Moonwalking
Ok so not exactly the Moon itself, but the photos look like we could have been there! I’ve wanted to go to the south-west of Bolivia ever since seeing this web-site. In fact, their blog is so well written you might as well check out their site to see what I’m on about. You can catch up with mine some other time….. 
Before heading of to Uyuni, the land of the salt, we first went to Tupiza. This is supposed to be the nearest thing to the wild west in South America and the place where Butch Cassidy and the Sundance kid were killed (thank you Jenny for that nugget of information). On the way there we took part in a bit of a protest, a trip highlight for Jenny (she likes that kind of thing). The bus driver had let on four Argentinians who stopped him on the road. The bus was as full as could be, as always, so they made a home for themselves on the floor. A few hours into the trip we were stopped by the police and the four were ejected. Sitting on the floor is the usual in most places around here but highly illegal apparently when in the middle of nowhere. After watching the four being given out to by the coppers, our fellow passengers revolted at the driver’s decision to leave them behind. We all got up, and demanded they stop and let them back in. We were shouting and banging on the door to the driver’s cabin but he was unfazed. Eventually the crowd gave in and Jenny returned to her seat, deflated.
On arriving in Tupiza an English girl, Lisa, jumped on us and asked if we had any plans for the next four days. She wanted to go on a tour of the salt flats but was alone, and it was really cheap with 5 people. Not having anything planned for the next 14 days we said why not? The two of them went off horse riding (I’ve finally learned my lesson that I shouldn’t even try to ride horses, we just don’t get on). They came back a few hours later with two French guys, Flo and Boris, in tow. They had jumped on them in much the same fashion while the two lads were walking down the street. So now we were 5, and ready to take on the salt.
When we signed up we were told there was another group of 5 signed up, so the ten of us made plans for the next few days. The other group consisted of two Danish girls, a Japanese couple and Mark from Kilkenny. Some of us headed off after dinner to buy some drink and snacks for the tour. In the first shop we got to we pooled all our Spanish together to try and score some beer. We were as successful as usual;
“Hey, do you sell wine?”
“No”
“Beer?”
“Eh…no”
“What about cigarettes?”
“No, sorry”
Just as we were turning to leave Jenny noticed a shelf of wine.
“What about this wine?”
“Yes, we have wine.”
And then as it happens, I noticed about 10 crates of beer bottles in the corner.
“And that beer?”
“Oh yes, you want beer?”
“Hmm….should we ask about cigarettes again?”
We loaded our bags with an amazing drink called Vin-Up. It comes in a carton and it’s main ingredients are, water, vegetable oil, sugar, wine and alcohol. At 50c a bottle it became our new favourite beverage.
We took off the next morning for four days driving across the south-western part of the country. The first day was mostly spent going up and down mountains. Well, actually it was mostly spent trying to repair our vehicle and catch up with the other driver. It was our fella’s first trip so we spent quite some time trying to spot the other jeep in the distance.
The first night we pulled into a tiny village with clay buildings. We had a car battery in the corner of our room that we had to wiggle to turn the light on and off. The rest of our days were spent driving across red deserts and swimming in natural hot springs. The last night we staying in a hotel made completely of salt. I tasted the walls, definitely salt. They had made big bricks of salt and hardened them to make the building, beds, tables, everything!
On the final morning we had one hell of a photo shoot! This was the day we were going to finally see the famous salt flats. We got up around 5am to catch the sunrise. Being lazy and unorganised we didn’t get there before sunrise so we had to ask the drivers to stop just as we were entering the salt so we could start the photo snapping. After seeing that wonder we hopped back in to drive to the salt hotel, a structure I’m pretty sure is illegal (because of its location), but the Bolivians don’t seem to mind. With nothing for miles but salt it was hard to tell where the sky and earth met; which of course meant we had to get 357 photos of that too. Our guide showed us how to do some optical illusion tricks which kept us occupied for hours.
Before I go, have one more thing to add. When the tour was over, myself and Jenny were discussing how great it is to meet people from different cultures but how hard it is to know how to greet them. This conversation was the result of my hugging a French guy who was going for the double kiss thing, he ending up sort of kissing my neck goodbye. Just as were we done with our deep discussion on cultural differences we bumped into the Japanese couple from our tour. After a quick goodbye Jenny went to hug the guy. He didn’t seem to know what was going on, when she lunged forward he stepped back. I think he thought she was reaching for something behind him. Well she missed! After a short explanation of what her intentions were they did have a brief embrace. To try and make it all seem cool and normal she then had to hug his girlfriend. I hadn’t a clue what to do so followed suit. Four awkward hugs later we were off to enjoy our last night in Bolivia.
Tags: 1, Bolivia, Salar de Uyuni, Tupiza
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