We crossed the border from Bolivia into Chile yesterday and could tell we had entered a more developed country by the availability of sugar substitutes, the substantial girth of the stray dogs, and a lack of random electrical wiring coming out of buildings and our hotel shower. Unfortunately development comes with a price: we spent more in our first day in Chile than we had spent our last three days in La Paz combined.

It turned out that we spent the least amount of time in the least expensive country - less than three weeks in Bolivia flew by. That wasn't the plan but unfortunately we never made it to the Bolivian jungle. After all my tough talk about taking on vines and mosquitos we were thwarted by uncooperative weather - three days of rain that made landing on a dirt runway too dangerous. Everyday we woke up in our not so nice hostal in La Paz, wondered whether or not we would be electrocuted in the shower that day, ate watered down oatmeal with our favorite singing, dancing restaurant owner, and went by our "travel agency" to get the flight prognosis. After three days of this we decided to cut our losses and escape from La Paz, leaving our jungle trip for another day.

We caught an easy night bus to the beautiful town of Sucre where we drank tons of juice and shopped in the bustling farmer's market and I went to an exhibit on the weaving culture in Bolivia. We got stood up by the "Dino Truck" so didn't get to see the largest dinosaur footprints in the world, but drank more juice instead.

We'd heard there had been blockades in Sucre but didn't experience any problems. One older gentleman at the juice stand did ask us why we had come to the "hell that is Bolivia." I think he was half joking. Bolivia was certainly the poorest place we've been; the poverty is palpable particularly in some cities like the old mining town of Potosi (where Josh got to handle dynamite and make a bomb), and I'll always remember it as the place with no bathrooms on the buses (I set a new personal record of 13 hrs on a bus with no bathroom). But overall we both wished we had more time in Bolivia: the people were friendly, the politics and the food spicy, and you are as likely to see a parade as a protest virtually any day of the week.

The highlight of our time in Bolivia was the trip to the Salar de Uyuni - the salt flats. The salt flats were formed over a thousand years ago when a huge lake evaporated, leaving a sea of salt with red lagoons, pink flamingoes, enormous rock and coral formations, and a lunar-like landscape. We toured the Salar for three days in a 4X4 with six other tourists and our driver/reluctant guide Octavio. Octavio has been leading tours on the Salar for 19 years and just seemed over it. He drove so slowly that we got passed over and over again by the other jeeps, but liked to tell us to hurry up - hurry up and get out of the car, hurry up and get into the car, hurry up and take photos, hurry up and produce your tickets for the park attendant, hurry up and act like good cattle so I can deliver you ASAP to Chile! He didn't offer any information and didn't take kindly to our questions. It was the first time we didn't tip our guide. Unlike Octavio, the rest of our group was fantastic. A Dutch couple who live in Aruba kept us laughing and our new friends San and Magnus from London and Sweden taught us how to take advantage of the salt flats' white background to take some creative photos - check them out!

Now we're relaxing in the little desert oasis town of San Pedro de Atacama before we head to Salta, in northern Argentina. San Pedro is super touristy but has amazing food, great copper jewelry, and perfect desert weather. Last night we met up with San and Magnus for dinner at an outdoor bonfire restaurant and halfway through the meal our waiter hung a white sheet between two trees to show the Chile vs. Argentina soccer game - the noise was so loud it felt like we were right there in the stadium. So much for the black and white movie I'd envisioned… Our first impression of Chileans is that they are very outgoing and warm. Our waiter invited us to check out the valley of the moon and the thick star-cover here with a group of his friends tonight. If we can drag ourselves away from CNN post-debate pundit gossip we're there :)