Driver with death wishes, high altitudes, LLAMAS HEADS ARE FALLING OFF!!

As I may have mentioned, I went on a 3-day tour through the Bolivian Desert and Salt Flats last week. It was rather exceptional and the following is what I like to call.. words and pictures about the trip.

Day 1: We showed up to the Bolivian border crossing, which consisted of 2 mud huts and an abandoned multi-colored bus.

BOLIVIAN BORDER PATROL

After spending less than three minutes with the rigorous Bolivian border patrolmen, we proceeded down to a frozen lake and a crooked sign indicating that Bolivian belongs to the Bolivians and boarded the 4x4.

THERE'S A NEW MAYOR IN TOWN

It was precisely this time that I had my first negative run in with our driver, Lucas. I say negative, because Lucas, a Bolivian with one functioning eye, had strapped all of our luggage to the roof (under a tarp) when I realized he included my day pack with the roof luggage. This all transpired when I was in the bathroom (which had toilet bowls filled will solid toilet bowl shaped ice), so after initially thinking my bag had been stolen, I kindly asked if I could get my day pack. This was anything but pleasing to Lucas. It took him 3 minutes to unstrap the tarp, 5 seconds to get my bag, and another 7 minutes to re-secure the tarp. As I would surmise later, Lucas spent those 10 minutes and 5 seconds plotting my death.

RIGHT BEFORE LUCAS HATES ME (I see him eyeing my orange day bag)

Because I am tall and mostly lanky (I say 'mostly' because my biceps could cause the entire sorority sister population to faint upon viewing... (those periods were me taking a moment to kiss each bicep)), the group decided that I got to ride shotgun for the first day. We had seven people and our driver, Lucas (who never took his sunglasses off ever). The cast of characters included 2 Americans, 2 New Zealanders, an Israeli Couple and one Frenchman. Off we went, and as we hit the open/bumpy/dirt road, our cycloptic driver popped in a cassette tape of traditional bolivian music. (I could feel the culture absorption). After checking out some old lava rocks, and performing the finishing touches on a rock pyramid that I slaved away on, we arrived at a hotspring pool next to a frozen lake, threw on our bathing suits and lounged for an hour. The whole time, Lucas sat in the 4x4, probably pondering the best method of disposing 7 bodies. .

I ACED INDUSTRIAL ARTS (And by slaved away on, I mean, that one rock was exceptionally heavy)


TRI DELTS.. DON'T BE SHY (there are no less than 8 girls passed out to the left of the picture. Unfortunately, my camera doesn't have the wideangle feature)

After drying off in 2 minutes due to the intense sun and dryness, we got back in the 4x4 a drove to some 424 degree (f) gysers. Sadly, the air temperature around the gysers was about 400 degrees less than the bubbly water temperature. In my state of frigidity, I had serious thoughts of jumping in, but then I realized I was wearing no jewelry (other than my all hemp outfit), and thusly, i would have no evidence that i actually existed if I jumped in.

The day was rounded out with a 1 hour walk around a red lake at an altitude of 4,278 meters (I was nearly certain that I would keel over and die from altitudal exphixiation), and then we tried sleeping in 0 degree weather (in the same altitude) with beds that can only be described as two inches of llama fur wrapped in cardboard wine boxes perched upon three metal bars.

ps. right outside our dormitory style room for 8-people was a llama head, recently (and seemingly tragically for him/her) separated from its body.