Friday, January 13, 2012

Only 2 weeks left!





dynamite!
This is in Potosi, Bolivia where we went on a tour of the silver mine which has been producing silver since sometime in the 1600´s. First we bought gifts for the miners, such as dynamite, water, soft drinks, or coca leaves, and then we spent about 2 hours crawling through the tunnels. It is hot, hard work. Currently the miners are still profiting, however they don´t expect it to last much longer.
Potosi

ready for the mines


the miners come running along with their carts...

crawling through the tunnels. very hot inside, about 110 F

also very dusty

we survived!

Silver Mtn.


Uyuni. The town was brown and dirty, but the 3 day tour we went on was amazing!
starting with the train cemetery: a collection of rusty train parts with tourists climbing all over them

hotel made out of salt

lots of salt. this was at the primitive processing plant;
after heating and sifting they scooped it into little baggies
which they sealed with a hot metal rod

Uyuni Salt flats, an awesome place

because of the water on the surface during the rainy season, it was often hard to tell what was reflection and what wasn´t

it is the largest salt flat in the world
we heard different numbers-over 4,000 sq miles, several  meters deep(in salt)
and 12,000 ft above sea level

lots of llamas, they all trooped past  followed by
a lady all bundled in skirts


crazy place. ¨the rock gardens¨ I called them. we could have spent
days exploring and camping out here

the ¨condor¨

spent 3 days in this car


rainy season! many areas are susceptible to flash flooding

flamingos

vicuñas

some sort of a cross between a rabbit and a squirrel

awe-inspiring. vast desert surrounded by massive snow-capped peaks

the rock tree
laguna roja

huge flocks of flamingos in a place where there appears to be very little other life




steam geyser, very loud-sounded like a jet

this was an eerie place; steamy, smelled of sulphur, weird crusty holes- some filled with bubbling mud...   

boiling mud pit

hot springs! a beautiful soaking spot

more desert

laguna verde
Tupiza. Could be a back-drop for a wild west movie- 
red rock canyons, tall cactus, dry dusty roads...
We took a 3 hour horse ride. The horses were slow but the scenery was great.
We were unprepared for the flooding of the streets: after a half hr downpour the streets became rivers! Rushing, swirling, brown rivers- I wished I had my Xtratufs.
our horse riding guide- Marcos


beautiful canyon and cactus country
Argentina! We have been spending many hours on the buses- all dayers, overnighters, both...ugh.
Nearly to Santiago though! We are now in Mendoza, where the temperature and 
the prices have gone up considably.

Governers house in Tucuman, Argentina

massive park! several square miles. they do parks very well down here

Monday, January 2, 2012

Bolivia

Kayaking in Lake Titicaca

 On certain holidays you can get your car blessed at the church.  It makes it last longer and I´ve heard it is great for gas mileage. At 8 bucks a gallon every little bit helps.

 Our bus getting a ride across the lake.

The start of our Huayna Potosi climb. Around 15,000 ft.


The day after Christmas.  We had a huge snow storm on Christmas.  There isn´t usually snow this far down.


Day 2 - Getting higher


2nd Camp -  16,850 ft. We didn´t go real far the first 2 days, mostly sat around and aclimated.

Day 3 - After a short night we started climbing at 1:30 am.

About 18,000 ft, slow going in deep crusty snow.

Daylight at 19,000 feet. Starting to wallow in the drifts.

Our trusty guide Johny. At 24 he was the youngest guide on the mountain, but he worked hard and did way more than his share of breaking trail.

7:00 am at 19,500 feet 
Only 500 feet to go but had to turn around because of bad weather and too much snow.

Another pair working their way down the mountain, after we turned around everyone else followed.  Unfortunately there was too much snow for anyone to summit that day.

 Awesome ice formations.

 Major deep crevasses. Picture doesn´t show it, but I wasn´t going to fall on to get a good photo. this one was probably 50 feet deep and we had to jump it.

 A poster of our mountain.



 The next morning headed to the Death Road for a bike ride.



 We started at 15,500 feet and went down 12,000 feet in 63 kilometers!



Started out on the paved road with traffic. Super fast! Over 45 mph, passing the cars!

 Borrowed a few pics here, we had someone taking pics for the group, but can´t load the disk here.
We turned off onto the one-lane gravel road once considered the world´s deadliest road.  It is out of use now, but it was once responsible for an average of 80 deaths per year.

 Greatest adventure ever.  Perfect white-knuckle ride.

 
We went down so fast for so far our hands started to ache from the constant chattering over bumps.

 We headed to Sucre, Bolivia for New Years.

 Time for some R&R



 At the Dinosaur Park.  This wall was once a lake bed and it is covered in over 5,000 dinosaur tracks.

A little hard to photograph, but some of the tracks are almost a yard across!




Very life-like recreations...

 
4th Anniversary

 Thankfully we are not tied to the nest yet... especially this one.