Salar de Uyuni

Our bus arrived in Uyuni at 8:00am and though we hadn't slept, we were upbeat about the day ahead. We grabbed our bags and began to head towards the Tunupa travel agency. I noticed that two girls who had gotten off our bus had the same envelope that we had with our tickets and sure enough, they were also in our group: Anne and Marley from the Netherlands. We finally found the tour agency and they told us to leave our bags there and go get some breakfast. We had two hours to kill until our tour left at 10:00am, so we stopped at a restaurant to get yogurt and coffee but more importantly to use their bathroom to change and brush our teeth.
We headed back to the agency, making sure that we were able to rent good sleeping bags for the trip ahead. Finally, everyone arrived and we piled into our jeep. The other people in our group of 6 were Ewan from the UK and Susie from Australia.

Our first stop was the train cemetery. This seemed like sort of a silly thing to stop and see but we took some pictures anyways. All the girls were promptly back at the car after 10 minutes, but Ewan wandered around for an additional 10 minutes and ended up getting lost, unable to determine which jeep was ours...clearly not a bright fellow.

Next we stopped int he city of Colchani which is where the salt from the nearby salt flats is brought so it can be refined. There was really nothing in the town to see. I thought we would learn about the refinery process but instead, the museum was full of giant salt animals...not that informative and basically just a big gift shop. We quickly moved on to the next thing.

We stopped at the beginning of the salt flats right outside of Colchani. Here you could find the locals scraping the salt into little pyramids. Apparently they do this to dry the salt, since the ground is all saturated with water. I felt bad climbing onto their pyramids but they didn't seem to mind.

The salt flats were formed by a 12,000km dried up lake. It takes hours to cross through them and it really looks like snow. We continued driving until we reached what is known as "Fish island". It is basically a land mass within the salt covered in cactus very similar to Saguaros. From there, we could get a great view of the massive salt flat surrounding us.

We also took some time to take some great salt flat perspective pictures. Our group was really fun and came up with some great ideas!

After our time on the salt flat, we headed to the hotel where we would be spending the night. I use the word "hotel" very loosely as it was just a 8 room place, but it was made entirely out of salt. Even the beds were made out of salt! I found this very interesting although it was annoying that the salt got into everything.

We settled in to warm up with some tea and cookies and wait for dinner. It was cold in this hotel but we knew that the real cold weather was coming the following day so we remained optimistic. One of the guides was nice enough to drive out and buy some beers for us since there was absolutely nothing around where we were staying, so we all played cards as we waited for dinner.

Dinner consisted of a vegetable soup, alpaca, quinoa and french fries. It was all pretty decent except for the alpaca which was so tough that you couldn't even chew it. We all passed on the alpaca and filled up on quinoa. The electricity in the hotel is turned off at 10:00pm, so everyone made sure to be in bed before that. I stayed up a little later (luckily I had my flashlight) to see how the hotel was in the dark. It was actually super creepy so I quickly headed back to bed which was luckily able to get warm in my sleeping bag and multiple blankets.

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Shopping day in La Paz

We got to sleep in which is always something that I am thankful for. We didn't have to check out until 1:00pm, so we had the free hostel breakfast of all you can eat pancakes (awesome) and hung out around the hostel until check out. We were taking a 7:00pm, over night bus to Uyuni, Bolivia so we had all day to waste and wanted to get all the hostel time that we had paid for.
Once we ventured out into town, we needed to purchase gloves, socks and leggings for our trip. Luckily, these are readily available at the roadside kiosks around town and we were able to find ones we liked for pretty cheap. We ended up with llama lined leggings...never thought I'd be able to say that, lol. As we walked to the post office, trying for the third unsuccessful time to send my postcards, we stumbled upon a local festival. We stopped and watched the dancing for a few minutes and I was amused because they had little flags which reminded me of colorguard. It's nice to see the local festivities and take part in them.

As we walked around, we ended up at the witches' market. Here you can buy baby llama carcasses, toad talismans, owl feathers, stone amulets, candles, gems, and soaps. Old liquor bottles contain potions concocted by boiling medicinal plants and animal parts. It is definitely a sight to see!

We grabbed some dinner at Cafe del Mundo, our favorite food spot in La Paz, and then grabbed our bags and headed to the bus station. At many of the bus stations, you need to pay a local tax in addition to your bus fare, so once we had our tax slips we boarded the bus and settled in for the 12 hour ride. We had all of our winter clothing with us so we were prepared for any temperature the bus gave us but what we couldn't control was how bumpy the road was. It was like trying to sleep on a jackhammer. I listened to music until about 1:00am and then tried to get some sleep. We stopped for a bathroom break at 3:00am and I still had not been able to drift off. Finally as we started back on the road, I was able to get about an hour from 3:30am-4:30am which would be all I'd have to go on for the next day as our tour of the salt flats began at 10:00am that morning.

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Death road

I had to be up at 6:30am since my tour left at 7:30am and I had to walk across town to the meeting point. I really hadn't been worried about the tour at all (although I had heard plenty of terrifying stories) but I was definitely worried that I'd sleep through my alarm and miss it. Apparently Alyssa was also worried that I would miss my alarm since she woke me up 15 minutes before it went off to make sure I wasn't running late, lol. I headed out the door with plenty of time and got to our meeting place early. Since I was there already, I decided to grab some breakfast and wait for the other bikers. Slowly they trickled in until there were 11 of us in total. We piled into a van and drive one hour up to the top of the hill where the new road began.
The North Yungas Road (or the Death Road as it's marketed to tourists) is a 69km(43 mi) road leading from La Paz to Coroico. It is legendary for its extreme danger and in 1995 the Inter-American Development Bank named it the "world's most dangerous road". Approximately 300 travelers were killed annually along the road until the government decided to build a new, safer road for cars (although this road charges a toll and is often closed for construction so not all vehicles use it). This is one of the few routes that connects the Amazon rainforest of northern Bolivia to La Paz. Upon leaving La Paz, the road first climbs to 4,650m (15,260 ft) at La Cumbre Pass, before descending to 1,200m (3,900 ft) at the town of Coroico, transitioning quickly from freezing Altiplano terrain to hot rainforest. The single-lane road has no guard rails and cliffs with heights of up to 600m (1,830 feet). The rain and fog can severely impact visibility and the water runoff turns the road into a mud pit with no traction and tons of rockslides. The local road rules specify that the downhill driver never has the right of way and must move to the outer edge of the road (which is also true for bikes). Unlike the rest of Bolivia, vehicles on this road are required to drive on the left side of the road to give the driver a better view of the vehicle's outside wheel so that they don't misjudge the distance and teeter of the cliff.
We unloaded our bikes at the top of the hill and were issued extra pants and jackets to cope with the extreme cold I had on three jackets and felt like a marshmallow but it was worth it!). We then got a short tutorial on how to use the bikes and what the terrain would be like. It has probably been over 10 years since I've ridden a mountain bike (beach cruisers in Santa Monica do not count) but it all came back to me instantly. We got into formation, making sure not to follow to closely, and began our ride.

The first part of the ride would be down the new, paved road that we could cruise down until we reached the entrance to the old dirt road. Since this road was paved we were all flying down it, trying to lean forward and flatten out to have less wind resistance. We quickly reached a little town along the way where we were supposed to get into the bus and drive up the 8km uphill section (it is awful so they don't include it as a part of the tour). Ironically, there was a big bike race up the death road that morning (I can't even imagine riding UP the death road), so the police had shut off the road to cars from the town on until all 300 racers had passed through. Since we had only seen the first two racers pass by, we knew it could be a while. We all decided that instead of waiting, we were going to bike the uphill section. Talk about a workout! The altitude does a number on me already but pedaling uphill on bikes that are only meant for downhill for 30 straight minutes could have been enough to kill me. But I made it, no problem.

We recollected the group at the mouth of the old road so that we could stick together. Since the race was going on at the same time and many of the racers were not from Bolivia and didn't know the rules, they were taking up both sides of the road, making it hard to anticipate which side we should be on to avoid cars and racers as we flew downhill. Our group leader stayed out in front and blew his whistle whenever a car was approaching but it was hard to hear over the strong winds blowing up from the canyon.

Although they warned us a lot about the terrain and the "baby's head" sized rocks that took out most people, I thought since I was in control of my speed and maneuvering that there was no way I would crash. I couldn't have been more wrong. All of a sudden as I came around a corner, there was a rock right in front of my front tire but there was nothing I could do to avoid it since the bikes end up creating trenches as they go through the mud which are impossible to maneuver out of quickly. The front tire hit the rock bringing it to a dead stop which forced the back tire up in the air and the bike to flip end over end. I really had no time for a game plan but somehow survival instincts kicked in (keep in mind, I'm on the edge of the cliff you see in the picture above) and I decided to roll with the bike. I followed its trajectory and rolled like a ninja, landing on my back with my legs tanglelled in the bike. My immediate worry was that the bikers behind me that were coming around the corner wouldn't see me in time and would crash into me or fly off the cliff in an attempt to avoid me. Luckily no one came for at least 10 seconds so I had time to hysterically laugh at the situation and pull myself out of the way before they came around the bend. Everyone was really concerned but miraculously, I didn't have so much as a cut or bruise. In fact, I had no pain whatsoever! It was really amazing and I was proud of my self-preservation skills. We continued on with the ride and though I really wasn't scared that I might fall again, I was definitely paying extra close attention to the road since I knew I wouldn't escape so lucky a second time. When we stopped, my guide took an extra hard look at me even though I insisted I was absolutely fine. He said that just within the last week, he had 5 different people on his tours who had gone off the road, breaking ribs, arms and legs. He then proceeded to recount stories of the bikers he knew who had died. One tour group was cycling in the fog and so they were following their guide closely since they couldn't see in front of them. The guide took a wrong turn, flying off the cliff and all but the last 3 people in his group followed him resulting in 10 fatalities. It was clear that this was no joke to him and he wanted to make sure I wasn't hurt before we continued.

The rest of the ride down was without incident and we got to see so much beautiful landscape. From the huge mountains, to the waterfalls, to the jungle, we got a piece of everything Bolivia had to offer. It was really a spectacular thing to see and I was glad we stopped often to look around since I was trying not to take my eyes off the road.

We finally made it down to the bottom and celebrated with some congratulatory beers. By the end of the day, we had all become good friends and it was great to just sit and have some drinks after the exhausting ride down. We headed to a restaurant located at a local animal sanctuary so that we could swim in the water and have some dinner before the three hour drive back to La Paz. Overall, it was a great experience and I'm glad I did it!

Once back into town, I cleaned up and then Alyssa and I went to the bar for our free hostel beer. I had eaten only a few hours before so we went to "Sol y Luna" so that Alyssa could get a drink and some dinner. The waiter recommended a drink of Singani (which is the local Bolivian liquor) and coca leaves which was supposed to be similar to a mojito...I don't recommend it, lol.

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Figuring out La Paz

We decided to move to a different hostel since the hotel we were staying in was a bit pricy. Alyssa had found one online called "Adventure Brew" (it has its own brewery called "Saya" and they give you a free beer every night of your stay) so we made a two night reservation over there for $160 soles/night. The hostel was very nice and we got our own three bed room with private bath. Once we had our things in order, we decided to cruise around the city to check out some travel agencies and book our Salar de Uyuni tour (Bolivia's salt flats). We also knew that we would need to purchase big jackets since we really only had thin running jackets and windbreakers which would not provide the amount of warmth we would need for the tour. The guy who worked at our hostel pointed us towards a part of town where he said we would be able to find jackets at a more reasonable price (the ones we had seen on our walk to Adventure Brew were more expensive than in the states!).

We were able to find a jacket kiosk and they patiently waited as we tried on all of their styles, sizes and colors. I have very long arms since I'm so tall which made my selections limited since usually bigger jackets have longer arms but then they were huge on me. We finally found two that would work and were able to get each of them for $28 USD- not bad!

After finding our jackets, we brought them back to the hostel and I booked my tour for the "death road" the following day. The death road is a biking tour down the world's most dangerous road, which is just outsideof La Paz. Alyssa had decided she did not want to go, so I signed up to go by myself.

We continued to walk around town, taking in the sights and checking out tour agencies along the way. La Paz was much different in the light of day and I really liked how non-touristy it was. Everyone just went about their business, unconcerned about what the two tourist girls were doing. There are tons of local markets and street vendors which are awesome to walk around and so cheap! Bolivia is definitely the cheapest country we've been to so far.

It seemed that the English speaking tour company we had heard the most about, "Red Planet", was booked for the next few days which meant we'd have to spend a lot more time in La Paz than we'd intended to if we went with them. We decided against that since we have limited time and opted for a Spanish speaking, cheaper tour instead that would transfer us to San Juan de Atacama, Chile at the end of the trip.

After a long day of walking the town, we showered and got ready for the evening. It is fairly cold in La Paz, so we were happy to have our new, warm jackets. We started off the night by getting our free beer from the hostel which was actually pretty good!

We then headed to a Mexican food restaurant we had read great reviews about on Trip Advisor called "Kalakitas". It was an awesome little "Day of the Dead" themed restaurant with good food and drinks. Sadly, I was already buzzed after the beer (I am chalking it up to the altitude not the fact that I am now a lightweight) so the margarita was enough for me to decide I was cut off. After all, I was cycling down the death road early the next morning and it would be good to have my wits about me.

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Isla del Sol

Today we had to get up extra early (6:45am...bleh) in order to see if we could buy tickets for the Isla del Sol boat that left at 8:30am. Luckily there were plenty of spaces left and we were able to buy our bus tickets to La Paz for 6:30pm at the same travel agency. We made it back to the hotel with just enough time to pack up and take advantage of the free breakfast (which actually had fruit and real coffee!) before heading to the dock for the tour. The boat we were taking on the 2 hour ride had an open top deck as well as an enclosed bottom, but we decided to sit below since it was freezing and the wind upstairs wouldn't help. There was a guy on our tour that had also been on our tour of the floating islands in Puno so we tried making friends with him. He was from Brazil and was very nice but seemed a bit reluctant to become good friends with us.

The ride out to the island was slow going but the water was beautiful. At one point you could see the snow capped mountains in the background and with the crystal blue water and the snow; it looked unreal. The islands were another story though. They were barren and very deserty- definitely not something I found to be beautiful.

When we finally arrived at the north point of the island, we had three hours to explore. We did the 50 minute hike out to the ruins. The hike wasn't too bad and we chatted with our Brazilian friend about what places in Brazil we should visit in November. When we arrived at the ruins, I was a little disappointed. Truth be told, I should probably never see another ruin after seeing Tikal and Machu Pichu: those sites are just so spectacular.

We walked around for a while taking in the scenery before heading back to catch the boat at 1:30. We could have done a 3 hour walk to the south part of the island instead of taking the boat but since there was nothing to see along the way and Alyssa was still getting over her illness, we opted for the boat.

When we reached the southern part, we realized there was truly nothing there. Luckily there were a few restaurants so we joined one of the guys in our tour from Germany and chatted over fried fish, rice and french fries... pretty much the staple meal of every country we've visited. The boat back to Copacabana left at 3:30 and we had only an hour ride back. I chatted with our new German friend about his travels, what he did back home, family etc. It was astonishing to me how similar people's experiences and viewpoints can be when they come from such different worlds. We find this with a lot of people we meet but this guy was actually 29 (instead of 21 like the travelers usually are) so we had more in common simply because of our age.

We reached Copacabana and headed back to our hotel to try to research hostels to stay in once we reached La Paz since our bus wouldn't arrive until after 10:00pm. Unfortunately, the Internet at our hotel was beyond slow so it took 45 minutes to realize that pretty much everything was booked. We decided we would just have to figure it our when we got there. We collected our bags and headed to the travel agency to pick up our bus tickets. The guy who had sold us our tickets was not there and the woman who we presented our receipt to looked completely perplexed. She frantically called someone and then asked us to follow her at a rapid pace up the street to where the buses were parked. She pointed to our bus and Alyssa and I both laughed out loud. This was the shittiest bus we had seen yet. And there were plenty of other buses out there that were also heading to La Paz. We explained to her (and the driver of that bus) that we had purchased a ticket with the understanding that we would be on a real bus, not on some broken down VW bus from hell. They argued with us for a while but I think she knew she was screwing us over, so she finally pointed to another bus. That one wasn't much better but since our options were limited, we agreed. Our Brazilian friend was supposed to be on the same bus as us, but he ended up on the shitty bus and didn't seem to care so we said goodbye to him. We knew we wouldn't be stopping for dinner so we walked around town looking for any market that might have food with some nutritional value. Absolutely NOTHING to be found. There are tons of little shops but they all sell the exact same things. As we walked, we saw some money blowing in the wind down the street. We caught the bills and suddenly had $40 Bolivianaros! We decided we would use the money to buy bus snacks. We begrudgingly settled for the following: sour cream and onion Pringles, crackers, lemon cookies and Oreos. Trust me, this is not what we wanted. But it was either that or starve. We boarded the bus and settled in for the cold, dark drive.

About an hour into the drive we were told that we had to get off the bus. We were really confused but an English speaking Bolivian passenger explained to us that the bus had to be ferried across part of Lake Titicaca and it was so unsafe that people were not allowed to stay in the bus but instead had to take a boat over. We were perplexed but got off the bus and watched as it was driven onto a little ferry made of wooden planks and tires, powered by a single motor. We piled along with 25 other people into a tiny boat and began the journey across the lake. When we went through the waves the boat seemed like it might capsize and I was planning how I would keep my iPad and camera drive if we ended up in the water. Doing things like this (in the complete dark by the way, no lights in or on the boat) is just such a stark contrast to how things are done in the US. I am always appalled by things that are happening around us but none of the local people seem bothered because that's just what happens. You wait 45 minutes for someone to serve at you in a restaurant, you are sold and English speaking tour and end up with a Spanish speaking guide, you cross a lake in the pitch dark when your travel agent never even bothered to mention this to you...just another day in Bolivia. Luckily both the bus and our boat made it safely to the other side and we got back on the bus to complete our drive to La Paz.

When we arrived in La Paz, we tried to hail a cab to take us to a hotel. For some reason, none of the cabs would pull over to pick us up, even though they were empty. We couldn't figure it out! Finally, after 10 minutes of walking around, a cab stopped and agreed to take us. The hotel that had been recommended to us as a cheap option ended up costing $40 USD/night so we asked them if there was anything cheaper nearby. They called next door where there was another hotel for $32/night. We settled for that since it was late and we were unfamiliar with the town and how safe it was to walk around at night. The room was nice, we had great Internet and to water. These are really the only things I care about in a hotel.

 

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The floating islands

I woke up around 7:45am to pack and get ready for our floating island tour. Alyssa had woken me up at 2:00am the night before because she was so sick and I had finally convinced her to take the antibiotic so that she could feel better. She still was feeling awful in the morning and wasn't sure she should go on the tour. She decided she would go so we rushed to get things together. The bus driver that picked us up hurried us down the street to the bus so that we could circle around the city picking up the other passengers. We took a short drive down to the dock and got aboard our boat. Alyssa and I always choose seats in the back of the boat for maximum airflow. This boat was a little different and it appeared they had taken seats out of a coach bus and nailed them into the bottom of the boat. They were fairly comfortable, but you had a limited view of your surroundings through the window so there was an upper deck you could go up on to take pictures.

It was only about a 20 minute boat ride out to the floating islands. We had a guide who spoke Spanish and English and was giving history in both languages but his English was so impossible to understand that I actually listened to his Spanish explanations to understand what the hell he was talking about.

When we arrived at the first island, the local people who lived there put on a little skit for us, explaining how the islands had been built out of layers of reeds, how they barter using fish and dried goods and what their manner of dress symbolizes. It was interesting but definitely very touristy. The islands really are floating. You can see them move when a wave from a boat hits them and you sink about 6" into the reeds with every step you take. Apparently they have to rebuild the island with reeds once a month since the lower ones decay in the water.

Each island had a different tour agency bringing tourists to it for the same explanation and it seemed like their entire economy was actually funded by tourism. They corralled us into one of their local boats to take us to the next island but then we realized that we had to pay $10 soles each for the ride. Since there were about 15 people on the boat, they made out with at least $150 soles...not bad for a 10 minute boat ride. I try not to get too upset about the money they con out of us for the local people, obviously they don't have much and I have been fortunate enough to live a life of privilege but I really can't help but feel violated when I'm lied to. Not to mention, these people had solar panels providing energy to their houses and were all talking on cell phones...come on.

On the second island, there was truly nothing to do. We hung out and basically stared at each other for a good 30 minutes before we boarded the boat to head back to Puno. I think the floating islands are a very interesting thing to see- I mean, why people would build them and then live out there is beyond me. But the tour itself didn't do much for me.
We got back into town with about an hour to find some food and get back to the hostel so that we could head to the bus station. There isn't a lot of quick food that isn't bread, so I popped into a bar/restaurant and ordered some chicken fingers to go. Luckily, they were very lightly breaded so they weren't heavy at all. We got our bags, grabbed a taxi and headed to the bus station. The ride to Copacabana was only three hours, although we would need to cross the Peru/Bolivia border.
The ride was pretty easy and when we arrived at the border we needed to go to two locations to have our passports looked at on the Peru side (although they didn't really care and stamped our passports without asking us anything) and then we had to walk to the Bolivia side. Bolivia makes Americans get a visa for $135 when people from other countries don't have to since that's how much we charge Bolivians to enter the US. I totally understand the principle but it sucks for us! We had to make sure to have $135 USD which luckily we were able to get from a Peruvian ATM. We did not know that we needed a copy of our passport so fortunately they had a copy machine that we could use to very cheaply make a copy. The visas went smoothly and we were back on the bus within 30 minutes. Copacabana is only 8km from the border so we didn't have far to go.
Once we arrived in town, a guy jumped on our bus to explain that the "El Mirador" hotel the bus was stopping in front of had rooms for only $5 per person. I had looked up a bunch of hostels the fight before and they were all about $10 per person, so I thought $5 was a great deal although this was clearly some sort of con job. Pretty much everyone on our bus ended up staying at that hotel. Our room wasn't too bad and actually had 3 beds and hot water. We did hear that some of the other guests were not so lucky and had no hot water. Sadly no one in the hotel could get Internet even though they had two routers because it was so crappy. At one point they turned the Internet off completely and when Alyssa asked them to turn it back on, they said maybe in 10 minutes...lol! Luckily we were only staying there for one night.
Once we had settled in, we set out in search of food. Alyssa still couldn't eat anything crazy so we were looking for a place with variety. Luckily we had read some reviews on "La Orilla" and headed there first. Every review on trip advisor had said how great the chicken fajitas were so I was excited to have them, but sadly they were out of chicken so I settled for the steak fajitas and Alyssa had a Mediterranean medley of items. The food was great!

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Puno, Peru

We got up early, finished packing and headed down to grab some breakfast. I felt a bit rushed because the guy who had sold me the bus tickets insisted that it left at 8:00am even though all of the websites said 8:30am, so I insisted we arrive at the bus station at 7:30am just to be sure. Alyssa was still feeling pretty weak so there was no rushing her and it was hard to find a cab so early in the morning. When we got to the bus station, of course it left at 8:30am. I was frustrated but still happy that we were early not late. We took a Transzela bus and I have to say, I was very happy with it. The seats were huge and we had plenty of leg room. The bus ride went by pretty quickly as I have taken to listening to NPR and medical podcasts during these bus rides which keep me entertained.

When we arrived in Puno, I was immediately concerned. This was a very small, underdeveloped town and as we drove through, I couldn't even spot any restaurants. We grabbed our bags and took a cab to "Bothy Hostal" which I had previously made a reservation at. We definitely didn't need a reservation though, because there were only two other people staying there- a girl named Kat from Australia and a guy named Sebastian from the Netherlands. Our room was nice and we had our own floor but sadly there were no power outlets in the room or bathroom. The only outlet was next to the computer. This is only a big deal because my ipad takes SO long to charge so I always do it overnight and wasn't about to leave it unattended by the computers.
After we dropped off our bags, we headed out to get some food. Alyssa wasn't going to eat since she still wasn't feeling up to it, so I invited Kat and Sebastian to come along since they both looked a little lonely. We went to "Mojsa" which I had looked up on Trip Advisor and had gotten great reviews (Trip Advisor is the standard by which I measure everything, lol). The atmosphere was great and the food looked good too. I ordered the vegetarian lasagna which sadly came out still a little frozen, but other than that was ok. Everyone else's food looked great. Alyssa and I decided that since it was our last night in Peru, we had to try chica morada, which is a fermented corn drink. We both thought it tasted weird (althoug I'm glad we teied it) so we gave ours to Kat and Sebastian.

After dinner, we grabbed some ice cream and went off in search of fruit for the next morning. We were able to find the local market and buy some apples and oranges from the street vendors since the actual grocery store had no produce. We are always on the lookout for yogurt but strangely enough they do not refrigerate them in Bolivia, despite the fact that the packaging says you have to keep it at acertain temperature. I guess everyone eats them and they are fine but I'm not willing to take that chance yet. After our grocery search, we headed back to the hostel so Alyssa could get some sleep. I spent the evening attempting to upload my trip pictures to facebook but even on this third attempt, the computers/Internet won't let me. :(

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