First taste of Bolivia

So we left Jujuy, not feeling awesome but feeling somewhat better, and caught a five hour bus up to the dusty, windy, chilly border town of La Quiaca, altitude 3,442m. The bus ride was BEAUTIFUL, wild desert and canyons, with mountains striated in completely surreal colors from mineral deposits. I have never seen pastel mountains before. The highway cut through the Quebrada de Humahuaca national park and wove through passes of startling color and beauty and we loved it. The bus ride was even more enjoyable because a couple sitting next to us with their six year old daughter were so excited about how excited WE were, watching us snapping photos out the window. I loved how proud they were of their country....if we had returned our attention to our books and something especially cool was around a bend they would get our attention.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quebrada_de_Humahuaca

Nate was still really unwell, and barely ate any dinner, and we went to sleep early and slept well in our cold hostel room with ample heavy blankets. After breakfast we walked the couple kilometers to the border.

What an easy border crossing! Lots of weary Bolivians with heavy loads, it looks like people cross the border back and forth between Argentina and Bolivia a lot, and it seemed like maybe people shop for things in Argentina that are difficult to obtain, or expensive, in Bolivia. It took about an hour and a half in a lineup to cross.

Our first impressions of Bolivia are awesome. It's the first time in my life I've encountered friendly and cheerful border staff. The border town on the Bolivian side of the border, Villazon, is chaotic and poor. We waited a few hours for a train to take us to Tupiza, where we are now.The three hour train in the lowest class of car cost us about $2.50. The train was mainly filled with Quechua people, bogged down with heavy loads, lots of colorful clothing, tons of kids. Quechuas wear hats with so much style. It was a pleasant ride. I always like riding trains.

Our hostel in La Quiaca had called ahead to reserve a room for us in Tupiza. Hostels in the Hostelling International network tend to be very helpful. We were pleasantly surprised to get off our train in the darkness, people and chaos everywhere, and there was a girl of about twenty and a teenage boy in a vest with our hostel name on it looking for us. She must have scoped out the assorted backpackers and taken a guess cause she asked if my name was Jessica. It felt nice to be met at our train!

Today is kind of practical stuff, banking and laundry, communication, and tomorrow we depart on a four day tour of the Salar de Uyuni, the world's largest salt flat. The trip is in a 4x4, and is costing us about $180. We'll see smoking volcanoes, geisers, mineral lakes in bizarre colors, Andean flamingos...Jon did the same tour last week and gushed and gushed about it. It's one of the bigger splurges of the trip but we're really pumped.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salar_de_Uyuni

We finish in the town of Uyuni and then make our way to the animal refuge, to start a fifteen day volunteer stint. The organization has three different refuges, and they're all appealing in different ways, and they all need help, and they aren't even remotely near to each other, so we're still trying to choose which one we'll go to...although I think it will be Parque Machia. It looks like we'll be on the refuge for Christmas and New Years.
http://www.intiwarayassi.org/articles/volunteer_animal_refuge/volunteer_parque_machia.html