Saltdesert & a bit of Bolivia

Atacama was exhausting but definatly worth the sweat and energy. The day after the biking we booked a tour from San Pedro to Uyuni in Bolivia. This tour included the border crossing, many lagoons and the famous Salar de Uyuni. The border crossing was on 4600 m which caused a big headache for the most of us...and again I have to admit that border crossing for people out of the US is just 10 x worse than for everyone else... they always have to pay, at least 3 times more, ... but this is because they charging south americans the same so it is just fair sport...
At the first day we drove to a lot of lagoons, red, blue, green and viollet. They have different colors for different reasons, some of them have got special types of salt in them, some others differnt types of algae. Then we stopped at geysers, which was really stinky because of all the sulfur shooting out of them....but still really interresting to see how it bubbled. In the late afternoon we arrived at our accommodation, it was pretty basic but we were told that before!!I know!!! it was just that we were on 4300m and there was no heater, double gassed windows or anything simillar!!!the toilets were nice....at the beginning, but after 24 people been to it at least once...mmhh one can imagine I think. Anyway the evening was realy nice because an american guy brought his guitar and additional he wasn´t the only one to play the guitar pretty perfect....so we had a nice long evening of singing until we didn´t know any lyrics anymore. My night was hot and even a bit sweaty because I was the only one with a sleepingbag ready for minus temps ; ) proved and tested in nepal.
The next day started with a big stone which has a funny form. Other stopps were a look out point to see a vulcano which was actually a bit smoky. Afterwards we stopped at another lagoon and several times at interresting places in the dessert.
Our second accommodation was way better and most important warmer, with a shower and a toilet one just had to share between six. Had a three course dinner, and quite a few beer before we finally started having an even bigger gig than last night...and longer...and louder...
The next day, was the shortest time wise, but the biggest attraction wise. We went to the Salar de Uyuni....and it was wide and big, really really wide & big and white...you couldn´t see the end of it, which meant that everything started reflecting on the ground, e.g like the sky or far mountains....stunning...
after a 40 min drive we stopped in the middle of the Saltdesert at a hill, which was full of cactuses. But the main reason why we stopped, was a different one...
....because everything around you has the same color and appearance, we were able to start playing with the perspective....check out the pics...unbeliveable what you can do with a few people, a lot of salt and a camera...
After 3 hours of taking pics and posing, we had enough and headed of to Uyuni.

Uyuni is a little town close to the Saltflat, which makes it a little town with millions of travel agencies...
We had a last nice dinner with a couple of people from the tour, which was in the same time the first local dinner for us in Bolivia. As soon as it gets night in Bolivia you can find many many little shops everywhere, where old ladies selling ¨The Hamburguesa¨ which from that night on was supposed to become our basic dinner for the next couple of days.... it is a little burger with salad, tomatos, onions and fries on top, for 1,50bs which is approximately 15 dollar cents......awesome, cheap and delicious oh my goodness these hamburguesas are sooooooo goood and cheap....but, and this might be the reason why not everyone is having them, it looks a bit dodgy in which environment they´re made, and it propably is...but for people with a strong stomach, the best bargain in Bolivia. Ross and I we left Uyuni the next day to Tupiza. That sounds pretty easy and fast, but it was really lucky that we got the bus.
I gave up my laundry the day we arrived, same as Ross, and the lady said until the next morning 8 o´clock it would be finished...so at the morning we wanted to leave there was no laundry lady...but our bus was supposed to leave at 9. and because I gave up my whole stack of clothes, we had to wait.....8:30........ .. 8:45 ....8:50 then I decided to go to the busstation and change our tickets but they said there wouldn´t be a bus to Tupiza the next 2 days......shit...it looked like we would get stuck in Uyuni.... but then I saw this massive amount of luggage people were waiting with for the bus...so I thought maybe we could be faster than they would be able to load the bus. So I ran back to the hotel, Ross just got the laundry and had started packing...so we packed as fast as we never packed before, grabbed our bags and ran back to the busstation.....and...........people were still sitting there...YEAH juuuuhhhuuuu lucky.....
In the end the bus was 1 1/2 hours belated... and took 10 instead of 6 hours, but we were never more happy about the fact that a bus was too late....
Many regards and the promise that the next post will come faster...
Simon

San Pedro de Atacama

San Pedro de Atacama befindet sich in der Atacama wueste welche die trockenste der welt ist...und es liegt 2645m, was uns anfangs ein bischen zu schaffen gemacht hat. Das mag aber auch daran gelegen haben das wir uns gleich am ersten tag fahrraeder ausgeliehen haben um eine radtour zu machen...Diese radtour war urspruenglich dazu gedacht einen abstecher in die wueste zu machen, es kam aber alles ein bischen anders.
Erste tour war ca 15km(one way) und fuehrte ins Gruene Tal, was fuer leute die in der wueste leben eine attraktion ist...naja fuer uns war es nicht ganz so besonders, gruen halt.. doch spass hatten wir alle mal, viele flussueberquerungen, von denen uns natuerlich keiner was gesagt hatte. Flussueberquerung heisst in diesem fall: finde die stelle wo der fluss am schmalsten ist und nicht zu tief. Manchmal konnte man durchfahren, dann wurde nur der ruecken vom hinterrad nass und andere male musste man das bike tragen, was in meinem fall dann bedeutete dass einem das wasser bis zur unterhose ging!!!naja anschliessend gings natuerlich wieder mit trockenen sand und - schotterwegen weiter, was insbesondere meine schuhe leider nicht so gut abhaben konnten...
nach insgesamt 4std fahrradfahren kamen wir dann wieder in San Pedro an.
Nun mussten wir enscheiden ob wir noch die zweite attraktion anfahren wollten oder nicht...
Valle de la Luna war 18km...und man hoerte dass der weg dort hin geteert sein soll. Also haben wir uns nach weiteren 2l wasser bei 32c wieder auf gemacht.......der weg war geteert, genau 4km...aber er war eben... bis wir dort ankamen und feststellen durften das es kurz vor dem ziel nochmal ca. 1km richtig steil bergauf ging...
Als wir dann auch dass geschafft hatten wurden wir mit einer wirklich dem Mond verblueffend aehnlich aussehenden(von den bildern die man so im fernsehen sieht) landschaft belohnt...und zwar war die landschaft ein mix aus sandduenen, geroell und obendrein alles ueberdeckt von feinen salzablagerungen...
Der heimweg ging dann wesentlich schneller...zum glueck...am abend tat uns dann allen der hintern gewaltig weh, so dass wir relativ zuegig ins bett sind...achso und meine schuhe konnte ich wegschmeissen...
Am naechsten tag haben wie dann alles ganz ruhig angehen lassen und entspannt, ich hab in meinem tagebuch einwenig aufholen koennen und kam sogar malwieder zum lesen...zum abendessen haben wir uns dann ein halbes huhn gekauft dass wir erstmal ausnehmen mussten und anschliessend haeuten um das fleisch zu entfernen, weil wir in der annahme dass es einen backofen gibt falsch lagen...das kochen hat ganze 2 1/2 std gedauert, war am ende aber mit reis, huehnchen, paprika - karotten - mais -zucchini gemuese ein richtiges Abendessen!!!
bis bald
euer Weltenbummler

Santiago de Chile and around

A short introduction...the last two weeks Ross and I spent in Argentina were great and a lot of fun. From Agrentina(Mendoza) we took a bus to Santiago de Chile which was an 8h bus ride. We drove up to 4200m crossed the border to Chile and drove all the way down again to Santiago..

Santiago is Chiles capital and with a population of 5.5 mio people a really big city. We spent 4 days there which was just enough to see the most common sightseeing places. One of them was a Hill in the middle of the city where all the chillians ride up their bikes on sundays, we hadn´t had bikes, so we took the funicular up to the top...Once you reach the top you´ve got a really nice view over the city. On the very top there is a statue of Maria, where most of the locals walk up to get rid of some coins for their wishes(by donating it to Maria), pray or just search for some shade under the big Maria statue...
But the hill offers way more than just the statue, a really big park for the whole family or a Zoo, which was our choice, to look at or enjoy. We saw some Lamas, Flamingos and Tigers, quite nice, but not comparable with our ZOO in Stuttgart!!!
The second and third day we walked through the city, visited some museums and just relaxed...I really enjoyed that weekend without party, but that doesn´t mean that I wouldn´t be up for it the next weekend(regards to my mom at this point)

We spent the following 3 days in Valparaiso and Vina del Mar. These two cities are just 15 min away from each other, but totally different!!

Valparaiso is on a hill, has got a habour and many many steep streets up to the housing areas on the hills. For really steep bits, it has got 14 little cable cars goin up approx. 60 or 70%...and they are pretty old, which makes it a really nice experience using one of them. It is a pretty poor city with a couple of areas we were supposed to avoid because they seemed to be too dangerous..
Vina del Mar in contrary is nice and clean a has got more money, beaches and beautiful parks...
Both cities were nice and in some way special...the 3 days we spent there they had a bush fire around the corner, which was in the news over and over again. It was pretty big, because as soon as u left the house u had ash all over the place, additional to that every afternoon the sky turned grey, nearly black. That gave us the opportunity to watch a abnormal sunset at the beach...

Next stop was then San Pedro de Atacama which is in the north of Chile and it is so famous because it has got the driest dessert in the world...
It took us 24hours and51 min to get there with the bus...and we hadn´t had a propper lunch or dinner or breakfast the whole journey...what a shitty company....
see u soon
simon

Paraguay & back to Buenos Aires

Okay there we are...3 o´clock in the morning at the bus terminal in Asuncion(capital of Paraguay) Nataly can´t pick us up because it´s too late, and we can´t find a BPs in the lonley planet which has a 24h reception. So we started walking to find a cheap Hotel...but the area seemed to be pretty dangerous and because it is more than 3km away from the center, we hadn´t had a great choice...the first one looked alright, but it was full. The lady behind the counter tried to explain us something but because our spanish is not the best we couldn´t understand what she wanted...finally we jsut followed her... walked thru a backyard to the next place which was dirty and cheap, and we couldn´t be bothered to search for something else...

Next morning we got picked up by Nataly and her mom, bought our bustickets to Buenos Aires and drove to her home, where we had propably the healthiest meal since I left Sydney. Afterwards she drove us to the center of the city and showed us around...Asuncion is a nice place, against all that rumour which is goin around under Backpackers here in South-America. There is not as much to see as in BA but if you´re around definately worth a visit...anyway after the city tour we drove back to her house where she decided to tell us that she organized a party for us with 12 of her girlfriends that evening and that she is really sad that we´re living and she will have to cancel the party(bought tickets for the same day, cos we wanted to go to BA for the weekend).....but after we heard that we called the buscompany and changed our tickets straight away...that was the first surprise that day and the second didn´t take long... half an hour later we found out that her sister is a model and she´s on quite a lot of billboards, advertising for chochlate or cellphones.
The night out was great...nice people cheap drinks and a good atmosphere...
The day after was really nice as well because we drove to a lake outside of Asuncion city, had a look around in a local holiday town(village, whatever) and spent the rest of the day talking to the Fiedlers...really really nice and friendly family!!!!(my second one)
In the evening we took the bus to Buenos Aires....
Yeah BA we´re coming.....AGAIN...