We´re still alive

Just killing some time in Uyuni, Bolivia right now waiting for a bus back to La Paz, where we were not too long ago. From La Paz, we went to Potosi, the highest (supposedly) city in the world, at over 13,000 feet. The city was formed because they found a ton of silver in the mountain there, and well, mined the crap out of it. Often using slaves. Many people died. More to come. Anyway, we got to tour a mine...it was pretty intense. Very taxing physically because of the altitude, and the horrible air quality inside. It´s completely amazing that people can make a living working there (though they often are forced to quit at a young age, for health reasons).

From there we went to Tupiza, which is sort of a wild west town, surrounded by red cliffs and mountains beyond. Did a nice little hike from downtown into the adjacent ¨canyon¨ and eventually up to a lookout of the city as the sun was setting.

From there we did a 4 day jeep tour of southwestern Bolivia including the Salaar de Uyuni...the Uyuni Salt Flats...the largest in the world I believe. The trip was rather...taxing...basically we weren´t prepared for the cold (well below freezing at night, and also some days with the windchill) and there was a lot of bouncing around while driving 8 or so hours a day. Pics to come!

We will be back in a few days, at which point I will blog day by day as though we are still here (you´ll just have to be patient about all the details of our trip). Stay tuned!