The Journey Continues! Salta, San Pedro de Atacama, Salar de Uyuni

Well here I am nestled nicely in La Paz, Bolivia, at a good hostel with good computers (and some free time to write!). A lot has happened in the last 10 days, ever since I set off on my post semester South American journey! So without further adeu, lets get rolling:

I said good bye to my roommate and good friend Luis from Buenos Aires on Sunday with a ticket to Salta, Argentina (Which is in the north of Argentina; check out the travel map for places I've been and where I'm going!). I arrived the next day and was Couch Surfing with a friend named Gonzalo. We spent that evening in the plaza enjoying the colonial architecture. We got some bread, avocado, and tomato (and a few cold ones) and decided to make some dinner. We had spaghetti with bread w/ the avocado and tomato. I headed to bed that evening pretty tired, but ready for the next day! We climbed to the top of Cerro Cristobol, the famous site in Salta. The view was impressive! We meandered along the rest of the afternoon, and after a good conversation with my dad and Laura, I hit the sack--ready to leave for San Pedro de Atacama, Chile!

The bus ride on Wednesday morning through the Andes mountains was quite

impressive! We started out at about 7000 feet and rose up to 13000 feet, all passing through the beautiful mountains! At the Chilean immigration I saw a friendly looking fellow and introduced myself. Sam, a Brit from London, just so happened to be going on the SAME route I was, and after a little coordinating we decided to travel together! We found a hostel, booked a tour for the next day, and enjoyed some time getting to know eachother. We spend the next day on the valle de la luna tour, one that consisted of seeing a lot of beautiful places!

We returned that evening, had some empanadas, and headed to bed, ready for our full day tour starting at 8 a.m. The next day's tour included the Laguna Chaxa, the place where 3 of 6 of the new world flamingos live, along with other places to see! We had a good time on that tour as well, and got back that evening. We had booked a Saturday trip to Salar de Uyuni, Bolivia, which commenced at 8 a.m., so we again went to bed early (minus a 1 a.m. phone call to my wonderful Laura ^^)

Saturday came early, and Sam and I got excited to see all there was! We met a pair of British ladies, Tara and Katherine, and decided to go together, us 4, on the tour (there were two groups of 4, so it worked out well!). The next three days were WONDERFUL! Unfortunately the guide was not very good--rather unfriendly and mostly unhelpful--but our group was a lot of fun! We shared a load of laughs and good times, as well as a lot of great photos! The Salar de Uyuni is the largest and highest salar in the world, and some of the pictures show the true beauty!

We arrived to Uyuni, Bolivia on Monday morning, tired but excited to see Bolivia! I'll try to update my continued Bolivian adventures here in a little while. Enjoy all the photos and I look forward to hearing from you! (comments or emails; e-mail me @ benthelefty@gmail.com) ~~Benjamin