Museum Feet and Salt Flats

We are a bit further north in Bolivia now, in Potosi. I'm trying my best to acclimatize at this altitude, I'm still feeling a little breathless.

It feels like our travels have been picking up in pace since we last wrote, we have been busy doing lot's of things. Here are some snippets from my diary over the past couple of weeks.

18-3-09
Mendoza - Climbing with Argentina's Best

"We went climbing today at El Satlo out of Mendoza and now I hope I can finish this entry as my hands are cramping up. The climbing was really nice the sort I really enjoy short, technical sport climbs. Some overhangs, some slabs and one up an arete that Nick lead...We ended up doing much harder stuff than I expected, but I liked it...I was impressed I could drag my extra 10 wobbly kilo's up the climbs..." Hehe.

19-3-09
Santiago - Back in Santiago

"...all the time we have spent in Chile and Argentina I have really enjoyed all the activities we have done, the walks, climbing and kayaking etc, the scenery has certainly been amasing, but I miss travelling with culture shock. You know that feeling you get in a place that is totally foreign to you, where you notice all the differences to home, the sort of experience we had all through Africa. Here has just felt too familar...so I'm looking forward to the next section of travel through Bolivia and Peru..."

We visited a lot of museums while we were back in Santiago. We saw the National History Museum, the Pre-Columbian Museum and the Museum of Natural History all very interesting. The National History Museum covered Chile's history from the tribes in pre-columbian times, to the Spanish invasion and right up to 1973 when Pinochet carried out the military coup. It was a shame they didn't cover the Pinochet dictatorship through to now with Chile's democratically elected female President, as that period really interests me. The Pre-Columbian Museum had an extensive collection of ancient tribal and ancient empire artifacts from the Inca's, Mayan and Aztec's, plus many more I never knew existed. The Natural History Museum had also had lots of interesting stuff on the environment, animals and plants of Chile.

20-3-09
Santiago - Museum Feet

"...Here is something interesting, one of the tribes of the early America's were mummifying their dead 1000's of years before the ancient Egyptians were...we also visited some of the neighbourhood's of Santiago...all very different. Lasterria was like Balmain, Brasil was a bit like Newtown, but with lots of car part and handyman shops along with the cafes. Republica was full of uni's, uni students and seedy, dark bars pumping out loud music in the afternoon. The downtown was full of beautiful old colonial buildings and shops...one thing I have noticed about Santiago is the number of uni's here, there is at least 6, plus many more I'm sure..."

21-3-09
Santiago - Slumdog Millionare

"...I forgot to mention my haircut...I must have been getting a bit cocky about cutting Nick's hair or something, anyway I was feeling brave or stupid and wanted a change...I grabbed a section of my hair and cut it straight across thinking I was giving myself a long fringe, in case anything went wrong, but I neglected to realise how springy hair can be when not weighed down by length. So after I cut it, it sprang up much shorter than I expected...it looked a little silly, I thought it was funny though and just laughed."

We flew up to Calama and made our way to San Pedro de Atacama after our time in Santiago. This place is the driest place on earth, so dry there is no recordable precipitation. The few plants in this desert survive here on the mist in the air. We did a star gazing tour in San Pedro. I must admit looking at constellations in the night sky isn't my thing. Whenever we go camping and Nick and friends start discussing the constellations I usually start yawning and run for the tent...hehe. This star tour was really interesting, run by a couple of astronomer's. A french guy and his Chilean wife. They told us all about the history of astonomy and I was glued. The best bit was seeing Saturn through the telescope with it's rings and moon's. We also did some hiking in a place called Death Valley and near the Valley of the Moon. Named this for obvious reasons.

24-3-09
San Pedro de Atacama - Death Valley and the Valley of the Moon

"...After the walk we made a mad dash for the Valley of the Moon to watch the sun go down onto the Andes. It was a race against time and the minivan driver floored it , we jumped out of the car and raced up to a high point with about 1 minute to go before the sun dropped. The run up the hill was knackering at this altitude and I was puffing heavily, but not as badly as the chain smoking Germans on our day tour. The scene was beautiful, red earth all around us with amazing rock formations, the salt all over the ground made it look as though the snow had fallen. The light being cast onto the Andes mountain range to our east was worth the run up the hill..."

25-3-09
San Pedro de Atacama - Nick's B'day and Geysers at 4am

"...we were up at the crack of dawn to see the highest geysers in the world, but it was worth it. We arrived in the dark and it was very foggy making it difficult to distinguish between the fog and steam from the geysers, but it all added to the atmosphere. It was very cold up there at an altitude of 4300m appox...it was strange to see ice next to the water boiling at 85 degrees C and spurting from the holes in the crust. we tended to hover around the steaming ones to keep ourselves warm..." While trying not to breath in too much of the fumes.

26-3-09
Solar de Uyuni, Bolivia - Rainbow Lakes

"...Driving though this landscape is a visual feast for the eyes, with beautiful mountains and lakes all around , the scenery never gets boring and watching the changes unfold with all the colours in the landcape would have to be some of the best I've seen..."

28-3-09
Solar de Uyuni, Bolivia - Salt Flats and Cacti

"...This day was spent on the salt flat. It was incredible. I had seen many photo's of this place, but it doesn't compare to being there for real. There's no way a photo can do the vastness of this place justice. All white and flat as far as the eye can see, except the odd mountain or volcano off in the distance. It was surreal..."