After helping Ilse give a lesson to kids in Paysandu
Outside Resistencia lay the bird-famous Ibera wetlands. I saw heron, hawks, a stork with a snake, and bright yellow birds. There were cattle and horses up to their shoulders in waterways of lilies. Under the broad blue sky and through the grasses cowboys herded.
A diary extract.
After the ten months, the sight of the final Andean plain. (Photo: John)
(l-r) John, Sammy, Ariel, crossing Los Cordones national park
It was the best of times… it was the best of times. Sammy, Ariel and I set out from Jujuy together. Within a day we’d been joined by an American, John, eating lunch at a lakeside.
The long highroad from the Bolivian border into the north of Argentina
Bolivia.
It´s been awful, and it´s been amazing.
The road alongside Rio Cotogaita eventually joins the main highway south through the Bolivian wine lands to Tarija.
Setting out from Cotagaita
From Uyuni for two days south the roads runs over sandy, windswept high plains to the mining junction of Atocha. These were some of Bolivia’s worst roads: deep sands and washboard. The ride was unnnesesarily slow, a deadening endurance made worse by the empty horizon. Again and again I got off my bike and screamed my blunt frustration out into the expansive quiet.
Evo Morales, dude
Every year, Evo Morales, Bolivia’s first indigenous head of state and hero of leftists everywhere, comes to Isla Incahuasi. He comes to welcome in the tribal Aymara new year by setting fire to llama fetus’.
