salty dog and winnie pig

abba is playing in spanish on the radio in this internet cafe.
sorry to leave a whole week between blogs, you must all be desperate for news..
to summarise-

last wednesday
went on a vineyard tur to cafayate, 100k roughly from salta, stopping en route to look at such natural phenomenons as rocks that look like castles, rocks that form natural amphitheatres, rocks that look like the wind has eroded them, rocks that look like rocks and other rocks. we bought some wine from one of the vineyards, abi stole a rock, i bought a hat, we looked for a post office after lunch in cafayate, but it was closed so we read our books in the sun. (sorry, i´ve been keeping a list of events so i don´t forget them, but it probably doesn´t read well). evening, we went for dinner in a pena place - pena is some sort of traditional argentine dancing and singing, it was very loud and not very good. our tour leader, juan got cross as they brough him the wrong food. a man outside had some telescopes pointing at the moon and jupiter, i took a photo of him.

thursday
early start, bus to san pedro de atacama, in chile. the scenery going from argentina to chile was absolutely stunning, completely overwhelming like being on another planet, and just no people for miles and miles, and then a little person with a llama/child on their back. high altitude today, up to 4200metres, lots of headaches and tiredness as we adjusted. really nice hostel in the town, with lots of blankets. i did some washing and hung it out on their line.

friday
me and ab had a lie in then got up slowly and wandered around and bought a jumper, found a post office (seems to be a recurring theme), saw some dogs fighting. the shop we bought the jumpers in, we paid on our visa cards, and when we gave them to him he had to take us over the road and into a market, where in a little booth was a little visa machine which we paid on. maybe it was shared between all the shops, it made us laugh. laura went horse riding, which she really enjoyed, but then found she was allergic to horses and went all blotchy. abi has had a strange rash too, but it seems to be subsiding now. after lunch we went to the valley of death (a mistranslation - supposed to be valley of mars, but a french person said it, and his accent sounded like he was saying death instead - muerte). we sandboarded, which was fun when you slightly got the hang of it. lots of falling off. our bus was late picking us up so we walked for a bit, then they drove us to a big hill in the desert to watch the sun do what it does best - set. the sky was amazing colours, sadly my little camera doesn´t do it justice. there is a volcano nearby with a lake on top, where according to local legend a diver who was friends with jacques costeau found a perfectly spherical crystal sphere, which when he picked up went very hot and he dropped it back in and it became embedded and never able to be found again. apparently you are supposed to ask the locals what they think of this, so i asked sebastian who was teaching us sandboarding, but he had a strong accent and i couldn´t understand his answer. at least i tried though. he was impressed i knew about it. i then had a very strange dream about it, along with dreaming i found my own death certificate - any idea what this means anyone?

saturday
bus to bolivia today. minibus was too small for us and all our luggage so it was a bit manic, and juan was cross again. bags all in the aisles and on top of us. health and safety isn´t big in south america, dad you would have a field day pointing out all the potential death traps. the night before, juan had briefed us on our next few days, and said that crossing the border from chile to bolivia you are not allowed to have a tour guide, so we were to just pretend he was a fellow passenger, and not ask him lots of questions that would give the game away etc. and also that a revolution was breaking out in bolivia to do with elections and we may not get over the border due to a snow storm that had happened that day (which is why our vans for snowboarding claimed to be delayed, this was obviously a lie as there wasn´t a snowflake to be seen). anyway, all went fine at the border. it was literally a building in the middle of the desert-mountains, with a bolivian flag, lots of photos of the bolivian president in frames, a burnt out old bus that we weed behind, and no visible security whatsoever. i had my glasses, hat and scarf on, and they didn´t even look at my passport photo anyway. we got a good multicoloured stamp in our passports anyway.
then we got into our SUVs which drove us around for the next 3 days, across the salt flats and lakes. bolivia is very poor, and very dry and deserty. the people are small. they don´t speak english at all, and the children are very very cute. i said a few sentences to our driver and the chef (his wife we think but i didn´t dare ask, i´m not sure of question asking etiquette over here yet). i said es un camino concurrido (it´s a busy road), when another van passed us going the other way, the first one in about 3 hours (don´t know if they get irony over here). and i asked them where they were from - uyuni - and did he like driving, he said he did, i said bueno, as he had to do lots of it. every time we stopped anywhere in the SUVs we got out, took photos, talked about the altitude, i asked juan some questions (sometimes relevant sometimes not - he just tells me to shut up now before i´ve even said anything). and the van drivers seem to get under the bonnet or van to tinker with the engine or wheels. on the last trip, juan said his SUV got 5 punctures in one day, the windows didn´t open, and they ran out of petrol and had to flag a passing van down to help. all things considered, our trip was quite uneventful in that respect.
we looked at laguna verde (it´s green due to arsenic and copper), laguna blanca (it´s white), laguna colorado (it´s red due to algae), saw some flamingoes, swam in a hot spring, which was the first time i´d felt clean in a long time.
our accommodation that night was a shelter, at 4200m, very deserted, literally a building and a few houses in the ´village´, and a little shop where we got some whiskey. there was more van tinkering, it seemed to go on all night. the electricity supposedly only lasts frm 630-830pm, but tonight we were lucky and it lasted all night. laura had really bad altitude sickness and vomited at 4800m, which was the highest we went today, so we looked after her in her sick bed. long long cold night, felt like it would never end. altitude makes you have strange dreams.

questions so far-
why are flamingoes the only pink animals, even though other animals must also eat shrimps?
what´s happening in the world and in the olympics?
why so many chemists in south america (we think it´s because you can buy lots of things that in england you would need prescriptions for)
is there a flamingo predator in south america?
what is sedimentary rock? apparently metamorphic rock is rock that started as sediment and became rock, in which case, what is sedimentary?
why is a thousand pounds called a grand?
do oranges that are more orange in colour contain more vitamins?
what is the richest and poorest continent?

have to stop now, will continue when i can, hopefully tomorrow. we are now in a town called potosi (famous for silver) further up bolivia. laura is much better, abi´s rash is going, and i am fine, though a bit hungry as always.

besos x