After we got back, we spent a few days hanging out in Puerto Natales again. We may have eaten pizza two nights in a row. How Chilean. I know. There was also a lot of sleeping involved and NOT wearing my hiking boots.
 |
| Hipster coffee in Puerto Natales |
 |
| Kitteh!!! |
We had a flight out of Punta Arenas at 6am, so we bussed up to Punta Arenas the afternoon before our flight. We spent the evening in Punta Arenas before getting a taxi to the airport around midnight. The airport's open 24/7 and we didn't particularly want to pay to stay in a hostel when we would have to leave at 4am. So we camped out under some pay phones on a tile floor on the top floor of the airport along with several other people. We then flew to Santiago, then Iquique and finally to La Paz, Bolivia.
 |
| Airport sleepin' |
Getting into La Paz went smoothly, except for the fact that they expect essentially pristine money to pay their reciprocity fee. It's not a visa, and its only for citizens of the USA. They pay to come to the USA, so we pay to come to Bolivia. They won't except a bill that has any kind of a tear or intense fold in it whatsoever. So keep that in mind if you're going to Bolivia anytime soon.
La Paz has the highest airport in the world. And also the highest stadium used for FIFA games. After seeing how tired I was walking uphill with my backpack on, I can see why teams weren't pleased with the idea of coming up to La Paz to play matches. Holy crap a flight of stairs takes the wind right out of you.
We spent the next couple of days taking it easy. And eating a lot of really cheap food. Salchipapas is french fries with a cut up hot dog on top. This is then covered with mayo and mustard. (Did I mention South Americans love mayo?) We also found a market that was filled with little restaurants that served a set lunch menu. For just around US$2. It's glorious. And they always start with soup. Soup and them some main dish that involves rice. Always rice. Some of them had cheese and eggs, some had meat or chicken. I don't really know what a lot of the stuff is, so I kinda just pick one and hope I like what I get. So far so good.
 |
| Chicken noodle soup w/ angel hair pasta |
 |
| Nom nom |
 |
| Stopped for some mate and coffee |
 |
| Salchipapas and a fried egg sammich |
We found an alley that was called the Witches Market. I'd read about it in my travel book and they had mentioned that they had all sorts of strange remedies. Shark fin for one. Dried llama fetuses for another. Can confirm they sell both. The llama fetuses are supposed to be used as an offering when new buildings are constructed. All we bought from them were these little coco leave candies that are supposed to help with the altitude.
 |
| Beginning of the witches market |
 |
| Ick. |
Coco leaves are the locals remedy for the altitude. They have a natural stimulant in them and it will help with the headache and tiredness of the altitude. You can make tea from them, or just stick them in your cheek and suck on them. I don't super love the taste of them, but they do seem to help with the altitude if you are consuming them pretty consistently.
Our next stop after La Paz was a place called Tupiza. It's a town in the south of Bolivia where you can start a tour of the Uyuni salt flats and the Bolivian high plains. It's actually down pretty close to the border with northern Chile. (Yes, I know my logistics are a bit confusing.) We were really excited because you can take a bus for three hours to Oruro. From Oruro you catch an overnight train to Tupiza. Except that when we got to Oruro, the train was sold out to Tupiza. We could only take a train to Uyuni. Uyuni had been our backup plan, but we really wanted to be able to spend some time in Tupiza as well. After some deliberation and putzing around at an Internet cafe, we decided to forget the train and take a bus to Tupiza. Cool! We were on a bus by 630pm, which meant we arrived in Tupiza at about 3am. Awesome.
Luckily, it was a tiny little town and we were able to figure out exactly where the hostel we wanted to stay at was. And luckily they answered the bell at 3am. And had a room for us.
To visit the salt flats and the high plains, you have to sign up for some sort of tour. You can go for anything from day trips to week long trips. The standard tour is either a three or four day tour in some form of Land cruiser. We decided on a four day trip that ended in Uyuni.
After we got that all sorted out, we wandered around town, checked out their markets, and watched sunset with wine, bread and cheese from a mirador that looked out over the town. I'm really glad we decided to make it to Tupiza instead of going straight to Uyuni. I think I would have been happy staying there for a few more days.
 |
| Tupiza at sunset |
Oh, and there was a pizzeria on pretty much every corner. I don't know why. They really must think gringos love pizza, and they're not wrong. My favorite name for a pizzeria? Tu Pizza. Ah yessss.
