December 2016

Another whirlwind trip to Aus and back on the road! Even though we think is getting easier each trip, I can attest that the impact of seeing and leaving the kids is still so raw....we deal with the sadness in different ways. I cry about anything, I am irritable and nothing seems to be right, not the right food, not the right place to sleep, not the right road...all is not right. Hecti becomes angry, he gets like a one man word type, very distracted and  losing plenty of things and forgetting everything. It is not a good combo! We manage to get over with the days but is really difficult to go back to our "lives", our "rhythms", our "home".

And for all the difficulties we were blessed by the visit of friends. We totally enjoyed new year's eve in a huge and desolated beach (minus a few 4x4 here and there). We laughed so much with our new watermelon inflatable toy...BBQ and wine, champagne and chocolate under the starts. Another chapter, a new cycle in our adventure.

At San Pedro de Atacama we said goodbye to one friend and welcomed two! We were thrilled that after 3 years we finally managed to get together. So grateful of the big trip they did to join us!. Uyuni is left to do once we cross to Bolivia, as it was going to be such a hassle to do it from Chile. Instead we went to the Geysers of Tatio....such a magnificent view at 6 am! There are more than 800 geysers spread around in between the mountains, another afternoon was spent in the thermals baths and a full day to the salt lakes, the pink flamingos lakes and more emerald lakes!

Another huge crossing and we are back in Argentina. First stop, the butcher! :)

The north of Argentina is certainly very different to the south. Poverty in general is more pronounced here and once you move away from the capital cities and nature, there are very sad places. However, we always managed to find interesting people and interesting stories. This time, stopping at Campo Santo, the beautiful park. As usual, we are the "talk of the town", a "magnet" wherever we go. Well, SalSolcito is really the magnet! In no time we have people surrounded us and asking questions.  And as usual, conversations continue into mate with facturas(pastries), asado(bbq) and wine. New friendships are formed and once again we are so grateful for this gift. On Sunday we end up at the house of the local MP talking about politics, ethics, change, corruption. A very enlightened afternoon and the promise to come back to do some awareness in DV (at the highest ever rate here)

Salta Capital city