A Southern Compilation ...

Someone very wise once told me to ¨write the shit out of my story¨... so here it is one page at a time ...

Mendoza: is where my heart is ...
I had such an amazing time here ... I met some amazing Australian guys and had quite the Australian experience, I know so many new words! :)
In Mendoza we suntanned by the pool, ate at the same cafe every morning  (because each time the locals would give us a free bag of biscotti things), scouted ¨rigs¨, ate lots of meat, ¨skulled¨ 1 L cervasas, sipped  vino and rode bikes with Mr. Hugo the legend.
I heart Mendoza and all the boys I met there. I´m coming to visit soon.

I knew after the 4th day in Mendoza ... if I didn´t leave then ... I would get stuck there. I booked my ticket for Salta and started the journey to Bolivia !!!!

Salta: your weird ...
After a 23 hour bus ride from Mendoza (thanks to the political riots in the road ... no buses allowed to pass) I arrived in Salta late at night. Luckily over those 23 hours I met the most wonderful German girl Frannie ... we´ve been inseparable ever since. The two of us walked to the cheapest hostel lonely planet could offer and booked a room for something like $5 a night. (Did I mention Frannie is fluent in Spanish ... well she is). Anyways after determining that we were the only gringos in the entire hostel we decided we were starved. We treked around town and found the best restaurant ever ... we ate like a three course meal for $10 each.
The food was amazing ... but we were exhausted and knew that tomorrow was going to be another day of buses and no banos. Good night Salta.

Bolivian-Argentinian Border: your scary...
After another 8 hour bus ride ... sin bano and con Frannie and her pepper spray we arrived at the border safe and sound. Thank god Frannie is fluent ahaha ... I am so glad I got to do the first border with her. It wasn´t too bad ... exit stamp ... entry stamp = WELCOME TO BOLIVIA.
The minute you step foot over the border you notice a difference in the peoples faces as well as their attitudes. In Argentina most of the locals love you ... but in Villazon Bolivia ... we were the dirt of the earth! I suppose its because gringos piss them off ahaha I think about Vancouver sometimes and what I think of some of those people and I understand. Anyways ... 5 minutes in an angry Bolivian man chased us with a whistle screaming at us in Spanish to put away our cameras. Luckily some local women took us into their shop, told us to shut up and shoo-ed the loco hombre away!

Welcome to Bolivia.
We stayed in Villazon for about  1 hour and hopped on the next chicken bus to Tupiza ...

Tupiza: your beautiful ...
After a wonderful night spent in a $2 hostel, Frannie and I ate some sketch ass street food (people that know me well should know that I have already changed in terms of my eating habits ... I figure its part of the adventure ... thanks dukarol!) ... packed a bag of local food from the market and booked a 7 hour horseback riding trip through the Bolivian country side. It honestly was the most amazing day ever.

Obviously when you speak English and the horsies speak Espanol ... you are going to run into some trouble ahah but it was part of the experience. There was one point when the Reinga (the horse) was climbing up the flippen canyon to get to the agua and Louis the tour guide was screaming for me to PARAPARA (stopstop)!!! I was honestly so frightened that I just let go of the reins and held on for dear life. I was laughing so hard that I almost peed my pants.
**(I have decided this is my protection mechanism - whenever something scary happens I just laugh...it makes everything so much better).

Throughout the day - at some parts I honestly forgot it was real life. The scenery was honestly so breathtaking and so peaceful ... it was amazing. The pictures don´t do it justice but I tried. 
After 7 hours on a horse ... your bottom hurts and the last thing you want to do is get on a chicken bus for 7 hours ... but that´s exactly what we did!

& I am SO happy because it was honestly the best experience of my entire life. Packs on top and no bano for hours. It was probably one of the most frighetening experiences of my trip so far ... but as Frannie and I chewed coco-leaves we rattled through rivers, climbed up mountains and literally laughed the entire way. There was one point where we passed a big phallic shaped rock and I screamed (thinking no one would understand) ... OMG FRANNIE LOOK AT THAT PENIS! All the locals bust up from their seats and started laughing! They bust out their cellulars and all started taking pictures of the big weiner on the side of the road ... it was brilliant!

Best day ever!!

Uyuni: ghost town by night: tourist haven by day...
We arrived at like 2am in the morning with not one person in sight. It was absolutely FREEZING but after about 20 minutes we found a hostel and banged on the door to wake up the person! We are staying in a matromonial bed and have figured out our salt flat tour for tomorrow.

I heart Bolivia. It´s so cheap and so different from home. It´s certainly a culture shock, but thats  why I came out on this journey to learn about the different cultures we have in this wonderful world of ours!

:)