Salar de Uyuni
30 November 2005 (Wednesday) – Uyuni to Salar de Uyuni, Bolivia
There had been 3 other tourists on my tour when I signed up for the Salar de Uyuni trip, but none of them were there at the tourist office at the agreed time. I waited more than half an hour. I thought for a moment there had been some mix-up and I had been left out from the jeep. But, I was soon picked up by a jeep and driven to another tour agency and in packed 3 Norwegian girls and a English brother-and-sister team. I was the only one signed up from another travel agency. Hmmm… I figured all or most of the agencies got together at the end of yesterday and kinda reshuffled everyone around to form groups of 6 or 7.
The Norwegians were Cathrine, Martha and Ingunn, the siblings Simon and Josie. We were driven to the Cementerio de Trenes (Cemetery of Trains) and there, I ran into several other tourists whom I had shared the bus here to Uyuni. I guess we would keep running into one another for the next few days all the way to San Pedro de Atacama.
After this, our driver went to pick up his wife who would be our cook, and along with her, came her little 3-year-old son, whom we would adore to death. Little Jaillo (I am guessing the spelling) is the most smiley and adorable little boy we had seen in a long while. He was always turning around and giving us very mischievous little giggles. Absolutely adorable.
Cochani was our next stop where we took the chance to use the toilet and browse the salt souvenirs before heading onto the largest salt flat in the world – Salar de Uyuni. The salt was so white, and at this altitude of 3,600m above sea level, one really needs sunglasses in order not to be blinded by the reflection from the noon sun. We were fascinated by the huge expanse of pure white, it was absolutely incredible. In fact, there seemed a lot of optical illusions in the far distance where objects seemed to be floating in the air, or seemed to cast a reflection of its shape against the white mirror ground. With nothing else to be used as perspective, it was very difficult to judge distances. Truly, one of the most amazing sights I have ever seen!
We were to stop at Isla del Pescado (Fish Island) for lunch. This is an ‘island’ of volcanic rock right smack in the middle of Salar de Uyuni. When we were very far off, I had already seen a dark shape that looks like a fish. Hence, the name. As we neared it, the surreal ‘island’ became bigger and bigger. When we parked right under it, I could not believe my eyes. Spotted all over the ‘island’ were gigantic cacti, thousands of them. How did they get grown here, when this ‘island’ was surrounded by miles and miles of salt? As Señora had to prepare lunch, the guide told us to take a little walk around the island to the top where we could see both sides. Gosh, the view was truly breathtaking! We really felt like being on an island in the middle of a lake of white.
There were distant jeeps and people walking on the salt pans. Everything looked miniscule. I was thorougly fascinated with the cacti, many of which were flowering now, some of them, a little dead, exposing its beautiful ‘carcass’.
We had our lunch of tuna and salad and headed off again. The guide kept telling us we had a lot to see today, but by around 3pm, we had already left the salt flat and had reached our Salt Hotel Atulcha. All of us were given a nice little room, entirely made of salt. The hotel, the beds, the bed-side table, the dining table and chairs outside… all salt. Yes, I licked the wall, just to check.
I took a little walk around the hotel, climbing up a little hill in the distance. At the top, I was surprised to find someone had constructed walls of rocks, and for the entrance, a tiny little door. Not sure what this was. But the view was quite enchanting with the distant ‘islands’ on the salt pan, reflecting its shape on the white.
The shower cost extra but the hotel warned us that our next stop had no shower, so we were obliged to pay to wash off all the salt and sand that had gotten into every orifices on the ride here. No, dear, of course, the showers and toilets are NOT made of salt.
We had delicious llama meat for dinner, got chatting to know one another. The Viking blondes had been working in volunteer jobs in Sucre for 3 months. They were pleasant, friendly but frequently kept to themselves, chatting in their own language. Simon and Josie were rather nice as well, Simon is quite chatty and enthusiastic about what he had done so far in his trip, Josie kept an unsmiling face most of the time as if she did not enjoy the scenery all around, but yet, she would suddenly comment on how beautiful the mountains look, so she had indeed been enjoying the views. Overall, I was okay with them, although I did not feel I could really connect with them. Soon, we retired to our very comfortable rooms. I had bought my alpaca sweater in La Paz, expecting extremely cold temperature but I did not need it at all. It was warm and cozy in the room.
Tags: 09) Bolivian Rhapsody, Salar de Uyuni
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