Salar De Uyuni
Chloe Writes: We started our Bolivian adventure being woken up on our cama (meaning bed - essentially first class) bus a few hundred yards from the border, freezing cold (as mentioned in our previous blog Iguazu was very hot and I still had my flip-flops on), with a headache and struggling slightly to breathe due to the altitude and reduced oxygen. I’m not sure what we expected to wake up to after our overnight bus journey but it was still a bit of a shock. We made our way puffing and panting to the border and wow!!!, the next shock had nothing to do with the climate but the culture. Short women wrapped in many colorful blankets with knee length wide pleated skirts, long woolen leg warmers, with flat shoes, two very long black plaits tied together at the ends, black bowler hats on their heads carrying big bundles wrapped in blankets on their backs (some-times babies, you cant always tell) with very dark Andean colorings, all chewing on Coca leaves.
The climate in southern Bolivia is very dry and dusty and the country very poor. Our first stop was to be Salar de Uyuni (the salt flats). In order to get to Uyuni we embarked on a 3 bus/10 hour very very bumpy (I wouldn´t even go so far as to call what we were driving on “roads”), dusty and stomach churning journey, leaving the distant memory of a modern & well developed country well and truly behind us. We spent the next day or so trying to acclimatise to the altitude by buying lots of warm woolens (its amazing what the locals make and at a ridiculously cheap price) and chilling out to try and get rid of our headaches.
After having mildly acclimatised, we started out on our tour of the mountains and salt flats with a jeep full of Irish, Scottish and English. Needles to say we had a lot of fun, and hosts Teo (our very safe and excellent driver) and his Wife (oops i forget her name) was an excellent cook and kept us well fed and entertained for the whole 3 days. You will see from the pictures the places we visited but it included a trip to the vast salt flats where you can take some comedy pics, an island in the middle full of cacti (some over a thousand years old), many lakes at over 4k meters with beautiful colors (blue, red and green), and flamingos braving the icy waters and freezing winds, a cave with coral and seaweed calcite’s from the ceiling instead of stalactites (very strange), a pre-Inca tomb eerie and full of bones, we saw some volcanic activity and took a dip in the hot springs at 5k meters at 7 in the morning where it was freezing cold with a very icy wind, i didn´t want to get out. We spent one night in a salt hotel (yes a hotel made from salt) and one night at 4, 800 meters, in a tin shack where the howling wind sounded like it could take off the roof. The noise at night made me feel like a penguin in the Antarctic, although i was toastie in my 6 blankets and sleeping bag.
Pete Writes: Bolivia is definitely a developing country which means old buses, dirt roads and long painful journeys (although it also means that it is cheap!) I have spent many hours chewing Coca leaves which apparently helps you to deal with the altitude and also helps to numb the mind! A must when your bum is bouncing along a rutted track with a 500m drop to your side with not even enough room to overtake a Lama!
The tour was lots of fun especially with the mix of nationality’s in the car, although my Englishman, Irishman and Scotsman jokes did not quite hit the mark! We started by going to the train graveyard, which apparently has a train that ´Billy the Kidd´once robbed, not knowing which one it was I decided to clamber around to look for bullet holes but to no avail :o( So onwards to the Salt flats for lots of photos and a quick game of Frisbee.. Note to self do not throw a Frisbee into a strong wind, you don´t know where it will end up!!
The 2nd night saw us all playing Yahtzee and drinking Whiskey (I think it was Irish?) and after the bottle was finished we hit the absinthe… Not a good idea at 4,800 meters above sea level when you have to be up in 4 hours but hey when amongst friends SALUT!!! The next morning as expected was painful but the hangover was soon forgotten once we plunged into the hot springs, where I decided to dip my head under… big mistake… my hair decided to freeze in the wind! After Breakfast we headed back to base playing a few games of ´ I went to the shop´ and ´the rizla game´ trying to disguise the 7 hour drive through no-mans land!
Page Gallery
Little boy on the bus
Trains used over 100 years ago
Us & Jamie on the train
And Pete
Colorful stall, but Chloe, you don´t need any more woollens!!
Catus Island
Hut on the Catus island
We thought we were on a film set for a western
One of the many tour group jeeps
Comedy pic no 1… us on an apple
All of our group in Petes shoe.. it was a bit smelly!!
Chloe in hand… not for long though!
Pete picking up his wife!
Chloe jumps!
The Salt hotel
Sweet little girl
Some of the rocky landscape
Pete on a rock
Volcano
Tree rock
Pink Lake
We saw hundreds of flamingos
In the hot springs
Our group, it was freezing, you may be able to just make out Chloe under her many layers
Llama
Nice, can´t wait to try that one… we didn´t incase you were wondering!
Tags: Bolivia
October 26th, 2008 at 12:23 pm
Lol, at the comedy pics… cool