Hola from Bolivia! This place has been unreal. Such a big culture difference from Argentina – Bolivia has villages with mud brick houses and beautiful native people. All of the women have these massive slings on that are either stuffed full with goods or babies. Most of the women here wear a unique outfit which consists of a top hat (a “proper” top hat as our English friends call them) and long black braids coming out from beneath. They also wear colorful knit sweaters and full pleated skirts that hit them just below their knees. Then they almost all wear thick wool tights and finally (and who knows why), they wear these cute little wedge heal sandals. I’ll have to bring back a post card of them because I feel really weird taking their picture, especially when I can’t even talk to them.
Since we crossed the border into Bolivia it’s been like stepping back in time. We got on a bus right away that was so rickety I could hardly believe it could make it over the intense bumpy road we commensed to drive on for the next 9 hours. The landscape in the southwest of Bolivia is really similar to central Utah. Kind of reminds me of the farm towns around Price. You might think that made it boring, but no, I love it. So wild and open. We swerved up sketchy dirt roads, sometimes along sketchy cliffs, and then when you thought you were really in the middle of nowhere the bus would pull over and pick someone up that came from who knows where. We finally arrived in a dusty little town where we started our salt flats adventure. Yes, we came all of the way to Bolivia to go to the salt flats It’s the biggest in the world and one of the most striking landscapes I have ever been too.
Now we’re in La Paz, the highest capitol city in the world. We’re at about 12,000 feet elevation here. I don’t even know what to say about it, but that I love it. So completely speechless when I saw it for the first time from the bus window this morning. Can’t wait to check it out some more.