Well, I made it back to Quito on the 18th. I went to the markets in Parque Ejido, for one last shopping spree. I was smiling while I was walking, because I loved going to the markets, and I was satisfied with my trip.

In the evening, I just stayed in and ate dinner at the Secret Garden. I met an American couple from San Diego - Justin and Melissa. They were also ending there journey as well. There was an Austrian couple that were beginning theirs. I was a bit jealous, as I still wanted to be on the road...but I knew it had to end.

Since it was Wednesday night, the hostel brought a traditional folkloric band in to play. The music was excellent. The view, of course, was stunning. Quito city, all lights. The moon was a small crescent shape. The cathedral was lit up, and changing colors. It was the perfect way to end a great journey.

Well, from San Pedro de Atacama, I was headed off to a destination of Huacachina, a sandboarding mecca...but never got there.

I started off on an 11 hour night bus from San Pedro to Arica at 8:30pm. We got to Arica in the morning, and I was able to find a guy driving a beat up old car to take me and 4 other people across the border to Tacna. That was about 1.5 hours to get to Tacna.

In Tacna, I was looking for a bus to at least take me to Nazca, where I could overnight then go to Huacachina in the morn. But the best bus option was to take the 6:30pm bus, which would get to Ica around 8:30am.

I stored my bags and walked around Tacna for the day. Tacna is actually really quite nice, and very tranquil. It is a non touristy town, that's for sure. Main plaza is really nice - beautiful church, monuments, gardens and fountain. A block away from the main square is Avenida Bolognesi, which has a park running down the avenue - very nice place to just sit and read a book. I was quite impressed, as it being a border town, I expected a lot less out of it.

So I get on the 6:30pm bus...I wake up around 6am, to find that we are stopped in a little town called Camana. There has been an avalanche on the road, so we're stuck! Well...to make a long story short, my 14 hour bus ride turned into a 26 hour bus ride, I skipped Huacachina since I did not have a day to spare, and ended up in Lima...had to catch a flight the next morning to Quito.

San Pedro de Atacama was quite nice. I only had 2 days, 1 night there, but could have spent more if I had time!

It is a quiet town close to the Bolivian border. Quite a touristic town, as a lot of tours are run from there, and a lot of travellers end up there as well.

I did a Valle de la Luna day tour yesterday evening, ending up to watch the sun set. It was a nice tour, and another one with stunning landscape.

We first went to a place with an overlook of the eroded landscape, volcán Licancabur, and San Pedro de Atacama. It was really windy there, then it started to rain a little. But the worst part was the sands that the winds carried.

The next stop was Death Valley, where we walked for a little bit. The landscape...colored, layered, and uplifted exposed sandstone and salt earth. We walked to an overlook area over eroded surfaces. The guide told us that it was called Death Valley because one day there was an electrical storm, and animals were frightened and fell off a pass into the valley. How true it is, I don´t know.

We also passed by surfaces shaped in triangular patterns from erosion. We also heard the salt expanding and contracting, walked through natural caves caused by torrential floods.

Our last stop was the Valle de la Luna, to watch the sunset. There is a huge sand dune that you walk up. Most of our group went to the left, where it was less crowded. For a while, the coulds were hiding the sun. Behind us, we could see the volcanoes enshrouded in clouds, with the atliplano in the distance, and the earth´s surface at a slight angle.

The sun peeked beneath the clouds and above the eroded earth. The clouds started to turn orange. The scenary behind me was lit up, while the coulds had almost fully covered the volcano scenary in the background.

The sunset seemed to die down, so I proceeded down the dune. When I got to the bottom, the sky had turned pink and orange behind the eroded mountain -- like it was on fire. The colors became more intense as the sun went down, and finally faded away.

On the 3rd day, we had a later start than everyone else...which was quite nice, as we got to sleep in!

Our first stop was at a place with a lot of geothermal activity. There was one geyser, shooting steam constantly. Then there were small calteras spewing steam. I was quite amazing, in such a martian landscape. It was also snowing lightly there! Yeah, it was cold!

We then drove to some hot springs. A lot of the tours were there. Quite a few people were bathing in the hot springs, which was right next to pockets of frozen water and a partially frozen lake. The water from the hot springs was warm, while the temperature outside was freezing!

The landscape we passed by was beautiful. We passed by red earth, with volcanic basalt rocks of different sizes scattered over the land...volcanoes in the background.

We passed by some snow capped mountains, at around 5000 meters, and ended up at Laguna Verde, and emerald colored lake in front of the Volcán Licancábur. Surrounding the laguna were snow capped mountains enshrouded in clouds, and volcanic rocks scattered in piles everwhere.

From there, it was a al frontera! We drove to the Laguna Blanca, where we waited for a bus to San Pedro de Atacama, Chile. Of course, as disorganized as the trip was, our driver did not tell us crap, so we sat around until he called for people going to Uyuni..then I was like..and what about us? So he put us on a bus.

I ran into John, who I met in Cusco, so we chatted on the bus to San Pedro.

Amazingly, you can see the difference in the infrastructure once you cross the border. All the way to the border is rocky road, and in Chile, is a nice paved road.

The second day was just as fantastic as the first!

We drove for a while, the scenary, again, was amazing. We stopped at a viewpoint of a smaller salar. Then we continued on, while the driver played music from the 70s and 80s..."Funky Town" seemed to be the favorite of the crowd.

We stopped to look at an active volcano, and the eroded rocks in the area. I could see a small ash cloud above the volcano..not like the one in Riobamba, but still neat.

The lagunas we went to were beautiful. The first lake had a small flamingo population. At the edges of the lake was ice. Yes, it was frikkin´cold! The second lake had a bigger flamingo population. It was really amazing to see them in the wild, flying from the water, skimming their feet on the lake. The altitude for both lakes was around 4600 meters, I think.

We continued on, down desterted dirt-rock roads -- the altiplano and surrounding mountains and volcanoes. The landscape was so surreal - like mars or something like that.

On our way to Laguna Colorada, we stopped by rocks that had been eroded by the wind, to look like trees. The other rock formations surrounding were quite beautiful as well.

Laguna Colorada is a red lake colored by minerals. There is white earth surrounding the lake. According to the Footprints guide, it is gypsum and salt. The flamingos make a nice match in the lake...earth red and pink. The flamingos were amazing. Some were a brighter pink than others. They were so beautiful in flight -- pink, with black on their wings.

Our hostel for the night was a very basic accomodations. We were all in the same room again, with a small dining table as well. The toilets are ones that you flush with a jug of water. Of course, no heating (is there anywhere?). It was to be the coldest night of the trip, getting below 0 degrees Celsius.

I started the 3 day Salar de Uyuni trip that ends in San Pedro de Atacama, Chile, on Aug 12th. My group pretty much sucked - 3 people from France, 2 from Italy...1 French girl spoke a little English, 1 French girl spoke a little bit of Spanish. I may as well have been mute on my trip!

But the scenary made up for the boring group!

The first stop we had was to an old train graveyard. From the train tracks, you could see for miles down the altiplano.

Then we went to Colchani, a salt mining town. A guy explained to us how they mine and make table salt to sell. A bit of a boring stop...more for the locals to make some money off the tourists.

We then went to the salt flats, where there were heaps of salt -- little salt mountains. The scenary was nothing I had ever seen before. It was quite interesting...the land is completely white, kind of looks like ice. But it is not slick. Little pockets of water create reflections of the surrounding landscape. There are mountains off in the distance.

We also visited a salt hotel, which is no longer in use -- just a tourists attraction. I did not go in as you had to buy something, and I was shy of bolivianos because I had converted most to Chilean pesos.

After that, we headed down the vast salt flat, and arrived at Incahuasi Island...and "island" in the salt flat, where tall cacti thrive. This was definitely the highlight of day 1. We hiked around the island...you could see for miles and miles down the salt flats. It was amazing. No words can even describe the beauty of it all. Absolutely stunning.

Our hostel was at the edge of the salt flats, with windows overlooking so that you could watch the sunset from there.

I left for the Salar de Uyuni trip on the 11th. Had to take a bus to Oruro around 1pm, then a night train from Oruro to Uyuni. I had a bit of a layover in Oruro, so I met some English backpackers, and hung out with them.

Ironically enough, Oruro is a small town, but it seemed like the whole population was out and about when we were walking back to the train station!

On our walk to the station, we could see lightening. Then it started snowing!! My first ´real´snow ever!!! They were not little specks...they were huge flakes! I was overcome with joy, seeing my first real snow in Bolivia. I was like a kid again!

Anyways, we hopped on the train, where I sat by another large Bolivian woman who took more than her fair share of my seat...I ended up switching seats to get a cat nap.

Well, I have made it to La Paz. Got on the bus, ferry, and whatnot. Spectacular scenary of Lake Titicaca on the way as well.

La Paz..more there for a stoppover and for administrative stuff...change money, buy souvenirs, buy disposable cameras, water, arrange my Salar de Uyuni trip.

So anyways, tomorrow I am leaving for Oruro then taking the train to Uyuni, and starting the trip the day after. I am doing the 3 day trip that ends in San Pedro de Atacama. Should be good!!!

After the Colca Canyon, I spent the night in Arequipa. I woke up early the next day to try to take the first bus to Puno. From there, I would figure out how to get to Copacabana...

I ran into Loro, a French guy who was staying at La Reyna and on a different Colca tour. We took the bus together..quite uneventful. Got to Puno only to find that the ´tourist´Copacabana busses go in the morning only. But there is another way...to take a combi! Well, I needed to get there, so I did it.

Loro walked with me to the other Terminal Terrestre. He caught a cab for the center, and I caught a combi..for a few hours.

The border crossing was extremely easy! The combi dropped us off in Yunguyo, walk to the Peru immigration..stamp, walk through the arch to the Bolivian Immigration, stamp, and there was a combi waiting for me heading to Copacabana.

I stayed at the Emperador, which was a decent hostel. The lady who worked there was only 25 years old, but had 2 kids, aged 10 and 8. The girls were so cute. I walked around Copacabana...thirsting for a Coke. I walked into a cafe, and ran into Jen and Tony, who I met in Chugchilan. We hung out for a while until they had to leave. I walked around the markets, got an egg sandwich off the street for 1.5 bolivianos (less than 20 cents), and headed back to the hostel for the night.

The next day, I went to the Isla del Sol. I took the Titicaca tours boat, and met some really cool Germans - Annika and Kai. We talked most of the way. But then I had the Isla del Sol and Isla de Luna tour, so we parted once we got to the Isla.

I got ´guided´tour of the north part. It was pretty lame...the guy just walked with us and pointed out a few things. Not the history that I was hoping to get from him.

Anyways, had to walk back to the boat...ran into Tony and Jen again. The boat went to the Isla de Luna, which was a waste of time. We had 30 minutes there..1 ruin, but you had t pay 5 bolivianos to see. I think maybe 1 guy on the boat did it.

After that, went back to the south end of the Isla del Sol..got to walk up some stairs there for about an hour, and had to return with the boat.

A group of us went and had dinner at an Arabic place - Annika, Kai, Frank, Leo, and Cassie. Then met up with another guy, Ronen. Leo ordered the food, a mixed plate of Hummus, kebab, etc..It was quite good.

We met up with an Argentinian guy from the trip at a cafe-bar and hung out for the rest of the night. They are all really cool people, and one of the best nights out I have had.

The Colca Canyon tour was so touristy!! But it was okay. It was a bus tour.

To sum it up, we drove for hours, half on paved roads, half on really bumpy roads...stopped for some miradors, hiking to see pre Incan tombs, went to a mineral spa, and ended up in Chivay on day 1. We had dinner at a touristic restaurant where they had a band playing Andean music and folkloric dancing. The night in Chivay was cold, but the next day was even colder!

Day 2, we woke up early, and headed for the Cruz del Condor. A bit of a drive and a hike later, we were there to watch the condors with hundreds of other folks. It was quite neat, as they are majestic beings. My camera decided to die on me during the condor watching.

On the way back to Arequipa, there were some amazing views that I just had to enjoy and remember...the Colca valley, terraced landscapes and the river running through it. Absolutely stunning.