land cruising to the moon and back

this morning i considered quitting the blog because in the last four days we have seen things that even the wildest imaginations cannot concoct. sights so surreal and so beautiful that even the attempt to describe through words and pictures is not simply inadequate but disgraceful.

we´ve been flying across the bolivian south west in an old-school land cruiser with our guide, his wife (who made us amazing llama tamales) and a new team of three from, you guessed it, colorado. passing through lunar landscapes fit for cowboys and bandits from other worlds. liquid skies stretched out over red dirt deserts, home to no fewer than 12,000 flamingos. driving over an antarctic ocean of salt that, instead of disappearing in the horizon, fades up into the morning clouds at sunrise. land covered by blankets of a thousand different shades of brown. pueblitos of homes the same color as the earth dotted by teal doors and the magenta tassels on ears of the passing llamas.

our first night we stayed in an itty bitty pueblo. a guy from the other jeep brought a soccer ball so we started up a game with all the kids in town. needless to say, the elevation paid its toll and the kids ran circles around us (fortunately we had size on our side). for the majority of the trip we hovered around 12 to 13,000 feet above sea level. our third day we were at 15,000 feet. last night we passed through an actual town and one of the guys from the other jeep had to be taken to the hospital. one of our colorado compatriots had been battling a serious bout of altitude sickness as well and this morning we too had to make a stop at the hospital. they hooked him up to an IV and he´ll be recovering there for the next few days. fortunately, we three are going strong.

now we´re just killin some time before we catch another night bus north to la paz. i´ll post pics from the city.