illusions and delusions

sitting in an internet cafe in the small tourist trap town of Uyuni, Bolivia. Why did we come here? The same reason most come here, to see salar de Uyuni, the largest and most extreme salt flats in the world. It isn´t really possible to accurately describe this place, or even capture it in a picture. Imagine bright blue clear skies, and as your eyes fall down to the horizon, they are met with an endless expanse of white salt, salt that is 12 meters thick. In the distance are some mountains, but when they meet the horizon, all that is seen is a surreal reflection. It seems as though there is no perspective, depth, reality to what you are seeing. The reflections of the mountains are so clear, at times you don´t know where the real mountain ends and where the reflection stops, which reminded us of the ink blot pictures shrinks show you. On the first day our guide, Garcia, a shy, quiet, disco hits loving young bolivian man, drove us all around the flats. We stopped at a hotel that is made completely out of salt and had lunch there. Dylan and i indulged in the tourist pastime of taking perspective pictures that allow you to make something in the foreground look much much bigger than a person that is standing further back. After adventuring all over the flats he took us to our hostel, which was also made of salt, and at the base of a volcano, and surrounded by ponds with little frogs and flamingos. The next morning we climbed the volcano, making a quick stop to view some ancient mummies in a cave on the volcano. The mummies predate the incans and were mummified in really strange positions, such as the infamous thinker pose. reaching the top of the volcano was quite a feat, at the top we were at about 4200 meters (14000 feet). We also visited an ísland on our excursion, isla incahuasi. The entirety of this ancient sea bed is barren and desolate, but on this island lay more cacti than i have ever seen in my life. the island was made of igneous rock and ancient coral skeletons. some of the cacti were over 12 meters tall and 1200 years old!!!! It was a sight i could hardly believe. dlyan and I just sat on the top of the island in wonder and awe.
When we arrived back at uyuni no one in the group seemed to believe what had just happened. we all stumbled out of the car unsure of what to do or what had even just happened. so, we went and had a couple of beers to relax and digest. A new friend, lucas of spain, joined us and we sat and talked for hours. Into the coldness of the night, so, instead of going to buy bus tickets for the next day, we went back to our hostel and got warm and cozy. Hence, the reason we are still in uyuni. this morning we discovered that the bus was full, so, we have another day and a half here. There is nothing, nothing..to do in uyuni. i have been going a little crazy. Hope you have enjoyed this update.
much much love to everyone at home!
jacqui y dylan

in case you really need words

epic mountains of red orange yellow copper purple brown and green. wine wine delicious wine, torrontes which is only grown in salta, cabrito ,the regional dish of baby  goat, hiking through valleys of crystal clear waterfalls and gargantuan cacti, tandem biking wine tasting, goat cheese factory visiting, smiles smiles sonrisas

words not necessary: cafayate

Ketchup

Catch up time!
Uruguay... the land of one handed workers (they need their other hand to hold their Mate). Back to Buenos Aires... then a long train to Cordoba (Shoes must remain on at all times while riding their train).
Cordoba! Met up with Frumbergs friend Martin for 1 minute (we will later reunite) then hop a bus to San Marcos Sierras! The hippiest town this side of the Andes... besides maybe El Bolson... to meet our wwoof host. Find her in the main square and head out to start WORKING. Its beautiful... think Santa Barbara / Santa Ynez without ocean.
Birds a chirping, we set up camp under a huge Talla tree, whos leaves we later add to our mates, and start working on our hosts massive mud brick house.
16 parts clay, 5 parts horse shit, 3 parts straw, 3 parts sand. stomp it up, add some water, and you got a house!

Every night delicious meals, relaxing around the campfire, walking tne dry river bed to town, and teaching our New Zealander friends how to knit. Jacqui moves on (not into the hosts) and I stay. A few weeks and we reunite at Martin's in Cordoba! Kick it at Casa de Martin then head north to Salta, where I now sit sipping some wine after a great broccoli pasta. Life is bueno.

uruguay!

wide-eyed mussel toothed shark

After livin la vida loca in buenos aires, we took a ferry to the quiet, deserted, blissful off-season land of uruguay, beach bound and on the mend from some sniffly sicknesses. Yesterday we rented bikes, rode those bad boys all over town (which is smaller than isla vista), stole the canines from a dead sea lion (lobo marino), got some helado, bird watched, rolled around on the warm sand of the beach, made a crazy awesome sand sculpture of a shark, went to the bakery and got some treats, and then came back home and had a delicious dinner. I had ribs and potatoes, being true carnivore that I am these days, and dylan had some yummy fish. Yea..pretty much the perfect day.
We are leaveing la paloma today for an even more remote beach town, Cabo Polonio.
This place has no roads, no electricity, and no running water. To get into the town you have to catch a ride on a tractor or take a horse. yipeeee!

The City of Buenos Aires (and its "good airs")

Finally, a few minutes to relax! While we wait for our churros to arrive (yes, BA has churro delivery service) I'm gonna whip up a little story about our last week in Buenos Aires.
First, THANK YOU CAIT, KEVIN AND KENNETH!
For those that dont know these three, they are our friends from CA living in BA, and they let us stay at their place, and they are rad :)
Our first night we spent in a little community called San Telmo, which is one of the oldest communities, and since it was our one year anniversary (wierd huh) we went out to a fancy argentinean steak house! it was incredible cow, and yummy wine, and it was a nice relaxing night... oh ya! and i was also finally feeling healthy again after a terrible bout with strep throat or something (we found out argentinean health care and hospitals are free for everyone).
the next day we headed over to Caits in a newer, more metro big apartment part of town.
they took us out to an awesome little party at kevins "office". it was called fake champagne, enough said.
lots of parks, gardens, and subway rides later
(we always end up in parks) and we finally got ourselves a real city tour with about 500 bike riding friends... thats right, CRITICAL MASS! we took the city over with Cait... it really was the best way to see the city.
May 16th came with Jacquis birthday, and being the nerds we are we celebrated by visiting the dinosaurs in the natural history museum! not to mention sushi (salmon is the only fish they had) and drinks at a swaggy mexi bar. now gingers 23!
art, shopping, exhaust, and 10 million people later... and im spent. the whole city thing is not exactly my cup of tea, so a few tango lessons, a bomba del tiempo percussion show, and some more churros, and were off to Uruguay to take it easy for a while.

heres a few photos...

Bariloche a Puerto Pyramides