In closing... And, some travel tips...

We did it!  9 countries, over 14,000 miles traveled, with our big backpacks, and 2 guitars, and most of the time, a huge (and sometimes spilling) bag of food.  Costa Rica, Panama, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Chile, Argentina, and Uruguay.  Hundreds of buses, a few boats, some hitch-hiking and a lot of walking...We did it, and more importantly, we made it home in one piece, without being robbed or having fallen ill.  We drank the water in most places, right from the tap, unless someone stated it was not safe.  We also did most of our hiking in our very versatile Converse hi-tops, which have now seen better days.  I think one of the best memories of wearing those things, was our 4:30 AM hike up to Machu Picchu, where we passed maybe 30 people in the rain, who all had hiking poles and fancy footwear, and I'm sure they were all saying "fu*%$#ng Americans!"

Looking back at our trip now, there's so much to reflect on, obviously.  A few things I'd like to point out to any and all future travelers from wherever: Don't listen to anyone who hasn't traveled, regarding your plans...They don't, and will not understand!  Also, use your head...Most things we experienced were common sense.  Have a small first aid kit, of course, but don't go into a trip feeling afraid that in some "third world" country, you're going to get really sick...because you probably will.

Some frustrating things regarding trip planning for us were the travel doctor's advice, and of course, the bill!  It really depends on where you're planning to go on a trip, but in most cases, you can get any shots that you need there...And do your research regarding what kind of shots you need to travel, because in most cases you don't need anything!  Here are a few examples of how much BS I've gotten from the medical field regarding travel.

In 2007, I was about to visit Costa Rica for the first time...My grandmother was worried about me getting my proper shots updated, and took me to a travel doctor in my town.  I needed a tetanus shot, which was normal, as it had been several years since my last.  I was also given a hep-b booster shot, which was also pretty normal.  Then, the doctor told me that since I was heading into the Tropics, that I needed to watch a video on Malaria, and also to purchase and start taking Chloroquine, which is a quinine based medication that treats and prevents Malaria (in some parts of the world).  I began taking it a week before leaving on my trip, and spent the first three weeks with some really bad headaches from that stuff.  Finally, my friend Terry who I was staying with, asked me what the bottle was that was sitting on his counter, and I explained it was for Malaria...He laughed, and told me there hasn't been any Malaria in Costa Rica for about 30 years.  Then, I found out that Chloroquine is not effective against Malaria in the Americas.  It only works for some strain that's found in Africa!  I had been tricked, and more importantly, that particular travel doctor was an idiot, and didn't know his facts.

Fast forwarding several years later to this particular trip, and our preparation for it, I did need to get some booster shots.  The tetanus and the two hep boosters were something I felt I should receive prior to traveling all over Latin America...I went to another travel doctor in my town, who not only tried to talk me into getting anti Malaria pills, but also tried to give me Chloroquine, which I assured her, DOESN'T even work there!  Then, she gave me a Yellow Fever vaccination, which I had heard about, and was told it was needed to get into Bolivia, where apparently it is rampant.  That little pin prick was a whopping $150!  Anyways, we both got our shots, including Yellow Fever, which the travel doctor gave us each an updated vaccine card to travel with.  Now, here is the funny part...When we got to the border of Bolivia, we had to pay a reciprocity fee that we were well aware of for US citizens...We paid it in cash, and while getting stamped into the country, I had my vaccination card in my hand waiting for them to ask for it...They never did.  And, not only did they not ask for proof of Yellow Fever vaccination, during our entire month in Bolivia, we never saw ONE mosquito, because we were never below 3,500 meters in altitude!  I was pissed.  That one hundred fifty dollars was a huge scam, and a waste, if you ask me...We also found out that you can get the Yellow Fever vaccine for about $15 in Peru, or Bolivia.  To summarize, Bolivia does not need you to have proof of a Yellow Fever Vaccine, and it's completely up to you to get it if you want to.

Like I said, do your research before traveling, because you can save yourself some money, and hassle, if you know what you'll need.  As for public safety in places that are dangerous, whether fact or fiction, keep a look out.  Always keep your valuable items hidden, such as passports and wallets.  Always check your pockets, and don't keep anything in there that could be easily snatched.  This goes for any city in the world!  It's not just Latin America where you can get mugged, it's anywhere.  We were extremely lucky on our trip, and the only thing that was stolen, so to speak, was Danica's camera, after way too many shots of Aguardiente in Ecuador.  She left it sitting on the bar, which was obviously our own fault.  I was some what paranoid in especially the bigger cities, and always looked around, and always felt my pockets.  Use your brain, but don't get discouraged from traveling because you think it's dangerous.  Everything is dangerous...Using your cell phone, or crossing the street!  I had so many people tell me things like, "you're going to Colombia?"  Or, "you're crazy!"  Maybe we are crazy, but this trip needed to happen, and I never would have known the true beauty and kindness of these places without seeing them for myself.

Entering into Chile

Miguel, our Uyuni tour guide, stopped the Landcruiser at the Chilean/Bolivian border crossing.  Strange, because there was the Bolivian stamp-out office, but the Chilean entrance wasn't anywhere in sight...There was a sign though, welcoming us to Chile.  An easy stamp out, cost nothing, and we were on our way, Danica, Juan and I.  Juan's passport was stolen in Cochabamba, along with some other things, and he was a little stressed about crossing the border without it...Luckily he had his Colombian ID card, and they gave him no trouble at the crossing.

So, as the van full of tourists drove off, we were already inside Chile without 'legally' being there.  After about 5 minutes on the dirt road, we suddenly felt the major difference in Chile...The van pulled onto a brand new highway, with speed limit signs and margins in the road...Wow, we hadn't seen anything like that in a long time, perhaps since Ecuador.  We drove down the mountain, losing about 2000 meters in altitude behind us, and my body felt like it was decompressing, for we had spent the last 2 months at high altitude, from the mountains of Peru, to the height that is most of Bolivia.  We were heading to San Pedro de Atacama, our first Chilean stop, and where the actualy border office is.

As we pulled into the border office, I literally felt like I was back home for a second...There were border guards searching peoples bags, and an office with a conveyor belt and x-ray for everybody's luggage.  Not once on this entire trip have we seen that!  Despite the high security, everyone made it through without hassle, including our friend Juan, with only his Colombian ID card, and no passport...  Bienvenidos a Chile!

Salar de Uyuni!!!

Incase you haven't heard of this place, it deserves a hell of an introduction...

The BIGGEST salt flat in the world, "Salar de Uyuni," lies in the south-west of Bolivia.  It was once a giant inland sea, and its elevation (just under 4000 meters), would have made it the highest sea as well.  Nowadays, it's a very popular spot for touring the dry salt desert, and seeing all that surrounds it, which is nothing less than spectacular.

The Salar de Uyuni has a ton of tour operators selling their tour, usually in the form of 1 or 2 or 3 days, and sometimes up to 5.  We were interested in 3 days, 2 nights, and found the perfect guide and group.

Every tour guide drives a mid 90's Toyota Landcruiser, which seats 7 besides the driver.  I've never seen such a perfect Toyota commercial unfold before my eyes, and am surprised I've never seen an actual ad on television coming from Bolivia...

Our guide was Miguel, with "World White Tours," and not only was he a great driver, but was full of information on the surrounding area, and served us some delicious food along our journey.

The passengers were Erika and Johanna, the Swedish girls, Sinia from Germany, Niels from Denmark, Juan from Colombia, and Danica and I.

We started at the train cemetery, which is a literal graveyard of old rusty locomotives out in the middle of the desert.  After spending a little while there, we heading south, into the endless salt.  Roads that never end.  We stopped at several spots to take photos and really take it all in.  As you can imagine, the white salt reflects the sun like crazy, so it's impossible to not wear glasses.

 

We spent about an hour at "Isla de Incahuasi," which at one point actually was an island in the sea, but now it's an island in the desert.  Rocks jet up, and out of them jet up giant cactus.  There were Llamas running around, and it was quite a sight to see...

 We headed on through the endless salt, and eventually stopped in the middle of nowhere, literally, to have lunch.  Miguel had pork chops, quinoa, fresh cucumber and tomato, and some sodas for us.

We wandered around a bit, took some photos, and then continued on, through the desert to our 'hotel' for the night, which was completely made of salt.

We got to the hotel about an hour before sundown, and we hiked up the hill behind it to try to get a better view of the desert.  That night was a full moon, and seeing it rise up and over the desert was spectacular...

The next morning, we headed away from the salt, and into the endless, mountainous desert that is southern Bolivia.  Miguel slowed down at one point, and sure enough we had a flat tire...He got out, put on his 'mechanic suit' and quickly changed it, out in the middle of nowhere...We were off in no time, to check out the view of the volcano...

Volcan Ollague in the distance

 

We passed several beautiful lagoons along the way, all of which were home to several types of flamingos.

We drove out into the desert sun, might I add, with Miguel playing a pretty epic (and random) soundtrack, and started seeing several large rock formations.  We finally parked at a place called Árbol de Piedra, or tree rock, which was a massive rock playground made of ancient lava formations.

Árbol de Piedra

 

We pulled into the Laguna Colorada right about 4 PM, as this is the best time of day to see it, with all its color.

 Last stop for the day, now it was to the next 'hotel' for the night.  Right near the lagoon, we could still see it in the foreground.  A large room with 7 beds was to be our shelter for the night.  Spaghetti dinner with some wine.

 

The next morning, we woke up early and put everything in the Landcruiser.  It was the third and final day of the trip, and we had some things to see before being dropped off at the Chilean border...

The geyser field

steaming earth

bubbling cauldron of mud...

Ice field

Mars-like landscape...

The trip was coming to an end, and we had to make the Chilean border on time in order to catch our continuing ride to San Pedro de Atacama...There was one more stop, at the hot springs, to have a dip.

And the final lagoon right before the border...Laguna Verde, got its greenish hue from the Copper and Arsenic in the water...Hence no wildlife here.

An unbelievable tour, in an incredible place.  I can't stress how much we highly recommend doing this!  Miguel was a great tour guide, our group was great and fun, and might I add it was dirt cheap!!!  It was 700 Bolivianos for the whole trip, that's about $100, with all food included, and the hotel rooms.  Only thing we had to pay extra for, was the entrance to the national park in the far south...150/each.  The price also included our bus to Chile, which was very nice.

Potosí - One of the worlds highest cities...

Our journey to Potosí began when we realized (again) how much distance we needed to still cover...We needed to go that way anyway, and maybe we'd enjoy a bit of the silver mining town for a day or two...

Potosí, was at one point the richest town of the Spanish occupied Latin America.  It was also regarded as one of the biggest cities in the world, with the silver boom.  Nowadays, there are still many miners, and tons of tours operate out of here.  Did you know that Potosí is regarded as one of the highest cities in the world?  It sits at about 4,090 meters, or over 13,000 feet.  You can definitely feel it, that's for sure!

We took a bus from Sucre, which took 4 hours, fairly pleasant ride, mid-day.  Our friends Aoife and Luis, we met in La Paz were also in Potosi, and we thought of possibly planning our Uyuni tour together, for a few days down the road.  Turned out, we were heading in different directions, as they were going into Argentina after, and us to Chile...

We spent 3 days really not doing a whole lot in Potosi...Danica thought of possibly doing a mine tour, and we both talked about hitting up the hot springs, Ojo de Inca...

None of this materialized, and we ended up walking around the town, having a bite to eat a couple times, and hanging out in the hostel.  Our second night there, we met Juan, from Colombia, and figured out we were heading the same direction, and decided to head to Uyuni together, and find a good tour group.  That night, after a decent sized bottle of Singani, we headed to the main plaza to play some guitar.  It was way too cold for any of that, so a couple half-assed tunes ensued.  On the walk back, we met a few local bankers who just got off work, and insisted we join them in drinking a very sweet mix of some Bolivian liquor and juice...

The next day, the three of us jumped on a very uncomfortable bus to Uyuni, which took about 4 hours.  It wouldn't have been so bad, but it seemed as if everyone on the bus was ill.  Coughing, choking, hacking and sure enough, a woman vomiting in the back of the bus, made me feel quite ill also...To top it off, there were 4 or 5 small children running up and down the length of the bus, and touching everyone's things with runny noses and filthy hands.  Believe me, I am not a germ freak, but this was a ride from hell.

Once in Uyuni, we found a very cheap hostel for 25 Bolivianos/person, enjoyed a decent pizza in the town square, and figured we'd give it a day to figure out which tour group to take.  The next morning, after eating a very slow breakfast, we were approached by a woman soliciting a tour, that needed 3 more people...We walked to the tour office with her, sat down, and decided on it.  Not only would we not have to stay one more night in Uyuni, but it was leaving in one hour...

Sucre - an awesome city

Sucre, Bolivia is mild in climate, and semi mild in altitude, compared to the other spots we've been visiting...Our friends Mark and Carlie rented an apartment for about a month there, and we decided to pay them another visit. 

We took the El Dorado overnight bus from La Paz, which was very pleasant, and hassle free.  Pulled into Sucre at about 9AM, and began walking towards the center of town.  After the 3rd person's directions were wrong, we jumped into a cab.  The center of town, or Plaza 25 de Mayo, was really beautiful.  It was bordered by a huge colonial cathedral, and several shops and a nice park right in the center.  We hadn't got in touch with Mark and Carlie yet, and found Hostal Charcas, via our trusty Lonely Planet guidebook.

The hostel was mediocre.  We had a private room for fairly cheap.  That evening, there was a massive Mexican Mariachi party, believe it or not, on the deck upstairs.  Must have been someone's birthday party or something.  Full Mariachi band, equipped with horns and outfits.  Made me feel like we were back home.

We met Aoife and Luis, the Irish and Spanish couple in La Paz, and traded contact info.  Turns out they were also in Sucre, and we decided to meet them at their hostel just down the road for a night or two, which they had recommended.  "Pachamama" hostel, it was called, was about 5 blocks from our previous, and was one of the nicest hostels we've seen thus far.  It boasted a huge garden courtyard on the premises, and a really nice, clean, and fully equipped kitchen.  Our private room was very big, and airy, with a double window opening to the courtyard below.  They turned up later that evening, and we had some beers on our balcony table.

2 nights at Pachamama, and we didn't want to leave, but Mark and Carlie had come back from a hiking trek, and invited us to stay in their new apartment, also fairly close.  We checked out, and lugged all our stuff once again across the square, and into their place. 

Their apartment was awesome, small, but comfy, and with a great floral courtyard as well, and they were just as excited to be there as we were.  We would spend 2 more nights with them.  First night we made pizzas, and the second, Carlie made a delicious roast beef.  At this point it almost would seem as if we were following them, but really, we just have good, and similar travel plans...

Sucre had a very modern feel to it, despite not being able to find a cup of coffee at 7am...I loved the town, and would love to visit again someday.  It really felt as though in the 5 days we were there we really got to know the place, but it probably had a lot to do with the fact that we moved 3 times in that short visit.

Tiwanaku - Incredible ruins

We left our belongings in the storage room at the hostel, and checked out.  We were told that if you take a cab to the main cemetery in town, you will find a ton of collectivo vans that are heading to Tiwanaku.  The cab driver dropped us off at another location, not sure exactly where, ripped us off, and we were a little lost...

We found a travel agency office on a random side street that was offering Tiwanaku tours.  The guy inside was really nice, but told us there were no collectivos at the cemetery, and if we wanted to go, it would have to be through him, of course...Still don't know if this is true or not...

We had to wait an hour for his brother in the van to come get us...Then of course, we waited for more passengers...

A girl came for a ride, and the 3 of us were off...Once on the highway, and heading out of town, the van pulls over, and the driver climbs up onto the roof next to a big outdoor market, and starts yelling "TIWANAKU" as loud as he can for 25 minutes.  Sure enough, he gets some customers, and we fill the van.

About an hour and 15 minutes later, we were in the town of Tiwanaku, and got dropped off.  He said he'd return at 4:30 to pick us back up.

The site:

Unbelievable place!  I had been very interested in it since I had seen it on some documentaries a while back, and like Machu Picchu and Nazca, we couldn't really believe we were actually here!

A little history:

Tiwanaku, or Tiahuanaco,  is an archaeological site in Northern Bolivia, that dates back some 13,000 years.  It was home to a Pre-Incan people, who used some incredible methods of rock carving, and of course placement.  The site, while still not fully excavated, is home to 2 pyramids, some arch gateways, incredible rock walls, and monoliths.  Very impressive place to visit, and it's fairly cheap to get in; $80 Bolivianos.  There's also 2 museums onsite, and you basically have the run of the place to check it all out...

I'd seen documentaries on it, but it was unbelievable being there...It would be almost impossible for us to cut stone today like they did here...It leaves me thinking that, once again, we are extremely in the dark about our own history...

"Gateway of the sun"

 

After our awesome visit, it was back in the collectivo to La Paz, and just enough time to grab a bite to eat, grab our stuff from the hostel, and jump on a night bus to Sucre, aboard El Dorado...