SALT FLATS and MORE!

One of our best decisions yet was to go on this 3 day tour of Bolivia's  highland area. Everyday you felt like you were on a different planet. We spent the first day at the world's largest salt flat. The second day we went to desolate mineral colored lakes occupied only by flamingos and the third day we went to the Dali Desert and we were surrounded by geysers and hot springs! The sights were so amazing, we took way too many pictures and decided to dedicate a whole blog to it.

Woo hoo! Stoked to be here!!

The texture of the salt was amazing. Driving across the salt could be dangerous in areas because sometimes the layer of salt was only a few inches thick and the lake below was 300' deep. 

We had some fun messing around with the pictures due to the deceiving caused by the endless salt flats.

My little doll of Patrick.

How I feel sometimes... (jk)

Amatuer photography. We were just learning how to make the pictures. If you look close at Patrick you can tell he is just standing behind me. (It was harder with 2 people)

Ahhhhh!

AHHHH!!! Not the Beard! Please don't eat me!

After hours of driving on the salt flats we reached this random cactus island. The cactus are older then a 1000 years. It seemed so out of place in our salt world.

Leaving the salt for some regular dirt.

Beautiful sunset our first night.

The second day we headed out for some lakes in the remote highlands of Bolivia. The only towns here are based on quinoa and llamas. Obviously the only way to know which llamas are yours, is to decorate them with lots of bows.

This volcano is half in Bolivia and half in Chile. You can see it is still active.

We were constantly surrounded by distant volcanoes all of of which are dormant.

Our first lake, surrounded by borax and full of Flamingos.

The lake was so calm the reflection was almost perfect, almost.

It was odd seeing all these flamingos out here. We were constantly between 12,000 to 16,000 feet.

There are few animals that can survive out here: flamingos, Vicanus (these llama relatives) and...

this odd squirrel, rabbit, Chinese sage mixture. The whiskers cracked me up the most, it gave this animal the funniest personification of a wise old Chinese man.

This area is extremely mineral rich and it created the most dramatic colors in the mountains and lakes.

Laguna Colorada! What Planet are we on? It was surrounded by white borax hills, crazy mountains, and it was so red!

We slept at the lake the 2nd night and our guide was worried about us since it got cold and we were at 14000ft. We convinced him we were fine and played some drinking games to convince ourselves we were fine. We slept great but in the morning the whole tent was frozen from our condensation.

We got up early that morning to make it to the geysers before sunrise. They were nice and warm!

Sunrise over the geysers.

Welcome to Mars?!?

Our transportation through these different planets.

Hot Springs time!

These llamas were crossing over the hot spring field in front of us all morning. It was so scenic!

Enjoying the view!

I literally could not stop taking pictures.

Heading off to the Dali Desert.

This desert had a different name but then Dali got popular and painted a picture with the same colors  and shapes as this desert. Since then it has been called the Dali Desert.

Our tour group (minus 1).

More desert!

Our last sight seeing spot was in the valley of rocks. Crazy rocks everywhere. Can you tell what these ones look like?
(Puma and llama)

Everyone comes up to our friend Adam and tells him he looks like Jesus Cristo. After seeing this bus picture we fully understood all the comments.

Sucre and Potosi

After 3 days of the biggest water fight ever, we were ready to relax and walk down the street without being chased. So we left Oruro and went to Sucre. Little did we realize that Carnival lasted 2 more days and Sucre fully celebrated it as well.  So we laid low and armed ourselves with water balloons when we had to leave our hostel. After Carnival the city turned back to normal and we fully enjoyed this colonial town. We spent 5 days here taking Spanish lessons, walking around the market, and hanging out in the Parks. 

A view of the city from on top of a hill. Sucre is interesting because it does not having any natural resources like most the other cities in Bolivia. However, the Spanish settled here due to the great weather and proximity to the mines of Potosi.

Scenic colonial streets and buildings.

We spent at least a few hours everyday at the market. It was so interesting and entertaining. We mainly bought 1 to 2 fresh juices and some ingredients to make our own food. But everyday we would find something new that surprised us.

This lady was waiting in line next to us and a very interesting character. Her face had so much life to it and she was at least a foot shorter then me (Colleen).

Cow snout anyone? There is definitely no disconnection of what animals you are eating here. They also use all the parts.

Snouts not your thing? How about brain, intenstine, liver, stomache, lungs or kidneys? Take your pick!

There were also more pleasant things to look at and smell.

Yummy spices and salsas!

There were more fruits and vegetables than you could imagine! Boilivia grows a majority of its own produce and there is an abundance at low prices.

Can't forget the picante!

There were literally stands for everything! Chocolate to...

Shoes!

On our last day my spanish teacher invited us all over for lunch. She taught me how to make the only traditional Bolivian dish that is vegeterian.

A local Cholita (indeginous woman) making a beautiful wall hanging.

On our way to Potosi! This little boy didn't have a seat so we let him sit with us. At first he was just sitting on the edge of my seat with his feet in the aisle. Then he told his mom he was tired so she told him to sleep on me. So we let him snuggle between us for the ride. Luckily it was only a few hours.

Potosi is the town where the spanish found all the silver. They say this city was richer and bigger than Paris and London in its hay day. The silver from these mines underwrote Spains economy for multiple centuries. This was at a huge cost to the locals and slaves brought in form Africa. It is said over 8 million people have died in the mines. (The mountain in the background is where all the mines are)

Patrick and Adam decided to go on a tour of one of the mines with Wilson andAngel, Wislon was a miner for 17 years, now he is a tour guide.

Patrick and Adam bought the miners coca leaves, ciggarettes, alcohol and cola, a customary tradition when touring the mines. Here Adam is sharing a gift with the miners.  The mine still produces some silver and other minerals. It is owned by a co-op of miners. A good documentary about it is The Devils Miner. I highly recommend it!

In to the depths! On the tour they traveled over 2 km underground. (One of the main reasons I didn't want to go.) But they also got to see lots of amazing rocks and minerals!

Since the mines are underground the belief is that the devil controls them. The devil of the mines is called Tio. The miners worship Tio bringing him gifts and every mine has a statue of him. The name Tio came from the Spanish. When they were forcing the locals to work the mines they told them that god would punish them if they did not work. God in spanish is Dio but the local language did not have a D sound so they pronounced it Tio.

He looks like a natural.