From desert to snow-covered mountains
Valle de La Luna bathed in the light of the setting sun
Myself and the aussie couple, Andrew and Megan, booked ourselves onto a two night/three day 4×4 trip across the Altiplano of Bolivia, but before heading off the next morning we hired out some bikes and cycled across the edge of the desert to the Valle de La Luna (Valley of the Moon). This proved to be a curiously strange place with the weirdest rock formations (photo soon when I next have the facilities). We stayed for sunset and then set off on the return trip to try to beat the darkness setting in. Not only did we fail, but it also rained on us a little – in the desert, what?! Nice day though, rounded off with a good meal and a few beers in a restaurant with a big open fire pit and live music.
What the fuck are you looking at?
The trip across the desert proved to be one of the best things I´ve done in ages, well probably since early Patagonia. The three of us were joined by another couple, Catherine and Simon, as well as our driver Edwin and some other random guy who we dropped off in the middle of absolutely nowhere so he could hitch a lift elsewhere (not the sort of place with passing traffic mind).
Red Lake where we stayed on the first night
The changing landscape was astounding, as I found out pretty quickly leaving San Pedro in shorts and flip-flops only to arrive at the Bolivian border check one hour later covered in snow. I won´t ramble on about the tour as the descriptions of the landscapes just don´t touch it, but I´ve taken a shitload of photos so I´ll add a couple highlights to this entry when I find somewhere with facilities. Check back through the last couple entries as I´ve just added some more photos to those.
Rock Tree
The last day of the tour took us across the salt flats of Uyuni (Salir de Uyuni) before dropping us in the town of Uyuni itself. Didn´t feel the need to hang around here so I said farewell to my travel companions, who headed off in different directions, while I took a bus straight up to the mining town of Potosi to play with dynamite.
Catheryn, Simon, Megan and Andrew on the Isla de Pescado with the salt flats in the background
Tags: Bolivia, Chile, San Pedro de Atacama, South America, Travel
Ed
Strangely enough, we´re off to the desert in August to sample the peyote with our spirit guide, José. Wonder if my health insurance covers drug-induced psychosis…
So presumably the blog silence means there´s no or barely any interweb in Bolivia. Can´t say I´m surprised. Or did you find a profesora de inglés boliviana and you´re otherwise indisposed?
Anyroad, looking forward to hearing your latest with pictures. Liked the lakes btw. All the best,
gwyn
Yes, I´m envious of your desert trip (!) the Valle de la Luna site had a notice asking people not to take drugs there, talk about giving people ideas.
The silence has been due to moving around quickly and only having time to do emails. Plenty of internet around Bolivia but it is slow and it´s proving tricky to find somewhere I can connect a camera to, so I´m going to get the pics burnt onto CD and then try to find a place with a CD Rom drive (another hastle). I´m adding some post-dated entries today to catch up and should also hopefully get some photos up there to accompany them today or tomorrow.
flat tire
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