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Heyyyyyyyy there.
Well, I have 17 minutes to tell you about my last couple of days!
After I left Oruru I biked really really hard for a day and made it to the twon of... Chuquicara.... I think... I wasnted to go as far as I could to that town because it was where the pavement south ended. The next I started on the supposedly "two lane dirt road", or at least that is what my map said. The road was oing to be two lanes... eventually. It was under construction, and in the middle of nowhere. At times it was smoother than the highway, while at other times..... it was bumpy, dirty, rocky, with huge construction semis zooming by all the time. That night I slept on a hill, out of view of the road, overlooking the altiplano. I wasn't really that impressed with Bolivia untill that night: It was seriously the best sunset that I have ever seen. Every color of the rainbow was in it (we are talking green too. Green! in a sunset!) and then later that night the stars were beautiful.
The next day was long, with a rough road, I made it to the town of Jirira, which was right at the edge of the salt flats, after TWELVE hours of biking. I was so tired, and when I rolled into that tiny town there was nobody in sight. I wandered around for a bit, and then proceeded to have the creepiest night on record. I slept that night in the churchyard of an abandoned church, with the wind whipping the willows above. right when it got dark I climbed the church tower and ate a mango. It is crazy thinking about time; a year ago I never imagined that on that particular day this year I would be peeling a mango in the abandoned church tower in a tiny town at the edge of a salt desert... weird.
The next day I started across the salt desert. If anyone can remember the third Pirates of the Caribbean movie when Johnny Depp was in the middle of purgatory or whatever, and all that you could see was a white plain and the blue sky? I know it is silly to compare my life to that movie, but that is EXACTÑY what it looked like. Below me was a white flat sheet, and above me was blue sky. that was it. If I looked one direction I could see absoutely nothing,and the other direction was the mirage of floating islands and mountains, so far away that edges curved up and they looked like UFOs. I headed to what I thought was the "Isla del Pescado", an island I could ee from the salar right by the town. I biked directly at it for 5 hours before I got to it. 5 hours! the perspective was crazy. Also at one time I was able to close my eyes and bike for ten full minutes without hitting anything! This place was seriously unreal. Gotto the island, and it actually probably wasn't that right one. My map only showed two islands, but in reality there were hundreds, as I found out that night as I got LOST.
Around 4 o clock it got so windy that I couldn't bike, so trudged through salty sludge to hide for the night behind a rock. The next morning I headed out very early in order to try and find a road, or a track, o SOMETHING to get me out of that flat salty hell hole. About half an hour after setting out I saw barely there tracks in the salt. I folled these tracks for 4 hours (which reminded me a lot of skiing on the Salcha river back home in Alaska, and following the snowmachine tracks) untill I FINALLY got to the shore. The tracks turned into a dirt road, and I soon was setting off on this very bumpy road to San Pedro de Quemez, a tiny tiny town. I started on the dirt road around 10am, and didn'rget to the town till aorund 3, because this day I was exhausted. I think it must have been the altitude, but this day I walked for more than half the day. It was ridiculous! I wouldbike 20 secnds, pant, for a full minute, walk untill I stopped panting. Just doing someting like taking a drink of water left me out of breath.
No more internet time, but I'll write more soon, with pictures! Hope everyone is well, and any students good luck with finals!
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