Santiago, Chile

Ideal place to take a bath!

One of the things that I have recently really enjoyed is finding really odd things along my journey. As you can see I found a guy taking a bath in the Central Park of downtown Santiago. Another odd thing is when cabs line up at the bus terminal to save gas they push them through the line instead of driving them!.......Seems like a good idea if you need a little exercise along with your job? The picture of the capitol building is the rebuilt building of the one that got destroyed in 1973 when the general took over the country and held power for 16 years following. I also saw a guy who converted his bike to a man powered grinder and he was sharpening peoples knives for them as they passed by. I found that Santiago was easy to get around with a very extensive subway system to get anywhere in town. It is as modern as any city in the United States and a really cool place to visit!

Valparaiso, Chile

The town here is a big shipping port with nice beaches. For the three days I was here I rented a bike, rode it around the city and up the biggest hills I could find for the best possible views. Chile feels so much like the USA that I sometimes forget that I need to speak....or at least try to speak Spanish. I really enjoyed it here and next I am moving on toward Santiago.

Mendoza, Argentina

My plans for Mendoza was to come here so that I could climb or at least attempt to climb Aconcagua, S. America's highest peak. Unfortunately for me the park doesn't open up for another 3 weeks and I don't really want to sit around and wait for that long. Mendoza must be the wine capital of the world cause there are wineries everywhere. I decided to not spend too much time here and move on into Chile and the 6 hour bus ride between Argentina and Chile was probably one of the most beautiful roads I have ever seen in my life. It was disappointing to pass by the peak of Aconcagua and know that this go round I am not going to get a chance to climb it! It is going on my list of things to do post this big trip.

Cafayate, Argentina

Cafayate, although it's not a big city there is plenty of cheap activities to do. Here I went on a 1 day hike to see some waterfalls and the next day I went on a 50k bike ride up one of the most brilliant canyons I've ever seen. Another popular thing to do here is take a tour of a winery, which there are plenty of and here you can get a bottle of wine cheaper then a bottle of water. (Approximately 1-3$ for a bottle)

Salta, Argentina

When I got to Argentina I was amazed when I crossed the border in that I felt like I was back in the United States again. Finally, a restaurant that has different food then the typical rice and chicken plate!! Unfortunately the prices compared to Bolivia is about double and my activities are going from doing what I want, to budget traveling and finding ways to do things a little cheaper. For example, they have a 1 day train ride that is said to have amazing views, but it was 140 dollars, so instead I rented camping gear and hiked up the railroad tracks with a combination of hitchhiking. This way I saved a ton of money and spent around 20 dollars for 3 days instead of $140 for 1 day. I probably saw more and got a ton of exercise but it is so dry and hot I had to carry a lot of food and water and over did myself a bit. My pack probably weighed about 75 lbs, I was sore for a week after, and my hips were a little bruised but I am feeling better now! Northern Argentina is very different from what I have seen so far, and I have really enjoyed my time seeing this dry and colorful part of the world.

Tupiza, Bolivia

Yee Haw!!.......Here in my last stop in Bolivia I went on a 7 hour horseback riding trip. The views were amazing and Bolivia is right there at the top as one of my favorite places so far. Seven hour proved to be a little long on a horse because the next day I was so sore I couldn´t move and it really hurts to sit right now. Tomorrow I´m heading into Argentina and I am going to enter new Country number 11.....YEAH!

Uyuni, Peru

This hotel is made completely out of salt blocks.

Here we saw a mini tornado.

Here in Uyuni I took a 3 day tour of the Solar de Uyuni (Salt Flats). This is up there as one of the most amazing things I have seen so far. Besides the salt flats there is everything from geysers and hot springs to active volcanoes and rock formations that will blow your socks off. We also visited a variety of lakes that varied in color from red to white to green! If I was making a list of things to do in my life, I would add that one! For 3 days we rode around in a Toyota Land Cruiser and it seemed like every hill was something completely different! On top of a great place to visit, I was with a great group of people and I really enjoyed everything about it!!!

Salar de Uyuni

From Wikipedia

Piles of salt at Salar de Uyuni.
When it is covered with water, the Salar de Uyuni reflects the sky.
Salar de Uyuni (or Salar de Tunupa) is the world's largest salt flat at 10,582 km² (4,085 square miles). It is located in the Potosí and Oruro departments in southwest Bolivia, near the crest of the Andes, 3,650 meters high. The major minerals found in the salar are halite and gypsum.

Formation
Some 40,000 years ago, the area was part of Lake Minchin, a giant prehistoric lake. When the lake dried, it left behind two modern lakes, Poopó Lake and Uru Uru Lake, and two major salt deserts, Salar de Coipasa and the larger Uyuni. Uyuni is roughly 25 times the size of the Bonneville Salt Flats in the United States.

Economic influence
Salar de Uyuni is estimated to contain 10 billion tons of salt, of which less than 25,000 tons is extracted annually. All miners working in the Salar belong to Colchani's cooperative. Every November, Salar de Uyuni is also the breeding grounds for three species of South American flamingos: the Chilean, James's and Andean flamingos. It is also a significant tourist destination; highlights include a salt hotel and several so-called islands. As it is so flat it serves as a major transport route across the Bolivian Altiplano.

Satellite calibration
Due to its large size, smooth surface, high surface reflectivity when covered with shallow water, and minimal elevation deviation, Salar de Uyuni makes an ideal target for the testing and calibration of remote sensing instruments on orbiting satellites used to study the Earth. In addition to providing an excellent target surface the skies above Salar de Uyuni are so clear, and the air so dry, that the surface works up to five times better for satellite calibration than using the surface of the ocean. In September 2002 a team took detailed GPS elevation measurements of a portion of the salt flats. This GPS data was then compared to the data from several ICESat passes over the area were used to evaluate the accuracy and precision of ICESat's instruments.