Bolivia ~ Salar de Uyuni

The beauty that lies beyond this Bolivian border is beyond words. At an altitude ranging from 8000 to 15,800 feet we all had to bundle up for the cold. We even chewed a few coca leaves in hopes of mitigating altitude sickness. Ha!

I wish I could say the coca leaves worked but they tasted terrible and did nothing for us. I think it must be a cumulative process as our driver happily had a chipmunk cheek full of coca leaves going for the entire trip. 

                           

Charley and Irme from Germany joined us to explore this magical journey across the Bolivian Salt Flats. The skies were crystal clear and the sun was so blindingly bright that sunglasses and sunscreen were mandatory along with plenty of water as the Atacama is the driest desert in the world.  

The incredible variation of the terrain that unfolded in front of us was astounding. Mile after mile we were traveling in a living slideshow, the only way we knew it was real was the bone chilling cold! (Of course Irme and Charley only had 2 layers of clothes to our 9..... Germany verses Hawaii) 

And how did those flamingos manage the cold, especially with their heads constantly under water?! Just like the penguins, they huddle together in a tight group overnight and try to find a warm spot on the lake near a thermal spring.

    

The geysers provided a spot to warm up and have a beauty treatment at the same time. The warm mud was heavenly and steaming it off was even better. 

 

Then in the midst of this enormous salt flat we found an island with petrified coral formations and ancient cactus. Here we could only pretend to swim through the arches and tunnels from millions of years ago. It made us homesick for the ocean in Maui and all our swim buddies. 

      

As we reached the edge of the salt flats we saw the cone shaped piles of salt which are manually collected by shoveling off only the top few inches of salt. Long, hard and blinding work.

Finally, it was time to bid farewell to the immense other worldly beauty of the Atacama and Bolivian Salt Flats and the strange land of bizarre perspective.

Argentina ~ Surprise Visit

Imagine our surprise when we opened our apartment door in Buenos Aires and found Evelyn standing there with a big smile on her face.  On the spur of the moment she had decided a vacation would do her a world of good so she jumped on the next plane to Argentina to join us for a few weeks.  We were overjoyed to see her and immediately began to make a feast to celebrate our reunion.

Being the consummate traveler, Evelyn was ready to hit the streets and explore Buenos Aires.  No napping for her.  No need to take it easy after a long flight.  Nope not Evelyn, she’s always ready to seize the moment and have fun. So off we go to show her the sites.

Now, a visit to Buenos Aires would not be complete without sampling many of the wonderful Alfajores cookies made with 'dulce de leche' (thick caramel) between two 'melt in your mouth' butter cookies and coated with chocolate.  Evelyn, being a chocoholic was only too happy to oblige when Patti  shared all her favorite Alfajores with her.

Another national passion we wanted to share with Evelyn was the Tango and she was a natural.  After practicing a few steps we took to it like pros.  I, of course was the one in drag.

To expand our horizons we decided to take a road trip to explore several places in northern Argentina and Chile.  After Evelyn leaves, Patti and I will be traveling to Bolivia so we needed to spend time at elevation of at least 10,000 feet to help us acclimatize before heading off to even higher elevations in Bolivia.

First stop was Jujuy in northern Argentina where we hiked in the multi-colored mountains, fed llamas and indulged in Evelyn's favorite past time, shopping.

          

       

     

  

Next stop, San Pedro de Atacama Chile to experience the driest desert in the world. When we thought of 'desert' we all thought of hot, dry, desolate landscapes, well we got the 'dry' part right.  While San Pedro is located in the low elevation of 7500 feet, many of the places we visited were well over 13,000 feet and it was COLD as in what are we doing here! cold.  The landscape on the other hand was beautiful.  It reminded us all of the Haleakala crater in Maui except on a much grander scale. Gracias Dios, Haleakala is much warmer.  

 

Which is where Evelyn will soon be heading while we venture on to Bolivia. Warmer days ahead for our smart friend Evelyn and even colder days ahead for us. It's no wonder she is the one with the PhD!