Thursday, August 30, 2012
Chiclayo
Wednesday, August 29, 2012
Trujillo and the ruins
Tuesday, August 28, 2012
Huanchaco
Sunday, August 26, 2012
The Atacama Desert
Saturday, August 25, 2012
The long trip
Tuesday, August 21, 2012
The River
Tuesday, August 14, 2012
Ollantayambo and the Sacred Valley
Cusco and around
Lake Titikaka
The surprising La Paz
Thursday, August 2, 2012
Salar de Uyuni
It is the kind a place where everybody should see before they die...amazing, surreal desert of salt where the blue of the sky and the white of the salt makes you feel in a different planet. We got lucky we had a beautiful sunny day, we had lunch in a cactus island in the middle of the salar. Rarely life gets better than that.
We have a three days tour with an overnight stay in a hotel made of salt and the second night made of desert rock. The view from both hotels in the middle of nowhere is breathtaking. We explore deserts, caves, geysers and lagoons. The red lagoon (litterally tomato sauce red) being the most amazing and the green having the greatets surronding with volcano on the back. Bolivia amazes me by its beauty, the richness of the land and in a way the fact that people knows that all that wealth goes really in a hand of few or abroad. We see the train that crosses the desert 3 times a week to reach Chile...a train only of minerals. Half jockingly they say that the only thing Bolivians make is baby!!!
Potosì, the top of the world
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We felt the thin air, going up the stairs can be a little challenging, an occasional morning headache but over all the altitude is not as bad as we had anticipated. It's chilly but the sun is warm. We tour the little town and the mint house that tell you all about the history of this land. Silver, colonization, slavery, greed and the decadence of empires.
Next day we are not sure about visiting the mine and in the afternoon we decide to go with a very fun group and our miner guide Pedro. It is really a lifetime experience, as Matthias put it (considering his already long life), we walk 3 km in the tunnel, saw Tio the protector of the underworld, and the miners of course. It is a Friday afternoon at the end of a long week of work, the miners hang out, for their happy hour in the mine with coca leaves, strong alcohol and good companionship. The most incredible that they don't feel the need to get out !!!! They serve alcohol also to their little Tio.
Sucre, the little jewel
The stroll in Sucre is sweet, and the name does not come from sugar but from the name of the second president of Bolivia. The main square is full of life, the temperature ideal and the hotel really charming. We see foot print of dinousaurs and the kids are in heaven. La casa de la libertad is the pride of town. We discover a little homeopatic pharmacy with incredile good cookies made of quinoa and all kind of medicine for the altitude...we are ready for 4000 meters!
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