In Tupiza, tours
http://www.latorretours-tupiza.com/v2/
Tony and I went on a "Triathalon" tour which included:
Jeep: Palala, Tambillo, Monte Rico Charaota, La Poronga, Toroyoj, Entre Rios...
Trekking: Rios, La Torre, Mirador
Horse: Palmira, Puerta del Diablo, Valley of Males, Canon del Inca.
We had dinner with a sweet British honeymoon couple (inspiring?) and a dutch couple, (the guy was a cancer researcher!) and ate dinner at the recommended and gringo party (white people) at ¨Alamos.¨ They played a Shania Twain early 2000s concert DVD and then the famous "Project classico" of an 80s and 90s video mash up mix of popular songs with thier chorus. I MUST find a copy of that and bring it back. Mi amo Project Classico.
Next day: BIRTHDAY
I woke up in my plaster white room, tried to get awake, and turned on CNN Español... ¨It´s my birthday today!¨ I thought, but I was SO tired. That´s it, I need to get rolling, since I have a huge trip starting in a couple hours. I put on my Mp3 player and danced around to Major Lazer, Swedish House Mafia, and other pump up tunes. I met everyone for breakfast at 7:15 and the news got sprang on Tony and I that instead of leacing at 9, we had to leave at 8, with a different company now and all these other people. hahaha like I was going to be ready...
... after putting my stuff into my backpack (which is a funny thing because I haven´t really purchased antyhing and my bag seems to just get bigger and bigger), then ran down the street to get water and crackers.
In a hussle, I then met with some of the new faces in our jeep. It was these 2 Bristol, England girls and their other boy mates were in another jeep. YAY girls and YAY being girly. Tony, you´re a nice guy, but I needed some chick fill... after our first stop though, I met the others and entered lad-land with 4 british boys, which added an even awesomer and comedic dynamic!
This was the itinerary 4 days 3 nights.
1st day: Tupiza, Palala, Sillar, Awanapampa, Cerillos, San Pablo, San Antonio
The boys, since there is 5 of them now all together.. pretty much resemble a boy band and we have began shooting their debut album promotion photos. a.k.a HILARIOUS
The drove in two jeeps and one of the drivers was less experienced to say the least... throughout the trip he got better, but the boys had him the first day and he almost rolled the jeep and stalled on a cliff and went backwards. Can´t wait to sit in the back with him... (not). Driving alone bumpy roads, around cliffs and up mountains was an experiencs on it´s own. NOTE: if you have to pee, you need to stop right away because the bumps are so bad they rattled your bladder and will make you pee your pants. HOWEVER, the most unreal and spectacular views I hands down have never witnessed before in my life.
After a FULL day of jeeping it, we stopped at a place around 5... oh what was that? Your rooms are completely filled, so we have to drive into the Bolivian desert mountains to find another village.. oh, right. Almost 4 (painfully long) hours later (although we watched the beautiful sunset while driving), we landed at a ranch and took our stuff off the jeep. We got wine and whiskey to celebrate my birthday, btu everyone was so exhausted, we decided to have a casual one with our 10:30pm dinner and then have a birthday kick off the next night. The food was really good and prepared by 2 cooks, who came along on our expedition. Crackers and biscuits to start with coffe or tea. Veggie soup as an app. with more bread (obviously right?) and then a delicious main. For these 4 days I did the vegetarian option, just to get back to my roots and feel healthy and full with veggies and vitamins. After expanding our hungry tummies, we then got told we had to be up by 6:30 to have breakfast at 7 and then on the road by 7:30am. Oh, boy...
2nd day: Sol de manana, Quetena, Laguna Kollpa, Laguna Verde, Desierto Dal (Salvador Dali), Geysers, Licancabur Volcano, Huayllajara, Laguna Colorada
A highlighted day indeed! (that actually felt like a birthday well spent!) A cold and early start though, into a day of colourful lakes with flamingos, hot springs, desert mountains and volcanos. The best? yesssss.
The Geysers smelt SO bad that it was almost unbarable for me. It was like being smutherd in rotten eggs. But A) I learnt what geysers were B) they were neat and will probably never see them again.
The red lake was a favourite of mine. With a backdrop of mountains, flamingos are set into a blue meet red/ orange lake. Like the water was ACTUALLY orange. How, not sure, well clearly some kind of mineral (not sure what though). There was moss on the rocks and the sun was pre-pre going down. My FAVOURITE time of light between 4-6pm I think. It was epic because we all crammed into one jeep and blasted classic tunes from an Ipod, like Journey´s ¨Don´t stop believing¨ and Boston´s ¨More than a Feeling.¨ Again the word of that trip, it was so SURREAL.
At night we cracked open the wine for dinner and the 60 of Double V (W) Wiskey for the rest of the night. We played a drinking game with a stein one of the british boys had (crazy, they were at Oktoberfest the weekened after Tony and I!), poured the whiskey in and had 2 deck of cards were ontop of it. Then you had to blow off the cards until there was one card left and that person, who it landed on, had to drink. If you didn´t blow any, you had to drink or if you blew the whole pack, you had to drink as well. It was hilarious because at hight altitude your breath is shortened and the amount you can drink is too. The power shut off and everyone got out their head lamps and we played in the dark with different rules. Muy Bien, Muchas Fun!
6 am wake up--- can´t wait.
3rd day: Arbol, Lagunas Siloli, Canapa, Honda, San Juan, Chaiviri, Chuvica
A long long day for us all, but we got to end it with sleeping in a Salt Hotel!!! It was super beautiful and neat. The walls were made of bricks of salt, the ground was salt, the bed frames were salt block. It was just so cute and cool! There was red curtains, which made the room glow at sun down. We had veggie soup and veggie lasagna for dinner. Yum, yum. Everyone headed to bed earlier because we were getting up for the sun rise at 4:30 and hit the road at 5am and then eat breakfast at the Cactus island.
4th Day: Sunrise, Breakfast at Cactus Island called ¨Incahuasi,¨ Ojos de sal, Salt Flats Uyuni, lunch break in a village and then the last stop: Uyuni
They were late waking us up! We got wake up calls everyday on the trip and then on our last day they were late. We got knocks at 5:15am and constantly yelled at to get our bags because we didn´t want to miss the sunset. Fare, but when I am in the bathroom don´t come in and holler through the stall to ¨Vamos,¨ when they were the 45min late ones...Well we saw the official sunrise and it was beautiful.
100% another top favourite moment of the entire trip was at Cactus Island. We got there when the light of the sun coming up made the tops of all the cactus´look like they had frosted tips and glowed a little. The landscape was breath taking (and so was I after trekking up the mini mountain). One of the british boys and I made an ¨Inukshuk,¨ a Canadian symbol, with some of the island rocks. You would be proud mom!
Afterwards we did hilarious prop photos on the Salt flats for honestly 2 hours. Swell times. Props included: a race car, an ipod, a paper canoe (thanks to my crafty hands) and dinosaurs.
We had a last lunch, purchased some textiles and then headed into to Uyuni... and what can I say about Uyuni? It was COVERED in garbage, literally looked like a landfill driving into it; therefore, I was not staying a night there. One of the british girls, Katy, and I wanted to skip the Potosi mines. So we booked a bus ticket to Sucre. Hilarious bus story, more on that later. We ended up running into the honeymoon and dutch couple i mentioned early, plus more british guys Katy met earlier, so we all went out to a legendary Pizza place ran by a guy in Boston, USA (random). Best pizza ever? Of course.
Sucre, where I am now, the valley and hilly second Bolivian capital with populated with wonderful white plaster houses that have clay roofs... Now to plan the next steps!
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