TravelStream™ news feed for member lucky on TravelPod's free travel blogs service http://www.travelpod.com/syndication/rss/lucky en-us Copyright ©2009 TravelPod.com Tue, 17 Nov 2009 20:39:39 -0500 http://www.travelpod.com http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/lucky/sam-2006/1153940640/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/lucky/sam-2006/1153940640/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/lucky/sam-2006/1153940640/tpod.html Tue, 17 Nov 2009 20:39:39 -0500 One last trip... that's what I said last time, and now here we are once again leaving. This time for 6 months to South America with my fiance Andrea. Does this travel bug ever really die? I hope not!

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Tyrona Park, Magdalena, Colombia

<i>Make sure to check out Andrea's Travel Blog for more stories and photos of our trip! TagangaTaganga was nothing more than a small quaint fishing village near Tyrona park. It was set in a beautiful cove which softened the rough waves of the Caribbean.With not much to do in town, Fiona and I walked over the hills to a small beach where we met up with some French friends from Cartagena and quickly scanned around to find somewhere with fewer tourists. A few inlets further down the beach, we found a tiny patch of pebbles where no one was in sight. We spent a great day floating in the salty green and warm waters until the sun set. The real purpose for Taganga was for us to get to Park Tyrona, where all of the secluded beaches in the park where, the next day we paid a man to take us by boat to avoid the long walk through the jungle.Beach paradisePicture a beach with warm green water. A small cove nestled by two large rocky hills. On a pile of rocks, high up, is 20 hammocks under a thatched roof for sleeping. The sand is light beige and the sun is bright and warm. Coconut trees line the beach... and only a handful of tourists are walking around.Welcome to El Cabo beach in Tyrona.It was, hands down, the best beach I'd ever seen in all of my travels. The beach had a feeling that you were somewhere far from the rest of the world. The fact that a 45 minute hike from the main entrance or a very rough boat ride for 2 hours were the only 2 ways of getting there made sure that only a few tourists went to this beach.A long chain of beaches were easily walkable to the left or right down the Carribean coast.I spent 3 days there sleeping in a hammock at night under the stars. The pictures say it all.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/lucky/sam-2006/1141507020/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/lucky/sam-2006/1141507020/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/lucky/sam-2006/1141507020/tpod.html Thu, 17 Sep 2009 15:44:07 -0400 One last trip... that's what I said last time, and now here we are once again leaving. This time for 6 months to South America with my fiance Andrea. Does this travel bug ever really die? I hope not!

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Florionopolis, Brazil

<i>Make sure to check out Andrea's Travel Blog for more stories and photos of our trip! We arrived in Floripa on an overnight bus to be greeted by Matheo, a nice older man who we had a hard time tracking down in the bus terminal.Matheo spoke Spanish, a welcomed change from the usual Portuguese which we could hardly make out. He gladly chatted us up and drove us to the Pousada ( guest house ) which his family ran. Leaving the hustle and bustle of Rio, the absolute quiet and peacefulness of Santinho, the east coast beach we were staying at, was a nice change.Our room looked over sand dunes which protected the beach. Santinho was quiet, very quiet. Many of the other beaches on the Island buzzed with tourists, but not this one. After dropping our bags and walking over the wild, grassy dunes, passed a pair of baby owls waiting for their mother, we fully appreciated just how untouristy this beach was. The dunes made a good job of isolating this beach and best of all there was no typical ¨beach strip¨ with shops and restaurants here.Only a few locals who made the trekked over the dunes would find the Island`s surf, which all locals knew, was on the beach of Santinho.We´d arrived only a few days after a major surf competition and it was clear from the locals walking around the back streets with surf boards in hand that this was a surf town. Hardly a touristy one but one which locals came to enjoy the non-stop volleys of waves crashing into the beach.After the hustle and bustle of Rio, we needed this. A little quiet, were we could get over our last tickle of sickness.For the first few days, our time was spent on the beach, bussing into town to eat, snacking on ice cream and vegging out. There really wasn´t much else to do in Santinho.We were lucky enough to have a room with a view which looked out onto the dunes. Not quite high enough to see over the dunes onto the Altantic Ocean but the view teased the imagination by letting just enough ocean spray splash above the sand. Two massive rocky hills surrounded the small beach and soared over the dunes at either end of the beach. On our second night, a thunder storm roared as we wandered home after a tasty dinner of local corn-filled burgers and ice cream. It poured as we ran back to our room soaking wet. Sitting on our balcony, we sat for what seemed to be hours as the lightning crashed over the Atlantic and thunder pounded around us. Although we couldn´t see the Ocean from our balcony, our front row seat of the storm was the best on the Island.Luc &amp; Andrea, The SurfistosThe next day we figured that we should do something touristy. We knew that Gustavo, Matheo´s son, gave surfing lessons so we thought we would give it a try. Surfing, unfortunately, didn´t come naturally, for me. I was a little cocky at first and made sure that Gustavo brought along a smaller freestyle board as well as the long beginner board he´d already taken out.¨Mui difficile¨ Gustavo cautioned tapping his finger lazily on the smaller board.Yeah yeah, how tough can it be I thought... later, as waves crashed into my body, tossing me around like a rag doll and I gulped down another large helping of sea water, I found out just how tough it was!It only took about 30 minutes, after Andrea had already managed to stand up on the bigger board that I decided to switch from the small board to the easier and bigger one. One half bellyful of salt water later, I finally ¨got it¨. I managed to stand up and surf in on the massive buick-of-a-board while Andrea struggled with the more challenging smaller one having already conquered the big-board.When we finished our lesson, Andrea walked over onto the beach and bent her head over to show me something.¨Not the hospital, again.¨It´s always hard to tell if Andrea is actually hurt. This time, she was. On the back of Andrea´s head a one inch gash was bleeding. It was hard to tell if it was a deep cut but the surf board´s fin had certainly made solid contact.¨Is it deep?¨ she asked with a worried face.We weren´t sure but headed back to the Poussada to clean up the wound. When we returned Matheo saw the cut and his fatherly instinct sprang into action. He quickly jumped in his car and drove us to a small clinic. We were pretty sure it wasn´t serious but it couldn´t hurt to have it checked out.After all, we didn`t think that my minor cold would end up by being pneumonia either!The doctor´s cleaned up the cut and had us on our way. The cut was very small and a few swabs of disinfectant later, we headed back home where we added yet one more injury to the list.We spent the rest of our stay in Santinho quietly enjoying the peaceful town and took yet another night bus, this time out of Brazil and into Uruguay.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/lucky/13/1241724970/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/lucky/13/1241724970/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/lucky/13/1241724970/tpod.html Sat, 29 Aug 2009 19:44:04 -0400 Vegas for a long weekend.

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Las Vegas, Nevada, United States

I haven't been to Vegas for years and a side from a few new hotels, it doesn't change much. Maybe that's a good thing (?) . I've learned how to play black jack ( definitely not a good thing ) and we've met up with the rest of our friends who flew down here.The 10 of us have been having fun since we arrived. Good food, fun times by the hotel pool, a little gambling and a bit of time at the firing range, a typical Vegas day.If we can figure out how to get our photos off Dave's netbook I'll post some pics.Cheers!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/lucky/sam-2006/1154028420/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/lucky/sam-2006/1154028420/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/lucky/sam-2006/1154028420/tpod.html Tue, 18 Aug 2009 11:48:40 -0400 One last trip... that's what I said last time, and now here we are once again leaving. This time for 6 months to South America with my fiance Andrea. Does this travel bug ever really die? I hope not!

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Ottawa, Ontario, Canada

<i>Make sure to check out Andrea's Travel Blog for more stories and photos of our trip! Going homeGoing home is always strange after being gone for an extended period of time. The last day in Bogota was the worst. Kind of like prolonging the inevitable exit. You reach a point when you realize that you are leaving and just want to get it over with. I spent the last day hanging out with new friends and trying not to think about the fact that I would be back home the next morning. The last 4 days in Bogota were a blur of meeting new people, playing poker in the hostel, very late nights ( or rather, early mornings ) and hanging out in a city which is at the same time trendy and modern and old and quaint.Before leaving every new traveler I would meet, and after I'd tell them I was headed home, they would stare at me with glazed eyes saying "Wow... that's crazy!".It was...Life goes onWhen I finally reached home the trip already seemed like it was years ago. It's amazing how fast you adjust to a new reality. Being home had it's comforts.... I could flush the toilet paper here.... warm showers had good water pressure.... there was no need to carry my cash in a hidden money belt.... I could drink water straight from the tap.It would take a a while before I stopped saying "Gracias!" to people when I was served but it was only a matter of time before the tan line faded and the trip was no more that good memories, photos and this travel blog of course.Thanks for following... see you next time.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/lucky/13/1241989225/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/lucky/13/1241989225/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/lucky/13/1241989225/tpod.html Mon, 10 Aug 2009 16:50:35 -0400 Vegas for a long weekend.

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Ottawa, Ontario, Canada

Sometimes you come home and think "That was just the right length of a trip", this was one of those trips.Vegas was a nice escape for a few days but I'm happy to be home.&nbsp;
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/lucky/sam-2006/1152978360/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/lucky/sam-2006/1152978360/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/lucky/sam-2006/1152978360/tpod.html Wed, 29 Jul 2009 19:27:14 -0400 One last trip... that's what I said last time, and now here we are once again leaving. This time for 6 months to South America with my fiance Andrea. Does this travel bug ever really die? I hope not!

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Santa Cruz and The Galapagos Islands, Ecuador

<i>Make sure to check out Andrea's Travel Blog for more stories and photos of our trip! To the IslandsWe arrived in on Isla Santa Cruz on an overcast day. This was the Galapagos' main island and it was very humid. We had come here to teach English as volunteers in a local school. After we arrived we took a short walk through the town. Compared to the rest of South America, the island was expensive. Prices matched that of back home. It would be tough to stay on budget here!We took a short stroll along the harbor and noticed immediately why this place was so popular with Eco tourism. Peaking over the guardrail onto the rocks we could see hundreds of crabs and black colored lava lizards. A handful of sea lions where napping on a dock in someone's yard and turtles swam by.All of this and we were still in the city! We couldn't wait to see what our boat tour of the Islands had in store for us the next week once our volunteering was over.Luc and Andrea, English teachers kind ofThe next day we started our English classes. We taught 3 classes, two for children and one for adults.Andrea, being a certified teacher for kids back home felt right at home with the kids while I enjoyed teaching the adults best. I felt a little out of place teaching the kids but Andrea led the class and I helped along. I certainly learned that teaching kids was not my calling!Teaching here was a little different, I noticed this when a lizard perched itself on my foot while I was teaching one day.Our holiday had been postponed for a while, this was back to working life! The good lifeThe next day we didn't start teaching until 4:30pm. Kip, the teacher we had been taking over for, had a daily routine of snorkeling in the many secluded beaches and bays around the Island. He invited us along for a morning dip and showed us where to rent gear.The beach was a small strip of sand secluded behind bushes and away from the road and tourists.The waters where greenish blue, right out of a Hollywood movie. We dove in, struggling passed the crashing waves and marveled at the life that bubbled below us.Big fish, small fish, yellow ones, blue ones, all colors and shapes swam by. My highlight was looking straight down and noticing that an eagle-ray ( a type of ray here on the Islands ) was parked right below me on the sandy bottom. When I noticed him, I tried to call Andrea over but he dashed off flapping his wing-like fins. I chased him for a while trying to catch up but my fins where no match for his. He seemed to be flying as he carved gracefully through the waters.I was looking forward to seeing another one or two during our boat cruise the next week.After snorkeling we had lunch at Chris's. Chris ran the school with her partner Katie and lived in a beautiful home right on the coast. As we ate, we watched the wild life around us. Pelicans sat right outside the window and only 10 feet away we could see sea lions sun bathing under the window and sting rays flapping by in the clear green water. We day dreamed about living here. We imagined sitting out on the porch working from home, bathing in sun as black iguanas gathered on the lava rocks. The good life! Touring can be hard workKatie, one of the partners at the school we were teaching at had an ambitious Ecuadorian boyfriend. Danny had plans for him own a tour company, one which offered tours of the Island's farms and country side. Katie offered us the opportunity to tag along on a bike ride in which would visit all of the farms which Danny was planning to package for tourists. This would be Danny's first trial run with a few tourists biking around the Island.We rented bikes and the 6 of us headed off for Danny's grandfather's farm. We walked through the farm and tasted various fruits from exotic trees and plants. Despite a small infestation of Galapagan flesh-eating ants in my sandals, the tour was great. We headed off to various other farms through the island. I guess we were a little out of shape. On the ride we must have biked up 20 hills each one being progressively a little more exhausting. By the end of the day we had seen 3 farms, a sink hole and a lot of beautiful countryside but we were dead tired which put a damper on a night out on the town.By 11pm, our eyes were half closed and we crashed early.Cruising the GalapagosWhen our volunteering was up, it was time to head out to the sea! We had booked an 8 day tour of the Galapagos Islands on board the Angelique, a quaint sail boat. The tour wasn't cheap but was meant to be a highlight.Our days were made up of a few walks on various Islands to see Iguana's, sea lions and a variety of other animals. After walking around for a bit, we would then head for the water where we would snorkel in clear green waters.At night, we would sit up on the boat and watch the countless stars while we swayed with the never ending waves. Sunsets onboard were warm blankets of sunny orange and made a perfect ending to each eventful day.The nights were rough though and nausea pills were almost always needed. The boat rocked so much that it was a challenge just to stay on your bed!Snorkeling with sharks, sea turtles and playful sea lions.Snorkeling was a daily activity on the boat, one which I enjoyed. The waters were a greenish blue, like the ones you saw in movies. From the boat you could see the ocean floor. The water was so clear that at times, you could even see rays hovering on the sandy bottom from the boat.I loved floating in the water next to sea turtles while they munched on some green furry weed growing on underwater rocks. When we were lucky enough, a curious sea lion would spin around us zooming away just as fast as he would zip back in to have a good look at us. The sea lions where always happy to play with us. None of the animals here on the Islands seemed afraid of humans letting us get very close. At times, we even spotted sharks swimming beneath us! "Don't worry" our guide calmed us. Apparently these sharks didn't have teeth and aside from being chewed to death, and unlikely scenario, we had nothing to worry about. An easy thought to rationalize but you couldn't help getting the chills when a shark cruised by.The rays were my favorite though. Their wings gave the impression that they were flying. As with the other fish, they weren't scared of us and we could swim with them for a long time before they got bored of us and with a stiff flap would zip out of sight. We saw sting rays, golden rays and the best of all, the bird-like eagle ray with its speckled backside and seemingly misplaced beak-like nose.Of course, we were surrounded the whole time by countless blue, orange, yellow and other colored and oddly shaped fish. Too many to count, really.I could do this forever.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/lucky/easteurope-2000/966619860/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/lucky/easteurope-2000/966619860/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/lucky/easteurope-2000/966619860/tpod.html Thu, 02 Jul 2009 14:39:25 -0400 Time to finish Europe off! My second trip to Europe, this time with Julie, my (now-ex)Girlfriend.. Come along!

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Ottawa, Ontario, Canada

Extract:"An arm? A leg? Oh, god... what have they done to Don!" I said, realizing now that I was talking to myself.------------------------------------------------------------============================================================Preface:This is it... Ottawa... unpacked... clean... shaven... Ahhhhh... This last entry covers the European excursion after math... For thsoe of you who have been following along the trip. We added a Paris entry which wasn't sent out, so you may want to go to the previous entry before reading this one. ============================================================-- "Doctor... be honest... will he make it?""PARCEL IS WATING TO BE PICKED UP AT ..." read the little blue card on top of my stack of back logged mail."Yay! The Budapest postal service does it again ... " I though to myself as I breathed a sigh of reliefBut just then, I had a flash back of the Hungarian postal agent violently scratching red ink over the word "FRAGILE" from the top, bottom and side of the box which I had packed my beloved ( and rather expensive ) hand crafted marionette into for its long journey back home to Canada before he tossed it into a heap of sturdy looking boxes. "Nemenemenemenem" he said as he pointed to a chart which listed the available services, a "FRAGILE service" wasn't listed. "That's ok..." I reassured myself, after all the puppet was Don Quijote. A knight! Solid and robust but unfortunately, made of wood ( wood is flexible right? :) ). I crossed my fingers and hoped for the best. Now a week later, here it was, the little blue notice that Don ( first name basis now ) had made it back to Canada, but in how many pieces?Snatching my drivers license and the postal note from what looked like my apartment but it was hard to tell with the contents of half of my rucksack unpacked and spread out all over the place. I rushed off to the post office like a crazed lunatic. ...Tattered edges, cover half opened, cardboard completely wrinkled, contorted and torn, the box didn't look too promising. I carefully carried the box home in my arms like a wounded soldier. Carefully laying the box down on the kitchen table I reached for a steak knife. I don't think I had ever opened a box that slowly in my life. Delicately cutting at edges, slicing tape and pulling at packing paper like a surgeon performing open heart surgery I saw something which made my heart stop for a second... broken wood."An arm? A leg? Oh, god... what have they done to Don!" I said, realizing now that I was talking to myself.Expecting to find a pile of mangled wooden body parts beneath the mound of paper left in the box I continued to forge ahead. Buried, tangled and tattered, there was Don, the trooper that he was, body intact, with minor flesh wounds ( yay ). With an expression on his face which seemed to say "What the hell were you thinking... they said NO FRAGILE!" Don had survived the flight home with only a broken shield and helmet. A little white glue surgery in a dimly lit kitchen and Don was back to normal.-- "That's all folks!"Well that's it... the trip is over. Considering the broken vehicles, double price tour tickets and having breakfast in insanely expensive restaurants, this trip wasn't quite as cheap as we thought it would be... but worth every penny of course! To top it all off... we both have a cold and Poison Ivy... Talk about post-trip blues!I read a long time ago never to return from a trip without knowing where your next trip will take you, not wanting to break tradition, aside from a short trip to the clinic for this damn poison ivy, we are planning a driving trip to the Maritimes in Eastern Canada next summer. You can be sure that we'll be TravelPod'ing it then too so I guess this is goodbye for now and we'll see you again next summer!Itchy, congested and jet lagged, Luc and Julie.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/lucky/13/1241984183/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/lucky/13/1241984183/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/lucky/13/1241984183/tpod.html Wed, 06 May 2009 17:09:02 -0400 Vegas for a long weekend.

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Ottawa, Ontario, Canada

One day to go before I'm off to Vegas. I haven't written a blog in a long time ( tsk tsk ) but I thought I'd blog this trip to try out TravelPod's new fancy user interface that's currently in Beta.I'll update more when I get to Sin City.Cheers!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/lucky/sam-2006/1146409500/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/lucky/sam-2006/1146409500/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/lucky/sam-2006/1146409500/tpod.html Thu, 09 Apr 2009 12:03:07 -0400 One last trip... that's what I said last time, and now here we are once again leaving. This time for 6 months to South America with my fiance Andrea. Does this travel bug ever really die? I hope not!

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Uyuni, Bolivia

<i>Make sure to check out Andrea's Travel Blog for more stories and photos of our trip! Be careful what you wish forWe'd been traveling the eastern coast of South America from Brazil to southern Argentina and enjoying the easy travel for months. The beaches of Brazil, clean and comfy busses, mostly safe cities and world-class food spoiled us.Lately though, it seemed that something was missing. I thought back to my travels in South East Asia and India where the tougher travel conditions made you feel like you had earned your experiences. So far in South America, first class busses, wine, steak, and relative safety at times almost seemed like we were traveling in Europe or even north America!Being a little bit of a masochist, I was hungering a little adventure.We were now heading to the west coast, going up to Bolivia and then north to Colombia. Not that Paraguay, Brazil, Uruguay, Argentina and Chile didn't have their own excitement and great adventures but I hoped that a little more off-the-beaten-path style of adventure awaited us.... it sure did.We started our travels to Bolivia from the southern tip of Argentina. First we took a flight from Ushuaia to Buenos Aires then woke up early in BA for our 29 hour overnight but to the Bolivian border.As soon as we boarded the bus we could tell that things would be different for the rest of the trip.The first thing I noticed was the new faces on board the bus. The facial features of the Bolivians were much different that those of east coast South America. The Bolivians had dark sun roasted skin, wide wrinkled faces and long thick braded hair.The interior of the bus was lime green and hardly the posh first class busses of central Argentina. Tonight we would sleep in our semi-cama seats which reclined just enough to tease you into thinking you might sleep well and gave just enough leg room to get you 90% close to a fully extended leg.The Bolivians were friendly enough and we sat back listening to 80's Bolivian pop signers belt out there tunes as the bus began its 29 hour journey north.The occasional breakdown is understood and expected in any long distance travel but oddly, our bus seemed to make frequent stops on the gravel side of the road as the driver dove under to inspect the wheels and underbelly of the beast. Finally, after a few inspections, we struck a flat tire and stopped to get it fixed. A few more stops were made but the driver must not have thought anything of the problem and kept on going. When we neared the border we stopped to help another bus in distress and we got the sense that this was going to be the normal run of things in Bolivia. That night, sleep didn't come easily as me and Andrea struggled to find our comfort zone in our tiny seats.All told, I would count maybe 4 hours of solid sleep mixed in with a handful more of tossing and turning.When we arrived at the border, we were tired. I took the opportunity to stop in and splash some water on my face and to brush my teeth. Looking in the mirror, I looked as though I'd been beaten up. Under my eyes were dark pouches and I had a scrape across my cheek as if someone had punched me which I'd gotten from the abrupt stop the bus had made which slammed my face into the back of the seat in front of me.We had gone from sea level to 3000M above sea level in one day and sharp flashes of pain pounded our heads due to the lack of oxygen in the thin air. The eastern part of Bolivia, where we were headed, was much higher than any other area in South America and was appropriately coined "the Tibet of South America". Having just arrived we could see why.Mountains towering all around, thin oxygen, low hanging clouds and intense sun reminded me of my past ventures in Tibet a few years before.The border town had a barren dusty feel to it which looking almost like an old frontier town from a cowboy movie.We queued up at immigration and had our passports stamped as we entered the sixth country since we'd started traveling 3 months before.When the bus dropped us off, we were still 10 hours away from our final destination, a town named Uyuni where vast salt flats speckled the desert and we'd planned to take a 3 day tour. We knew there wasn't much time left before the train left for Uyuni and headed for the station with a new friend we'd met named Noami. She was from La Paz and was heading home from BA. She also had a seat reserved on the same train. A reservation wasn't something we had though. We had 1 hour to get to the station, get our tickets and head to Uyuni.The next hour was a mad confused dash around the station to get tickets. Without any local cash, Noami helped us get everything sorted by exchanging some USD for Bolivianos and getting our tickets for the train. When the smoke cleared and we slumped into our seats, only 10 minutes remained before the train was to leave.We were tired. We had traveled for 29 hours, barely slept and were suffering from altitude sickness.In the mad rush to catch the train, which didn't leave for Uyuni for another 2 days, we didn't stop to think long and hard whether our bodies could take another 10 hours journey without rest.The first few hours were fine as we chugged and swayed side to side through the Bolivian desert landscape. Cacti peppered the desert below as the sunset. The landscape reminded me of a French cartoon I'd seen many times as a kid back home about a cowboy named "Lucky Luc".When the sun was gone, that's when I started to get sick. The last 5 hours were brutal and I spent a good chunk of that time in the washroom, clutching the toilet, the only place on the train which wasn't filled with desert dust, praying for the train to arrive.I've only ever been motion sick once before. It was also when I was dead tired on another crazy mission to visit a remote beach in Myanmar (Burma). Now it was the second time.We'd pushed ourselves just a little too far. Even when I was in Myanmar, we had stopped to sleep off the damage we had endured on our first day of travel, this time we were doing 2 long stretches back to back without sleep.We arrived at 12:30am after a whopping 41 non-stop hours of travel. Like zombies, we lugged our packs through the dark streets of Uyuni to our hotel where we collapsed on the beds after waking the attendant to let us in.We were actually so tired that it was difficult to sleep if you can believe that. Eventually we did but it took a few days to get ourselves back to normal and to get rid of the annoying buzz of altitude headaches.If everything worth seeing needed a little hardship to get to, then we had earned our adventures in Uyuni in spades.The Tibet of South AmericaThe first day, I woke up after only 6 hours of sleep around 7am with a headache and was still covered in fine red dust from the train. Oddly, I can never sleep-in, no matter how tired I am. While Andrea slept I went to have breakfast, get some safe drinking water and to see the town."What does it look like out there" Andrea asked when she woke."like Tibet" I replied.On wide dusty empty streets a few dogs wandered and mud brick houses replaced the skyscrapers of Buenos Aires. Women with old style bowler hats and colorful skirts sold their wares in outdoor stalls.Bolivia was South America's poorest country, and it showed.This was nothing like eastern South America. For the first time in 3 months I oddly felt that we were somewhere very foreign, and I loved it.Touring the SalarAfter a few days of recovery from lack of sleep and the latitude, we booked ourselves onto a 3 day tour of the Salar de Uyuni. The salar is like another world of giant salt flats. This strange strip of high altitude land hosts some of the weirdest landscapes in the world.On our first day, we started our tour with another Canadian, a Brazilian and two Swiss girls. Unfortunately, our cook was sick and didn't come along for the ride but not having a cook did leave some extra room in our 4x4.The truck seemed a little beat up but we figured it would be fine.To start the tour off we visited strange rock formations jutting out of the desert sands. Living amongst the rocks were little gray and furry Chinchillas bouncing around. We then set off to a small village of no more than 100 people in the middle of nowhere. On the way, the bumpy roads caused our truck's side mirror to fall off and shatter and we also got our first flat tire.That was when we started the contest."How many times do you think we'll break down on this trip?" someone offered.We all picked our numbers, I choose 2 times, an optimistic choice at best.That night we hung out with some local children and walked around as llamas were herded back to their stone built pens.Day 2 - Breakdown #4We woke up at an ungodly hour of 4am. It was still night and the stars were still shining brightly as we headed to the geysers, several hours away, to watch the sunrise.We arrived slightly late but the cold morning air made the geysers gush their steam higher than in the warm afternoon creating a strange moonscape.Several large muddy holes dotted the desert, bubbling brown mud with white steam hanging in the air all around. Walking through the steam was a surreal experience which felt like being on another planet.We then went off to bathe in some thermal baths and eat before heading out to see the pink flamingoes which inhabited the area.On the way, we had our 3rd breakdown."Is it ok?" asked Sho, in Spanish, speaking to the driver as he inspected the wheel."No, it's bad" the driver he replied. Apparently the wheel was on the verge of falling off. Luckily we had caught the problem before it turned into a massive crash. For a few hours, the driver zipped off to get a new part and replaced it himself.Not feeling 100% confident we continued with our tour. As we drove on, the driver occasionally got out of the truck and checked the tire. Most of the time reporting that it was fine. One last time, before the sunset, the truck stopped and needed some more touch ups. It was breakdown #4, the number of breakdowns Andrea had guessed. She was in the lead.We drove off to the get to the small city where we would sleep. Even though it didn't seem like we were driving slowly, apparently we had been. It was getting dark and we started to contemplate sleeping in the truck. We had 3 sleeping bags, water and enough food to last the night. We all started to visualize the wheel falling off and the truck slamming into the desert and flipping over violently. The constant joking and talking in the truck stopped and it was now dead quiet as an eerie silence filled the air. Thanks to Andrea, we kept busy for a few hours trying to solve her riddles which distracted us from the dire situation we were in.It was now pitch black. Luckily, our driver knew the desert like the back of his hand. We drove over mountains, through rocky hills and eventually over gleaming white salt flats with only 20 feet of visibility in front of us!We finally made it to our very basic hotel at 9pm, 4 hours late and we were dead tired. We had been in the truck since 4am. Exhausted, we quickly ate and went to bed.Day 3 - Home sweet homeOn our last day of the tour, we finally reached the salt flats. Imagine being surrounded by endless white salt covered by a few inches of water. Without any reference points the sky meets the salt flats and creates an odd illusion that objects in the flats are flying.I had never seen anything like it. The truck drove through the salt flats and stopped at an island full of cacti. We had lunch on a table made of a large salt tablet and eventually stopped at a hotel made completely of salt.When we finished visiting the hotel, we were ready to head home for a shower.We spent our last day in Uyuni getting some rest before heading off to the highest city in the world, Potosi.
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