A birthday frozen in my memory... literally!

So, first of all sorry it's been so long since I've written. I was on a four day jeep tour of the Bolivian salt flats, deserts, mountains, lakes, etc. and in the entire four days we stopped in exactly one town that had one phone. Yes, that's right... no gas stations (we carried it on top of the car), no telephones or internet, no electricity or heat, etc. However, I did manage to buy the phone card, wait in line (four people ahead of me), answer a random phone call and pass the message for someone in the community, and call my mommy on my birthday. It sure was a challenge and only got to talk to her for about 30 seconds before the phone cut off, but what an experience! I've often caught myself saying "what would we do without internet... or cell phones?" Well forget that, what would you do if your town only had ONE phone, it was landline, funtioned with satelite, and that was the ONLY means of communication? Yikes!
Well, it's impossible to catch up on everything, but let's just say that it was a stinking cold birthday... woke up to temperatures less than -10 degrees cel... I slept in three shirts, a jacket, two pairs of fleece pants, two pairs of socks, a scarf, hat, and gloves!!!!! Did I mention I was sleeping in a "hotel" completely made out of salt? Yep, you heard right... the bed, the table and stools, the walls... all salt! AND, even though we had to start out the day at 5:30am, it was a great start to my day because my three new Sweedish friends woke me up singing happy birthday in Sweedish, had written a wonderful bday message on a postcard, and had gifts of candy and leg warmers (much needed) and they had even found gift wrap! It was an amazing surprise and one that after only having known them for a matter of 4 or 5 days was WAY too sweet. It was the only tangible gifts I received on my actual birthday, but in some ways I feel like I received so much more! I was sung to in at least four languages, I got the front seat in the jeep ALL day, I got a match in a chocolate bar for my cake, I got a special toast and bottle of wine from our tour guide, AND most of all we made our own fun!!!!!!!!!!
It was the first birthday I didn't get to talk to my fam and friends at home, it was the first birthday that I made snow angel, and it was the first birthday that I didn't worry about what I was going to do to celebrate... even though I spent most of the day and all of the night FREEZING, I also got to see beautiful mountains, flamingos, colored lakes, etc. Thanks to many kind hearted people, a bit of forutne, and good attitudes... it is a day frozen in my memory! I'm so grateful to God to be yet another year older... and as my dad said... "what a cool place to get old!" I agree!
Can't find an internet that will allow me to plug in a USB, so I apologize for the lack of pictures!
Kate