Hola y Buenas Dias a todo:

We left Salta bright and early. The ride by cab cost about $1.50 so at that price there was really no sense in depriving ourselves. Our bus company was from Chile, it's called Pullman and it was very nice indeed. No unwanted music videos on this one but always plenty of B or C grade movies with lots of violence, none of it edited of course. In any case the 10 hour drive to San Pedro went like a charm. The scenery is absolutely stunning. We climbed to an altitude of over 5000 metres and started to feel the sting of the dreaded "saroche", altitude sickness. In our case it was more of a temporary malaise with a headache, burning eyes and a bout of tiredness.

It was well worth it though for the beauty of the surrounding mountains and valleys. San Pedro sits at the edge of the driest desert in the world with 335 days that are cloudless. The days are hot and the nights cold. When we crossed the border into Chile, San Pedro did not appear to be much but we soon discovered that it's a funky little town with lots of hotels, restaurants and tour operators. Chile is very expensive. Everything mostly is counted in the thousands. For instance our breakfast this morning cost 7,200 pesos. It's frightening when they hand you the bill.

One canadian dollar is worth 461 pesos. We can't afford to linger too long in Chile.

Yesterday we took the Laguna Altiplanica tour. It was incredible. We went to a quebrada which is a kind of small canyon. The farmers only have access to its water twice a month on a sort of rotation. We then visited the Salar of Atacama which is the third biggest in South America.

It is dotted with small lagoons where 3 different types of flamingos feed and breed. It was beautiful to see them take flight against the clear blue sky. The salar or salt flat is surrounded by snow capped mountains and volcanoes. It's quite a sight and hopefully some of our pictures will capture that. We then climbed to an altitude of over 4000 metres and visited two altiplano lagoons of crystal blue waters again surrounded by mountains and volcanoes. We finished the day with lunch at a typico artesanial restaurant. Chileans eat supper very late, around 8:00 p.m. and lunch is usually around 2 or 3. Stan is sometimes not very happy about that. Our health is good. Stan has had a touch of the tourista but nothing major. We are leaving today for the Pacific Coast and Iquique. We should be in Bolivia by the end of the week. Having a blast.

South America is a fantastic continent and the scenery so far can literally take your breadth away.

Hasta luego a todo,

Josiane