Hola De Chile

Hello!

Thanks to those who posted comments lately!!

I couldn´t write a post before, as the Internet was really too slow.
1st news: I´m not sick anymore, neither from food nor from altitude!
We are now in San Pedro de Atacama, a small tourist village in Chile, after spending 3 days in the deserts of Southern Bolivia.
The pictures I´ll post will be amazing. The landscapes were so unreal some pictures will be hard to believe! Deserts, 6000m + volcanoes, geysers at 5000m of altitude, incredibly colored lagunas (lakes)... Weather was perfect, we even saw the mirror like Salar d´Uyuni underwater.
Now, in San Pedro, at 2400m, it is very hot for the first time since the beginning of our vacation. 30 degrees+ during the day, and rather cold at night.
We have spent 3 days touring around the area, with Jean-Pierre, a chilean guide of French origin... who doesnt speak French. Chileans have a very surprising accent in spanish, they usually dont pronounce the "S".
The first tour was in the Cordillerra de la Sal, where we hiked for a while and then ran down the sand dunes. Very exciting, with around 150m of vertical drop!
Second day was the highlight: thanks to our now perfect acclimation, we have ascended the volcano Lascar, at 5600m! This is an active volcano: we could see and smell sulphur fumeroles in the giant crater! The ascension was tiring, but not exhausting for the fact that our guide set a very very very slow pace. I had to go faster by myself at some point. Anyway the important thing is that we summited both Elise and I!! First summit above 5000m ever!
Today we went bathing in a small laguna on the Salar de Atacama, the water was so salty that our legs went up, floating out of the water automatically, we had to learn a new way to swim.

My body is relieved now, thanks to all the minerals from this water (much lithium).
I just feel like sleeping, and I´m looking forward to resting in the night bus that will take us up north to Arica, at the border of Peru...