Nearing the end of Leg 1

Big sky country
Originally uploaded by camandkristin.

When we last wrote Cam was near unconcious in our hostel room in La Paz. Something about climbing from sea level to 4000m in 30 minutes really ruined him- hardly surprising. We managed to get on the bus that night and pressed on to Sucre, which turned out to be a beautiful city and one of the first you could actually imagine living in. Could be because it had a restaraunt which served a "supersteak" and baked potato which was the best meal we've seen in 3 months. From Sucre, we (along with Jon and Hannah) hired a taxi to take us to a nearby town (Tarabuco) to see the Sunday market. It was cool to see, but not too different from most markets down here. Piles of blankets, veggies, meat, and the occasional bucket of cows head. Just the usual.

From Sucre we pressed on to Potosi which was once the worlds richest city (and is still the worlds highest city), but now doesn't show any signs of that except the Mint where they first started producing coins. The backdrop of Potosi is the mountain which houses the cooperative mines. It's the only real industry there, and boys start working at the age of 12 or so and usually spend their lives their. We toured inside the mines which was unbearable for only 3 hours, so the thought of working inside for 12+ hours a day with nothing to eat but cocoa leaves left us all a bit depressed.

We moved on from Potosi to Uyuni, which is Bolivia's version of Las Vegas- a city in the middle of the desert. Uyuni has nothing to offer (including water) except for tours of the Southwest Circuit and the Salar (the largest salt flat in the world). We booked a 3 day tour with our friends Ryan and Amanda (Halifax), and Jo and Hugh (England), which would end by taking us across the Chilean border. The trip was absolutely amazing, and most of us agree that it has been the highlight of our time in South America. We saw volcanos, caves with mummies, endless expanses of salt, hotels made of salt, lagoons of all colours, flamingos, geysers, rock formations, and landscapes that threatened to wear out our camera. It was truly the most beautiful countryside we have seen and it puts Bolivia at the top of our "favourites" list.

We ended the tour by crossing the border into Chile at San Pedro de Atacama, and within minutes we could see and feel the differences of Chile. Lines painted on the roads, and metal guardrails, a border crossing where they actually search your belongings, and, the biggest difference, the people looked like they could have walked out of Vancouver yesterday. San Pedro was a neat town smack in the middle of the World´s driest desert, so it is very expensive, and the water runs out all the time which makes flushing toilets a bit of a trick. But hey- at least they had toilets...

We had planned to catch a bus from San Pedro to Salta, Argentina, but it turns out you have to book busses in Chile more than 15 minutes in advance. Like 5 days in advance, in some cases. So, since we are running out of time, we headed 18 hours south to La Serena in Chile, where we are now. It's a great city, right on the ocean, and feels like our first real taste of "home" in a while. Yesterday we went swimming and it felt weird to be so far from home and yet in the same ocean! It also feels weird to be suntanning 10 days before Christmas.

Tonight we head across the Andes to Mendoza, Argentina. We don't have much time there, but want to at least get our feet on Argentinian soil while we're here. We have to get back to Santiago for our flight to Auckland on Christmas day.

Before we go we will treat ourselves to McDonalds :)

Hi to everyone,
Cam and Kristin.