SW Circuit: Otherworldly Surfaces in Brrr-livia
Trip Start
Sep 24, 2008
1
62
76
Trip End
Jul 21, 2009
Where I stayed
Salt Hotel and other guesthouses on Jeep Tour
Hotel Inti, Uyuni, Bolivia (don't stay here)
Uyuni, Bolivia
Tuesday, April 28, 2009
Hanging Out With Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid/Brief Intro to Bolivia
I spent my first full day in Bolivia wandering around the frontier town of Tupiza and sorting out my jeep tour of the circuit through Southwestern Bolivia. Tupiza is a tiny town, with a few poorly paved streets surrounding the main square and dirt roads beyond this. Ringing the background of the town are beautiful red rock mountains. The town was the legendary last home of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid before they were gunned down by the Bolivian Army.
Like most Bolivian cities, commerce operates in and around the local market. While fiat money has replaced the barter system, one gets a very old world feel in a Bolivian town as is akin to walking through the famed bazaars of Turkey or any Arab nation
4WD Fully Prepared
. Everything is sold on the streets - toiletries, clothing, books/DVDs, food and whatever else one can think of. The small markets of Tupiza reminded me greatly of the vast markets of La Paz that I had visited in 2007 and was eager to see once again. All of the market stalls are run by cholas. Cholas are the indigenous (Quechua-speaking in Tupiza) women who wear European bowler hats and colorful clothes and long frocks. They look like women who hopped straight off a wagon train heading west to California albeit with much different skin complexions. Just as with Northwestern Argentina, there were tons of young children and young mothers all over the place. I guess the Hijo de Carneval effect occurs in Bolivia as well.Tupiza is also a very poor town, reflective of the entire country. Bolivia is the poorest country in South America, followed closely by Ecuador and Paraguay. The average earnings are 550Bs a month, or just over USD2/day, which is right around the Millenium Project and conventional development economistīs definition of the poverty line. 60% of the country is mired in poverty and most of the poor reside in the mountainous and high altitude plains (altiplano) of the western part of the country. Most of the wealth (and natural gas deposits) lie in the lowlands of the east, centered around the business hub of Santa Cruz. I was nowhere close to these parts.
Bolivia is also one of the most indigenous countries in Latin America
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. 80% of the population bears indigenous blood. 50% of the country is formed of two major ethnic groups, Quechua and Aymara. Most of the Quechua are in the south and the Aymara are in the north. The Guarani, another major indigenous group, are from the lowland rainforests and jungles. There are about 9-10mm total people in Bolivia. It is not a heavily populated country. Given I had arrived in a new country, I was in dire need of new hard currency, Bolivianos. Every border town I had passed through, thus far, had an ATM available or at least in the next town. This was not the case in Bolivia. Neither Villazon nor Tupiza had ATMs. I had some travelerīs checks, but the one Casa de Cambio in Tupiza that accepted these was closed as the guy was away on vacation. I begrudgingly went to the one bank in town that was open, waited around forever, paid the 40Bs commission (USD6) and drew a large cash advance.
After a quick walk through town (this took all of 15 minutes) and stop at one of the slowest (but cheap) internet cafes known to man kind, we shopped for our jeep tour through the Southwestern part of the country. We met a group of guys just outside of the tourist agency and quickly put together a mammoth group of 11 people for our tour - two jeeps. The woman who runs the agency (Grano del Oro) out of her family home is middle aged and speaks phenomenal english
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. I wondered how a mother of several children in deep southern Bolivia mastered the language; it was quite impressive. Steve and I had lunch with two of our Jeep crew, Mike and Lisa (IRE). I would become quite close with these two and I found out that Mike had lived in Tanzania for some time and traveled throughout eastern Africa. While he later was quite endeared with Mary upon meeting her in La Paz, when he found out that I was likely deciding against the Peace Corps to be with her, he promptly advised me to take the ring back and use the proceeds from the resale to buy the next ticket to Africa! SW Circuit Jeep Tour Day 1
We all met up in the morning to embark on our journey. There were 11 people in total: Mike and Lisa, Dave and Jon (US), Rory (US), Steve (IRE), Catrione and Johanna (IRE) and Lian and Vicky (UK). Somehow, 11 travelers that spoke English and massive Irish and US representation. This does not commonly happen in large travel groups. We split up into the two cars, a driver/guide in each car and one of the cars had the senorita, our cook.
Our car was loaded up with six of us - Mike and Lisa, Dave and Jon, Rory and myself - and our main man, the driver Belario.
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Belario is an extremely nice family man who lives in Uyuni and has been working for a long time as a jeep tour guide. Belario repeatedly stated ĻBelario aprenda ingles!Ļ as he always was studying his english workbook while we were snapping pictures. He would also use the person in the front seat, if awake, as the translator. Our vehicles were the mighty and reliable Toyota Land Cruisers. Just as in Africa, Bolivia is a huge resale market for these Japanese automobiles and they are the ubiquitous (and justifiably so we would soon find out) vehicle of off-road tours through the country. Everyone had a big night out the night before we left in Tupiza (I had wisely rested) and poor Jon was sitting shotgun and was down for the count with some food poisoning. He did not make for a good translator and Belario kept looking over at him nervously as the poor guy had to pull over and yak several times during the first day`s voyage. The car was half dead, but those awake engaged in lively and engaging conversation.
This was a familiar trend during our four-day ride together and it was enthralling. It had been quite some time since I had been amongst a group of travelers that could jump from topic to topic in a very sophisticated and engaging fashion
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. Our conversations touched on everything from films, books and music to public v. private education, healthcare woes in nationalized and privatized systems, the physics of mirages, music theory, development economics, social development, sports and society and other topics. We also had a cheap Chilean guitar in tow, courtesy of Mikey, and the various guitar players in the car (Mikey, Jon and myself) never missed at an opportunity to play a little six-string, even including pee breaks on the side of the road.Our first day took us west out of Tupiza through some beautiful red rock canyons (Sillar amongst others) that were quite similar to the quebradas of Northwestern Argentina. We dramatically increased our altitude, which caused a lot of coca leaf chewing, headaches and sleeplessness during this first leg of the journey. Tupiza is around 2,700m. Within a few hours on the first day we had reached a tiny pueblo at 4,900m, without walking and slowly acclimating to this tremendous elevation gain.
Our entire four day journey was spent between 4,000-5,000m. We stopped for lunch in the middle of a huge meadow with llamas running around everywhere. I hiked to the top of a steep, but short hill for a better view and was absolutely heaving for air. I felt like my lungs were about to explode out of my rib cage
Need copies or a notary?
. It was mind boggling as the base of these valleys at 4,000-5,000m is higher than the summits of the Rocky Mountains or the Alps of Europe! I will save a deeper discussion on altitude and its tribulations for a later entry. Needless to say, I had a bout of acute mountain sickness (AMS) on the second day and joined the group of folks puking out of the window of the jeep.The tiny pueblo at 4,900m was a forbidding place to live. There was a lot of poverty in the tiny altiplano towns that we passed through. However, everyone had clothing, food and homes. However, these homes lacked hot water and heating and were poorly insulated. The conditions prohibit growing crops, so everything must come from the outside world. We stayed adjacent to a high altitude pueblo that first night. I hiked to a lung-busting mountain top to catch a spectacular sunset and views of the valley the pueblo was in and the mountains far off in the horizon. We stayed in very basic accomodations, but we noticed that a few of the homes had solar panels that perhaps stored energy to power a light bulb or television. It was miserably cold, -15 degrees Celsius, and I cannot imagine living in such an environment my whole life. The area is also extremely desolate, so other than spectacular starry nights, there is little by way of interaction and stimulation with the outside world. I developed tremendous respect for the families that toil in such conditions in the altiplano
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.SW Circuit Jeep Tour Day 2
The second day of our jeep tour was both beautiful, unique and incredibly sad. We continued to see the wondrous beauty and desolate surroundings of this part of Bolivia. The altiplano and area created by the movement of the nazca plate is simply stunning. There are mineral-rich colored mountains and lakes everywhere. There are flat and arid plains as far as the eye can see. It is difficult to gain perspective until one sees a jeep or truck drive by that looks like a little ant as compared with the vast landscape. We saw foxes, condors, llamas and other small creatures everywhere. Despite being a well-worn tour circuit, we did not see other jeeps around us and very much felt like we were blazing the frontier. Should something have happened to us, we would be in seriously dire straits. We discovered this first hand.
As we were heading on the southern flank towards Laguna Verde and Volcan Licancabur, we saw a mass of vehicles and people on the side of the "road". The road was nothing more than gravel track that had more wear than the miles of gravel on either side of the road. Belario would frequently "off-road" (the entire area is truly off-road) just for sh*ts and giggles
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. As we approached closer, we saw two large transport vehicles (containing dangerous sulphuric acid no less) on the side of the road, one of them with the side of its front all scraped up, and what used to be a Land Cruiser under a tarp. This vehicle was destroyed. It had clearly rolled over several times. There had to be casualties around. We were expecting a gruesome site. There was luggage strewn everywhere and a crowd had gathered on the side of the vehicle, presumably with the bodies. I have once been witness to a heinous car accident on Highway 50 to Lake Tahoe, with my buddies Sachin and Josh, where we held a man in our lap who had a tennis-ball sized hole in the back of his head. As Belario pulled over, a hush broke out over what was a jeep full of jovial and intense conversation. Everyone reacts differently to a car accident; especially when you are in a similar vehicle and can imagine something similar happening to you. Miraculously, everyone - the three travelers and the driver - survived the wreck. Kudos to Toyota - the Land Cruiser is the greatest vehicle on earth. However, one of the guys, traveling alone, had a severely broken shoulder and leg. An ambulance arrived and that poor soul would have to ride at least four bumpy hours to the nearest hospital across the border in San Pedro, Chile. We were not envious of him. The driver, a young Bolivian, also was in a state of shock. While he did not own the vehicle, his career might be over and he most likely had a family at home to feed (Bolivians tend to get married and have children at a very young age). We were not envious of him either. Belario, an amazingly alert and incredibly safe driver who drives 8+ hours straight without breaks like a machine, instantly earned a much larger tip after witnessing the wreck.
Jeep Tour Day 1 1
We continued south, but while everything was gorgeous around me, I was in a state of shock. I kept replaying the accident over and over in my head. I kept thinking how easily something like that could happen to us. I kept envisioning a wonderful around-the-world trip and period of discovery converting to an absurdly painful ambulance ride in a matter of minutes. Flirting with death brings things into perspective very quickly. I was miles away from Mary and from my family. I had chills down my spine for the rest of the day.
We eventually reached the beautiful Laguna Verde with the dominating 6,000m+ Volcan Licancabur in the background. There was arsenic foam blowing off the lake into our faces. Nice! As mentioned earlier, Bolivia is mineral rich. Most of the minerals that contribute to the other-worldly colors of this part of the country are the heavily toxic borax, arsenic, zinc and antimony as well as various salts (not table). Bolivia has and will always be the land of mines and miners. More on this in the next entry.
The latter half of the day was quite beautiful as we stopped at some thermal hot springs for a dip. It was beautiful and we met a couple of cyclists riding through South America
Jeep Tour Day 1 2
. These guys were hard core. Why they would willingly add a ride through the high altitude portion of this country, I don't know. There is something terribly masochistic about long distance cycling journeys. I would soon find there is something terribly masochistic about climbing large peaks as well, but this is for another entry. Mikey, with his stark white Irish tan, and I took a hysterical shirtless picture next to each other at the thermal springs. We continued passed the Piedras de Dali, a sandy landscape with odd-shaped rocks that truly resembles a Dali canvas, and made our way close to our camp for the night. First, we stopped at the geysers. I haven't been to Yellowstone to see Old Faithful, but have seen active volcanoes from a distance in Hawaii. However, I was walking around active geysers and this was one of the coolest (no pun intended) things I have ever seen: anger from the depths of the earth personified as bubbling gases and mud. That night was the "big night" of the jeep trip as the pueblo we were in had a tienda selling wine and beer. The senorita cooked up another wonderful meal and Mikey helped himself to two meals. We had made friends with this group in another jeep and Mikey ate with them, assuming it was all the same food. Of course, a separate cook had made their food and he only belatedly realized that he was an absolute pig. Upon also realizing that the cooks and guides ate the leftovers the tourists don't eat, a realization that prompted me to say "let's be more considerate wit our llama consumption", he felt really guilty
Jeep Tour Day 1 3 Passed out Irishman
. C'est la vie, you can't get pissed at a happy Irishman. With a guitar, freezing cold temperatures, some booze and full bellies, a full campfire singalong (sans the campfire) ensued that night with Mikey and me alternating on the six-string. It was wonderful. Eventually, we got to the jam of the evening, with the refrain "Brrlivia" that had improv verses passed around the table. It was a classic evening that led to some serious hangovers the following day. SW Circuit Jeep Tour Day 3
The otherworldly scenery continued on Day 3. There were amazing colors, hills and mountains, minerals in and around lakes, wide and open skies, pink flamingoes, red rock volcanoes, desert and rocks. Wait a minute, did I just say flamingoes? Yes, forget Florida, pink flamingoes live at altitude with scarce food sources and absolutely barren and forbidding conditions. There are three different types of flamingoes native to this part of Bolivia and we got up and close to them on this day. Given the lack of nutritious diets, it is tremendously taxing for the flamingoes to fly, so tourists are encouraged to avoid forcing them into action, despite the resulting great photos. Despite this warning, we saw several inconsiderate travelers chasing after the birds.
We also passed by the Arbre de Piedra on this day, which is a gigantic rock that resembles a tree as it is top heavy with a narrow base. While beautiful, it wrongfully attracts all the attention with people clambering around to take photos. At this point, we were less than a day's drive from the Salar de Uyuni, which is the star attraction of the circuit and just outside the tourist frontier town of Uyuni (where our tour would end)
Jeep Tour Day 1 4
. Thus, the amount of jeeps on the road was a lot greater than what we had seen the last couple of days. While people were lining up for pictures of the rock tree, Dave, Rory and I turned around and saw paradise. There was a sand field full of massive boulders just asking to be climbed. Given they were volcanic rock, there were tons of handholds and footholds, though we had to be very careful as it is not very solid rock. We were like little children and I wish the tour had allowed for us to spend longer being monkeys on the boulders.
We wound the day down by stopping at a mirador with a view of an active volcano in the distance and some more rocks to climb on. That night, we stayed at a hotel that was constructed entirely out salt - brick by brick. It was incredible and really quite well insulated for such a structure. Unfortunately, I developed a cold that night (one that would stick with me at altitude and in the cold for more than a week), so passed out as soon as we arrived, without dinner.
SW Jeep Tour Day 4: Salar de Uyuni
The Salar de Uyuni. Those who have never ventured close to Bolivia have likely never heard of it (I didn't until I came to La Paz in 2007)
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. Those who travel anywhere near this region cannot wait to get to it. The Salt Flats near Uyuni are the largest in the world at 10,500 sq km (4,085 sq mi), which is more than 25 times the size of the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah. Made from an ancient inland sea, it is absolutely stunning and unlike anything ever seen. The gigantic and blindingly white surface can be seen from space. The pancake flat and reflective surface serves as a testing ground for all sorts of satellites and also serves as a major natural transportation route across the rough altiplano. It is a tremendously mineral rich area, containing half of the world's lithium resources and an astounding 10 billion tons of salt. It is a must-visit on any travelers journey to this part of the world and is one of a few things (along with the accessible, climbable and high Cordillera Real near La Paz and jungles of the north) that is unique and must-see in Bolivia.We packed up early and made it to the Salar to witness sunrise. A gorgeous natural phenomenon, it was absolutely frigid beyond all recognition that morning. Thus, while the sunrise was beautiful and we were mesmerized by the sheer size and vast flatness and whiteness of the salt plains, we also simultaneously wanted to jump back in the jeeps and get moving!
I could easily understand why they test drive cars out in the salt flats and break land speed records there
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. Belario was ripping it up in the Land Cruiser, driving anywhere he pleased as the entire salt flats are a road surface and there was absolutely no possibility of hitting anything. The size was brought into perspective when we would see an ant-sized jeep or truck in the distance. We soon reached Inca Huayasi, or the Isla de Pescado, an "island" in the middle of the salt flats that is sacred and covered in cacti. We took a short, but beautiful hike through the island, including a visit to the offering pile at the top and the hike provided a different perspective on the vastness of the salt flats given we were higher than the surface.
Given the salt flats are just that and with a uniform background of blue sky, the setting is perfect for perspective shots where people in the background seem to be coming out of whatever is in the foreground. For example, walking out of a Pringles can. While they were creative shots, people went bananas taking hundreds of these photos when they could realistically be done anywhere that is flat and with a solid background.
After our island visit and the lengthy photo session, we made our way across the Salar, it took several hours, and stopped in several spots to check out the veins and holes in the ground
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. Much like ice fishing, just below the 1-3ft salt shelf was water. It was incredible that the entire Salar covers water, which travels through the hexagon-shaped veins visible on the surface. There are holes all over the place and it is surprising to me that jeeps and trucks don't end up ravaged from nailing these "potholes". We made our way past the illegal salt hotel on our way out of the Salar. There were three salt hotels constructed in the Salar, two have since been moved to the outskirts while one remains in the Salar. They are illegal because of the environmental damage caused by the poor waste management at the properties. The remaining illegal structure has been turned into a salt museum, but I successfully led my jeep in a boycott of the property.
As we left the Salar, we saw the piles of salt that have been gathered to be removed and processed for sale. All of the work done in the salt flats is done manually - gathering the salt, loading it onto the trucks and processing the salts. There is no electronic machinery as we were in a land of relatively expensive capital and expendable and cheap labor. It is backbreaking work that these guys do, a theme that is common throughout this poor nation where cholas are often seen engaging in hard manual labor building ditches and roads
Jeep Tour Day 1 8 Pee Break
. I haven't seen women toil like this since traveling through India. Uyuni: Royal POS and the Strains of Travel
By the early afternoon, we reached Uyuni and sadly said goodbye to Belario and our cook. We all had a wonderful voyage in that jeep and saw things that exist in few places on this planet (or any other for that matter). I highly recommend this experience to any traveler passing through Bolivia, even if it is a difficult jeep journey and bone-chillingly cold.
Given the Salar de Uyuni, I expected the town of Uyuni to be a bustling tourist town. It is an absolute piece of sh*t. There are a couple of reasonable restaurants, but it is as frontier a town as they come. Southern Bolivia is just not that developed in terms of physical and tourist infrastructure, no matter that there is a major attraction nearby. The internet was even slower than in Tupiza, as if that was believable. I am likely not the first person to say this, but I think the quality of roads and speed of internet connectivity are very good proxy indicators for the level of development within a country. We, very slowly, got the download of a new epidemic hitting the world, Swine Flu. I was meant to travel through Mexico City at the end of my trip and the news stories made Swine Flu out to be the latest plague to hit our planet
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.I found a guesthouse that had all the makings of being a reasonable place, Hotel Inti. It looked wonderful and had a great lobby. The rooms were relatively spacious, but then reality set in. The hostel was actually like "The Money Pit" or a facade in a Western film where there is nothing behind the surface. Door handles came off, the water didnīt work for the first six hours, the hot water ended up being abismal, water from the shared bathroom leaked and seeped into our room under the door, and there was a massive turpentine smell permeating throughout the hotel. Do not stay here. Alas, it was only one night as a bunch of us were all off to Potosi early the next morning. That evening, the whole crew gathered at the Extreme Bar, famous for its Llama Cocktails and a massive drinking competition, and had a farewell meal as we were splitting ways. Rory, Steve, Catrione, Johanna and me were heading to Potosi. I wouldn't see Dave and Jon again, but met up with my Irish pals Mike and Lisa in La Paz.
The next day, en route to Potosi on a horrific dirt road (where my neighbor was practicing and listening to an MP3 player of English lessons) and bumpy Bolivian bus that almost slammed straight into a dumptruck at one point and that left me frightened after every honk, I reflected on my feelings
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. I was very much feeling the strain of travel. This sentiment was slightly more than travel fatigue. I loathed sh*t rooms, showers, beds and hauling around the same pack. The bourgeois in me was fiending for a phenomenally strong and hot shower and night in my plush bed. I wanted to throw Big Bertha, my pack, out the window. I kind of wanted home. I realized that I had softened from traveling through Argentina and Australia and after so long on the road. Bolivia provides tough travel, which is both what I wish for (as you discover a lot about yourself and a developing country this way) and I simultaneously loathed at that moment: cold showers in cold weather, tough food that tears your insides apart, and piss poor infrastructure. My venting aside, I absolutely love traveling through Bolivia and was thrilled to be back in the country a second time. However, my sentiments also made me realize that perhaps not pursuing the Peace Corps, but seeking to help those less fortunate through alternate means (as an inner city teacher) because of my engagement with Mary, was a blessing in disguise.It was with these thoughts and the writing of Billy Hayes ("Midnight Express") and Mohsin Hahmed ("The Reluctant Fundamentalist") that I pulled into the former colonial megacity of Potosi.
