On Another Planet

Hey Kids,
Bolivia has me now whether they like it or not.
Before departing on the tour into Bolivia, I did a little exploring around San Pedro in Chile. I rented a bike and made the journey to the nearby Valle de la Luna, which is a national park that holds a landscape much like the moon (so they say, I will hopefully confirm or deny this later in life). Sand dunes and strange rock formations inhabit the area and during much of my trek around the park I did not encounter many other visitors, making the experience a little more eerie. Other than this magical little excursion I was eager to get out of expensive Chile and onward into the cheap thrills of Bolivia. On Sunday morning, our group consisting 13 people of a smorgasboard of nationalities descended with our guides towards the Chilean/Bolivian border. As the lone American and anticipating some ribbing because of this fact, I brushed up little on my pro-US rhetoric--"Ok, yes we are reponsible for that but guess where those delicious HALLS cough drops you are popping are made?!"
After the comical immigration procedure at a two room shack in the mountains (they stamped my passport again in addition to the consulate taking up 9 spots on it--all but ensuring that at some point this year I will have to go to the U.S Embassy somewhere and have more pages put in. Bolivia 2, me 0), our group divided up into two LandCruisers and began the rapid ascent into the high altitudes of Bolivia. During the first day we went from approximately 5,000 ft. to roughly 15,000 ft, which produced slight headaches for some and head-exploding puking for others. Luckily, I only felt the former. At one stop, when emerging from the car it felt like an instant intoxication and people began to slightly stagger and mix words. To mitigate these symptoms, the guides duly passed out coca leaves for chewing and drinking in tea. Daniel, a Czech riding in my car, was feeling poorly because of the altitude and unknown to us, had been consuming a serious amount of the leaves. Only after I had a conversation with him that included his ramblings on the topics of Czech beer and life under the Soviet regime followed by non-sensical babble, did I and the rest of our car realize that he was pretty zonked out. It didn´t help his pysche that we all began laughing at him hysterically including the guide. He went to sleep for 16 hours not long after that.
Our first night´s lodging was located near one of the many surreally colored lagoons in the Bolivian highlands. The herds of pink flamingos present in these lagoons make it all the more un-earthly looking. Day two started with our guide Jorge making the sign of the cross before we departed in the car, which caused the slightly panicky Dutch girl to exclaim that we were probably going to die today. As I have not fulfilled all that I have been sent to do, I knew this was not the case- but it made me think all the same. Night two was spent on the edge of the famous Salar de Uyuni in a hostal made almost entirely out of salt--furniture and flooring included. "Can you scoop me up some salt for these fries please."
The next day was the highlight of the tour with our entry into the vast salt flats of the Salar de Uyuni. Supposedly one of the Seven Natural Wonders of the World, the Salar will remain somewhat of a wonder to me as our guide Jorge was an expert in the ways of driving, cooking, and mechanics, but lacked signigicantly in area of explaining things. Regardless, Jorge allowed me to view part of the Salar while riding on the top of the LandCruiser, which was amazing until he forgot I was up there and proceeded to try and top the land speed record for the flats. Supposedly the panicky Dutch girl informed him that the American was on the roof of the car, but that only caused the other Europeans in the car to urge him to go faster and maybe hit the brakes once or twice. I survived with one awesome experience and a nasty windburn for a souvenir.
Overall the tour was pretty impressive and some of the pictures should convey why.
And so now begins my immersion into Bolivian life. A recent email sent from a traveller we met in B.A. who had just finished living in Bolivia for over a year gave this advice: "overall, bolivians are great people although huge liars. Dont believe a word they say." And so with this information I now find myself in Bolivia. I took a nightmarish bus ride from Uyuni to Sucre and now I am typing this out in a sleep deprived state waiting for the hostal to open up. Nothing is set in stone but a trip to La Paz and later to the Bolivian Amazon is probably likely. We´ll see what happens.

Lie to me,
Q

Some people have been indicated they would appreciate a little shout out so here it is: Big T Reardon recently received stitches above his eye for reasons probably associated with hitting on a girl--persistance beats resistance Timmy! Jen Tiehen recently found out she is going to be an Auntie--congrats Jenny, Rusty Grizzle sounds like a good name doesn´t it? And Elizabeth Tornabene has made some serious contributions to this trip in the research department-- thanks Elizabeth, how do I find the supermarket in Sucre?