Salt Flats, Bolivia

After returning from the jungle, we had a day´s rest in La Paz, and then got on an overnight bus to Uyuni. Our day of rest didn´t do much because we got wasted the night before, and started the tour morning we arrived.

The salt flats are the remains of an inland sea (the same one as Lake Titicaca), that our tour guide told us existed "sometime before Christ" .... glad he knew the specifics. The tour was 3 days, stopping at various sites, with most of the day spent in a Jeep. By the end, we were pretty much toured out. T also had his first bad food experience, and where better to do it in the middle of the desert with no cover. After a quick duece, we pulled over a second time and T threw up what remained of lunch. No more mayo for T.

Salt hotel, made of bricks of salt. We stayed in one like this since this one needed repairs.








Classic salt flat picture. Thanks to Mark for pulling out his most fruity pose.

T with a 50 foot cactus.

Blue Lagoon. All the lagoons were full of flamingos, which seemed really out of place in the cold weather.

Yellow lagoon. Got it´s colour from sulfur...a little stinky.

Tree rock, sand filled wind has worn it away, they figure it will fall over in another 30 years.

Gysers at sunrise. Very cool.

Hot springs lakeside. Really nice after not showering for 4 days.

Green lagoon.

Red lagoon (as you can tell, not just clever names)

We´re now in Buenos Aires for a week...let the booze begin.

Pampus and Jungle, Amazon Basin, Bolivia

We ventured into amazon to see what the hype was about. The tour consisted of 3 days in what they call the Pampas, 2 days jungle. There was lots to see and I´m less than well after last night so we´re going heavy on the pics and light on the text in this one.

PAMPAS

First day 3 hour drive out to the pampas in an 89 jeep on a dirt road.. soar ass. Hop in a long boat, start cruising down the river checking for wildlife.

First sighting is turtles, they like each other...


This becomes a familiar sight inside 10 minutes. Without notice the guide stops the boat, throws it in reverse and backs up to a bush on the side of the river. He points inside the bush, we look... an alligator 4 feet away. We´re in awe. We praise the keen eye of our guide. Little do we know there´s another gator every 40 feet on the bank.

apparently it´s within bolivian safety standards to nose the boat into the bank as close as possible to the gators.

Spot some monkeys in the trees. We pull up, they get curious and come down.


This area is also home to the world´s biggest rodent, the capybara...

It starts pissing rain, we get to camp, set up, have dinner and pack it in. Next morning we hike the flats beside the river in search of an anaconda. Our guide ditches us on the side of this lagoon to go dive his arms into bushes searching for an anaconda, he´s a braver man than I. This search takes him into those bushes in the background and out of sight for a good half hour. During this time, we contemplate our future should he not return.

Hike drags on for 5 hours. no anaconda.

Post lunch we head out to a bay on the river to do some swimming with dolphins. Our guide assures us that should an alligator decide to get frisky, the dolphins would take care of business. With little belief in this statement, we decide to go swimming anyways.
Next morn we wake up early and head out to a field in the pampas to check out the sunrise. It doesn´t disappoint.

After breaky, we go pirahna fishing. Our guide shows us how. Turns out it´s not georgian bay, I´m just bad a fishing. Our guide however cleans up with 5 pirahnas inside 5 minutes.

On the way home, we spot at bird taking down a fish.

JUNGLE

We take a boat out from the central town, Rurrenabaque. 3 hours, pretty scenic.

Get to camp, lunch, siesta and start up on a jungle hike.

We thought T had conquered his fear of heights on death road.... we were wrong.

We find a plant whose leaves the natives would squeeze to get juice for face paint. Lindo finds another use more fitting for himself.. rouge.

There were big trees.

Watering hole.

This is a walker tree. it can break and regrow those roots to move up to 5 meters over 2 years.

There was a chick in our group allergic to bees. Unfortunate for her..

We got back from the jungle, had lunch and hopped on some bike taxis to the airport. Flights were delayed a day ´cuz the grass runway was to slick for landing after rain.

one love,

mark

Death Road

Mountain biking down death road wasn´t exactly my activity of choice being that i am not comfortable of heights however it turned out to be quite an experience.

This one lane dirt road was major transporation route up until 1.5 years ago when it was replaced by a new highway. Biking down we dropped roughly 3200 metres with a 400 metre drop at times on your left. When it was used as a transport road 300 to 400 people died on it each year making it the most dangerous stretch of highway in the world.Lindo continues to look great and he also managed to score us a free place to stay in South Africa from our mountain guide.

The weather change was dramatic with freezing tempurates at the top to hot humid temps at the bottom.Marks thyroid issue persissted however he was able to battle through it on the ride, what a trooper.

Thirnan

Lake Titicaca, Bolivia side

For all those that are wondering Mark´s thyroid saga continues. We had a travel day from Machu Picchu to lake titicaca what was supposed to take 10 hours ( train and bus). We payed a little extra to be on a more reliable bus. Money not well spent the bus broke down anyways. Bus drivers in South America drive nuts by the way.

To pass the 3 hours that we were stranded in the middle of knowwhere we played a little disk. The locals on the bus started demanding that they get their money back and there a was a near riot.

We hopped the border to the Bolivian town of Copacabana located on lake Titicaca. Bolivia has a bit of a bum wrap but the people are really nice and things have been great so far. We spent a night on an island located on the lake called isla del sol. It was and awesome place.

This little girl was selling straw Lama dolls randomly on this path and we felt that we should buy one. I gave her an extra Canadian flag that i had. We later realised that her parents were hiding behind the bushes feeding her sales pitch lines. Great pic

We have decided the straw lama will be our mascotte for the trip. We named it Cloudia after the little girl.

Maenchu Pichu (as T would say)

Now that T has arrived, the trip has started, for all of us. I needed someone to fill the void left by Marieke and T stepped up to the plate (see below).


This is machu picchu. so are the rest of the pictures. enjoy.


before I continue sidenote, the story of Paul (Lindo) Cole: the help at our place in cusco once described this young man as ¨lindo¨ - a complement of beauty having no comparison. Since then, he has received free shots and a contract offer to model for paint stores in bolivia.

we arose at 5 to hit the ruins before the crowds could swarm. Lindo looked as good as ever. We climbed Waynapicchu when it opened at 7. It´s the peak in the background of all the classic pics. Incase you haven´t seen enough in the past, here´s an original.


The hike was steep, with minimal guardrails. Peru´s safety standards are a little different.


The view from ontop was insane. We watched the fog roll out over the course of a couple hours.

As you may be able to tell we like cliffs.. and the back of our heads, so expect many more pics of both.