negative ions and crazy nightlife

So last check we were in Puerto Iguazu.  Needless to say, the Iguazu Falls were beyond belief.  I don´t really know what to say besides that.  I was really hoping to have the aid of some pictures in this section, but unfortunately the camera uploading thingy refuses to cooperate.  In lieu of our own pics, here´s the nice wikipedia page on it (be sure to check out the panorama pic full size): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iguazu_falls.  It was amazing what a large area the falls were spread out over.  We got to walk along both the upper and lower levels of the falls, both of which provided incredible views.  We also got to walk on a platform up to the very edge of La Garganta del Diablo (the throat of the devil).  This is the most intense section of the falls, and the roar and spray of mist that assaulted us as we stood there was absolutely beyond anything I´ve ever experienced.  In addition, we got the chance to take a speed boat up to the bottom of a couple of parts of the falls.  Basically, we just got swamped. 

We are now in Saõ Paulo, staying with a doctor that Jonathan randomly met last year in Peru.  He´s a pretty interesting guy, but it´s been fun getting to know him.  Last night, we got our first real taste of Saõ Paulo as we went out to a club.  Other than the loss of a little bit of hearing, I don´t think we are any worse for wear.  We decided to leave early (5 A.M. was early since the clubs keep goin til 10), and we spent a lot of the day sleeping.  We´ll be here until Tuesday morning, when we head out to Rio. 

getting to know yet another city

Once again I´ve gotten myself into trouble by waiting so long to post, but I´ll try to capture the past bit as best I can.

We fortunately got to spend quite a while in Buenos Aires (B.A.), and it has definitely been the coolest city so far. We explored various parts of the city and relaxed for a few days, and then Brittany Peterson arrived Sunday afternoon. It was fun to have a group of 4 for a few days.

Sunday night, we got tickets to the last Boca Juniors game of the season (and the last game played in the famous stadium, La Bombonera, before it is renovated). After entering the stadium, we found ourselves in the section normally avoided by tourists because of its reputation for absolute insanity. This was the section I had originally hoped to watch the game from, so this was the best news in a while. Fortunately the others agreed to stay in that section as long as we were really careful.

Here´s a pic of the section we were in. We were right in the middle of that second level, where all those flags are waving and people were in general going completely nuts (check out the full size pic).

And a sweet pic Jonathan got through the flags:

That game was the most intense experience of our journey. I would even dare to say it beats the hitch-hiking episode. We were constantly deafened by the thunderous, constantly changing chants which were accompanied by numerous bass drums. The few times that one could make out sounds other than the chants, they were invariably one of a number of curses towards the opposing team.
In addition, following goals, rowdy fans would light flares and huge sticks that let off copious amounts of colored smoke which would choke hundreds of surrounding fans (not to mention obscure all view of the field, which was already limited due to the flags being waved around in front of us). Talk about incredible. O yeah, when the fans would get really pumped, they would randomly start shoving people, and the entire stands would become a sea that tossed us all over the place. Once I was standing there, trying to get a view through the flags, when all of the sudden I found myself knocked down four rows by a huge man whose momentum had easily carried us both down there. That was quite the surprise. He was laughing hysterically as we climbed back up to our former positions. Boca smashed the opposition as well, so the fans were extra happy, which was a plus (we were on the side where 4 goals were scored). I have a feeling it woulda gotten ugly had the game not gone well.

The next day we checked out some other sections of the city, and then we capped off the day with a weekly event we heard about from our hostel owners. Every Monday in a certain section of the city, about 15 guys form a drum circle and play in this big old warehouse, and a few thousand people come out to watch. They were using all sorts of percussion instruments and absolutely defining the term “jamming out” for about two hours. It was awesome.

Tuesday we took Catherine to the airport so she could return home (a nice 2 hour journey on a local bus each way). We had to take all of our gear with us, because we were leaving the city shortly after parting ways with her. It was rather torturous to go into an airport with all of our stuff, but not be able to return home. We just had to keep reminding ourselves of the things we still have left to see before we return. Either way, just a week and a half left.
We´re now in Puerto Iguazu, a mere 30 minute ride from one of the most impressive natural wonders of the world, the Iguazu Falls. It´s strange being in a fairly warm jungle after all the cold of the mountains and cities we´ve passed through lately. Tomorrow early we´ll be heading to the falls.

day to day

So I just realized that I never let anyone know where we are.  We ended up deciding to go straight to Buenos Aires because of monetary and time constraints, so two days ago we departed on a 22 hour bus ride straight here.  The bus ride would´ve been much worse if we hadn´t been gradually building up to one that long over the past few weeks.  There were about 6 people including ourselves on the big double-decker bus for most of the journey, and we got to sit in the front at the huge window on the second level for much of the trip, which provided quite the view.

We got here yesterday and found a hostel near lots of the action of the city, though in a city this incredibly huge you are never really near too many things it seems (at least we´re on the metro line).  This hostel is one of the most “hostel-like” hostels we´ve encountered so far, with quite a few rooms and people from all over the world coming and going at all times.  We´re adding to our long list of cool people that we´ve met.  I spent a while last night talking to a guy from Brazil who moved here in order to perfect his spanish, and his enthusiasm toward his own country got me even more excited about seeing Brazil. 

Yesterday was spent making an initial foray into the city to check out some of the main plazas and huge avenues which were built in imitation of those of France.  Catherine has been quite excited after all her visits to France to see something familiar for the first time.  Today we checked out a ton more of the city and found out that we cannot buy tickets to the futbol match until the day of the game, Sunday.  It´s the championship game of the season, and Boca Jr is in it, so it´s gonna be an incredible experience.  The area where the stadium is has a less than stellar reputation, but it was really interesting to see another side of the city.  We then traveled to the huge cemetery of the city, which was beyond anything I had ever imagined a cemetery could be.  It was literally its own city, with buildings from 2 to 3 stories tall containing the bodies of countless famous individuals.  We didn´t know how to feel about walking through streets lined with buildings for dead people, complete with little back allies and creepiest of all: hundreds of cats.  What possesses people to spend all those thousands of dollars to house their rotting bodies in ornate mansions?  It was an eerie experience.

Argentina is definitely one of my favorite countries of the trip: the people are incredibly nice, the history is unbelievable, and the culture is fascinating.  One of the coolest parts of the culture definitely has to be the obsession with the Yerba Mate (pronounced mah-te).  It´s a drink remotely similar to tea which they drink out of special cups with a straw that strains out the leaves and wood.  I finally got my own cup today so that I can keep enjoying it back home.  It´s such an essential part of their lives that we saw a homeless man sitting up against a building with all of his possessions sipping on Mate.

We somehow no longer have the battery charger for Jonathan´s camera, so we won´t really be able to record too much of the remainder of our journey, which is rather depressing, but we´ll see what happens. 

I´ve just started to realize that I only have 2 more weeks down here, and it´s a strange feeling.  I´m looking forward to going home more than ever, but I know that I´m gonna miss all of this so much when I do.  For now I´m just savoring every moment that I can.

Where to go next…

So the past couple of days here in Bariloche have been really cool.  I think this taste of Patagonia is making us wish we could go way south to where it gets really crazy, but alas there´s only so much time.  We spent yesterday hiking some random trail that we heard was good and possible this time of year (ie not blocked by snow).  After some discouragement about ever reaching any kind of destination, we reached an incredible lookout point over the lake and snow-capped mountains (http://s291.photobucket.com/albums/ll298/chadmosby/Num%206%20Argentina/?action=view&current=P1040104.jpg).  The journey to get to that point is also quite noteworthy.  I was completely shocked by the variety we saw within the span of a few miles.  We went through 4 distinct vegetation zones; I didn´t think that was possible with virtually no real change in elevation and no other apparent reasons for such changes.  It was quite strange.  The weather is cold, but not painfully so as in some of the places we have passed through.

On another note, we´ve had kitchens at these most recent residences, and it´s been quite fun to actually be able to cook for ourselves for a change (not to mention the beauty of cheap food).  I was actually painfully full after dinner tonight: that´s a definite first. 

We don´t really know what we are doing next.  We might just go straight to Buenos Aires since the bus ride to Mendoza seems to be prohibitively expensive.  We´ll see.  Anyway, one of the guys who lives here in this house needs the computer, so I gotta go.  Until later.

another one down

“Your beard is ugly,” says the old Chilean man at the table across from us in the typical garbled Chilean spanish.

“Excuse me?”

“Your beard is ugly, but your friend: she is beautiful, beautiful like a movie star.”

Ouch.  What I did to deserve such a insult while I was minding my own business at the dinner table is beyond me, but Catherine continues to receive compliments from all the guys down here.  I´ll have that old man know that despite our thoroughly homeless appearances, Jonathan and I still receive looks from quite a few of the girls everywhere we go. 

Finally the waiter brings our food, and we can focus on that instead of the strange Chilean man who is talking to us on and off.  Jonathan and I instantly note that our dish is obviously not catfish, like we had anticipated.  Upon inspection, it appears to be squid, or something similar, so we just dig right in.  It had a very strange texture, but we weren´t in a position to be picky (or at least I wasn´t with my appetite).  We went on our way, and did not discover until two days later that we had in fact eaten cow intestines…  So THAT´s why all the locals in the restaurant were watching us so intently with smiles on their faces as we devoured our meal. 

That was in the port cities of Valpairiso and Viña del Mar.  It was rather strange looking out over the Pacific Ocean just two days after skiing in the Andes mountains.  From there we headed south, traveling about 17 hours in buses in just one day: fun stuff.  The long rides were made bearable by the beautiful snow-capped Andes which flanked us on our left the entire way.  We also saw the appearance of trees in serious numbers, which up to this point had been few and far between.  We were now in the northern part of Patagonia. 

We spent a few days in a small village on the edge of a huge lake (this is the lakes district of Patagonia).  Somehow, we managed to find a sweet little cabin that overlooked the lake.  Unfortunately, the lake was shrouded in fog most of the time we were there, but it was kind enough to come out on our last day.  We also visited a really cool part of the National Park Puyehue, where we got to hike a bit and relax in some hot springs, an experience made extra bizarre when it´s so stinkin cold outside of the water. 

From there, we departed toward Argentina on what would be the most scenic bus ride of the entire trip.  We circled around the lake we were staying at, and wound our way up into the snow covered Andes.  It´s always a blast to watch the scenery change so rapidly as you pass from one climate/geographical area into another.  Before we knew it, we were surrounded by snow drifts and lots of coniferous trees, with rocky snowy peaks towering overhead.  We eventually descended out of this winter wonderland into more varied forests, and we came upon a true monster of a lake: another left-over from the glaciers which tore up this landscape thousands of years ago.  It´s incredible to look out across a lake and see huge snowy mountains looming over the far side.  I´ve never seen anything like it.  This is the lake we are now staying on, in a town known as Bariloche.  Hopefully I´ll be able to put up some pictures soon, cause the views are amazing in every direction.  We will be based out of here for a few days until we move north towards Mendoza.

end of our stay

Skiing yesterday was a fun experience, and all the walking we´ve been doing made our muscles surprisingly more prepared than we had expected.  The views from up there were enough to make the journey worth it (http://s291.photobucket.com/albums/ll298/chadmosby/Num%205%20Chile/?action=view&current=P1030957.jpg).

Our friend Catherine arrived early this morning and injected some new life into our travels immediately.  Jonathan and I are getting to the point where it´s harder and harder to really impress us, so it´s a huge help to have someone with us to make us appreciate how incredible things really are.  She had quite the look on her face upon meeting us in the airport; I don´t know if that was a look of suprise due to our hagard appearances or simply joy upon finding us.  We showed her around the city today, and climbed to the peak of that cool hill in the middle of the city.  We´re all pretty tired, so hopefully we´ll head to bed early tonight.  Tomorrow we head to the coast, first to Valpo again, and then to a few smaller, more beautiful, cities around that area.  After that we plan to head south…

Today I was really struck by my reaction upon entering a huge Catholic cathedral.  It´s a feeling that´s been growing steadily the more of these cathedrals we see, but it was really strong today.  I can´t stand the ornateness and outright extravegance that´s sitting there, at the obvious expense of who-knows-how-many people.  Fortunately, we won´t see too many more of these, because it kind of ruins the day, but yeah.  Anyway, sorry to end the post on such a downer, but I figured I should put it in there.  Until sometime…

am i really doing this?

Sometimes at random moments, it hits me that I´m in South America and have traveled thousands of miles past countless stunning sites.  It´s really rather shocking.  At other times, like now, I feel so comfortable and normal that I have to force myself to believe I´m actually here.  It doesn´t help that Santiago is incredibly modern, and at times even seems like a big city in the states.  I suppose it´s nice to be comfortable and at ease, but I just wanna make sure I don´t start missing things as traveling becomes just another part of “everyday life.” 

So we´ve been in Santiago for a few days now, and it´s quite the lively, friendly city (http://s291.photobucket.com/albums/ll298/chadmosby/Num%205%20Chile/?action=view&current=P1030931.jpg).  It´s huge beyond imagining, as we discovered after walking almost 10 miles in one day and hardly seeing any of it.  One of it´s cooler features is a huge hill in the middle of the city, which has a castle at the top, and is surrounded by vegetation and cliffs down to the streets below.  It´s quite the bizarre thing to find in a city.  The countless cheap street stands selling various greasy treats add to my enjoyment of the city I´m sure… My diet has taken a serious turn for the worst, but my body will just have to live with it for another month. 

Our excursion to Valparaíso yesterday was interesting.  It was a lot of fun to see an international soccer game firsthand, even if it was just a friendly match.  The city itself is also cool, as the entire city is on a hill which comes down to meet the ocean in a huge bay.  Before the creation of the Panama Canal, it was one of the most important trading centers in South America.  However, I must admit that one of the best parts of the journey was finding the most monstrous grocery/clothing store I´ve ever been in.  If you know me, then you know that shopping is not my thing, but large grocery stores are now one of the most exciting things to find.  They have so much FOOD!  I feel like I could walk through the aisles and stare at the food forever.  I don´t think I´ll be able to complain about trips to the grocery store ever again.

We returned to Santiago this morning, and tomorrow we will take a day trip to a ski mountain in the Andes.  It´s gonna be expensive, but we decided that we had to do it while we´re here.  The day after that, Catherine arrives, so we´ll have some new life injected into our travels.  That´s all for now.

Ahhhh, relaxation…sort of

by the way, I finally got the pics to add into the last two blogs, as well as a couple of links to my photobucket.

We´ve arrived in Santiago after many adventures.  The strike went on so long that we weren´t able to hitch-hike anymore and just came here on a bus (fortunately they allow buses to pass through their roadblocks).  We´ve got a decent place to stay for a while, but the prices here are pretty killer.  For food, we keep getting this double hotdog combo meal, since it´s one of the few things we can afford.  Today we found out that the skiing in the Andes is gonna break the bank, but we´ve gotta go for it anyway.  Tomorrow we go to Valparaíso, where we will hopefully watch an international futbol match between Chile and Panama.  That should be a crazy experience, and we´re quite fortunate to be here at the right time. 

Today we spent walking around this city, which is absolutely mammoth. 

this place is closing, so to be continued….

trying to catch up

I´m really trying to catch up before all these memories vanish to the recesses of my mind.  (o, and i added a lot to the previous blog post, so check the updated version)

I think I just had the wildest experience of my life.  We left San Pedro de Atacama for Antofogasta, a port city, early in the morning.  Upon arriving there, we took just long enough to get ourselves collected and began to try hitch-hiking.  Eventually, we figured out where we needed to be in order to get picked up.  We somehow ended up with another Brazilian girl, Claudia, who was hitch-hikin as well.  The three of us packed into two front seats of a truck to get to the crossroads, where we´d be able to find more traffic going south.  We somehow managed to time this venture during a nation wide trucker strike, which means that the majority of the traffic we had planned on soliciting for rides was stopped on the side of the road forming blockades.  Did I mention we were trying to hitch-hike through the driest desert in the world?  Fortunately we only ended up walking a few miles through that barren landscape before a rogue trucker had mercy on us.  We both knew it might be unwise to ride with a trucker during this strike, because other truckers get quite angry if they see any truckers actually working during the strike, but we were in no position to be picky.  Our friend Claudia had hitch-hiked with another trucker just that day, and at a blockade a bunch of angry men made the driver get out and beat him up, but she managed to get away…  Anyway, riding in a rig is actually quite nice, since there is so much room, and you have a nice high vantage point to look out (in this case at miles and miles of barren landscape with some mountains here and there).  It was fairly uneventful until we came up to a police checkpoint.  This was when we learned that is was illegal for truckers to carry hitch-hikers, which was a rather interesting surprise.  We had to get up into his sleeping loft and close the curtains so that no one could see we were in the truck!  Peaking out through a crack in the curtains to see if they´d find us, I felt like some sort of fugitive or a person fleeing on the underground railroad.  It was one of the strangest feelings.  Fortunately, the police did not check to closely, and we were eventually able to come out of hiding.  Late in the evening, we arrived at a truck stop.  By truck stop, I mean the only building for miles in the middle of the desert.  There, all the other rogue truckers who had managed to evade the angry blockades were gathered watching a soccer game.  We joined them, looking more out of place than ever, which is saying something.  We grabbed dinner there, and had hoped to continue on our journey, but our driver discovered that the way was completely closed shortly up the road.  Now we had to figure out where to sleep, since we didn´t have our own little bed like all of the truckers there.  We somehow convinced one of the cooks at the truckstop to let us use her bedroom, which had two tiny single beds and a few blankets.  The problem was that we were three (since we were still with Claudia), so we ended up putting the two beds side-by-side and the three of us used those two beds laying perpendicularly across them.  O, and did I mention that she got the flu during the night?  Being in between Jonathan and a not-particularly-small woman with the flu on two single beds all night was rather interesting…  But I suppose it could´ve been worse.  Anyway, in the morning our driver still wasn´t sure if he could go on, and a blockade had sprung up right by our truckstop, so we could watch all the truckers milling about in the road and talking to one another.  Many cars decided to go off-road before reaching the blockade so they wouldn´t have to confront the truckers, so it was a really bad spot to try to pick up another ride.  We walked a ways down the road to the south, and eventually got picked up by a man who offered to carry us for an hour or so.  When he dropped us off, we were in a small town, but there was still virtually no traffic on the road because of all the blockades.  We are both convinced that finding rides would´ve been ridiculously easy had it not been for all the trucker strike business.  We finally gave up after waiting for hours, and got a cheap bus ticket on to the next big city, Copiapó, where we are now. 

We´ve seperated from Claudia now, and we spent a few hours earlier in a monstrous supermarket.  It was awesome!  We just walked through the aisles gazing longingly at almost everything we saw, but eventually we consolidated our desires to an affordable list, which we are now lugging around.  We decided to just purchase a night bus ticket on to La Serena, so we´re about to leave for there.  It´s been pretty crazy these last few days, but hopefully we´ll get a chance to rest once we get there.  Think that´s all for now, and I apologize if some of this doesn´t make sense.  I´ve not really been getting a chance to proof-read anything before posting. 

Juxtaposition (now finished)

Wow…where to begin.  It´s quite tough when I go for these longer stretches between blogs, because there are so many incredible things each day that they cause the memories from the previous day to fade a wee bit.  But here goes.

A few days back we set out into the Salar de Uyunni.  We had the good fortune of joining our new friends Rich and Zoe (a young couple from Australia) and Max and Mara (a young couple from France).  We all ended up in the same 4-wheel-drivevehicle for all the traveling.  We set out with our less-than-amiable driver/guide and reached the vast white expanses of the Salarrelatively quickly.  It was absolutely stunning to driveout onto a perfectly flat surface of white that stretched on forever.  We drove towards a large island in the salt (how our driver knew the way throughout this entire trip was beyond any of us, because our destinations were never even close to being within sight, and there certainly aren´t roads).  This island of rock and enormous cacti is named Incahuasi, and it was ideal for obtaining a better/further view out over the Salar.  The island itself would´ve been incredible enough to warrant a trip to it in normal circumstances, but the endless salt kept drawing your eyes outward.  The endless white perfection seemed a fantastic optical illusion, but it never disappeared.  In the distance you could see huge mountains looming over the salt flats: what once would´ve been the shores of that huge sea.  We then got to take all sorts of cool perspective shots out on the salt, before we headed on to our accomodations for the night (http://s291.photobucket.com/albums/ll298/chadmosby/Num%204%20Bolivia%20out%20of%20order/?action=view&current=P1030829.jpg).  The driver took us away from the salf flats, which we left after an hour or two of driving from Incahuasi.  Who knows how many hours we drove (read bumped and bounced) afterwards, before reaching our resting point.  Eventually, we arrived at a salt hotel (made entirely from blocks of salt and salt mortar).  It was reasonably well insulated so the cold of the night took a little while to penetrate.  Jonathan and I and our friends spent the evening playing cards while drinking Rum and Cokes, which did wonders to keep us warm.  It was some French card game, and halfway through our time playing, some others (one from Chile and one from Spain) joined us.  That was the first ever trilingual card game I´veplayed.  French, Spanish, and English were constantly interchanged throughout the evening, which gave the game an even cooler feel.   Ahh yes, I can´t forget to mention the stars.  There was basically no moon that evening, so when we stepped out into the cold of the night for a few moments, we were met with the most astounding sight: the stars filled the sky so densely they seemed on top of one another, and they reached ALL the way to the horizon.  WOW.  By far the best stars I´ve ever seen.  Then we went to bed in our hardcore rented sleeping bags underneath countless blankets (in full clothing as well, of course.  I don´t think we had slept in anything but full clothing in a couple of weeks: Bolivia is freaking cold). 

The next morning we set out fairly early towards the lake region.  We drove forever, but eventually started to reach some of the most amazing lakes I´ve ever seen.   Each lake we came to was a different color, and I mean clearly a different color, not just a slight tint to the water.  As if that and the mountains of varying colors surrounding each lake weren´t enough, the third lake we came to was FILLED with hundreds of flamingos (http://s291.photobucket.com/albums/ll298/chadmosby/Num%204%20Bolivia%20out%20of%20order/?action=view&current=P1030890.jpg).  We got to chill and watch them for a while, which was a blast.  None of us could figure out why they had chosen such a freezing lake (much of the water was covered with ice) to congregate every year, but we weren´t complaining.  We went on to see a couple of other lakes, the last of which was completely blood red with bright white islands throughout.  The bacteria of the lake (Lago Colorado) apparently feed on the same thing as the flamingos, which makes them both red.  The scenary throughout the hours of 4-wheeling was changing constantly, which added to the overwhelming beauty of this corner of Bolivia.  We got lots of opportunities to get to know our friends better, and they´ve turned out to be quite awesome people. 

We arrived at our next abode late in the afternoon, just in time for some Mate de Coca (now one of my favorite drinks; alas that we can´t bring Coca leaves back with us).  This place was significantly less nice than the previous night´s residence, which didn´t bode well since we knew we were about to experience the coldest nights of our lives.  The 5 of us played cards a good bit this evening as well (I say 5 because Jonathan was on his death-bed at the time), but it eventually got too cold to have our hands outside of gloves, even with all the wine and vodka.  This night, we slept with all our clothes on (hats, gloves, all our socks, everything), inside our hardcore sleeping bags, and underneath at least 20 pounds of blankets.  Once you were in, you couldn´t move a thing.  IT WAS STILL COLD.  It dropped down to around 0-5 degrees F, or almost 20 below C.  Talk about a painful night.  The fact that a few people actually live there is astounding.  You´d think they could at least add a little insulation so it would stay at a more toasty temp of like 15 degrees F, but no.  We also had to get up before the sun came up to set out and see some geysers as the sun rose.  Trying to pack up in complete darkness (no moon) while freezing to death is rather a challenge.  Jonathan was still pretty dead, but Mara said she noticed a wee bit of color in his face, so we figured he´d make it.  The geysers were really cool, though I would´ve enjoyed them more in other circumstances.  We drove for many hours after that, passing more lakes and incredible mountains.  We stopped for breakfast at a shack they had constructed near these hot springs.  Only Mara was brave enough to take off her clothes in order to get in, though she said it was worth it…  Our driver set out our breakfast, which we inhaled, and then we went towards the border with Chile.  On the way we passed a huge volcano (o yeah, we saw an active volcano at some point the previous day) with a lake at its feet.  Then we were at the Chilean border.  Everything was about to change.

ill put this up for those of u who can´t wait (mom).  hopefully ill finish it soon.

continuing:  After the cold and high altitudes of Bolivia, the warmth and low altitudes of Chile were rather shocking.  We went from the coldest environment we´ve ever been in to a desert which was warm enough to bike around in without our shirts on.  We arrived in San Pedro de Atacama, an oasis in the driest desert in the word, the Atacama Desert.  This area was also a shock, because it is one of the priciest locations in Chile, which is the most expensive country in South America.  Keep in mind that we just left the cheapest and poorest country in South America, Bolivia.  Paying for stuff was painful… 

Anyway, we went on a 40 km bike ride with our friends through some incredible desert landscapes.  We were in an area called “Valle de la Luna,” and it really did seem like we were in another world at times.  Going with Rich, Zoe, Max, and Mara definitely helped make the exhausting part of the 40 km bike ride less noticeable, and we were really able to enjoy ourselves.  We even passed an area that was heavily fenced off and labeled with warning signs everywhere: MINE FIELDS!  We surmised that they were left over from the war for pacific coastline between Chile and Bolivia a number of years back.

We spent the night having dinner and talking with our friends before having to say goodbye.  It had been really nice to have other familiar faces around, so it was kind of depressing to leave that behind.  Hopefully we´ll run into them again some day in our travels.