Spirit of America

There must be something true about this American spirit being all about hope and will of self-realisation, or maybe it is just the travelling and discovering connected to the history of this continent and of its restless explorers...

Whatever way, fact is that we are now at the end of our amazing journey across the southern part of the Americas and we feel...rejuvenated. The new world seems to have given us new energy to spend and invest in the old world!

We know how hard can be these days for starters like us to settle with a nice job-house combination in our Europe, nonetheless we did realise how much we love it and think of as our home. In few days we'll be joking over some British of French thingy again, and we'll be still fantasising of working in the Angloland and going on holiday to the Francoland. So small and diverse, so beautiful and fun. That's home. So...let's see for how long will this American spirit last! ;)

The authentic still exists

Bolivia - Titicaca Lake

 A typicality of the Americas in general seems to be that of having no middle ways. Want water? You can chose between a half a liter or a two and a half liter bottle. Same as in New York for a coca cola, a sip or a liter? I never get the logic...(capitalism ain't logical, right?!). Once happened to us that we were looking for a place to sleep and the choice was between a cheap and uncomfortable waterless kind of a hostel or a super duper expensive hotel with all possible imaginable useless comforts. I mean, why? I guess the way of thinking of the 'Americans' follows the same patter. Things are either black or white (even people, depending the place, are either black or white!). No middle way.

So, it was a relief to find a bit of a different environment around Bolivia. It is not just for Evo, who has declared the country a plurinational country recognising a place for every indigenous face and language, and who defends the coca as it has always been part of the Bolivians' life and culture. Bolivia presents itself as it is, with no gringo spot or anything made up just for them. Bolivia is just as it is, a country of pristine nature, where people work the field and weave the loom as their ancestors have probably done for centuries! No matter they can use a calendar or have internet these days, they'd still use the sky and its constellations to plant and harvest! 

The best of all this is that the tourist in Bolivia doesn't have to look for the authentic, because that is already there under his nose! Campesinas still wear the same clothes of ever forever, same colours, same drawings, same funny hat, and campesinos still carry everything on their shoulders and the donkey is their best friend. Bolivia is still pure and totally cool.

W H I T E

Salar de Uyuni, Bolivia

We had no idea what was awaiting us on the way to the Salar de Uyuni, the biggest and highest salt lake in the world. We knew the 3 days tour from San Pedro de Atacama to Uyuni was full of amazing lagunes, protected fauna and rare flora...and of course, once at the salar, the white desert.

Our guide/choffeur/chef/enterteinment accompanied us for three unforgettable days. We could learn that he wasn't much of a guide, but he definitely liked to spise up our jouney! Not happy with the fact that the landscape was already stunning and that we were already a nice group of people, he made our blood boiling by keeping one wheel flat and driving 100 km/h on a sandy stony road! We breathed dust and swallowed sand, went up to 4.800 mt to see flamingo's and lagunes of different colours, slept in places without water and basics toitet equipment, had some expectable headaches or stomachaches and sat on a jeep with our knees in our mouths for some hours!

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We survived all this for the last day to wake up at 4 am, direction Salar de Uyuni. The Bolivian travel company told us that it was unfortunately not possible to get into the Salar because the wet season made it unaccessible. Well, few centemeters of water did not scare our guide/choffeur in the least. So, he drove on water for about 30 min's in the middle of the dark, with a couple of stars to tell him where to go.

The sunshine we saw from the top of the Isla de Pescadores was a priceless spectacle. Only for the six of us. Then, we were surrounded by a shining white all around, walking on candid crystals of salt, with only the blue of the sky to tell where the white stopped!

Star-gazing in the desert

Sunset at Valle de la luna, San Pedro de Atacama, Chile

As usual there is never time to update this blog in real time. Not that I mind it that much for the more time passes the more we can think back on all we did and experienced. We are almost at the end of our journey and we feel time is really flying away. Anyway, I haven't got time for the blog mainly because we are now reaching places were internet is more of a touristic luxury rather than the fact we are used to in Europe.

 
To sum it up quickly, from Paraguay we went to the north-west of Argentina, which is a totally different Argentina! For the first time we saw small people and indigenous faces, those you don't find in Buenos Aires were they are all supposed 'Europeans', and at the same time it is those indigenous faces that were in my imaginary of Southamerica before coming here.

Cerro de los siete colores, Purmamarca, Argentina

Pachamama (mother earth) has gifted this region with breathtaking landscapes made of high gentle mountains with the most beautiful colours (for me unexpected), powerful rivers and lots of inspiration for our fantasy. Geological phenomena have eroded this landscape giving the most amazing shapes and colours to rocks and mountains. The road we took to reach towns and villages in the area desappears in the immensity of the landscape! Amazing!

Two days ago we made it to San Pedro de Atacama, the driest desert in the world! There are about 15 milliliters of rain per year, clearly a ridiculous amount. It is so dry and clear that staring at the sky at night is one shocking experience, expecially for those who come from a light-polluted place like the Netherlands and have no idea what is hidden up there in the sky. So, we found this very funny French astronomer that years and years ago left the cloudy French sky to came here for the sake of his profession and passion...Today he offers 'star tours', brings you to a dark isolated place in the middle of the desert to watch the stars and explains you 'how it works'. 

We reached his place around 8.30, way after the sunset and he welcomed us into the hall of his house were we all sat in a circle, with only a candle lighting our faces. After a very entertaining explanation about the basics of astronomy, we could finally go outside to gaze the stars...It was an amazing shocking vision! The astronomer stood up, opened the door and walked outised...the Milky Way was shining right above his head like dividing the dark blue sky in two parts...We saw thousands of stars, the most sparkling ones and a dozen of shooting stars! We imagined shapes of constellations, found our 'neighbours' (stars only 4,5 lightyears far away!) and saw a shooting star which we believed was actually a superfast sunset! It was simply incredible. Then we moved to the telescopes and as soon as we saw Saturn with its ring and satellites we were as surprised as little children! And the spectacle went on with planetary nebulas, the jewel box and Mars...Hopefully I will keep star-gazing back home!