Yastaah

A different post today. While traveling through south America, I'm reading books written in each Country. Just a way to understand these Countries from a different point of view. While today I was at a vineyard near Tarija, in Valle de Concepción, Uriondo, I've ended a philosophical book of Borges, Between history and eternity . Yes, Borges is Argentinian, but I've started reading him while I was in Salta. As the title suggests, the essay is about the time and the eternity. How we use our time? How we consider it? "The time is a problem for us; the eternity is a play or a laborious hope". Borges writes about various approaches with which different philosophers speak about it. But he ends his essay with this sentence: "the time... is an illusion" if we consider it separately from our past or our future. He underlines some thoughts about the use of our time that iveI been asking myself here quite a lot. The tremendous landscapes, the different ...

Just five hours by bus from Uyuni, going south, you will find Tupiza, a nice town of about 40,000 people. Most of the people who leave Uyuni go to Potosi or Sucre or La Paz, skipping the south of Bolivia. The pictures below will show you why I didn't skip it. Tupiza is a super quiet and safe town where to enjoy the hot weather, hiking the mountains which is surrounded of. There are too many hill to hike so you just need to choose. The most famous are the Cerro La Cruz and the Cordillera de Chicas, where you can see the Puerta del Diablo too. The Cordillera can be visited also by riding a horse (this is the most common type of tour they offer here). To have some fun, just get the curious taxi they have here: three wheele vehicles very similar to the Italian"ape car" (bee-car) 🐝 Quite, safe, warm (Uyuni is super cold town) and pretty. I've enjoyed Tupiza.

The Salar de Uyuni is the largest salt flat of the world, about 11,000sq km. As Uyuni is close to the Argentinian and the Chilean border it can be visited from those countries too. Many travelers just book a 3 days tour in San Pedro de Atacama, north of Chile. Then they remain in Bolivia to carry on with their route. I've chosen to take a bus from San Pedro and book a tour here in Uyuni, as they are much cheaper. Anyway be prepared to pay 750-800 Bolivianos (about 100EUR) for a 3 day tour. There are tour options for 2 days (600BOB) or just 1 day tour (180BOB). I chose this last option. I was part of a small group. We have been taken to the train cemetery, then to Colchani, a little village where the touistou could buy local products and then to the salar. It's very important to wear sunglasses as you are going to be flooded by a bright white light all day. We stopped from time to time to take pictures, until we had lunch in the first salt hotel ever built, which is now ...

Traveling for so long means I'm often experiencing real life of the people I met on my way. Couch surfing, rather than hostels, helps a lot too: most of the people I socialize with are locals. What's happening now is something I'm not going to forget anytime soon. Had the privilege to be invited to a wedding, which means a full immersion in the local culture: traditional dress, typical food, music and so on. Well, all of the above has been fulfilled. I said "what's happening now" because actually the Bolivian wedding here lasts three days: the cake, the meal and the present. During"the cake" we just ate some appetizers, while drinking beer and dancing all night long, of course with the newlyweds. Before sharing the cake with us, the couple cover their eyes and try to feed each other. Who finds the mouth of the partner is believed to be the "boss" of the family. We had fun. All the people there were just super happy. Many "con...

Not sure how to describe my first days in Bolivia. Arrived after 11 hours by bus, Uyuni appears to be very different from what I've seen so far. The town has just few paved roads, while mainly is served by dirt roads. Surprisingly also the route covered by the bus from Chile had no road signs. Not sure how the bus driver knew the way. As soon as I got out from the bus, I could see the Bolivians wearing their typical and traditional clothes. It's the very first time I see so much difference from me. The culture difference, by all means, is evident. Much more than the one experienced in Argentina, Chile, Uruguay and Paraguay. All the people met are super friendly. My host family is just amazing. They cooked for me and gave me few tips about Bolivia. The only bad thing is the altitude sickness. Well, finally it's arrived. No matter I was in San Pedro which is about 2500m above the sea level. Here we are at about 3600m. And I can feel all of it. But, so far so good :) ...

This south American trip started in Chile. The idea was to be there for about a month. "No reason I should be over there for more time", I was thinking. I couldn't have been so wrong. Landed in Santiago, the Chileans started speaking about the South and the North. In these exact terms. Like two places which didn't need to be specified better. They pushed me to go away from the capital and its region where I've visited Valparaiso and Viña del Mar. The South was Patagonia and the North was the desert. These are magic places. So different yet so alike, with unique landscapes. I've actually realized what the Chileans really meant just when I reached them. Still I wouldn't be fair if I wouldn't mention the beautiful places I've seen going south: Constitución, Pucón, Valdivia, Puerto Varas and Isla de Chiloé. I can actually say the Los Lagos region is one of my favourite. By boat from Quellón, south of Isla Chiloé, I reached Puerto Cisn...