Long Time Gone

....And we´re back. Since we last wrote from La Paz we´ve gone though numerable cities and towns, and several different environments. It´s been a semi-dizying and unprofitable search for trekking, but good traveling times nonetheless. From La Paz we went to Cochabamba, as an unimpressive city with an obviously large economic gap, it was very much our least favorite place in Bolivia. The highlights were the giant whipped cream-topped fruit salad sundeas at the market and a new street snack: ¨beer float,¨ which was a tasty as-dark-as-they-come beer poured over sweetend egg whites. Aiming to visit one of the many national parks that are ¨near¨(within several hours) of Cochabamba, we went to the small, warm and wonderfully humid town of Villa Tunari. Settled in the Amazon basin, it dropped us from 2700 meters to 270 meters, the lowest we´ve been (and maybe will be until we go to Chile) in well over a month. Villa Tunari was filled with big bugs, reptiles, stifling humidity and all the other wonders of the jungle environment (which felt like Southern Illinois summer home to me). We were not able to get to the national park, as nothing comes easy in Bolivia, but we were able to hike around a ¨bosque tropico humido¨ reserve not far from our hostel, where we really got to enjoy the variety of flora and fauna, especially the monkeys. After two days of sweating through the mornings and dancing through the afternoon thunderstorms, we took the longest, bumpiest bus ride yet to Sucre, a beautiful, white, colonial city. Again at a loss for trekking rather than touring options, we went for the standard city nature walk. It seems every Bolivian city has a hill (which is trashed because it´s also a party spot) with a decent overlook, stations of the cross, and a giant statue of open-armed Jesus. This hill also happened to have lots of very nice, tall eucalyptus trees and a cow. Sucre also offered our first taste of Bolivian wine, which is very important to me as part of our culinary experience portfolio. Micheal Orlando, nice, young man at our hostel befriended us late one morning, and coming from Tarija, Bolivian wine country, insisted that we try some of the wine. Because what he brought out came in a two gallon jug that looked like a gas can with a wine label on it, and the fact that none of us had set plans for the afternoon, the three of us spent a long and lovely afternoon drinking wine and enjoying conversation. The following day, Sam and I were very fortunate to have nothing to do besides ride the bus to Potosi. Potosi´s claim to fame is that it is the highest city in the world, and has been devistated by its silver mines. For us, it has the best salteñas (street snack that probably inspired the hot pocket¨) in Bolivia. Killing time before the night bus to Uyuni, we walked up the town hill with a couple of other travelers from Canada and Scotland. Potosi, unfortunately, lacks a giant Jesus, but it does have a large cross and a space needle-like tower, which cost three salteñas worth, so we did not go up inside. Afraid that we were going to miss the chance for the necessary culinary experience, I insisted we have llama for dinner that night. It was a bit tough and pancake flat, but had a tasty, meaty flavor. Ironically, llama was served for lunch on our sallar tour the following day. That brings me to Uyuni, where Sam and I set out on our first organized tour- of the salt flats, which were, not surprizingly (Mary), very flat, white and salty (yes, we tasted). On our tour, which was very much a photo tour in between jeep cruises, we checked out various parts of the amazing and beautiful salt flats, a train graveyard, wild flamingos, a volcano, and Isla Pescado. Sam and I were able to walk around the island in less than an hour, giving us a more secluded experience on the incredible ancient sea, and this island of uniquely layered volcanic rock and massive cacti. We found holes in the salt, revealing water underneath, and incredible and varying, angular patterns above and below the surface, due to the molecular structure of the salt. The one day tour was enough for us, and we hopped another long and bumpy bus ride through desert flats, pink sandstone formations, rolling hills growing to mountains, and finally the impressive canyonland of Tarija. Tarija is famous for being the area of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid´s last stand, and we are excited and prepared to get out into the canyons tomorrow. The trails are short for a trek, but we plan to camp out for the next night or two, spending Christmas Eve and Night under the stars. For Sam and I both, it will be our first Christmas in the desert, family and friends in our minds and hearts. Feliz Navidad! Love, Nat and Sam