Hola todos y todas!
I am writing to you now from southern Bolivia! In the past few weeks this is what I have been up to and a brief summary of the places that the wind has taken me to...
Antofagasta, Chile: I spent 2 weeks in Antofagasta with some friends and it was great! The city itself doesn't have much to do but the beach is great! Most days I woke up, did some yoga, ate breakfast, read, met my friend at the beach to watch him and his buddies surf, had some mate and walked back home to relax some more before lunch. Somedays there was diving for octopus, sea urchin and abalone instead of surfing. Or me tanning on the beach. The rest of the day was spent watching soap operas, the sunset, visiting a surfboard workshop and walking around the city. I ate fried shrimp and cheese empanadas, abalone and delicious fruit! Sadly my stay there came to an end and I left with my eyes filled with tears. Maybe I'll be back some day, who knows? But for now off to the next adventure!
I am writing to you now from southern Bolivia! In the past few weeks this is what I have been up to and a brief summary of the places that the wind has taken me to...
Antofagasta, Chile: I spent 2 weeks in Antofagasta with some friends and it was great! The city itself doesn't have much to do but the beach is great! Most days I woke up, did some yoga, ate breakfast, read, met my friend at the beach to watch him and his buddies surf, had some mate and walked back home to relax some more before lunch. Somedays there was diving for octopus, sea urchin and abalone instead of surfing. Or me tanning on the beach. The rest of the day was spent watching soap operas, the sunset, visiting a surfboard workshop and walking around the city. I ate fried shrimp and cheese empanadas, abalone and delicious fruit! Sadly my stay there came to an end and I left with my eyes filled with tears. Maybe I'll be back some day, who knows? But for now off to the next adventure!
San Pedro de Atacama, Chile: This is a small town that literally exists only for tourism which you can imagine is frustrating, expensive and annoying. Everything, I mean everything, is more expensive here from eggs to water to bus trips! But the surrounding area is breathtakingly beautiful, filled with salt flats, geysers, 8 volcanoes, desert, amazing wildlife and incredible weather! I decided to splurge and go on a tour of the geysers. They picked me up at 430 in the morning in order to get to the geysers for sunrise. I was not warned the night before however that the geysers are at 4300meters above sea level and at pasta with lentils at around 845 pm. Basically the tour consisted of everyone else feeling perfectly fine while I threw up lentils, slept, and watched from the bus. I am TOO sensitive to altitude! Oy vey! I pulled it together for about 30 minutes however and went into one of the geysers. It was pretttyyy cool! On the drive back we saw vicuñas which are a cousin of llama, viscotcha ( imagine a bunny mixed with a squirrel) and wild donkeys! The rest of the day I chilled out at the hostal, wandered through the plaza and bought my bus ticket to Argentina.
Salta, Argentina: Upon arriving at the Chilean- Argentine border I remember that I had a huge bag of dried figs in my backpack...you can't cross the border with those Adrienne! So there I was eating my banana, handing out dried figs to everyone on my bus bc I had to get rid of them somehow and I didn't want to throw them out! Off we went! I arrived in Salta at night but it was ok bc I met a girl on the bus from Texas and we found our hostal together. We got some traditional empanadas for dinner and wandered around finding the cheapest bottle of water we could. The next day we parted ways bc she was headed to Buenos Aires. I spent the day climbing 1000 steps to the top of a mountain with a lookout on the whole valley that Salta City lies in. It was worth every step! And the sunburn! The rest of the day I popped into old cathedrals that are just magical, went to the central market, hung out in the main plaza, bought some shampoo, went to a museum and splurged on some ice cream. Salta is a really pretty city, streets lined with orange trees, super friendly people, delicious climate and is relatively inexpensive. Would I go back? Probably not. But it was nice to see for a day.
Tilcara and Purmamarca, Argentina: Tilcara is a very small pueblo located about 5 hours north of Salta and 3.5 hours south of the Bolivian border. It's nestled in a mountain range here that reminds me a lot of the highlands in Bolivia. The mountains here also remind me a lot of Death Valley. I arrived here in the afternoon with a German woman that I met at my hostal in Salta and we headed to our separate hostals but met up later to hang out a bit. I climbed and walked around the ruins here which are amazing, the first ruins of my trip! They are surrounded my cactus bigger that your CAR! They're h-u-g-e! After that I went to the museum on town which was filled with old pots and knives and combs. At my hostal here I met a French woman Cathleen who is awesome and we decided to travel together for a bit and cross into Bolivia together in a few days. The next day we ( German, French, me) went to another small pueblo 30 minutes from Tilcara called Purmamarca. Its known for its mountain of 7 colors. We went on a small hike and got sunburned and saw the mountain of 7 colors! It was cool! The town once again is one of those places that lives off of tourism; the plaza is fiiilllleeeddd with chachkies to buy and it's all the same stuff you see in every city you go to here. We returned in the afternoon after spending some time lounging in the plaza, missing 2 busses and just talking. The next town is 3.5 hours from here and 3000 meters above sea level. We are well prepared with our coca leaves to chew and plastic bags to throw up in!
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