The 1000 Day Holiday

we got delayed a day by rain, however the tour comapny put us up in schmick hotel for a night for free.

Day 1 Up in the mountains, the 3 aussie girls in the jeep not enjoying the drop off from the road.

Day 2 was the 4wd getting stuck on an alpine snow & mud trail, having to push, followed by crazy lush alpine meadow vista for lunch.

Day 3. lots and lots of lagoons. Highlight was in the afternoon getting bogged on a mud salar. 2 hours of digging, the drivers refusing to use the winch on the other jeep, then finally using 2 jeeps to pull it out. Thus continuing our journey for 600m where another of the jeeps gets bogged. This one a quick fix. Then 10 minutes later another tyre blowout.

Day 4. We made it to Salar de Uyuni. Totally wow. by this stage we were in a convoy of 3 jeeps. one of which had had 5 tyres blow out and a severly leaking radiator.  Said jeep was being towed by the time we got to the island in the middle of the Salar. This was then unloaded and abandoned. we got around 10minutes from the island and the other jeeps driveshaft broke. So we towed that to the edge of the Salar and then abandoned them. So many many hours were spent baking/burning on the Salar and enjoying its surrealness.   

A great 4 days. enough Jeep time for a long time

With all my bills being handled directly by my insurance company I had no idea on the total cost of my treatment.

I contacted my insurance broker and got him to find out.

• 17 days in hospital, ~7 of them in Intensive Care.
• All medications
• Stomach ultrasound
• Chest Xrays

The total  $5400NZD

Incredibly cheap. I think the Argentinian Government picked up a large portion of the cost as they provide free medical for tourists.

For example when I first tried to go to the hospital for a blood test, the hostel arranged a house call from a doctor which was covered under this arrangement.

Off tomorrow on a 4 day tour of SW bolivia.

Check out these pics

The buses even in bolivia are flash in comparison to africa. And the roads have been ok. Dirt and corrugated, a few times down into first gear for descents but nothing too scary as yet.

 

Confirmed free of Malaria today!

So 1am I head for Tupiza, Bolivia Love this quote from the wiki.

Bus accidents with few survivors are not uncommon in this region, due to precipitous dropoffs as the mountainous routes ascend and descend between towns.

There is the train as well tho.

Well this is sort of.

Went and had the test today. Waited around while they analysed the slides.

They did find 2 Parasites, however they say it counts as a Negative result. I dont know what stage the parasites were (exoploded from qunine?). However Im still on qunine & doxy till Thursday when I have a final test.

And then Im allowed to leave. In which case Ill be headed for Bolivia, Thursday or Friday. Apparently Ill be safe from Malaria for the next 3 months due to the Qunine already in my system (?).

And for those that think all these adventure activities dont really have any risk… Check out this news article: Caving Mishap in SA