Uyuni

arg! the internet is sooo slow here. it's like being back in the 90s. i have had the most awesome couple of days. i think in the last 5 days i've taken 300 pictures!biking to Uyuni was pretty intense because the highway is dirt. no pavement, and it's the rainy season. i've slogged my way through so much mud, but the scenery has been breathtaking. i think probably these last couple of days have been some of the most beautiful scenery of the whole trip. i'm trying to convince my parents that they should take their next bike vacation in bolivia. if you think you might want to bike in bolivia, but want someone to schelp all your gear for you, send me an email because i found a really great mountain biking tour agency in la paz.
sometimes i had to cross these rivers with my bike. it was so crazy! like while i was doing it i kept thinking, "this is totally insane. but so awesome!" whenever i'd see a river, i'd take my shoes off and strap them to the top of one of the rear saddlebags. then i'd start wheeling the bike into the water. if i was lucky, it'd be a rock bottom, which the bike could roll over. but sometimes it would be a silty bottom, and i'd be bearfoot, sinking into mud in freezing cold water, trying to drag a 60 lb bike behind me. it was nuts! but really fun.
blogger and the slow internet are a bad combo, so i'm not going to load any more photos, but maybe i'll try again later. i just went on this three day tour of Salar de Uyuni, which is the worlds largest salt flat. right now it's covered in water and it is so amazing! we went driving through it in this old toyota 4x4 jeep. it felt like we were driving through the sky because the water makes a perfect relfection. the next two days we drove around the altiplano and visited these crazy lakes filled with different salts and minerals. one lake was brick red, another emerald green. and many of the lakes had flamingoes in them. i totally felt like i'd just landed on another planet. next time i get to a good internet cafe, i'll just post a bunch of photos. tomorrow i'll probably head out of here and start making my way towards the argentina border. hope everyone is doing good. love,
-jessie
p.s. also... i saw human skeletons. we stopped at this small town for lunch, and they had some kind of altiplano version of mummies, and we hiked up this canyon and there they were. three human bodies decomposing on top of a rock. it was so crazy. like they were partially bone, and partially flesh.