Again we are up with the sun and out on the prowl for lagunas. We find many but the treat of the day is the Arbol de Piedra, an area where erosion has turned large sandstone rock formations into a tree like appearance. We spent about an hour rock climbing over the formations with visions of dinosaurs and the mentality of ten year olds. At this point of the trip, the dust has become us. We breathe it, sweat it, and eat it. So when we came to the sandstone we needed a realise. Lots of fun. We hit a couple more lagunas and eat luch while watching Margarita gather a type of algea used for soups along a salt marsh. We get two more flat tires. We are loving life and anxious for the Salar tommarrow morning.

After a relaxing lunch, Lazaro drove us to Laguna Verde where hundreds of rock carnes lead you up over a hill to look our across a sea foam green mass of water. Through out the foru days we came to dozens of lagunas ranging in color from deep amber reds to deep blues but it was Laguna Verde (aka Laguna Green) that really dropped your jaw. An alien green body of water out in this burnt wasteland.

We swung back arround to the hot springs to pick up Margarita and started heading to our second night´s stay. That was up until we got a flat. After so many expeditions into the desert and over the jagged landscape both Margarita and Lazaro were used to them so without a word to eachother, they each grabbed a handful of coca leaves, shoved them into their mouths and got to work. Eric and Sanne took the opportunity to charge the Brunton Solo for charging their iPods. Within no time the tire was swapped out for a new one and we were back on our way. It turns out that our guides nonshalont reactions were due to the fact that on average, each expedition goes through about 4-5 tires a trip. That is over a 160 flat tires a year.

Nobody slept the first night. We woke up on the second day to a brisk, frozen desert at 4:30 am sore and exausted. Today we had a lot of ground to cover. We had a quick breakfast of apricot jelly on bread with coca tea and we were off into the early morning darkness. Our first destination came into view just as the sun was starting to poke over the distant Andes mountains. The Landcruiser came to a halt at the abandon town of San Antonio at the base of Mount Lipis. The town once boomed a population of over 2,000 people with the discovery of gold and silver in the nearby mountainsides. This was during the 1700´s when it was still under Spanish rule. Workers would load up llamas with the precious metals and kie them over into CHile where they could be loaded onto a boat bound for Spain. Much of the original architecture still stands yet as I walked around it, it looked more like a bombed village.

It´s reasons for abandonment is much more interesting. With the high altitude, constant cold weather and numerous mine colaspes, many deaths occurred at the mining site. It was believed by the towns people and reenforced by the local priest that the mine was inhabited by the devil and that it had placed a curse on the mine and it´s workers. The superstition got to a point where it was impossible to find workers willing to go into it for fear of the same fate and in 1984 the last of the town´s inhabitants called it quits.

As I walk across through the passageways and sandstone rubble, I think about how the beliefs of these people were so strong that they would pack it in on such a beautiful place. A strong belief can have a powerful effect.

Our guides beckoned us onward and we climbed back into the truck. Our next stop came to the banks of the Laguna de Moregon with the huge Volcan Uturunco (6008 km high volcano) at the opposite bank. We arrived just in time to spook about a hundred pink flamigos slipping and sliding on the ice trying to get away from our truck. For not having any immeadiate predators out in the desert, these birds were incredibly timid. Infact through out the entire trip you could only get within about 70 yards of them before one would spook sending the entire flock airbourne off onto the opposite side of the lagunas. It was a routine that would continue throughout our desert visit.

We took some pictures than hiked back up to the car where our driver Lazano was under neath the back chassie hammering in and tightening the back clamp of our rear leaf springs. Noticing our concern, Margarita reaches into her bag to pull out tropical lolly pops. The trick works and it seems an appropriate theme when you consider the colors and decor of the enterior of the Landcruiser. The only hitch is that we are our in a freezing, cold desert where the ice, over an inch thick on the streambeds, has yet to melt in the morning sunlight. It gave you a false sense of warmth but no complaints could be heard as we all enjoyed our after breakfast treats, chugging along to the next great views.

The Salar de Uyuni would be the grand finally on our fourth day of the trip. Surrounding it is a arrid desert landscape covered with erie rock formations, lagoons filled with flamigos, thermal vents and an endless amount of sand. Driving throughout it, we would occassionally go through small, nearly abandoned towns where children would peek out from their hiding spots to get a look at the gringos and mud bricks would be baking on the hot sun.

Eric and I arrived to the Bolivian city of Tupiza on our route to the Salar de Uyuni after a slow hot train ride. Not long after we arrived we were sitting on a bench in the city square, planning our next move, when we spotted some friends of ours walking past us. We met Arjan and Sanne from Holland in Salta and had planned on meeting up later on the journey so it was a bit of a surpirse to see them. It could not have been a better time. Eric and I had been scouting out possiblities of taking a four day tour of the Salar de Uyuni but it either meant we would have to go with strangers or pay a steep price for just us. Almost all tours around South America are based on the number of people that attend. Almost every hostel and hotel simultaniously run tour operations from their headquarters and the simple fact remains: The more people you have the cheaper it will be. So running into them solved both deliemas. We opted for the four day tour and in the mean time decided to walk around town and then later in the evening hike up one of the peaks around Tupiza for a backpacker stovetop dinner under the stars. You see a lot of interesting things around third world countries small towns. Take for example the stray dog eating a sheep head. This is a strange place and it´s about to get weirder.

After an headache of a visa process for Bolivia, Eric and I finally got the go ahead to enter Bolivia. We hopped a midnight bus that drove us from Salta to the northern border of Argentina and by 6 am we were standing on the border looking into our next country. There are a couple immeadiate things that pop into mind when you first come across Bolivia. First off it was freezing. The early mornings in a high alititude desert are a rude awakening for travelers that have been in a climate of 80 degrees in Chile and Argentina. Once off the bus, we quickly unpacked our winter coats and began to warm while we breathed in the crisp, dry desert air.

Steping across the borderline to Bolivia was an instant transformation into the unknown. It´s a litteral step into a third world. Nothing like I have ever seen or experienced. Decaying, mud brick buildings aline narrow streets where women in the tradition clothing carry huge loads of produce or crafts they will attempt to sell at market. Children play near their families claimed chunk of sidewalk for selling goods with homemade toys or harass the numerous stray dogs that try to sneak off with some food or some unattended garbage.

This is the first place I have been called ¨gringo¨.

It is hard to describe the feeling you get when walking through the local markets or dust covered streets of Bolivia. I have a couple of things going against me when trying to blend in. I am a six foot, muscular 240 lb, blond haired, blue eyed American walking around with a photographic hand cannon of a camera in a sea of 4-5 ft tall, black hair, dark skinned, natives. I stick out like a sore thumb. When I walk through the markets, people stop what they are doing a follow you with every step you take. Their faces show little emotion. I wonder if they despise me or if they are just super curious.

This has presented a difficult challenge for me as a photographer. My goals when shooting a situation are to be seen and then forgotten. It´s the persuit to become invisable. This allows me to photograph them in a way that you would never now I was present. Genuine. Natural. Candid. How ever you want to call it. I have found this a very difficult thing to do here. Almost everyone prefers that they not have their picture taken. Any time a raise my camera, I get women yelling at me to stop or they give me strange looks. My broken spanish is unable to convince them of what I am trying to do. I can´t disapear here and I struggle with trying to make a good picture. It makes you really appreciate the talents of National Geographic photographers.

Almost all are friendly but with these anti photo reactions, I wonder what lies under the surface. I think about what people who may look like me have done here prior to my arrival to give them a certain opinion of gringos. I wonder how I can change their opinions.

Eric and I said our goodbyes to Jordan and Dan and then decided to head out of Chile due to the lack of funds and the crappiness of the American dollar. We hopped a bus north to Santiago and then scooted back across the border to Mendoza, the wine capital of Argentina. For all the fancy bottles of wine that I have had while traveling down here, Mendoza was the source of it all so we took the oportunity to explore it a bit. We joined some new found friends from our hostel and took a bus to the outskirts of town where you can rent bicycles and ride around to about a dozen different old wineries for tastings and tours of the wine making processes.

I have never considered myself a baker let alone a good cook. But when four large boys have been working all day building rafts, cleaning around a lodge, and building river rock asado pits they tend to build up an appetite. Hence my motivation of being in a foreign country and having nothing but time, I started experimenting with baking. We used leftover lamb to make a stew and then I took lamb meat, made some dough and made empanadas (a staple dish of the locals in both Argentina and Chile that resembles a calzone except it is usually filled with a meat, egg, olives and veggies). I also took the opportunity to make my first pie. Great success!