Whoa The Places We'll Go: Bolivia: The Real Otherside of the Moon

Hello friends, family and fans of the blog. We have had some incredible experiences since our last post. Carnaval was quite an experience, by the end of it we were pretty sick of being soaked by water balloons and sprayed with shaving cream. But we were very glad to have the experience. The first day of official carnaval we went and sat near the Plaza in Sucre and watched the Entrada Viejo or Old Parade, meaning people were dressed from earlier times and they drove cool old cars. Unfortunately we don't have photos of this because one casualty of Carnaval was Ali's iPhone which had our photos.

Us with our Italian, Marco

Towards the end of Carnaval we met some awesome new friends Marco and Milly and Chris. Marco is Italian and does an incredible Texas accent, and he loved throwing water balloons with us (when we still liked Carnaval). Milly and Chris are an English couple who gave us lots of great tips on Argentina and Chile and they were always there for a good laugh especially making fun of Marco. Marco is our blogs number one fan too, you should hear him rave about it :) We had a great few last days in Sucre before we left to head to our next stop, Uyuni.

Us with Milly and Chris

We don't think anything could have prepared us for the incredible trip we were about to go on. We had heard horror stories about the 3 day jeep tour we were about to go on, that drivers were drunk and pulled knives on people, flat tires and terrible accommodations. We made sure to do our research and we decided on Blue Line Tours which ended up being a great choice. When we arrived in Uyuni we were both feeling a bit sick and were not in our best haggle mode. We ended up paying 950 Bolivianos for the tour (a little over 100 bucks) which included our transfer to Chile. When Sarah found out that other people paid less she gave the lady a piece of her mind and we got 50 Bolivianos back.

So the Salar de Uyuni or Salt Flats tour was incredible. There are caravans of Land Cruisers leaving Uyuni everyday to head out on the trip. Why Land Cruisers you ask? Who knows, they are durable we guess and we think Ali's mom's old Land Cruiser from the 90's was floating around there somewhere. In our Land Cruiser we had us, an Australian couple Steve and Lindsey (Steve is a detective and Lindsey is a lawyer) two friends from Brazil, Angie and Vitor (which Sarah was very excited about because she is obsessed with Brazilian music and we learned some new songs) and our awesome driver Eddie. The first day we headed out around 11:00 AM and drove to the Salt Flats. The Salt Flats are huge at about 4,000 square miles. Since it is rainy season there is maybe about 6 inches of water on the ground and you get a really cool reflection. We drove around the Salar stopping for photos and we had lunch at a hotel made of salt, posed for some band like photos with our new friends and continued driving.

Sarah on the Salt Flats

Jumping Captions

Squashing Sarah

Sarah being Ali's conscious

Mini Sarah

Salt Flats

Amazing reflection

Steve, Lindsey, Ali, Sarah, Angie, and Vitor

Salt Angel

Yoga

Planks

Salt Hotel Band

Flags near the Salt Hotel

Vitor, Angie, Sarah, Ali, Lindsey and Steve the group!

Us with our driver, Sexy Eddie

We then headed to the train cemetery which was a long line of abandoned trains. Potosi, a small mining city in Bolivia used to be incredibly rich with silver and it was a huge industry for some European countries years ago. Although the mining still happens the trains have stopped running and we got to play on them. After our train adventures we drove to a very small town that seems only to exist for the tourism industry and stayed there for the night.

Feet after the salt flats

Train Cemetary

Trains, planes and automobiles

Attitude

Ali, Steve and Lindsey showing off their salty butts.

Cards and hot tea after first day

The next day we woke up early and enjoyed some scrambled eggs (no eggs for Sarah) and bread, but we weren't allowed to have plates (the lady was not a morning person) so we got creative. We all piled back in the Landcruiser and Eddie got to driving. Our first stop was this amazing area called the Valley of the Rocks which was this amazing field filled with crazy rock formations that were made thousands of years ago from molten lava. We took some fun, interesting photos in between these rocks and just sat and enjoyed the scenery. After the Valley of the Rocks and we continued to drive and saw some unbelievable Lagunas. So much of the scenery in this national park seems almost other worldly, red and green lakes with snow capped mountains and wild pink flamingos perched on top. A lot of the nature and mountains were red and reminded Sarah of different places in Arizona so she felt some homesick pangs :) We continued through the park seeing incredible views and vistas and stopping for lots of fun photos. We stopped for the night in a tiny little town where we warmed up with some tea and crackers and stocked up on some toilet paper, cough drops, and oreos (we both have not been able to shake a bad cough/cold).

Car Band

Rock Tree

Desert Star

We love photos can you tell?

Evolution

Tebowing (Ali had trouble - there were so many cameras)

Emmy and Rosa... ran into them on Uyuni tour and were beyond excited!!

Yoga

At Laguna Colorada

Laguna Colorada

Flamingo goes

Jumps

Look at those flamingos

Bathroom rules

Flamingos

The next morning we woke up at 4:40 AM to get an early start and headed out at 5:00 AM. We were freezing and cold as we drove through some amazing natural hot geysers that were pouring out of the earth. We both had nice mini facials from the steam and next we made our way to the breakfast spot where there was also a natural hot spring. Sarah enjoyed the hot water while Ali took some photos (she wasn't feeling well and didn't want to be cold after the hot springs). After a last breakfast with our group we were taken to the border of Chile and crossed into San Pedro de Atacama, the desert!! After being cold for a few days it was nice to feel the hot desert air. We decided to fly down to Santiago to meet up with Sarah's friend's friend Shawn. Shawn is from Arizona and moved to Santiago about a month ago. He suggested we rent a car and drive down to Patagonia with him to do the W trek! We are now staying at his apartment, planning the road trip. Tonight we are going to Sarah's friend Gretchen's Mom's house who lives in Santiago. We don't know how often we will have internet over the next few weeks but we will try to make updates. We are also going to meet Ali's family friend, Andi in Patagonia to do the trek! All great things!