Friday, October 12, 2012

ridin dirty in bolivia.

bolivia. not my favourite place on earth. however, you just gotta make the best of the cold, and the crappy food. i spent the shortest amount of time here. and i am glad haha. not that it is a bad place, i was just over living out of a backpack.

la paz.  
the highest capital city in the worldddddddd!  woopdy doo.  i like my sea level cities.  don't blame me for sounding like karl pilkington.  if your brain was swimming all over your head you would say the same thing.  honestly, i took five steps and i was out of breath.  and oh look at that la paz is all hills. great.   
 
"welcome foreigners peasants to lake TITICACA."  
just a stop for a couple of days before we head on to la paz.  but i didn't take any photos, except this one.

witchcraft market. 

yahoo!  dead and dried up baby llamas.

barry trying the avoid the magic that is our love.  lol. 

this guy loves the altitude.

people care about these animals.  many of the dogs had jackets.  awww.

on top of the mirador.  which took most of my life with while walking up the hill.

'let's go to the mirador' he says.  'it will be fun.' he says.

okay i admit.  this is pretty cool.


barry also loves altitude.


salar de uyuni.
 the world's largest salt flat at 10,582 square kilometers (4,086 sq mi). it is located in the potosí and oruro departments in southwest bolivia, near the crest of the andes, and is at an elevation of 3,656 meters (11,995 ft) above mean sea level.  the salar was formed as a result of transformations between several prehistoric lakes. it is covered by a few meters of salt crust, which has an extraordinary flatness with the average altitude variations within one meter over the entire area of the salar. the crust serves as a source of salt and covers a pool of brine, which is exceptionally rich in lithium. it contains 50 to 70% of the world's lithium reserves, which is in the process of being extracted. the large area, clear skies and the exceptional flatness of the surface make the Salar an ideal object for calibrating the altimeters of earth observation satellites. the salar serves as the major transport route across the bolivian altiplano and is a major breeding ground for several species of pink flamingos. salar de uyuni is also a climatological transitional zone, for towering tropical cumulus congestus and cumulus incus clouds that form in the eastern part of the massive salt flat during the summer, cannot permeate beyond the salt flat's considerably more arid western edges, near the chilean border and the atacama desert.
yeah so that tidbit was from wikipedia.  hope you learned something.  cause i had to learn all that in spanish.  so this was probably the most unprepared trip i had taken.  only because it was minus 15 degree weather.  and i only had so many clothes.  which i wore all at the same time.  this was one of those journeys that was better in perspective.

train grave yard.

not sure of u of t med students are from toronto.  but it wouldn't surprise me if they were.


wild pigs!

salt.


the fish island.  cause it is shaped like a fish.  but grows a lot of cacti.




looks fuzzy.


yay!  group shot.




i'm freezing.







here come the flamingo photos.







wild...somethings...








NO FLYING FLAMINGOS.

some rock that looks like a tree.




still freezing.  and yes i wore the same clothes for 3 days.  and slept in them too.

hot springs.  which i was not aware of.  cause i would have brought my bathers.

lucky ducks.



coroico.
well this place is hot.  was not expecting that.  pulling out the t-shirts and shorts.  oh wait, there are flesh eating insects from the jungle that we didn't know about?  welp.  back with long sleeves and pants.  oh bolivia.  you give one thing and take another.  you are like over eating at a thanksgiving dinner.  so good but so bad.  i still have scars from those blood sucking monsters.  dear god, worst invention EVER.

yeah this cat knows what's up.

though i would have to say, the bakeries in this little city were SO GOOD.








on our unexpected four hour hike back down from the crappy waterfall. 



jungle falcons on the move for prey.

foxy.

well i guess this is goodbye.  until my next adventure.

xo.
vb.

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