Still here! Thats Niiiice.

Waiting for paperwork....

Remember when we spent two weeks at the border and owed our permison to cross to a lady we met randomly in a bar?

I think we spent a night in every possible hostel in Desaguadero. If lonely planet ever needs that much information on the desolate border town between Peru and Bolivia, we could write the chapter, we even know the best ceviche cart and when you can get herbal tea remedies that warmed our bodies and kept us sane.

In the end we paid around $150 to get the car plus machine as personal cargo temporarily exported out of Peru. It took us two weeks. We crossed in to Bolivia paid $1.50 for a stamp and waited 15 minutes for one single piece of paper admitting us into the country for over three months. We love Bolivia, but that’s a given.

Witches Market

Our road led us straight to La Paz where we delighted in markets galore, saltenas till we burst, and David´s first Indian food. We´d forgotten how bad the rice was and how good a cold Pilfrut could be. We left the city headed towards Oruro with dreams of used ropa tormenting our truck naps. We hit the jackpot in Cochabamaba though.

“Um when I closed my eyes last night all I could see was used ropa. I found some good stuff” Michelle after 6 hours of digging through the piles

Soledad and her first bath

We were lucky enough to connect with billxxxgreen in Coch. We played a nice round of caucho and laughed over the good old days and rumored naked crazies while sipping on some Huari. We also went back to good ol’ Cuatro Esquinas (represent represent) Seems like folks are doing pretty well for themselves there, everyone had made improvements on their house and they all remembered us as well. Dona Yoli as enthusiastic as ever opened her house up to us whenever we need a place to stay. Sales in Coch were slow so we headed to Sucre, by way of Totora, over our first cobbled road. Esmerelda took it well.

Yoli loved the ice cream!!!

Sucre, Sugar city ethereal in her stark beauty. We wined and dined with Roxanna, Matt and Jasmani, trekked to Tarabuco for Pujillay were we sold an astronomical amount of ice cream, so Biblioworks was able to get a little cut of the profits. Sucre loved having us there delighting in all her food delicacies and fresh air. We went out to Pitant too. Which was good for Lebo to close that circle, even though only a handful of familiar people remained, her apples trees look healthy and there are hens, lots of them laying lots of eggs. Lebo felt good about leaving this time, on her own terms.

Sucre Splendor

Textile Museum, Sucre

We saw this guy

most awkward reina ever

dancing shoes

Evoooooooooooo!

and then there was this guy....

And finally this guy, tearing out the heart of the Spanish Conquistador

David loving the free Chicha

Pujllay!!!!!!!!!!

Apples

Yo Amo Chuquisaca

Nowhere can hold Las Fresas for too long and our next destination was Potosi. After about two hours of one ways and teeny colonial streets we managed to find our hostal way late, park the car and get some Api into our bellies. The next day we found a nice mirador and looked out over the city before descending 2k into Cerro Rico, miners in the search for silver….

Highest city in the World!

96% pure alcohol, it was tasty

Oh and then we played with dynamite

Silver from Cerro Rico

Entrance to the mine

Tio, the God of the mine

David and Lebo hit their heads way too many times

Seguro y Sano???

We tired of the cold quickly and jumped into the truck headed for Butch and Sundance territory. In Tupiza we made a home for a few days exploring the red rock canyons and venturing into the barren wasteland of Southwestern altiplano Bolivia. Amidst the colored lakes, fauna, tree rocks, llama spitting volcanos, tons and tons of salt and swiss people we listened to Def Leppard at least 3 times a day. Score.

Tuuupiza!

Rough Riders...

This was his second cone

We love when Cholitas love our ice cream!

Altiplano

Someone fell in when we were there!

Just kidding, but can you imagine, bubbling to death in the Altiplano???

Laguna Verde. David is jumping into action to save the lake from drying up!

Michelle Grylls

Tree Rock, this is where the llamas landed after flying out of the volcano.

Llama make out sesh.

David got the Flamingos to fly!

Salt Hotel, preparing for greatness...

Finally, the Salar de Uyuni!

Did not look like such a big jump

Mira looks mad???

How the llamas looked flying out of the volcano

spot of tea anyone???

Expediciones Lazar is the best!

bad ass jumpsuits

meditation in bad ass jumpsuit

last lunch with the Swedes

are not the furs to die for....

rusty train filler stop

From Tupiza we drove to Tarija foraging tunas off roadside cactus as we went. We stopped in a Tarija winery and sampled many sweet, semi sweet and dry local wines, even though elections were that weekend and Ley Seca was in effect. Thinking Bermejo would be a stopover to get papers in order and locate desired jumpsuits we headed there on a whim hoping to get out of Bolivia before the elections. But like always our luck with the customs officers in Argentina failed us and once again we were stuck in a paper scandle promising to last a week at least. So we made the executive decision to leave Esmeralda with Peters´ old host family in Bermejo and bus to Asuncion. It was a sad day as we cleaned the machine and the truck for the last time as Las Fresas (Lebo was going to fly out of Asuncion)

Vino del Diablo

Paraguay though lacking in “sites” was nothing but good to us. It was great to see the Andy, Andrew and Natalie, to hear their stories and share ours. How lucky to have shared Bolivia but also to have shared parts about what we went on to do afterwards.

So then Lebo left, which was devestating to Michelle and David as neither one of them has a sense of direction and Lebo was their living, breathing map. The good-byes were too rushed, one of those awkward hugs when people have backpacks on and the micro is about to take off without you. But the feeling was one of gratitude and one of accomplishment. We vaguely remembered the day our plans to buy a car and drive home were made and though we didn’t go in that direction we certainly went somewhere and that place, those places were filled with all sorts of things we couldn’t have possibly imagined.

One 1995 Emerald Green Chevrolet pickup: $5,000
Ice cream cones sold : 10,000
Time spent driving around South America with your best friend: Priceless