Some of the world´s most fantastic scenery

  Uyuni, Bolivia
Sunday, November 9, 2003

Tuesday 4th Nov Antofagasta - San Pedro de Atacama.
Up early to bus station for 11am Turbbus. Dianne does half hour internetting to fill in time. Could have done more as bus is half an hour late. Turns out has come from Santiago, and is a replacement bus for one that broke down. Surprised bus is late as they seem very organised. Spend next hour in the maintenance depot, and finally get away about 12.30pm. Back through town, and up the side of the mountain with good views back over the town and sea. Landscape is incredibly dry - not even a blade of grass. Pass through a gap in the hills and emerge on to a dusty high plain. Not a lot to see -occasional mine - some abandoned, some still operating.. Pass through a town which is a major mine supply centre with lots of workshops and warehouses. Calama was an uninteresting town in a flat dusty basin - lots of narrow streets. Only thing of note was an oasis with a fair bit of greenery and running water.
About 20 kms before San Pedro there is a long, steep downhill run into a wide valley with colourful eroded rock formations along the bottom of it, and up the other side. There is a similar hill down into the San Pedro valley with similar eroded rock formations, locally known as the "Vallley of the Moon". On the far side of the San Pedro valley there are a number of high extinct volcanoes, and along the valley floor there are extensive patches of greenery along the watercourse, and in the distance you can see a green salt lake.
We end up in a bus parking area on the outside of the town about 5pm. Can't see any sign of where the centre of town is, and what we can see looks pretty desperate. While we're orientating the map to work out where we are, an English speaking tout says he has a hostel with free internet and hot water, and can cut CD's, AND he has a truck to take us there, so against our rule of not staying anywhere except the centre of town, we go with him. Get room, then wife gives us a lift into town centre. It is then that we realise the bus station was only one street away from the centre, and we are now about a km away. Centre is actually cute and colourful - a real backpackers' oasis with internet, good restaurants, shops and lots of tour companies.


Walk back to hostel, managing to find the short-cut we'd been told about. That's when we find out that he only has Windows 98, which doesn't have the driver we need, so can't download our photos and cut a CD. Back into town, checking tour and downloading possibilities, and restaurants. Finally decide on atmospheric one with a big open fire, and semi-covered seating around a courtyard. Excellent 3-course meal for 4,000 pesos each. For a country with no trees, they put a lot of wood on the fire.
Dianne has a restless sleep, partly because she's plotting how to get the palm pilot going again.
Wednesday 5th Nov San Pedrode Atacama ( Chile)
In the morning, Dianne talks the Swiss hostel owner into letting her download the Documents to Go software on the computer, which takes about one and a half hours. Then finds that also needs to install the Palm Pilot software as well, which takes at least another hour. With bated breath, she tries a hotsync, and IT WORKS! Luckily she had copied most of the documents onto a SD card, and the software for the fold-up keyboard as well, so we're almost back to where we started, until the next drama.
In the meantime, Murray has made his own breakfast in the kitchen, then walks into town via the backstreets, looking at how the ordinary people in the town live, taking photos of the greenery and irrigation systems. The preferred internet place, when it came to the crunch, couldn't cut a CD, so he checked out rest of town for internet, then back to hostel to find Dianne still at it. The hostel owner told of us another internet place to download photos. This is critical to us, as our camera memory is almost full, and we'll need a lot of photos on our upcoming trip on the salt lake.
Back into town AGAIN - can't do download until later. Book afternoon (4pm) tour to the Valley of the Moons, and 3 day tour on the salt lake, then to highly recommended natural food place for a terrible empanada and an ordinary expensive fruit juice. Leave with food in hands to make start of tour.
Tour is for 4 hours, in the eroded landscape, including driving up a very narrow wadi, to see a large sandhill with sand-boarders. At this stage it is incredibly hot. Next stop was the so-called meteor crater - a deep natural shaft in the rocks, disappearing out of site, with absolutely no safety rails around it, and loose gravel on the slope into it. Next stop was the mirador, to look out over the main valley floor, green lake and snow-clad mountains in the distance. This was all on the main road. Then turned off the main road to the Valley of the Moon proper, stopping on a level shelf where rock-salt mining had historically been carried out. It is now blowing pretty strongly, and quite chilly. Then dropped down a level to below a sharp-crested sandhill leading up to a craggy peak. We decided to climb the higher, Western end up on to the sand ridge. Just about killed us. It's only about 2,436 metres in the valley, and a bit higher here, but we're noticing it after being at sea-level for so long. Climb another 10 metres onto a ridge, forming a natural gallery overlooking the sandhill and the valley below. Sit there in a very brisk wind, waiting for the sunset. Sun sets just as our 7.50pm time limit arrives. Very good with purple shadows in the valleys and the volcano beyond still in full sun, and a full moon over the top. Run back down the steep face of the sandhill, which wasn't as scary as it looked.
Back into town. Murray organised the film download with a lot of help from the storeowner and various bystanders, while Dianne lugged 10 litres of water the kilometre back to our room, got our book to swap, then back into town again (why did we break our rule!) to buy some warm hats. In the deal of the century, we get rid of "Kerren and Jackie" for Tim Winton's "Dirt Music", plus $1. Murray also does a great deal, being charged 2000 pesos for the CD, the downloads, and the camera driver program now on the CD for next time. Having finished all our business, back to our favourite restaurant about 10pm for dinner. Home weary, but satisfied with our day's work. Try to have a hot shower, but the water pump is turned off (possibly because it squeals loudly), so can't get hot water. Computer is also off, so pack our gear and go to bed.
Thursday 6th Nov San Pedro(Chile)-Laguna Colorado (Bolivia)
After a bad nights sleep (only get about 3 hours), we're picked up at 8am for our 2 1/2 day tour to Uyuni, via Lagunas Verde and Colorada, and Salar de Uyuni. This tour turns out to be fantastic, with some of the best scenery we've every seen anywhere, and we're pretty blaze after visiting the highlights of over 100 countries. Definitely not an easy trip though, as most of it is at an altitude of 3600 metres or more. Our guide, Pedro did a sterling job - cooking, packing, driving, and guiding.
Tour which includes transport, food and accommodation, cost US$70 each, which is incredibly cheap. There are eight in our van to the border - there are supposed to be six to a van, so there will be a shuffle at the border, which is about 45 kms away. Good views of the cone-shaped volcano which is visible from the town. Stop for a good photo Soon after we are at 3350 metres. About here vegetation suddenly appears - greenish yellow tuft grass, daisy-like flowers and small scrubby bushes. It's still sparse by normal standards, but quite remarkable compared with the valley below. The last 7km to the Bolivian border at Hito Cajon is a rough gravel road, and the border post is a fairly desperate looking outpost.



Spend a fair bit of time there sorting out vehicles, packing them, and having morning tea. The Chilean vehicles which brought us to the border are not allowed to go into Bolivia, so we meet up here with the Bolivian vehicles which are arriving with passengers that have done the trip in the opposite direction., probably starting about 4am. We get a fairly new, but beat-up modern rounded-shape Toyota Landcruiser with 7 passengers ( 2 English couples, an Italian and us). Fairly roomy, but only way out of back seat is by folding the middle seat and clambering over it, which wears a bit thin over 3 days. Get away after 11am. About 6 kms along we come to the National Park office where we pay 30 Bolivianas entrance. Right beside the office is Laguna Blanca, which we think is green, rather than white. Quite attractive - in a basin with stark desert mountain landscape behind and slopes covered with sparse tufted grass and vegetation. A couple of kms further on we round a spur of the mountain, and find out why it is called white - for there in front of us is an incredibly beautiful bright emerald green lake.



Looks like it has glittering white salt crystals around the outside, but on closer inspection it is only spume. It is more closely surrounded by mountains than the white lake, so it is in a distinct basin, more like a Canadian mountain lake. Continue over a saddle and into the next valley, which has a very large sand drift, studded with large rock outcrops (Roca de Daly) in fantastic shapes - probably gypsum or calcite. The scenery the whole way along is magnificent. Good views of peak showing all the varied colours (red,orange, yellow, green, brown, white etc) of recent vocanic activity - i.e. the last few thousand years.


Further on, come around a corner where the mountain slopes down to a flat pan to find half a dozen vehicles parked beside a pool. There is a whole series of springs at the foot of the mountain which form small streams and run out onto the pan. Too shallow for swimming. Some of the pools have coloured algae and aquatic weeds.



Carried on till we arrived at the geysers ( at 4,870 metres) which we could see for some distance off as a cloud of steam. The main geyser was a hole probably 6 metres in diameter full of steam. Could hear very strong steam jets, but no water merging above ground level. Anothe geyser wasn't so active, so you could see intoit, and it was sprayig water out on to the ground. Over an area over 100 metres in diameter there was a collection of steam vents, boiling mud pools, and steaming mud pools, with paths between them so you could walk around and look into them. One was a particuarly bright orange pool, but others included colours of blue, grey, and terra-cotta. Lots of photos. From here we back-tracked over the 5000 metre saddle, and down to Laguna Colorada. Our first glimpse was incredible - bright red strips of water with bright white crystaline salt deposits, and another multi-coloured volcano behind it, and lots of flamingos on it.



Everyone wanted to stop, but driver kept going until we were down a lot lower, where we didn't get as good a vertical view of it. Continued down alongside it, past an airport. Vehicle not allowed to go closer than 100 metres to the lake. Up onto a promonotory, where we got a good view looking down on the lake, and also across to the western arm of the lake on our other side, where there were some llamas grazing. We hopped out here, and walked around for 20 minutes while the driver drove down closer to the lake, and set up our lunch. Tried getting closer to the flamingos, but would move off as soon as we got too close. Definitely missing our zoom lens for pictures like these. Lunch was surprisingly good - fresh bread with tuna, tomatoes, and cucumber, and bananas. Stayed for another hour. By now it was blowing fairly strongly. The water from a distance looked red, but close up was a pale orange, and fairly transparent. One of the features of the colour was that the ripples in the water were brighter than the water itself. Continued on, driving on a quite rough road, around the lake where the mountain slopes down to the lake. From here the stark white salt deposits looked like a breaking surf. Passed a large salt deposit, and found that we were spending the night nearby at the collection of buildings we came to not long after. It was still quite early - 4pm Chilean time, but we've had ANOTHER time change, so it was only 3pm Chilean time. Lake Colarado is at 4278 metres, so everyone is definitely noticing the altitude, but no-one is bad. We have a bit of a headache on and off, and feel quite dizzy if we bend down. Our accommodation could be described as "basic". Our room has four double bunks in it, and this is where the seven of us sleep. The bathroom is two rather smelly toilets with a bin of water to flush them. We eat in the corridor outside our room, where two long tables are squashed.. We can live with all this, for the setting is fantastic. From the table we can see out through the window to the lake, with incredible red and stark white patches, and lots of flamingoes, and various volcanoes in the background. Walk around the lake a bit, trying to get closer to the flamingos, but they're not stupid, and keep moving as we get closer. The lakes look fantastic from a distance, but up close they lose a bit of their appeal as the banks are very muddy and waterlogged and the first few feet is mud and algae slime (the very thing that attracts the flamingos). In other places there is a wide margin of fine gypsum between the button-grass edge and the water. This ranges from quite solid, to deceptively gluggy. Back to our room where we lay down before dinner, both on the bottom of the squeeky bottom bunk. Wake an hour later, and out for another walk before dinner. The red colour is no longer really obvious. Look at some seagulls with unusual black faces (what are they doing here!) Now getting VERY cold, with a bitterly cold wind blowing.. Back for dinner of good soup, and main course. Afterwards sit around talking, reading and writing diary. Have electricity for an hour or so, but don't put batteries on to charge straight away,, so they don't get fully charged. We are sharing the accommodation with the other group we're travelling with, and another group of non-English speakers going the other way. To bed about 10pm for a bad night's sleep.
Friday 7th Nov Laguna Colorado-near Salar de Uyuni
Woken soon after 4am by the other group's car being warmed up, and their departure about 5am. Dianne doesn't go back to sleep, and goes out to look at the sunrise, but she's too early. Both go out just before 6am, but it's a non-event, as the surrounding mountains ensure that we don't see the sun until it's well and truly risen. The lake no longer looks red, but is starting to get its colour back by the time we leave. It's freezing cold - we have on thermals, tops, and Polyfleeces, but we're still cold. Have breakfast about 7am (basically dry bread and jam), and away before 8am. Scenery is still very good, but not as spectacular as yesterday, as well as the fact that we've become a bit accustomed to it. Our first stop is the Arbol de Piedra - which is a lava rock outcrop which looks like a tree if you use a lot of imagination. It's at the edge of a group of interesting rock formations in the middle of a large sand drift. Climb out of that valley and into another where we stop at the edge of a fractured lava flow, which has wonderful coral-like pillows of green mossy looking button grass, some over a square metre in size. Guide leaves some bread on a rock, and a small animal, called a vizcacha, and looking like a rabbit with a long tail, which it can curl up, comes and eats it.



Continue on to Laguna Canapa, which wasn't anything special after what we've already seen. It is at 4115 metres. Next is Laguna Honda, which is 176kms from the border. Quite nice but we've been spoilt by spectacular lakes yesterday. Soon after pass two Frenchmen riding pushbikes. It is hard enough going in the car in the sand and rocks. They say the Swiss girl they're travelling with is too fast and is ahead.
Laguna Hedionda, at 4183 metres, is our next stop. We get out and walk along the edge, as there are lots of large flamingos right on the edge. This is the closest we've got to them, so take lots more photos.



Stop at Laguna Chiarkota for lunch - once again quite a few flamingos.
Continue on endlessly over a rough, dusty road. The car is stinking hot and airless as the driver has control of the electric windows, and they are closed. Eventually ask him to open them and he does. The change is mmediate and incredible. - now have some breeze, and much cooler (especially for Murray who is still wearing his thermals!)
For some time we have been able to see the active vent on Ollague Volcano, and we eventually get quite close, and stop on an old extensive lava field to take photos, but by this time the active vent is obscured by the near end of the mountain.
Get to Chiguana, the first salt lake without any water. Driving quite fast across the dusty brown surface



and observed what looked like a man-made building in the mirage ahead. Suddenly, the object materialsed as a train. The driver sped up - looked like he was going to try and beat the train, but was actually getting close enough for us to take a photo.
Soon after stopped at a small village and military checkpoint. Soldiers were in normal camouflage gear of khaki, black and green, the same as the mushroom-shaped concrete domes they lived in - camouflague not a lot of use in the barren salt flat.
On to San Juan (3760 metres) which looked very unloved, and comprised about a dozen unpaved streets in a rectangular grid, with houses of mud-brick, and mud-brick enclosed yards, with the result that the streets were unappealing mud-brick corridors. There was a reasonable-looking pub and hostel on a slight rise to the north of the town, and a town common with a fair-sized waterhole and football field. Most of the tours were stopping here for the night, but we continued on for another hour to the start of the salt-lake proper, as we were staying in a new hotel that had only been opened a month. Drove through ploughed, but very dry paddock, which were waiting for the rains, which come for three months, starting December. There were stone-fenced fields an incredible distance up the side of mountains - apparently they are to keep the llamas out of the potatoes.
Arrive at our hotel, all exhausted, about 5pm. It's at the edge of a small village of thatched roof, mud-brick houses. The hotel looks great - it's made from bricks cut out of salt, with brown bands of mud showing how much salt was produced each year (similar to a tree ring).



Inside, the table, chairs and bed platforms were all made out of salt, and the floor consisted of coarse granulated salt (a bit hard on bare feet!). The bathroom was not made of salt, but WAS tiled, beautifully clean, and for 5 bolivianas each, we could have a wonderful hot shower.
We put our bags in our room, pour ourselves a rum and coke, and sit outside to watch the world go by. Decide to walk down the street, and sit on the basketball court soaking in the atmosphere. Ten minutes later we hear our car's horn - everyone else is in, and we're off to see "the mummies". Turns out to be 500 year-old (maybe) skeletons, but with enough cartiledge and connective tissue to keep all the bones connected, which were buried in caves up in the hills. Later people lived in the caves, and there is a display of all the things they used in every-day life. Quite interesting. Back to hotel, where we have our lovely hot shower, which was sorely needed. Our hair has turned grey, and it is almost impossible to get a brush through it from the dust in it. It's still only 6.45pm, and dinner is at 7pm, so lay down for a short rest. Are woken at 7.30pm by people calling us to dinner. Had fallen asleep the minute our heads had hit the pillows. This has been a fantastic trip, but it's definitely tiring. Have a good dinner of thick vegetable soup, fried chicken, chips and rice. Talk to people from other tour group going other way for a while, then to bed for a very comfortable night's sleep..
Saturday 8th Nov Salar de Uyuni-Uyuni (Bolivia)
Wake at 5am, and turn over and go back to sleep, very glad that we all decided to start at 8am, rather than leaving now to watch the sunrise. Have breakfast (scrambled eggs today as well as the bread which is starting to show its age). Away soon after 8am, and before long we are on the Uyuni salt lake, after our guide had paid the gatekeeper, and unlocked the gate. At this stage the ground around us was a grey to brown dusty gypsum-covered surface with one built-up road across it, which looked more like a railway track. As we proceeded, the whole lake became an incredible, blinding white, just like snow. We then got off the road, and drove on to the salt surface proper, which was completely flat and smooth, so we could travel quite fast. Headed for an island outcrop in the distance which we could see sticking up through the mirage. Beyond this was an active volcano dominating the whole skyline - a photographer's dream! We passed a string of vehicles, sounding our burglar alarm siren (we didn't have a horn) as we did so, and arrived first at the Isla Pescado. Drove up off the salt and into a parking area in front of a collection of thatch-roofed buildings, and out to pay our entrance fee with Chilean money as we haven't been anywhere to get Bolivian money. Girl scores a major victory when she gives us a kilo of Chilean peso coins as change!
Word can't describe the wonderful vistas from here. The island itself is a rocky outcrop of aerated volcanic rock, covered with enormous cacti, a lot of which are flowering.



The tallest giant cactus which was 12 metres high was approximately 1200 years old, as they grow about 1 cm per year. A lot of cactus wood is used for construction around this area, so it makes you wonder how long this resource is going to be available seeing it takes so long to grow. The spines are up to 12 cm long - wouldn't like to be the person milling it!



There is a well-made walled path up to the summit, which is quite a climb in the high altitude. On the way up, it becomes obvious why they call it an island, as the sweep of the bay, and the point looks exactly like an island in a white sea. Have to restrain ourselves from taking too many photos as the views are so magnificent, but even so run out of camera memory, and have to find some previous photos to delete, which is not easy as they are all so great.
At the top take panorama shots right round the horizon - flowering cacti in the foreground, colourful birds, all surrounded by glistening white, with volcanoes and mountain ranges in the background. Will have to post some photos to travelpod when we work out how to do it!
Climb through a cave and natural arch (La Ventana) on the way down, and another great photo looking through the cave and out into the distance to the volcano. Murray has to hurry down to get another SD card for the camera and hurry back so we can take more photos. Then walk out onto the salt lake to get a closer look at it. Surprised to find just how firm it was. It was divided into rough hexagons about 70cms across, not unlike mud cracking when it dries, however the salt had actually squeezed out of the joints rather than leaving a void, so it must expand as it crystallises. Get far enough out to take a photo looking back at the island.
In the cafeteria, which looks like it's waiting for day tourists, we see a three-wheeled land yacht, probably propelled by parasail.
Back into van and drive for quite a few kilometres, along a track, defned only by tire rubber and Toyota oil, with just blinding white salt all around us, and island is almost out of site. Someone asks for some music so driver proceeds to try and fix tape deck while we're travelling at speed. After making a few new tracks, passengers decide no music would be just fine. Driver suddenly slows down and does a u-turn in the middle of nowhere, and finds what he's looking for, and we all hop out. There are number of holes dug in the salt, and filled to within 10cm of the surface with clear brine. Looking into the holes, you can see large salt crystals on the side of the holes, glittering in the sunlight. One hole which is about a metre by 50 cm, and two metres deep, continues out of site as a 30 cm natural channel. We are told the lake is 80 metres deep, with 12 metres of salt on the top. Guide gets the jack and jack handle out of the car, rolls up his sleeves and proceeds to chisel out salt crystals from the side of one of the holes. The individual cubic crystals are up to 2 cm across, and clumped together at various angles (not unlike thunder eggs we've seen in Morocco).



Colour is basically white to translucent, but with a little green and purple mineralisation in places. We're amazed by the whole area, and can't wait to do some reading to find out more. Guide offers quite a lot of explanation in Spanish, most of which we can't understand. Keep a small crystal block as a souvenir. As it dries out, looks more like a quartz sample than a salt sample.
Back into car for quite a few more kilometres. Road does a zig-zag at a wet churned-up area. We leave the car on the track and hop out, to look at some water holes right on the surface, with gas bubbling up through them, which the guide says is volcanic, but we can't smell anything. Whole surface area is soft and squishy - very different to previous holes we saw. Continue on to the originall salt hotel which is very similar to where we stayed last night. It is built on a mound of salt, which just looks like snow around a ski lodge. Hotel is only used as a tourist trap, and entry is one purchase at the expensive shop.
We're now getting close to the shore which we can see clearly. Another stop to see the manual harvesting of salt. Whole family is out, wearing balaclavas to protect from the salt, glare, wind and sun. They are using mattocks and shovels to take the top 5cm of salt off, and form piles 150 cm high. This allows the brine to drain out of it. When it is reasonably dry it is shovelled into a truck. The depressions formed by this operation apparently refill with salt after about a month, and the process is repeated.
From here we start to lose the hard salt surface, and eventually becomes grey dust and gravel. Stop at a small village, and for a small donation, a young girl shows us how they dry the salt by using scrubby plants as fuel to put a fire under a large rusty steel pan. It is dried for about half an hour, then is put through a small hammer mill to reduce it to fine powder. They then blend iodine with it, and package it in half kilo plastic bags. Village is a collection of mud-brick huts on the dusty plain. Quite a few women in traditional short bustle skirts. Some are wearing traditional bowler hats, but a lot are now wearing more broad-rimmed hats. All the kids have hats on - more so than we remember from 10 years ago - the message about sun damage has reached even here.
Continue for another 29 kilometres, beside the railway till we reach Uyuni. Reach a god-forsaken collection of mud huts that we hope isn't Uyuni. Fears are not allayed when we stop at the Pamela Tours depot, and we're taken inside and lunch is served. Building is half way between being built and falling down, and the yard has a sort-of workshop and dead Toyota, and the toilet has been smashed by yahoo (guess who - our lady leaves us in no doubt as to who they were ) tourists. Guide then drives us into town proper, which starts to look more like a town, and improves as we get closer to the centre. Dust road becomes brick-paved, and the centre turns out to be quite nice. Shown where the bus terminal is, then driven to the far side of town to the "train cemetery" where there are the remains of the engines from the steam era of the Bolivian railways.
Dropped off at the bus station, and say goodbye to our guide, Pedro, who has been great. There are a number of tour companies, all doing an almost identical trip. We'd heard a number of stories about guides being drunk etc, but seems like it applies to all companies occasionally. Getting a good guide is the answer, not a good company.
Get a basic, but good hotel nearby. Has hot showers, but only when the water is running, which is not very often, and unfortunately, not this night.
Drop our gear, and walk around town. Everything is closed for lunch (it's 2pm), but opens soon after. Get money from a cambio, so can book our bus ticket to Potosi for tomorrow at 10am. Do an hour's internetting, and then sit in park for a while, but starting to get cold, so back to room for some diary.
The altitude, dry air, and being either too hot or too cold is starting to take its toll. Everyone has to constantly put cream on their lips and noses (hard to put cream on the inside of the nose, where it is really needed ). Dianne also has cracked heels, despite putting sorbolene on them regularly.
Out later for dinner (Murray has "yama", which is how the locals pronounce what we call llama). Do another hours internetting, and to bed about 11pm, for a very interrupted night's sleep, possibly due to drinking a litre of coke before bed.