I don’t have any clue what the temperature was other than cold.
When I launched on the World Race, it was July. I’d had a couple of months of warm weather already. Then, I proceeded to spend ten months visiting countries during their warm season, or in locations in the country that were warm at that time.
Albania was hot! We read a thermometer at 112 degrees fahrenheit one day.
Romania had a small cold front come through with some rain, but it was chilly for a couple of days before warming back up.
The nights in Malawi could be pretty chilly, but during the day it was pretty comfortable, not too hot and not too cold.
Zambia had a similar climate to Malawi – warm, but not too hot and not too cold.
South East Asia was hot and humid.
Ecuador was hot – as was to be expected since it sits on the equator.
Peru was hot, mostly because I was in a town near the coast, at sea level.
In Bolivia we were in a small village in central Bolivia, and it was steaming. We did have some cool weather during travel days as we crossed over the Andes, but that didn’t last for more than a few hours.
Then we made a trip to Salar de Uyuni (the Salt Flats). The salt flats are at roughly 12,000 ft. It was cold. We had been at that altitude in Cusco and La Paz, and it had been cool in those places, but the Salt Flats are quite a ways further south – away from the equator.
The Salt Flats are, as the name suggests, flat. Thus, there is nothing to break the wind. And of course, you have to see the sun set on the Salt Flats, which means that you’re out there as it’s getting dark. And one of the main attractions is the reflection – there is an area of the Salt Flats that has a few inches of standing water for a few months out of the year. Because of the clarity of the air, the fact that the landscape is absolutely flat, and the lack of currents in the water you can see reflections in the water. That also means that you’re standing in an inch or two of water.
To recap: 10 months of warm weather and now altitude, latitude, wind, sunset, standing water. It was cold. As cold as I have been in over a year.
But it was worth it. Absolutely worth it.
