Three Days Around the Uyuni Salt Flats - Photos by Alex Iliev

So I've been nagging Alex to make a guest post on my blog for the last several weeks. I thought it would be a cute project for us to do together as well as a way for him to show off all the photos otherwise collecting cobwebs on his hard-drive. And after the Homeric passage of time, he finally chose tonight to send over some content for me to post. 

Why tonight? Well, we're in Buenos Aires now sitting out in the open air to beat the 30°C heat (86°F). We're staying at a hostel in probably the shadiest part of the whole city and we thought it best to stay home for the evening rather than walk about in the company of the drug addicts. Seriously, there are drug addicts sleeping in the street right outside this hostel. So Alex didn't have much else to do right now and we all get to enjoy his photos as a result.

For this post, he hand-picked a set of photos taken in Southwestern Bolivia in and around the Uyuni Salt Flats, many of which I got to play model for. All pictures were taken between November 27 and 29.

Happy holidays everyone! Whether you're at home enjoying the company of your loved ones or out on the road contemplating how not to starve when the restaurants close down, I wish you all the best this holiday season.

Visiting the train cemetery

Salt miners shoveling salt into their truck

Sitting in front of a hotel made of salt

Yeah, I like this one

And this one

Walking across the desolate salt desert

Empty, empty salt desert

Flamingos wading through sulfur lakes for food

Flora around the sulfur lakes

Tourists bicycling across the desert. I can understand one's need to create a unique experience even when travelling through terrain well-treaded by others. Still, as my group drove past these guys in our jeep, we all agreed we can't imagine how this experience is worthwhile.

Mountains from the "Dali Desert"

Group photo on the desert

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Three Days Around the Uyuni Salt Flats - Photos by Alex Iliev

So I've been nagging Alex to make a guest post on my blog for the last several weeks. I thought it would be a cute project for us to do together as well as a way for him to show off all the photos otherwise collecting cobwebs on his hard-drive. And after the Homeric passage of time, he finally chose tonight to send over some content for me to post. 

Why tonight? Well, we're in Buenos Aires now sitting out in the open air to beat the 30°C heat (86°F). We're staying at a hostel in probably the shadiest part of the whole city and we thought it best to stay home for the evening rather than walk about in the company of the drug addicts. Seriously, there are drug addicts sleeping in the street right outside this hostel. So Alex didn't have much else to do right now and we all get to enjoy his photos as a result.

For this post, he hand-picked a set of photos taken in Southwestern Bolivia in and around the Uyuni Salt Flats, many of which I got to play model for. All pictures were taken between November 27 and 29.

Happy holidays everyone! Whether you're at home enjoying the company of your loved ones or out on the road contemplating how not to starve when the restaurants close down, I wish you all the best this holiday season.

Visiting the train cemetery

Salt miners shoveling salt into their truck

Sitting in front of a hotel made of salt

Yeah, I like this one

And this one

Walking across the desolate salt desert

Empty, empty salt desert

Flamingos wading through sulfur lakes for food

Flora around the sulfur lakes

Tourists bicycling across the desert. I can understand one's need to create a unique experience even when travelling through terrain well-treaded by others. Still, as my group drove past these guys in our jeep, we all agreed we can't imagine how this experience is worthwhile.

Mountains from the "Dali Desert"

Group photo on the desert

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Stuck in Argentina with Brazilian visa troubles

Sitting at my hostel in Puerto Iguazu, waiting for my Brazilian visa to come in...

Puerto Iguazu is a border-town between Argentina and Brazil and is where many tourists will stay to see the famous Iguazu falls. So I thought it a perfect destination to do some site-seeing, pick up a visa, and head into Brazil. What I didn't realize when I got here on Saturday was that this is not just some stamp I can buy at the border crossing. I'd have to formally apply for the visa at the consulate - which would not open until Monday. And then the process would take another day before I'd get my passport back. 

Unfortunately, Alex couldn't wait with me as he had to get to work first thing Monday morning in Sao Paulo. So he went and breezed on through the border using his Bulgarian passport. And we waved heartfelt goodbyes from opposite sides of the fence.

The US is one of the several unlucky countries in the world required to enter Brazil with a visa. The reason, they repeat over and over again to me to make sure I get it, is because America forces Brazilians to get a visa when going over there. It's reciprocity, they call it. And just to make it clear this bureaucratic step was created solely out of spite, they charge US citizens $160 as opposed to approximately $46 for other countries like Australia. (Ofcourse, I got my visa for around $120 thanks to a black-market loophole in the way Argentinian pesos are converted into US dollars. Thank you, Dolar Blue!)

A very long time ago, I did attempt to avoid all of this by applying for a Brazilian visa at home in San Francisco. I started the process a month before my flight out to South America. But leave it to Brazil to take more than a month to turnaround a tourist visa.

I ultimately quit the application process halfway through and flew out of the US with no more than a hope that maybe Brazilian land border patrol would look something like Carnival and they could just let me dance my way to the other side from Argentina with no paperwork.

Yeah, that's not what it looks like here.

With all this hassle, Brazil had better be worth it. And for you, Brazilian bureaucracy, I give you a butterfly sticking its tongue out at you in complete and utter disdain.

Photo taken at Iguazu National Park

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Stuck in Argentina with Brazilian visa troubles

Sitting at my hostel in Puerto Iguazu, waiting for my Brazilian visa to come in...

Puerto Iguazu is a border-town between Argentina and Brazil and is where many tourists will stay to see the famous Iguazu falls. So I thought it a perfect destination to do some site-seeing, pick up a visa, and head into Brazil. What I didn't realize when I got here on Saturday was that this is not just some stamp I can buy at the border crossing. I'd have to formally apply for the visa at the consulate - which would not open until Monday. And then the process would take another day before I'd get my passport back. 

Unfortunately, Alex couldn't wait with me as he had to get to work first thing Monday morning in Sao Paulo. So he went and breezed on through the border using his Bulgarian passport. And we waved heartfelt goodbyes from opposite sides of the fence.

The US is one of the several unlucky countries in the world required to enter Brazil with a visa. The reason, they repeat over and over again to me to make sure I get it, is because America forces Brazilians to get a visa when going over there. It's reciprocity, they call it. And just to make it clear this bureaucratic step was created solely out of spite, they charge US citizens $160 as opposed to approximately $46 for other countries like Australia. (Ofcourse, I got my visa for around $120 thanks to a black-market loophole in the way Argentinian pesos are converted into US dollars. Thank you, Dolar Blue!)

A very long time ago, I did attempt to avoid all of this by applying for a Brazilian visa at home in San Francisco. I started the process a month before my flight out to South America. But leave it to Brazil to take more than a month to turnaround a tourist visa.

I ultimately quit the application process halfway through and flew out of the US with no more than a hope that maybe Brazilian land border patrol would look something like Carnival and they could just let me dance my way to the other side from Argentina with no paperwork.

Yeah, that's not what it looks like here.

With all this hassle, Brazil had better be worth it. And for you, Brazilian bureaucracy, I give you a butterfly sticking its tongue out at you in complete and utter disdain.

Photo taken at Iguazu National Park

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First Day in Argentina

Impressions from my first day in Northern Argentina in the town of Humahuaca:

Having some trouble understanding the local accent. In particular, they like to drop the s sound completely from some (but not all) words.
ie. gracias sounds like gracia.
Pastel is patel.
Up to now, I thought I had covered so much ground picking up Spanish. Now I can't understand anyone (again).

Restaurants will open for dinner around 8pm and stay open until past midnight. This was not so good for us on the first night when we had to resort to scavenging scraps of food at 6pm.

Was so elated to find a street vendor selling a knock off DVD of The Hunger Games 2 for $1. Was thoroughly disappointed when I found it was dubbed in Castellano with no subtitles. I think I will need more Spanish classes before I can watch it.

On the whole, people are insanely friendly here. It's sweet repose from the status quo I've grown accustomed to of being regarded as a walking Chinese money bag. This is my favorite South American country so far for this reason.

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