Back Stateside from Bolivia (and ode to Mindy)

El Salar de Uyuni

Wow! I am finally back home, after 3 weeks on the road in South America. What an amazing trip! It seems odd to be back stateside, and this is the longest period of time (3 weeks) since residency started that I have been away from Sacramento. While I go back to "work" tomorrow, starting Sports Medicine 2, I figured I should post some of the remainder of trip pictures and relive what has been an unbelievably memorable vacation.

I wanted to recount how wonderful this trip was because of the people I was with. I cannot say enough wonderful things about how great a travel partner Mindy was, and so bear with me as I recount some "highlights" of Mindy amidst the highlights of our trip.

Mindy is ...
Positive
We had a bit of a disappointing day on Lake Titicaca, whereas, despite paying for a half-day tour to Isla Del Sol (which is supposed to be the birthplace of Incan religion), we ended up being dropped off on the North side of the island for a full day, which did not fit in to our travel plans to head to La Paz later in the day. After a 2 hour boat ride there (to the wrong port), we (due to the boat captain's decision that our plans were just "not mainstream") basically just had to turn right around and book it back on a return boat in order to catch our bus. While both disappointed at not being able to visit the island, Mindy and I had to look on the bright side of things (and she certainly helped me do so) in that we enjoyed a beautiful boat ride on the lake in lovely sunny weather.

Me, demonstrating disappointment


Mindy, uplifting as always


The sun at Lake Titicaca had this perpetual rainbow ring around it!!!

Bolivian flag

In better moods...

Mindy is fun!!!!
Oh my word. I cannot tell you how much fun we had on this trip.

From Lake Titicaca, we headed through La Paz to Uyuni, a town in southwestern Bolivia, in order to visit the Salar, which is the world's largest salt flat. It used to be a huge lake, but now is 12,000 square kilometers of awe-inspiring and explorable desert. Enjoy these pictures, which were really fun to take!

Jumping for joy

Lines in the sand made from changes in temperature

Train cemetary

Salt house (we learned that, in rainy season from Jan-March, these houses are just covered so that they do not "melt").

Badge, a Brit we met along the way, "tasting" the blocks of the Salt Hotel!

Trick photos

"On me"

Badge, "eating" the girls

Us, jumping out of Mindy's daypack



Natalie, "in" my shoe


"Hangman"

Flamingoes!

With our friends Badge and Natalie, who shared our trip jeep

Salar sunset

Mindy is... Athletic

The second day of our Salar tour started with hiking volcan Tunupa, which is over 5400 meters. As I mentioned before, Mindy is a serious hiker, having climbed over 30 of Colorado's 14000 ft peaks. She will climb anything that is nearby! After several hours of hiking, we had to turn back in order to be back "on time" for lunch and so were about 20 minutes short of the "Crater" view, but we had great views of both the colorful volcanic peak and the vast expanse of the Salar while doing so. It was so awesome to be able to do so much serious hiking on this trip with someone as interested is staying "active" as I am! And, with us having to do quite a lot of running to catch buses at altitude, Mindy led the way!

Volcan Tunupa

Isla del Pescado (day 2), or island of cactuses amidst the desert

Tasting salt of the salt flat...

Mindy is ... Adventurous
I think that I am a fairly adventurous person overall and game for most anything as far as experiences go; however, my dear friend Mindy definitely has me beat. Despite hiking the Andes, climbing another volcano at the Uyuni salt flat, braving the streets of Lima and La Paz, and paragliding off a cliff in Miraflores in Lima, Mindy wanted to go mountain biking on the "most dangerous road in the world" or "Death Road" outside of La Paz, which boasts (due to steep declines and hairpin turns) the most fatalities per year.


Unfortunately (for her--- I, on the other hand, felt a bit fortunate that my life may have been spared), the all-day trip down this death road did not fit into our plans due to our bus arrival times and cost; however, I gained new awe of my formerly sane and tame college roomie due to her ambition to travel this street!!!

Instead, we played in La Paz's city park, wandered the streets, visited the outskirts, and saw the music museum.

Park Mirador, with Mt. Illamani in the distance

City park slide

Alligator!

We played a big game of chess, my first!

Valle de la Luna, a series of canyons outside the city of La Paz

Beer is very fizzy at high altitude!

Plaza Murillo

An adorable child, feeding pigeons in the plaza


Mindy is... patient

While we were trying to figure out which tour company we'd go with for our Salar tour, I was getting stressed at all the attention we were getting from competing representatives. I'm not a good bargainer, and I kind of like to just get things set rather than spend a lot of time comparing and dealing with choices. Mindy, however, was always calm, collected, rational, and a perfect complement to careful decision-making.

Here is Mindy, calmly calling phone numbers from a public phone in Lima, which I could also not figure out and which caused me a lot of frustration!!

Mindy is thrifty
I thought I loved a good bargain! Mindy travels just as frugally as I do! I love it! She would, without fail, halve any cost a taxi driver tried to charge us. She bargains like no other. She has no problem eating crackers and fruit from grocery stores to have more money for better meals and better adventures later. She, like I, did not want to pay more than $7 for a hotel room in Bolivia, even though it had the best hot showers we had all trip. And she was game to spend a half an hour to try to flag down a microbus to get to La Paz airport rather than spending $4 on a taxi. We spent more money ($135) on the visa to enter Bolivia than we did the whole week!

View from our plane departing La Paz

Mindy is flexible

I know very few people would not complain once about 12-hour 0vernight bus rides to get to/from Uyuni for 2 days. Mindy did so without blinking an eye. Despite not sleeping anywhere for more than one consecutive night of this trip and not always knowing if we'd get a room, shower, or food, she never worried that things wouldn't work out; I loved her flexibility and adaptability.

Mindy is prepared

I am a terrible packer. Although I did a pretty good job of coming with what I needed for the trip, Mindy put me to shame! She came with all kinds of awesome travel gadgets which I now feel the need to purchase, including clothing compression sacs, an inflatable travel pillow, water filter, and non-nerdy headlamp, among others.... all of which fit into her neat backpack. She truly is a packing and organization-inspiration!

Mindy is considerate

I cannot believe how accommodating and considerate Mindy is. I think I recounted the story before about, despite her 0% interest in going sand dune hiking, her "110%" commitment to going with me. She is also incredibly generous!!! She never failed to share with me her seemingly-endless supply of candy corn and starburst snacks. I couldn't have asked for a more kind travel partner. I only hope that I was as considerate in return!

Mindy is musical

There are very few people who would put up with my random breakings into soundracks for Lion King, Sound of Music, or the fact that I think that Christmas music is fair game at any time of the year. Mindy (who was my college junior music recital partner) is the same way!!!!! Bring on the tunes!

The Museo de Instrumentos in Lima

Tocando the chimes

We (including Kelvin and Chamreun, who had a blast in Buenos Aires, Argentina) returned to Lima on the 30th and had one more day to relax before flying back home. I mentioned before that we paraglided in Miraflores (sorry no pics, as my camera shutter stopped working on the last day of the trip!); we also got to catch up with a friend of Mindy's from highschool who lives in Lima, as well as Juan Carlos, a Peruvian doctor I met while working on a medical trip in Iquitos in 2005. We had ceviche one last time, wandered through a beautiful park of fountains in Lima, and were taken straight to the airport by our city hosts. It was a fantastic end to a fantastic trip.

Despite a long day of travel, I am home. And I already miss Mindy, who made it safely back to her home in Colorado Springs! I wonder when our next travel adventure will be. New Zealand 2010???! :)