A Night at 16,000 ft

I just got back from a 4 day jeep tour thourgh the Salar de Uyuni, which winds through the high altitude mountains in the Southwest corner of Bolivia. We saw some amazing stuff, but it feels very nice to have technology again. Not just computers, but paved roads, flush toilets, hot water, and 24 hr electricity! One of the craziest nights was the one we spent at just under 5,000 meters, which is about 16,000 ft. To give that a little perspective, Denver, the ¨mile high¨city, is 5,280 ft.

From Salar de Uyun...

Before leaving the country we both got a perscription for Diamox, which is supposed to help with alititude sickness. However, the side affects from it (frequent urination, dizzyness, tingling in the hands and feet) were worse than any problems we had from the alititude. The Bolivian remedy for alitutde sickness is coca leaves, which are legal in Bolivia and Peru. Basically, you chew on the dry leaves along with a little pinch of catalyst (sweet, sticky, goo). Every time I started to get a bit of a headache from the altitude, I had a couple leaves. I didn´t really notice much from the leaves, except a slight tingling in my mouth. I definately noticed getting out of breath quicker from the altitude, but I never had any real issues.

From Salar de Uyun...

One of the things I quickly learned about high altitudes is that they tend to be extremely cold and windy. On top of that, from what I´ve seen so far, heated buildings seem to be somewhat rare in Bolivia. Most of the places we stayed were just a big room filled with twin beds. The beds have really nice, warm blankets, and on top of that we would put our sleeping bags under the covers to stay as toasty as possible. That night at 5,000 m we were very excited that our ¨hotel¨ had a room between the bedroom and the outside, which added an extra barrier of warmth. In addition, that exterior room had a little furnance! However, we learned that at such high altitudes, it is somewhat difficult to get a fire going because there is so little oxygen in the air. They had to coat each piece of wood in gasoline to get them going!

From Salar de Uyun...

One of the neatest things I noticed at high altitudes was while I was tucked away in my sleeping bag, hiding from the cold. Dan and I had rented bags from the tour company and mine was lined with black fleece. I´m not sure if it was the altitude, dry air, or what, but every time I brushed my fingers across the fleece, I could see a little trail of sparks. It was almost likely being in my own little Bioluminescent Bay.


I mentioned that the sparks in my sleeping bag were neat, but some of the other things we saw on the tour were flat out amazing. Words really can´t describe it, but here are a few pictures (or click here to view the entire album):












In addition to all of the beautiful landscapes we saw, I was also amazed by all the natural resources there are in the mountains of Bolivia. We passed by a giant lake/field of Borax, another of some ingredient commonly used in shampoo, and of course, an enourmous field of salt (bigger than Lake Titikaka). The salt plains looked like giant fields of snow, but it was actually just salt. Apparently, many of the lakes in the area evaporate over time, leaving behind useful minerals just waiting to be scooped up into a truck.

From Salar de Uyun...

I LOVE ARGENTINIAN FOOD!

Carrie and I just got back from our Bolivia 4 day Jeep Tour (more info to come on that later), but for now I must post on the incredible Argentinian food we ate on our first day!

Lunch on Saturday:

Carrie had a steak sandwich, and I had a steak sandwich with fried egg, cheese, and ham. These were pretty spectacular. Unfortunatley we lost this picture in a slow internet cafe, but you'll have to trust me on this... it was awesome.


DINNER ON SATURDAY:

This may have been the greatest dinner I have ever had. We headed out for dinner at about 8:15, and walked by one restaurant that looked fancy, but was completely empty. We then kept going and saw a restaurant that was highly recommended by Fodors, El Trapiche. It also was not very crowded, but there were at least a few people sitting down, so we gave it a shot. We ordered a bottle of Argentinian red wine, along with 2 bottles of agua sin gas. After struggling with the enormous menu for a while (the waiter informed us that they have 200 items), the waiter gave us a menu with both English and Spanish. We ended up ordering artichokes au gratin for an appetizer.

From Argentina Part 1

We then both ordered lomo, which is what the Argentines call tenderloin steak. Carrie ordered one with mushrooms, and I got one with a spring onion sauce. These steaks were absolutely spectacular. They must have been at least one pound each, and very thick. They were a perfect medium rare, and came with some potatoes and sauces. Look at these pictures... they are a work of art.

From Argentina Part 1

From Argentina Part 1

Carrie only finished half of her steak, at which point she informed the waiter, "quiero comer mañana", which means, "I want to eat tomorrow" in Spanish. The waiter laughed and packed up her steak in a box. The waiter seemed very amused the entire night by our attempts at Spanish.

For dessert, we got the "Floating Tower" with some sort of creamy sauce. It was like a tower of the white part of lemon marangue pie, and it was very delicious. Unfortunately, this picture also was a casualty of the lousy Salta, Argentina internet cafe.

For all this, including tip, we paid a mere 179 pesos, which equates to slightly less than $60 dollars!! Wow.

One other observation -- When we left the restaurant around 11pm, it was completely full of people! Apparently the Argentines usually dine at 10 or later! When we walked by the other restaurant on our way home, it was also full! We'll remember this next time we're in Buenos Aires (in a little more than 1 month).

Carrie and I then flew to Salta, which is in the Northwest part of the country. While there, we had a full day gaucho experience! Carrie and I spent the day with Alejandro on a ranch way out in the mountains near Salta Argentina. We rode horseback, ate steak off the grill, sipped mate, chatted about life, and enjoyed the tranquil atmosphere. Here's a picture from then...

From Argentina Part 1

After Salta, it was an overnight bus to the Argentina - Bolivia border. We'll have more on that in a future post. Feel free to look at our full photo album by clicking on the link underneath any of the pictures for this post. We uploaded the full size images, so feel free to download.

¡We Made It!

We made it to Buenos Aires! The flight was fairly anticlimatic, except for the THREE times I spilled on myself, which is a little tramatic when you only have a limited amount of clothes (1 shorts, 1 skirt, 1 pants, 3 tanks, and 4 shirts). We keep having to remind ourselves to stop making to-do lists and step back and enjoy ourselves. We had steak sandwiches for lunch. Mine was a giant steak on a tiny hamburger bun and Dan´s included cheese, onion, and egg (I´ll add pictures later). We´re planning to have steak again for dinner (and maybe breakfast too). Then we´re off to Salta, which is in the mountains in the Northwest corner of Argentina. From there our plan is to go Bolivia, Peru (Machu Picchu on the 19th), Ecuador, coastal Peru (skipping the earthquake area), Chile, Argentina (costarring Joe Morrow), and finally Brazil.

Also, last week I sold the Saturn for $750! The guy bought it for his 17-year-old to use as her first car. Coincidentally, right as we finished making the deal in Dan´s driveway, we heard this huge crash. It turns out that a friend of the buyer´s daughter had seen us, got distracted, and crashed into a tree. The SUV was probably totalled, but the driver seemed okay. I think it was a good move for the Saturn buyer to get a car more suitable for wrapping around trees.

Thoughts before the big journey begins...

It's Friday afternoon, August 31 -- later tonight, we'll be on a plane to Buenos Aires. I'm excited for the big trip to finally begin... I feel like we've been planning and shopping constantly and I'm ready to finally get into the trip. Before we leave, a few parting thoughts:

- It looks like when we return, we'll be moving to the Bay Area. After our California trip, we were having a really hard time deciding, because both cities were really great. When Carrie went back to Chicago, we had a conversation with people at work and it seemed like the Bay Area was what more people were leaning towards. While I feel bad about not going to San Diego, I'm excited about the Bay Area and I'm looking forward to being able to visit Dave and Brodie in San Diego much easier.

- This month has flown by... I had initially envisioned it as us doing some trip preparation, but mostly spending time exploring New England and relaxing. Instead, somehow things just flew by and we're leaving tonight!

- If you ever have the time and the logistics make sense, I highly recommend getting "sleeper" accomodations on an Amtrak train at least once in your life.

- The JD Drew era for the Boston Red Sox is not going over well.

- The new Miss Fairchild album is fantastic. Look to www.missfairchild.com for tour dates in your area!

Hopefully Carrie and I will be able to check in on the blog semi-regularly when we're in South America. From what we've been reading, most hotels / hostels have computers with internet access, and even smaller towns have internet cafes. Remember to enter your email address in the upper-right hand corner of the blog main page so that you receive notices whenever we update the blog. And feel free to email us personally -- It will be good to hear from people back home while we're so far away.

Hasta luego!

Dan