A long and dusty bus trip drops us in the tourist town of Tupiza, a place we have heard is good to start the Salar de Uyuni trip. Well, we hope so because we convinced our Dutch friends Wim and Ria to join us there.Our hotel guy is never one to miss a sales opportunity and after being told their names, scoops them up from a local bus while we are out exploring the town.
Considering we are only a couple of hours trip from the border town of Villazon where Ed described the locals as ´´morose and uncommunicative´´ , Tupiza couldn´t be more different. Maybe it is the lower altitude (only 3000 metres!) or the surrounding red countryside of rocky outcrops and canyons, but the people here are chatty, smiley and welcoming. A resident cat from one of the restaurants spends his time in my lap purring the whole time I am there.
We visited a couple of tour agencies to book the four-day trip and got a good feeling from El Grano de Oro, run by the the charming but honest Sylvia and her husband. It is unusual that a tour company tells you the negatives (it willl be very basic accomodation, not hot showers!) among the positives. Our hotel guy called Milton looked like he was about the cry when we told him we weren´t doing the trip with him, he had even tried to entice Ed with the promise of a loan guitar for the trip
So, after meeting our driver Javier (cheeky, scarred, and minus a tooth from his mountainbike adventures) and cook Nuria (tiny and stylish) Wim, Ria, Ed and I spent our first hours in the Toyota Landcruiser. We had also talked ourselves into a 5-day trip to see another couple of sights and have less of a rush, so were relieved that Sylvia and her hubby meticulously checked we had all that we needed for the adventure.
The first day took us through a range of scenery, the wide views of the red quebrada with giant cactus here and there, multi-coloured mountains of iron oxide, lead and sulphur. We drove around hills and mountains and along ridges slowing down once to pass an old US school bus on the dirt road clearly designed for one vehicle with a sheer drop on the other. We fully trusted Javier our driver and were relieved that he didn´t drink throughout the journey as other drivers reputedly do.
The places we drove through were extremely remote, we passed only two adobe villages all day and one or two mines. Despite this, we saw some locals walking in the blazing sun miles from anywhere - we just couldn´t see where they might be coming or going from.
Our first night was spent at Lago Morejon, over 5000 metres and 12 degrees Celcius below. No heating, so were glad for the delicious soup, steak and mashed potatoes that Nuria managed to prepare beautifully in a primitive kitchen. Our room was simple, clean and the bed bases constructed of adobe with heavy, handmade blankets covering the beds. No shower available but who would want to take their clothes off in those temperatures anyway? We were the only people staying at this hospedaje and it was good to know that our tourism dollar was spent somewhere that people need it most.
Altitude can really mess you around...Ria at this stage felt dizzy and nauseous, Wim also felt terrible. Ed and I were OK, but the lack of oxygen in the air makes a task like carrying your pack indoors an exhausting challenge. Lying in bed at night presents two problems:
1. how to get and keep warm
2. how to breathe
We woke up to a beautiful sunny day and a jeep that wouldn´t start. Luckily, Javier was a multi-talented man...managed to sculpt a spare part out of a piece of plastic and got things working again. Gave poor old Wim a chance to pull himself together with the altitude sickness.
What more? Well, the trip just got better and better. Mountains, snow, red earth, orrange tussock, canyons, salt lakes - just fantastic! Our first view of flamingoes on a distant salt lake was like looking at pink marshmellows floating on a hot chocolate. The feeling of space and isolation was brilliant and Javier was careful to try and get us to and from places away from the other jeeps.
We loved jumping into the thermal springs in the hot sun, despite the snow all around. Stange rocks formations in the desert followed, complete with foxes and vizcachas (strange small rabbit/kangaroo things).
Viewing bubbling mud pools and geysers bought back memories of New Zealand.
The soundtrack of the trip was quite varied, from Donna Summer and YMCA to traditional Bolivian guitar and pan-pipe music - not to mention some music which sounded like it was produced on a Casio keyboard with a high-pitched children´s choir taking the melody.
Had lots of laughs with Javier and Nuria, who reinforced our Spanish with key phrases such as: "I´m going to send a message to the president"- translated as "I´m off to do a number 2". We suspected a budding romance between the two (their first trip together) but as it turned out Javier already had attachments - but clearly had room in his heart or other places (?) for the lovely Nuria.
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