Trip to the middle of nowhere - Andes western cordillera

After weeks of traveling we were yet to experience the (supposedly) amazing sights South America has to offer. In fact, we were tired of being driven through uninteresting territory, vast middle of nowhere routes only familiar to truckies and bus drivers. We wanted WOW or whatever that means, we wanted to feel that our 11 weeks in South America were worth it. Renting a car was one of the best things we did. From there we were off to discover some of the most extraordinary sights we had ever seen. And that includes Debbie does Dallas I - IV! It was exciting and overwhelming: moonlike terrain, mountains with multiple colors, gigantic cacti showed us that there is more to Argentina than Buenos Aires, tango, meat and Malbec. It also showed that life is possible even above 4800m above sea level where breathing becomes an exercise of its own.

Our journey trough the altiplano on 4x4 was great thanks to Renan, our super (tiny) Bolivian driver. Always happy to share his traditional bolivian hits not to mention the Spanish covers of American hits including ABBA, Maddona and all our other favorites. He also taught us how to chew coca, an important part of Bolivian culture. Arne said he didn't feel anything but I suppose it is because he is always high.

Altitude was not the biggest challenge. During these days it was very VERY cold, especially at night when temperatures go down to as much as -20 degrees... Brrr. Whilst the drivers and caretakers sat happy and warm in their TINY little room we, DUMB tourists, spend the evening trying to get the only gas heater in the whole hostel to work. It gets better, on the second night there was no heating whatsoever and only the promise that after dinner someone would turn on the fireplace in the living area. As expected nothing happened! Funny enough our drivers passed some kind of hotels on the following day and told us that there you could sleep with heating and had a lot more comfort... The only issue was they were too expensive... later we all figured that expensive meant 20 USD and wondered why we had ’suffered’ so much :) At the end was it worth it? Yes, off course but only because you do it once in a lifetime.