was initially used for the burial of freed slaves and the proletariat before it became the reserve for the rich from 1860s onward.

We started our morning by hitting the subte (subway) and heading towards the cemetery where we came across a huge market they have every Saturday. They sell every thing you could imagine from cloths, art, food, bongs, jewelery and everything in between. After that we took a walk checking out all of the tombs. Sorry if you guys find any of the photos offensive but we had to... Every corner we turned we could see the guilty look on tourists faces and could only imagine what they had been doing for the camera before we intruded.


The cemetery closed before sun set and security guards make their run around the gated area kicking people out. No worries though, being in the center of Recoleta there was a bar/restaurant near by where we took in some music and ate Empanadas (really good home made pizza pockets) before heading back to Palermo.

Anyway, enjoy the photos we had fun taking them.

S