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Hey All.James Adam and I arrived in Cordoba Argentina yesterday after a long string of bus rides including plenty of Settlers of Catan and a car chase to boot. We shall get to that in a bit.First, to end our travels in Bolivia we headed south and did a 3 day tour of the world's largest salt flats and the Potosi silver mine. This blog will leave a lot of the descriptive up to the pictures.
The Salar de Uyuni is the largest salt flat in the world and is home to many bizarre landscapes. The flats were created from part of the ocean receding away from Bolivia and leaving a massive amount of salt from the sea water behind.The first day of the tour featured a quick view at a 'railroad/train cemetery' which seemed like filler more than anything.Next we got to check out the salt flats.First off, it was blinding!Without sunglasses you would be hopeless.The salt flats stretch as far as the eye can see….pure white.
That night we arrived at a cool salt hotel where the seats, floor, beds, and tables were made of salt.This was by far the coldest night of the entire trip bringing back memories of our house in Kingston.It probably was around the 10C range which is surprising considering it's a desert!It doesn't help that we were at 4200m surrounded by sand.
Next day we checked out a bunch of lagoons, the coolest being a red lagoon. The lagoon was bigger than most lakes and was pure red due to red blooming algae.Flamingos were a plenty at all of these lagoons.The next stop featured geysers spraying out steam, gas, and sulfur (smelled pretty bad). Along with the flats, flamingos, lagoons, and geysers, the landscape of mountains was incredible.
After Uyuni we took a quick bus to Potosi to see an old revered silver mine.We joined a tour and headed into the mines with helmet and head lamp."Hi Ho Hi Ho it's off to work we go" may have been sung a few times.The mine has been operating for 400 years and used to mine silver however the prime minerals now is zinc and lead.We began the tour at a miners market where we purchased coca leaves, coca cola, gloves, cigarettes, and dynamite for the miners as gifts.In the mine we descended down narrow crooked ladders 7 stories to get to the bottom level.A few people in our group stayed behind as the ladders seemed too challenging and scary (they were).Once at the bottom we saw a few miners loading up piles of minerals onto a mechanical winch straight to the surface.On the climb back up, we experienced dynamite explosions which happen every day at noon.I thought we were going to die.The sound reverberations echoed in the shaft making your ears hurt from the pressure.So cool.We survived the climb back up and met back up with our group.We then stopped by this devil statue which the miners and tourists give cigarettes, alcohol, and baby llama fetuses as gifts!This is all for good luck and safety in the mine.We managed to escape the mine without the black lung 'cough cough' a la Zoolander.
Since our Bolivian visa expired in a day or two after the mine, we quickly headed for the border and our longest stretch of buses so far.
Bolivia Scorecard
Food - 7 (nothing special, although we found a Subway!)
People- 7
Nightlife- 8 (another Loki hostel and a few clubs in La Paz weren't shabby)
Adventure- 7 (jungle trek river tubing was bomb)
Highlight- 7 (jungle trek)
Overall-7 (we stayed too long but it was so cheap)
Once across the border we booked a bus to Cordoba with a 5 hr layover in a random city.At this stop we leisurely grabbed some lunch and played a game of interception with the football in a park.We headed back to the bus station with 45 minutes to spare.At the ticket booth we asked if the bus was on time and were told it left 15 minutes ago!We were shocked.Apparently we crossed a time zone somehow travelling due south from Bolivia to Argentina.s***!So our bus which was very expensive to our standards was driving off without us.Perfect.The ticket agent suggested that we get in a cab and chase down this bus fast and the furious style.Without hesitation we hopped in a cab and made after the bus.After about 20 minutes into the chase we caught the bus at the next stop and climbed in!
Now in Cordoba I have realized that many locals have no idea what I am saying. I realize that hasn't changed much from the other countries as my Spanish sucks but simple sayings confuse them.Must be different accents within South America…I'll try to put on a southern twang and see how that works….stay tuned.
- comments
Hansel You have the feminine cheek bones to pull off a zoolander dude