I´ll be back in May!!!

I´m taking two weeks off and I´m not sure if I´ll be able to spend some time on the net.

Have fun times!!! I´ll see you when I´m back!!

life ~ a photogenic pain

Aww. This is me on Saturday. Not a joke!!!

Funny thing, I´ve been posting some pictures on FB and my friends left comments like “love it”, “clever”, “beautiful”. None of them thought they were for real 🙂

I guess my pain is really photogenic LOL

a thought ~ Monday. AGAIN?

A never ending story, Mondays. They never miss a week. Never on strike. Never tired of being always on time.
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BUT: not working today. Me. Mondays always work.

SO as I´m free I will start practicing my Jane jumps for next Monday because I expect it to be a Monday in the jungle. I wonder if I´ll get to meet a Tarzan??

BTW, have I mentioned the word Monday in this post??

Holidays ~ to the clouds

It took me almost 24 hours to get back to my country. A long ride on a Bolivian bus, that is nothing like ours. But that is part of the adventure. Anyway, I crossed the frontier on foot and went to La Quiaca to take a bus back to Salta. My last stop.

As I was coming closer to Salta, the clouds started to show up in the horizon and by the time I got to the city, it was raining. I didn´t care, the sky was so magical and beautiful that it made me forget about the rain.

I had two full days ahead before coming home. My first mission was to find out if the Train to the Clouds was working that weekend. It was. So I bought my ticket for the next day.

Then I went to buy some presents for my friends, I usually do it the last day since I don´t like traveling with extra weight on my shoulders and besides, I usually finish my trip with nearly 0$ on my pockets so I spend those “nearly” and make them “totally” zero on that last day 🙂

After having bought some presents and having lunch, I went to the main square just to rest. I had been walking a lot. There I run into Tati!! It was so nice to see her again. She was leaving the following morning so we spent the afternoon together chatting as if we hadn´t seen each other for ages.

She had a barbecue that night at the hostel and we thought of going out later at night. But it got too late and I had to be up at 5 to take the train so we said goodbye on the phone and promised to talk again when in BA.

That night I met too guys at the hostel that were taking that train the following day so we decided to share a cab to the station.

And off we went!!

It´s a long trip, it takes 18 hours approximately. The train reaches 4000 meters (about 13123 feet according to the converter). People can get sick so there are nurses and oxygen and the crew is totally prepared for contingencies. Lucky me, altitude was not a problem (I had been at 5000 mt in Bolivia just a few days ago, so I had training).

The scenery was fantastic, I tried to take pictures from the windows because there were no stops till we reached the highest point.

we were being followed!!

and my mate who was filming a documentary, filmed them filming us LOL

My other mate

Here, the train is split into two and the first cars turn to be the last cars.

this is a 15 minute stop. Mostly, to buy gifts.

When it was getting dark, we went to the bar car and made friends with the bartender, organizing a little party. It was fun!!

And with this last adventure, my trip was over and it was time to come back home.

Hope you enjoyed it!!

Holidays ~ Sucre

I love meeting people when I travel. I´m in a new city or town hearing stories of other cities or towns, it´s like traveling to several places at the same time.

But I also love my moments of solitude, one day when I´m just on my own. And Sucre was my place of solitude.

After spending the night on the bus, I finally got to Sucre. It was very early in the morning, nobody to be seen in the streets. I took a taxi from the bus station to downtown Sucre, because there were no buses that early. I walked and walked trying to find a nice hotel. I needed a shower and a breakfast and some rest.

I had no plan for that day and the following. All I knew was that I had just two days before coming back to Salta in Argentina. And it was a long trip, 24 hours on a bus. So I tried to sleep well, relax, and enjoy the city.

Sucre is very friendly and very beautiful. My favorite place for breakfast was an old colonial house that belonged to the German Community. They had an exchange program so it was a hectic place. Another favorite place in Sucre was the scenic lookout at the top of a hill. Hard to get there with those steep streets but totally worth it.

No favorite restaurant in two days but I tried different food at different places. And downtown Sucre with its colonial architecture and white houses and flowers was very pretty.

I mostly walked and walked around till it was time to leave and come back to my country. I had three days left. One was going to be spent on a bus, the other two in Salta.

Native protest

Holidays ~ salty roads

After a salty night sleeping in salty beds, we hit a salty road and salt was all over from that point on.

We went to see our salty sunrise in the middle of nowhere, nowhere salty of course.

After spending some time just enjoying the quietness we went to have breakfast in another salty spot.

After breakfast, we hit the salty road and went to find our own treasures in the holes. It was really fun!!

This is me!! taking a salty nap!!

our treasure!

Then we went to see a museum that was in an old hotel, made of salt, of course.

It was pretty amazing!

Our final destination was Uyuni. In fact, all that salty area belongs to the salt flats known as Salar de Uyuni. It´s the biggest in the world.

sad memories associated to this shot. I was taking pictures and a dog came out of nowhere (probably under the truck) and bit me.

We had our lunch there, but without the spelling mistakes

Finally, we went to the town, which was our final destination.

It was sort of sad, since it was time to say our goodbyes. Julian was going to Potosí, Tati was going to Salta, Erika and Javier to Rosario and me to Sucre.

We spent the last afternoon together. After that we hugged and kissed and promised to be in touch. Salty tears were rolling down our cheeks

It was time for me to take another bus. Sucre was waiting for me.

Holidays ~ paintings ~ part II

We hit the road again. A volcano and a lunch were waiting for us. At this point, we felt we were pretty lucky to have Inocencia as a cook. She took a good care of us and our food. And she also amused us with her stories.

It was pretty hot and we were pretty tired that day. Our driver parked under a big rock, Inocencia made us lunch and we went around the place like little kids, jumping, dancing and making jokes.

Volcano

We made a stop in a very little town and bought some beers for dinner.

We were supposed to spend the night in a “salt hotel” and were very curious about it.

The hotel was made entirely of salt. Its walls, tables, chairs, beds, everything !

The good news was that there was hot water!! I mean, it was scarce but hot!! and we all took a short shower. It felt really good. Another surprise was that there was enough electricity to charge the batteries! Longer than the previous night.

We went for a walk, then came back for dinner and were up till the electricity went off.

The following day we were going to visit one of the most amazing places!

a thought ~ perfect world

In a perfectly perfect world I can have all the chocolate I want. And there are no Mondays.

Holidays ~ paintings ~ Part I

What nature had in store for us that day was: an amazing sunrise, deserts, volcanoes, lakes and salt. It was the day in which nature was most inspired and gifted us with its beautifully painted landscapes.

After enjoying the magnificent sunrise we set off. We were pretty excited that morning.

Our next stop was going to be Arbol de Piedra, in a desert. I´ll let the pictures speak for themselves.

this was funny, a parking sign!!

Isn´t nature a wonderful artist??

We didn´t want to leave, it was so beautiful and peaceful! but we had to at some point.

We went to another lake and stayed there for a while, trying to make friends with the flamingoes.

It was almost noon and we were getting hangry so we hit the road again. Our lunch was waiting for us by a volcano