¿Andes nog iets? Nee, lama..

After 40 bottles of wine, and at least as many alfajores, we felt it was time to leave the Tango behind and start the Trail. (By the standards of Parisian nutricionists, as Jori learnt when she had broken her toe, we would have been AA-material, a slightly disturbing thought... Note though that at a rate of 7 glasses per week, every Parisian would be eligible for an AA-retreat.) We will miss Argentina, but we could not neglect our moral obligations as members of the fellowship of the wannabe-panflute lovers and like-minded. In short, it was time for ´iets Andes´!

And it was different indeed. [harpsicord starts playing] "Cloudy skies made way for starry nights" [end harpsicord]. Alfajores were switched for tasty milanesa de llama, leading to a severe decrease in our dentists´ future cash flows (yes, Lisette is still reading the Investment Biker). Llamas, when not decorating your plate, are really cool (they smile all day) and may therefore be considered the true stars of the Andes. Non-blonde fact of the day (as nobody knows this) is that there are actually four types of llamas: llama (duh), alpaca, vicuña, and another one that no one ever remembers the name of, only that it starts with a ´g´. Hmm.. maybe this fact is a little bit blonde after all.

Other wildlife abounds in the Andes. Flamingos that somehow manage to sleep outside at temperatures of -35ºC at altitudes of 4.700m (we attempted the same, indoors with 4 blankets, and utterly failed), bunnies that look like squirrels and, of course, the omnipresent Lagoon Baboon - an exotic offshoot of its London-sister, a.k.a. girls wearing leggings with nothing covering their behinds. Aside from the llamas, however, we have (luckily?) not had the opportunity to try any of these animals ourselves.

Nevertheless, our Andes crossing so far has been very tasty. It all started with salt, lots of salt. From SALTa we went to San Pedro de Atacama to watch Messí´s mom on the pitch and, more importantly, his new hair cut (.... and it´s gone, the matje!). Still in shock, we jumped in a 4x4 (CHABAL) for a three-day trip towards Uyuni to visit lagoons, geisers and of course the ginormous Salar de Uyuni, where we slept in - how could it be otherwise - a hotel made of salt. With 12.000 square kilometers of salt, the Salar would cover almost one-fourth of the Netherlands. With salt as far as the eye can see, the flat offers plenty of possibilities for rather nice (or AWESOME, if you insist) photos.

In Potosí, our next stop, salt made way for bitter. Potosí is the highest city in the world (at 4.060m, take that Vaalserberg, with your lousy 321m) and is home to a still active mine, where 10.000 men continue to dig for zinc, lead and a little bit of silver. To cope with the high altitude and the harsh working conditions, the miners chew coca leaves. The bitter juices of the coca suppress hunger and tiredness, allowing the mining ´families´ to stay underground for up to 24 hours, should they decide to do so. The 2005 award-winning documentary The Devil´s Miner gives a good impression of what this life is like and what we witnessed ourselves when we were underground for two hours. We crawled through small passages on hands and feet with a big ball of coca leaves in our cheeks (making us resemble hamsters) and drank 96% pure alcohol to honour El Tio, the Miner´s Devil/Protector.

After the bitterness of the Potosí mines, things went sour. Because of an ongoing dispute with a Canadian mining firm (Blame Canada!), Peruvian miners have been blocking the border crossing with Bolivia, in an attempt to influence an as-of-yet unsure election outcome. In practical terms this means that Peru cannot be entered overland via Puno, as we were planning to do. We were thus forced to break the Gringo-trail and book a flight from La Paz to Cusco directly, so that we would not miss THE (almost-) Inca Trail.

A welcome by-product of this reshuffling of plans is that we get to stay a couple days more in what may well be Bolivia´s sweetest town, Sucre. The city´s name comes from a revolutionary leader, General Antonio José de Sucre, but you´ll be forgiven to think it means sugar, as it is a sweet treat (LP 2010).

As for those who believe in a 5th taste, ´umami´, well.. have a look here and explain to us what it actually entails. Lisette votes for spicy (hooooot) as the 5th taste, makes much more sense!

First steps into the Andes and first bite of llama, the Quebrada de Humahuaqua (3.000m)

Niños 

Salta                                                                                     San Pedro de Atacama

 

Free alfajores     +     FORÇA BARÇA    =     yes!

[violins start playing] starry nights in San Pedro [fade out violins]

Crossing the border to Bolivia

Ceci n´est pas un llama, c´est un vicuña

Watch out: BABOONS!

We did laundry!

Spectacular (and somewhat spooky) sunrise over the Salar

Our crew (clockwise): Arie, Matthieu, Jhonny, Camille, Nicole, Lisette y Jori

Jumpstyle (still soooo 2009)



Meditation time

Jori practicing her pan flute skills...           ...while Lisette was on a date/DEET!

Our faithful and all-knowing companion LP

Just read it!

In Uyuni we ran into the crew of "Breve storia di lunghi tradimenti", causing Jori to do her utmost to get a cameo, but to no avail

During the mine tour in Potosí, Efrain with a coca-leaf ball and our bottle of 96% alcohol, both of which were shared with Tio

100% pure indulgence (pizza and wine in front of the TV, no need to spend time on the patioooo)

what´s for dinner mamay?