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Norman Cousins: “Laughter is inner jogging.”

Zig Ziglar: “You can get everything in life you want if you will just help enough other people get what they want.”

A little angel gets bigger and bigger…Misha turns 2 today (TWO, WoW!!)…Happy Birthdayayayayay!!! 😉

The Salar de Uyuni Salt Flat, an iPhone 5, some funky tunes and a bunch of people trapped in a Pringles box…heaps of fun! 😉

John Green: “Maybe I want strangers to think I’m cool since people who actually know me don’t.” 😉

Ecclesiastes: “Give not over thy soul to sorrow; and afflict not thyself in thy own counsel. Gladness of heart is the life of man and the joyfulness of man is length of days.”

Darn!!!!! I *so* looked forward to spend the day with Misha tomorrow, after not seeing him for 5,5 weeks (oof)…unfortunately, things changed;

I got to the airport tonight, a tad later than anticipated though still in good time, or at least I thought. All was good until KLM ‘decided’ to depart to Amsterdam almost 15 minutes early (!) even though they were aware (or should have been) that a checked-in passenger (me!) was at the airport already…incredible! There were no later flights for tonight and that means I am in for a nice additional bonus; all flights to Amsterdam (not only KLM) are fuller than full the coming days due to the autumn vacation coming week…aarrggghhhhh!! This means that there are very few options (and all expensive) to make it to Misha’s Birthday on Sunday…WTF?!? Un-f#cking-believable!!

The best option I got offered? Leaving tomorrow morning early…the catch? It costs over €1000 (as it is business-class)!!!

The alternative; leaving tomorrow afternoon (still expensive)…the catch? It is a flight to Amsterdam via……Paris! Pffff…oh well, bonjour Paris?!?

PS. Of course I know that I should have been at the airport 2 hours before departure, yadi-yadi-ya…but flights should not leave way too early when checked-in passengers are at the airport…period! Hehe, I guess I didn’t detach yet from the lovely laid back feelingI picked up in South America… 😉

Joseph Conrad: “Facing it, always facing it, that’s the way to get through. Face it.”

Ever since I bought my first juggling balls (back in 1994 in Australia!), I have taking them with me to almost anywhere I have been on this globe (Bonaire, Costa Rica, Mozambique, Curacao to name a few 😉 ). So, it should be no surprise that I have practised my juggling skills in Peru & Bolivia too… 😉

I found three very special places to juggle during this trip…

At Machu Picchu:

At the Puyoc pass (from the Lares Trek):

At Salar de Uyuni:

Robert A. Ward: “I wish you sunshine on your path and storms to season your journey. I wish you peace in the world in which you live… More I cannot wish you except perhaps love to make all the rest worthwhile.”

My return from the trip to Salar de Uyuni marked the start of my last week in Peru&Bolivia…time flies when you’re having fun, oof!

Day 25-29, bus’ing, Arequipa & Nazca

Luckily the salt flat (and more, much more as y’all could see from the pictures!) gave me enough energy to survive over 1,5 day of bussing through Bolivia and Peru last Wednesday&Thursday, about 1500km on a road that makes you loose your tooth fillings 😉 ). The next challenge was to find a hostel in Arequipa; all beds were taken as the city got flooded with over 30,000 people attending a mining convention…oof! I got lucky though and found a room…well, officially it was not a ho(s)telroom, but since there *was* a bed inside, it worked for me. 😉

Arequipa turned out to be a nice town to spend the day, after which I went on a 2-day/1-night tour to the Colca Canyon to practise my new hobby; hiking (over 18km up&down in a day, oof!). Almost directly after my return to Arequipa (a good 2 hours hihi) I hopped on the nightbus to Nazca, to see the famous Nazca Lines from the air (last Sunday)…oh, and while I was there with an afternoon to spare, I couldn’t resist and booked a sandboarding tour (hang loose, w00t! 😉 )…another day packed with great experiences, it was the second last day of my trip…as said, time flies!

The pictures below will give a nice impression…(click to enlarge)

Byebye Bolivia:

Hello again Peru:

Arequipa:

Colca Canyon:

Nazca Lines:

Nazca – sandboarding:

Ellen Metcalf: “You have to recognize when the right place and the right time fuse and take advantage of that opportunity. There are plenty of opportunities out there. You can’t sit back and wait.”

Thomas Paine: “What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly.”

Frida Kahlo: “I think that little by little I’ll be able to solve my problems and survive.”

There was no time to waste after the thrilling Death Road trip last Saturday; the night-bus to Uyuni was waiting for me that same evening! The 11-hour bus ride (oof!) gave me some time to rest! 😉

Day 22-24, Salar de Uyuni

The highlight of my week in Bolivia was expected to be a three day tour to the Salt Flat Salar de Uyuni, and…wow, Wow, WoW…beautiful…amazing…unreal…words cannot not describe the variety of landscapes in this area, nor can pictures…yet I will give it a try below…yes, this is a picture heavy blogpost once again! 😉 . (Click on the images to enlarge)

All packed and ready to go:

 
A train graveyard near Uyuni:

 
The Salt Flat:

Jurassic Park?!? Freaky!

Huh?!?

 Cactus island:

Longggggg legs!!

 Coocoo! 😉

Flamingos:

Sulfur landscape:

Sunset…:

…and sun rise:

Salvador Dali desert:

 
The green laguna:

The red laguna:

Jennifer Hudson: “Extreme exercise doesn’t save you from poor food choices. It can be difficult to exercise and erase away that chocolate cake or pizza pie. It doesn’t work that way.”

I left Bolivia behind me and arrived in Arequipa, Peru last night. I already knew that one week in Bolivia would be too short to see the many, many fantastic sights there so I guess I ‘have to’ go back one day. 😉 Still, I made the most of my days there; it has been pretty intense once again (and I love that!).

Day 21, mountainbiking the Death Road & zip-lining

One of the ‘must-do’s’ around La Paz for thrill-seekers is to descent the famous ‘Death Road‘ on a mountain bike. The road got its name in 1995 when the Inter-American Development Bank named it the “world’s most dangerous road” since 200-300 people got killed along the road on a yearly basis. Nowadays it ain’t so dangerous anymore as a new road was build causing less traffic (especially buses!) to pass the Death Road, only 2-3 people get killed per year…
Unfortunately (or perhaps fortunately) the weather last Saturday was bad; rain, rain, rain and a valley filled with clouds; I wasn’t able to see any of the cliffs of up to 600 meters! Still, it has been an amazing experience and yes, being a proud flying dutchman and cycling-enthusiast, I have been flying low to stay close to the rather experienced guide, grrrroovyyy! 😉

As if that wasn’t enough excitement for one day, a zip-line was waiting for me to make a very long, tiring and fantastic day complete!
 
Ready, set…GO!

 
Uhhh, yes, that *IS* a bus down there…

 
The view into the valley…where *are* those cliffs?!? 😉

 
Yesssss, I survived! 😉

 
Zip-lining across the Death Road:

Edward Everett Hale: “If you have accomplished all that you planned for yourself, you have not planned enough.”

George Santayana: “Before you contradict an old man, my fair friend, you should endeavor to understand him.”

Salman Rushdie: “A book is a version of the world. If you do not like it, ignore it; or offer your own version in return.”