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  Putre, Chile
Monday, October 6, 2008

I don´t know if y´all have been able to keep up with the world news in the midst of this whole financial meltdown thing, but relations between Bolivia and the U.S. are chilly at best. Both countries have expelled their respective ambassadors, the DEA has been removed from Bolivia, and the U.S. has discontinued foriegn aid to the region. All this to say that we´re changing our plans a bit and waiting until things settle down, or maybe at least until the presidential election before we venture to Bolivia. Which is why we´re in Chile, right now, honestly. I like Chile, I like the people, the scenery is beautiful, but man is it expensive after we got used to Peruvian prices. The most we ever spent on a place to stay in Peru snags us a cold water room in Chile, no towels, bathroom down the hall. It´s cool, it´s kitschy, but I think we´re moving on to Argentina for the time being, where at least transportation is cheaper for our long way south. Don´t worry, we´ll revisit Chile at some point. For right now though, we went to Lauca National Park, full of lakes, volcanoes (that´s a recurring theme you´ll see revisited)and exotic (to me) wildlife. We had planned to trek across the National Park, but aside from a few days´ walk along a dusty highway, there´s no way to get there aside from hiring a vehicle. (well, hitchiking I suppose) Once you pay to hire a vehicle, you might as well pay a dollar more for a tour guide. So we acted like regular tourists and booked a day trip. It does take the fun out of it a little bit, but a bit of luxurious lounging in a bumpy dusty van as opposed to hoofing it for 4 days does me good sometimes (and Nathan too.) I hope you enjoy the pics. Look out for vicuña (wild members of the llama family), vizcaçha (wild members of the chinchilla family) and flamingoes. Yes flamingoes. Who knew they liked to hang out in freezing places above the treeline in the middle of a bunch of volcanoes? Also look out for the volcanoes, inactive on the Chilean side, active on the Bolivian border, (we drove all the way to the border! almost there! rats) and salt pans (all the white stuff you see everywhere is salt. yes you can eat it.)
Lauca Parque Nacional, Chile

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