Alright, well this blog entry should prove to be quite a bit shorter than the other one, since I only have 3 days to write about, but unfortunately, it won't be as exciting and positive as the other ones either.What we hopped would be one of the best parts of the trip, ended up being quite a let down as we spent three days driving through the Salt flats and the altiplano with a guide who could tell us nothing about anything.And for all of that we paid $90 (by bolivian standards, EXPENSIVE!).Right, well I better get into it:

So after doing my last update from Potosí, the four of us left on a bus for Uyuni.The trip was pretty uneventful and so was the arrival, but it wasn't too bad.Once in Uyuni (which, by the way, is FREEZING!) we found ourselves a hotel (the decision being dictated by the fact that "the game" (Argentina vs. Brazil, Cup final) had already started, and Lukas HAD to watch it) and went to the agency to confirm our tour.Now, we booked our tour from La Paz and were a bit apprehensive, considering we wanted to try and get Lukas on the same trip as us, but everything seemed to go well.Or at least, it went well until we started the tour.

The tour was scheduled to start at 10:30am and well, as with most things in Bolivia, it started late.But not just 20 minutes late or even 45 minutes late?It started an hour and a half late.And every single time we arrived at a site, the "guide" (who was also the driver and the cook) simply told us, alright, well here we are at such and such sight, you go out, take a few photos, and we'll leave in 5 minutes.And he would stay inside the fricken car and no say a single word more.If, god forbid, we were crazy enough to ask him a question, half the time he would just answer with whatever information he knew, most of which had nothing to do with the question being asked.When we stopped to look at a volcano, I asked the guide when the last time it erupted was.His answer, and I quote, was "we don't know the story.It's a really old volcano! Alright, are we good to go?"Now, that quote doesn't really capture his actual response unless you read it with a rushed, grumpy, growly voice, and follow it up with him suddenly walking away before I had a chance to ask anything else.If you read it like that, you'll have a general idea of the type of response we got for EVERY SINGLE question we asked!!!And that's just the icing on the cake.

We spent the first day driving through some absolutely spectacular salt flats (picture a snow-covered, frozen lake that goes on for miles), and the whole time our driver was falling asleep at the wheel.We spent the afternoon trying to keep him away.Seriously, I have never seen ANYONE swerve that much on a straight, flat road. Luckily there was nothing for us to hit, but you could tell he felt it important to stay on the designated path, because every time he opened his eyes he'd notice that we were 20 or 30 feet away from it and would quickly drift back.

Anyways, after spending the day in the car, not really understanding much about what we were seeing, we arrive to the salt hotel. Now the hotel itself was pretty cool.Most everything that could be made from salt was made from salt and considering how cold it was outside, the salt kept a decent amount of the heat in.The food ended up being pretty good too.The only problem is when I went to bad.Now, back before we started the trip, when we were in the agency, we were told it was really important to bring a sleeping bag because it gets extremely cold out on the Salt Flats.So Jacquie and I, who didn't have sleeping bags, rented them from the agency, thinking that the bags would be nice warm, fluffy down sleeping bags made for below zero temperatures.That night when I went to bed (already annoyed about how crappy the tour had been thus far) I took out the sleeping bag to find that it was a crappy, thin synthetic blanket with a zipper.The type of sleeping bag you use when you're a kid and you're sleeping over at a friends house in a room with indoor heating.Seriously, I was better off with a down jacket than I was with that thing.And man did I ever get mad.I mean it's one thing to give us a bad tour, but to tell people that the temperatures often fall far below zero to the point where you need a good sleeping bag, and then to give them THAT, is just plain irresponsible (which I happily told them at the end as I demanded my money back). Luckily it didn't get nearly as cold as they claimed (at least inside the lodges) and I didn't even need the frickin' thing (especially since I had a down jacket) but if I had, it would have been a cold two nights, that's for sure.

So as the days went on and we somehow managed to be the first one to leave and the last one to arrive at every site, we also started to get a bit thirsty.Now, I know what you're thinking, "but Taylor, why didn't you just drink some water? You know, that one single most important commodity on earth that people need in order to survive." Well, there's a perfectly logical explanation for that:why would we drink water on a trip to the dry, cold altiplano, when we can drink coke and cough syrup (i.e. fake juice).And of course, when we asked about water, our guide looked at like we were crazy?it's not like anyone ever drinks water these days anyways.He did tell us though that if we wanted water we could buy it the next day from a store in one of the towns we were going to pass (so much for an all inclusive tour?).And of course, keeping up with the irresponsible behaviour, they neglected to tell us this BEFORE we left for the tour!

The climaxes of the tour (and I use that in a very broad way that includes excitement caused by good and bad events) were when on the second night two hikers didn't come back by dark, and when, during the third day, we passed a car that had skidded and rolled, completely smashing most of the windows and crushing the roof (in both cases the people were, for the most part not physically harmed).

The first story isn't really that much of a climax actually. It's just the classic story of two hikers not being able to judge time to save their lives, getting stuck outside in the dark, freezing cold night, with people stuck inside worried that they had fallen and broken their necks. IN the end, about an hour after sunset, a car got sent out and they were found no problem (about an hours walk from camp, to demonstrate their time management skills).Everyone got made at each other as their expressed their fears and emotions, and then by the next morning it was all good.

As for the second story, that happened on our way back to town when we were stopped by a traffic jam of cars (that's used really lightly?their were about 6 cars blocking the way).As we got out of the car to see what had happened, we noticed one of the cars had not only flipped over, but had rolled.Most of the windows were smashed, the roof had caved in on one side, the car was found upside down, and it's a complete miracle that no one was hurt, especially considering the speed they must have been driving to roll like that and the fact that there were no seatbelts in the vehicle. Like I said though, no one experienced any serious physical harm and for the most part everyone was okay (with only a few scratches and what probably was some pretty intense emotional scarring).

Right, so that pretty much sums up the tour, except for what happened afterwards.Now, given the fact that we are students traveling on a strict budget, and that the tour, which, by bolivian standards was expensive (in contrast, I've been spending less that $15 a day in and around the cities, and for the same price of this tour, we spent 5 days in the jungle with a good guide, excellent food, etc.), ended up being completely unsatisfactory, we went and found the owner to express our complaints.And we started it off extremely politely and extremely diplomatically, explaining what had happened and that we were unhappy with the result.We then asked for some of our money back since they had completely let us down and ripped us off.And man, talking to this lady was like talking to a brick wall?but worse.We kept trying to explain to her that we were upset about the GUIDE, and all she would tell us is that we had good food, a good car with a good driver, and that we were LUCKY to make it back safely and on time (as if that is a rarity or something?).It was completely clear that she was trying to do everything in her power to avoid accepting the fact that as a guide, the man was awful and that we had a case, but she was doing a horrible job at it.I think what it came down to is that she just didn't want to give back our money, because when she claimed that she didn't have the money to give back to us (it all went into fuel and food), I responded by breaking down the costs for her (still being polite, though perhaps not as tactical), and she just got mad and stormed back inside.By that time I was mad and started knocking on her door until she came back and we managed to calm down the situation a bit.In the end she gave us a measly $5 back and we told her that we were going to write to the Lonely planet and talk to the agency here in La Paz about the ridiculousness of the tour.I mean, I can understand a bad tour.Sometimes things just go wrong and that's that.But to be so closed to complaints (and ones made respectfully at that) and uncaring of your customers so as to not even trying to remedy the situation is just ridiculous.

Either way, while in the end we kind of burned our bridges and voiced our opinions straight up, we did manage to get $5 each and we will write to the Lonely Planet. It wasn't our most glorious day in terms of making the world a better place, but oh well?next time.

So I'm now back in La Paz, where I'll be for the next 4 days or so. So far Preeti, Jacquie and Lukas have all been really sick the last couple days and I've been lucky to avoid it (I just hope that luck lasts).Tonight we might end up going to a concert with a grad from the UWC in Norway and it looks like this weekend there's going to be a UWC gathering in the city, which should prove to be fun.If I get a chance I'll write another quick update before we start our epic journey up to Ecuador.

Taylor

P.S.I've become too lazy to read these over before posting them.I apologize if some parts don't make sense.