Kent A. Barry

Salar de Uyuni Video - 2

Download Dscf0091.avi

Here is a video from the car during the Salar de Uyuni Tour. It was 3 days of this...

Salar de Uyuni Video

Download Dscf0102.avi

Here is a video from the Salar de Uyuni to give you an idea of what it is like.

I have included some pictures from Serge. He was on the Tour and took more pictures of me than I took of myself. I know everyone wanted to see a picture of me.

Potosi

After a quick stop in Uyuni, I have gotten to Potosi.  The bus trip was 7 hours over dirt roads, but it was actually a good trip.  Especially when you consider that it cost 15 Bolivianos for the ticket.  For those people that are not current on there Bolivian/Canadian currency conversions 1 Canadian Dollar equals 5.86 Bolivianos.

One of Potosi´s claims to fame is that it is on record as the worlds highest city at 4070m.  The other important thing to note is the silver mine that the Spanish founded in the 15th century.  The mining is still going, but does not appear to still be as profitable.

Bolivia - Salar de Uyuni

The most popular way to enter Bolivia for travelers from Argentina or Chile seems to be on a 3 day tour of the Salar de Uyuni and other natural wonders of the Bolivian Andes.  The tour company takes you across the Bolivian border were you get into your 4x4 vehicle.

From there our guide Fillipe drove us through things such as geysers, green lakes, red lakes(with flamingos), past and present villages of the local population, amazing mountains and volcanic formations, and of course the largest salt lake in the world.  I took to many pictures, I will post them when I get a chance.

Bolivia - Unrest

You may hear about it in the news soon.  Bolivians are not happy with their current government.. especially the plans for the development of the countries natural gas resources.

Long story short:  I am aware of the problem and I am in an area that is considered safe.  Nothing serious has happened yet, but if protests and roadblocks do start, I will adjust my plans so that:

1  I am not stuck in a bad situation.

or

2  I loose time waiting for protests to be broken up.

 

San Pedro de Atacama, Chile

San Pedro de Atacama is a tourist town in the north of Chile.  It seems to be a fairly possible place to see the natural wonders in Northern Chile.  The town isn´t much more than tour company offices, hotels, and restaurants.

Most of the tours did not seem to be anything interesting, so I got the earliest tour to the Bolivian salt flats.  I only spent 14 hours in Chile this time.  I don´t have much else to say about San Pedro.

Salta

After a 28 hour bus ride which included a bus breakdown, I made it to Salta, Argentina.

I have not done anything to eventful in Salta, except for spending a day rock climbing.  Oh, and I got a haircut, which was something like "haircut surprise" since the barber only spoke Spanish.  But, it looks like my Spanish lessons paid off... no Mohawk.

This is my last stop in Argentina.  From here I cross back into to Chile(San Pedro de Atacama) to then cross into Bolivia.

Yerba Mate

I am almost out of Argentina, so I should write a bit about the Mate. They love the stuff hear. Basically it is a hot tea that they drink out of a gourd with a metal straw.

Basically, it is drunken in a group. Everyone takes turns drinking from the same Mate(cup). One person has the thermos of hot water and is in charge of refilling the Mate after each person takes there turn.

The mate tastes like green tea , but stronger. Some times they make it Dulce, which is just adding sugar.

You will see people drinking Mate on a hot sunny day and half of the gas stations have mate water vending machines where you put in 10 centavos to fill your thermos. I haven´t taken a bus without people drinking mate on it.

Iguazu Falls

I wasn´t planning on making it to Iguazu Falls this trip.  But, enough people told me that I had to go... so I went.

Iguazu was worth the two 24 hour bus rides.  The Argentinian side took a whole day to visit, mostly walking around different portions of the falls. They did a good job with setting up the park.  Words don´t do the falls much justice.  I will post the pictures soon.

Cordoba - Vaccination

I am in Cordoba now, it is a nice town, almost like a small Buenos Aries.

I realized that I needed to get a second Hepatitis B vaccination.  I couldn´t get the second at home because I had been given the first to close to my departure.

When I went to get my shots in Calgary I had too book an appointment 3 weeks in advance and pay $170 for all of my shots.  The hepatitis B was probably something like $20.

In Argentina it took me about an hour, mostly because I didn´t go to the right place at first.  Then they gave me the shot for free!!!  The nurse said it was covered by there public health system.

A bit of a slap in the face for the Canadian Health system...