Oh, how we love Bolivian buses...

So after an amazing 3 day tour from San Pedro de Atacama, Chile, through the mountains and salt beds of Bolivia to Uyuni, Jessie and I are presently in the mining town of Potosi after a miserabely awesome 6 hour Bolivian bus ride. Old seats, people in the aisles because there isn´t anywhere to sit, the smell of meat that has been hanging in the sun most of the day, and, as Jessie experienced, elbows in your back the whole time from the people standing next to you and, occasionally, falling in to you. It´s nothing to get upset about, though... it´s an experience in itself and comical to reflect on. But to those planning a trip to Bolivia, be prepared for this! =)

The sites on the tour were absolutely stunning. I think I found a way to share photos from our facebook accounts so hopefully everyone will be able to take a look. Better this way since words can´t even come close to the beauty of what we saw. The first day we saw plenty of high altitude lagoons, one which was a splendid green/turqouise color caused by the abundance of copper in the area. We slept in a *very* rustic, concrete dwelling that night and the temperatures (according to our guides) reached something like -15 degrees celsius. Jessie and I weren´t too cold, though. Lots of layers, foot warmers, down sleeping bags, and body heat were enough to keep us warm. Thank you Dad for the sleeping bags!!! (I cannot stress this enough).

The next two days we saw some gysers, flamingos (yes, flamingos), and, of course, the astonishing salt flats. It was a lot of fun thinking of interesting ideas for pictures since because there is an absence of depth cues on the salt flats, you can play with proportions which makes for fantastic (and funny) pictures. I will try to post links to our pictures in the toolbar to the right (where the link to our map is) so everyone can see them. We met two very nice Dutch girls on our tour and had a lot of fun playing cards, trying to learn Dutch, and taking crazy pictures at the salt flats. (I can´t wait to get home and repeat some of the funny Dutch sayings we learned to our Dutch Professor, Dr. Prins!)

We stayed in Uyuni for one night after the tour then hopped on a bus for Potosi the next day. We ate some mouth watering meat fondue last night and then went to a local disco for a couple drinks before heading back to the hostal. Tomorrow we are going to head to the silver mines and maybe visit the thermal baths nearby. Tuesday we will head for Sucre, supposedly a very beautiful city and much worth a visit according to many of the fellow backpackers we´ve met.

It´s crazy to think our trip is almost over! After Sucre we will head for Cochabamba then finally La Paz where we will fly back to the states. To all those fellow travelers reading this... at the end of the trip I will try to remember the places we stayed and ate at and create a post rating them, etc, for quick reference for those searching for tips on Google. We have been using the 2007 Footprint South American handbook and it has been a tremendous help; however, a few of the hostals and restaurants mentioned in the handbook have since been closed down. Also, the prices mentioned for the places we visited in Chile (for hostals, food, bus tickets, etc) were consistently wrong... Chile was MUCH more expensive than we anticipated. I have taken a look at Lonely Planet´s South America on a shoestring and prefer Footprint´s... it has MANY more options for eating and sleeping and a lot of historical and cultural information.

Thanks again for everyone who has been keeping up with our travels and leaving comments! We love getting on here and reading what you all have to say.

Much love from Potosi!