Bolivia

And Bolivia it is. It was a tiring trip. The bus left 00:00 thuesday/wednesday night from Salta (north Argentina) to the border village La Quinca (Arg)/ Villezon (Bol). Arriving at 7 o´clock in the morning, it felt really cold, still being dressed in flip flops, a t-shirt and shorts, while the border village was at a high altitude and thus being cold. 10 degrees of pure coldness that is. Quickly putting on proper shoes, the extension of my trousers, my jumper and the jacket I have been carrying around for 3 months, without using. But at that point I was happy I didn´t leave it anywhere.

The border crossing was easy, an exit stamp for Argentina, an entrance stamp for Bolivia and in the new country you are. Just don´t forget to put your clock back two full hours. The time in Argentina is mental. Who ever came up with the idea to give Argentina the same timezone as Brazil is a bit of a softlad. The fact is, Brazils timezone is taking from the east part of Brazil, being Rio and Sao Paulo. Which is fine for those cities. But Argentina has the same timezone. I have mostly travelled on the west side of Argentina, next to the border with Chili. Since Argentina is already left of Brazil, the west part is 2 timezone left of the Brazillian east part. Meaning Bariloche, Mendoza, Salta, La Quica, etc, have a natural amount of light, 2 hours behind the clock. It gets dark at 10.50, light at 8.50. The clock does not reflect the natural day light.

So entering Bolivia, you go 2 hours back, giving you a far more realistic amount of light. Dark at 8, light at 7. Give or take a few minutes, I have just been here 1 day now, and I´m not keeping track of the time the sun comes up or goes down. In fact I keep losing all time and day. Today could be anyday for me.

Bolivia is high. No not on cocaine, but on altitude. The high city, the highest lake, the highest church. Altitude sickness peaking around the corner for everybody who is not used to living above 3000 meters. It got me a bit in the border village Villezon I walked into as soon as I got my Bollivian stamp. Villezon is 3400 meters above sea level.

From Villezon I took a 3 hour train trip to a small village (pop: 20k, alt: 2900) Tupiza. The trip takes you through a beautiful canyon, tunnels, over bridges and cacti plains (cacti is plural for cactus...). I took many side shots of the train sterning through turns, with cacti, cows, mountains and desert in either foreground or background.

No, my camera is not stolen, no I didn´t stop taking pictures. It is just a bit of a time consumer, sorting, editing, resizing, posting and commenting my pics all the time. But I will do it any day soon. Keep an eye open for the sidebar, where I will notice you of new pictures.

We rekenen op een fantastische foto-sessie op de reünie - tenminste als je financieele bronnen op dat moment dus zijn uitgedroogd!!!

ik deel het opportunisme van mijn zus niet,helaas!
maar de situatie kan veranderen.

je moet er maar van "genieten".aldus fam.leo&regina