The Great Attempt at Words

Hi Folks;
Before I try my best to describe what we saw during our 4 day tour, there are a few more routine matters to finish.
The day before we left Tupiza, we chilled out around the pool reading, before we went on the search for the illusive Tupiza ATM. I will warn you now that no matter what you are told, there is not one in all of Tupiza. This probably makes it unique in all of Bolivia, but there isn´t one. Fortunately, we were allowed to wait until the end of our tour to pay the final installment. I picked up and extra layer of clothing just in case we were cold as we were warned that the temperature would go down to -2C. Another nice, but fragile Alpaca sweater will be coming home with me.
THE TOUR: I hope that everyone has read Joy´s poem on this part of the trip. She comes as close as possible to catching the feeling of the event. Those that have taken the tour pretty much agree that we humans have not been given the capacity in our many languages to capture the majesty of the Salar and the Conservation area South of it. We had amazing sight after amazing sight, all set among towering volcanic mountains, coloured lakes, and absolute grandeur. I would have loved to have been dropped off anywhere for a day just to sit and absorb the peace and quiet, only interrupted occasionally by a recognition of the absolute insignificance of we mortals.
To the details because those are much easier, as long as it is understood that the scene for all of these events is the most spectacular spot on Earth.
The first day, after meeting Gerardo, Sylvia, Steph and Mandy we climbed into a Toyota Land Cruiser of unknown vintage and went up and up on a twisting gravel road. We quickly gained confidence in Gerardo as he navigated past wash-outs as the road hugged the cliffs. As we got higher the scenery became more special as the views down from the cliff-side. The first animals we came across were Llamas with many cute babies. We stopped for a great car-hood lunch among some Llamas, as thunder roared around us, but didn´t destroy the picnic. We shared the pasture with 2 other cars from Tupiza. We would pretty much stay with them for the entire trip. A deserted adobe villege was next with a loveny little church. A short drive on we came across our first Flamingos and a small flock of South American Ostriches. A corral filled with Llamas a little while later answered my question about how they sheared Llamas; in the field or corralled. Joy thought that it was a cemetary which is understandable because the Llamas all have bright ribbons in their ears or fleece and the bunch crowded together behind adobe walls looked much like the cemetaries in this remote area. We stopped in a village under snow-capped mountains at 4000 metres. Joy did a nice sketch of a little girl and gave it to her. The chica them decided that it would be nice to have Joy´s paint box, too. Later that evening we had a thunderstorm with hail changing to snow so that we awoke to the white world that we thought that we had left in Portaupique.
The next day we were up and off, in the snow, before 6am. We did some more climbing in the snow until we crosed the highest point on the trip at 5000 meters. On the way we saw lots more Flamingos and were reduced in importance by the volcanic peaks all around. We visited hot bubbling mud geysers which didn´t do much more than bubble and steam. The various coloured ¨lagunas¨followed; a green lake, a white lake, and a red lake, all with flocks of flamingos. We saw an area which was the subject of a painting by Salvador Dali, and lots of Llamas, Donkeys and Vicunas. The later are a wild, slimmed, down version of Llama. Llamas are domesticated and used for food and wool. Vicunas are wild and protected. Next, your intrepid travellers were off to the deserted mining village of ¨Fantasma¨which was started in the 16th century and then more recently another attempt was made (which failed). The village was filled with large rabbit-like creatures called ¨Piscatchio¨(I hope that the spelling is right). Although they have rabbit-like ears, they have a long tail and seemed to hop like a kangaroo. Outside of a flat tire, which didn´t hold us up at all, and Joy mistaking wart-remover for lip-balm, it was a great day. That evening we met up with another 6 of the Aussie women that Steph and Mandy are travelling with and Joy and I taught them how to play ¨Wizard¨. Great fum and what wonderful young people. Joy and I are so lucky to meet these great people (mostly young) from all over the world.
Enough for now. I will try to catch up the other 2 days, our time in Uyuni and what we are seeing here in Potosi.
Jim