Put Me Down!!
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Uyuni,
Bolivia
Friday, February 22, 2008
For the last four days, we have played a fun game called "How Does Megan React to Altitude?" Before we get into the details of play, here are the results: up to 3000m, she oes just great, no problems whatsoever. Atitudes of 3500m or so require a day to get used to, and you probably shouldn't pick her for your sports team because running around at such heights is not her forte. Above 4000m, it doesn't seem to matter how long she chills out, she'll frequently have killer headaches, nausea, and move very slowly.
I have spent the last four days travelling from Tupiza to Uyuni in Bolivia by Toyota Land Cruiser. Yes, you can add that to my carbon footprint. We began our trip at 3000m, rapidly descended to 2700m and spent the next two days ascending to 5000m before finally coming into Uyuni at 3600m. This relatively popular tour (thee Jeeps -I will be refering to the vehicles as Jeeps-left Tupiza on Tuesday) consistes of four to six tourists, a driver/guide, often speaking only Spanish, and a cook. My group was myself, Rosio from Argentina, Jen and Karen from the UK, Vicente our driver, and Profie our cook.
We left at 9 am on Tuesday, along with everyone else, but the Jeeps get spread out along the road and with only three, it doesn't feel crowded anyway. Almost instantly, we hit the Quebrada de Palala and El Sillar and climb windy, harrowing roads up red-faced mountains. The views are spectacular, though somtetimes you wonder just how much you should be leaning out the window to get that special shot. At the top, we come close to ten or so condors, circling some kind of carrion further down the hill. I am not a bird person, but for these guys, I'll make an exception. Their wingspan can reach 10 ft and they can carry 20 kg of meat in their talons effortlessly. They put on quite a show, riding a thousand feet of air currents, and we all learn for the first of many times this trip just how hard it is to photograph wildlife.
Our travels continue through more desoltate scenery until Vicente brings the Jeep to a sudden halt. Flat tire. It's not punctured, but the valve is leaking. While he expertly changes the tire (we'll add mechanic to his job description) I attempt to photograph the surrounding wild llamas. Throught our trip, we see thousands of llamas, most domesticated, with coloured tassles pinned into their ears, denoting ownership. Llama fur is a little too thick to brand. I had always imagined llamas as passably cute. They're really not. They're often multi-coloured into splotches with shapggy, matted hair. Even the babies aren't exceptionally cute. But they are ubiquitous and I suppose they're not too hard on the eyes.
Tire change, we continue dow nthe road until encountering another Jeep with a similar wheel affliction. Being good people, we stop to help. Thiss route is really hard on vehicles and even the best operators have frequent break downs. On the first day alone, our trio of Jeeps has four break downs. Fortunately, in addition to luggage, two huge jugs of petrol, and a propane tank, each Jeep carries a spare tire on top. Our group quickly ascertains that Vicente is the best driver of the bunch. Not only is he exceedingly cautious on sketchy roads and an efficient driver on better dirt tracks, but the other drivers always consult him for their vehicle maintenance. Conversely, when we had a flat, they just drove by.
Lunch time finds us on a lovely plateau and Profie whips our Bolivian meat sandwiches and a salad. Unfortunately, this is where altitude sickness hits me. The cucumbers look so good (I love cucumbers!) but I feel sick to my stomach. I drink some flat Coke (Karen correctly assures me it will make me feel better) instead.
In the afternoon, we pass through several villages, buildings made of mud bricks, and more stunning scenery before arriving in San Antonio de Lipez, our home for the night. Like the other villages we have passed, there is no external electircity here, but each house is connected to a solar panel, givingenough power for lights at night. There is also running water and a flush toilet, though these may be powered by gravity.
We are at 4200m (13,800 ft) and it is cold. We go for a short walk around town, return in time for Porfie's dinner, and go to bed, exhausted, at eight. Wake up call is 4:50 am. Walking outside to the bathroom, the starts are stunning in the middle-of-nowhere night time sky. We eat a simple breakfast and pack. Vicente ties everything on top of the Jeep and we're off before six, just as the sun rises.
Half an hour later, we're at the ruins of San Antonio, a once exceedingly wealthy 17th century mining town. We slowly (surprising how hard it is to walk around up here) wander the stone houses and churhces, wearing hats and mittens, watching viscacha, rabbit-like animals bound around the ruins. Vicente explains that the miners ued to bring food on llamas from Tarija, a three-month trip away. We wonder why they didn't just use horses until he pouints out that it's too cold for horses up here and there isn't anything for them to eat. The twon is considered haunted, Porfie explains, and locals won't come here at night. Fair enough, but maybe they stay away at night because there's nothing for 30km around, too...
We pass several more desolate towns and hit a photo op at 4855 m. I ask Rosio to snap one of me, but my smile looks more like a grimace. The altitude's bringing on a headache. For lunch, we stop at aguas calientes: hot springs. While we rinse off a day and half worth of dust, Porfie prepares a hot lunch. It's so lovely being on a tour and having all the details taken care of.
After lunch, it's off to Laguna Verde (green lake), 4400m, windy, cold, and the closest I'll get to Chile this trip. Volcan Licancabur behind the lake rises to 5950m and is half in that other country. It is possible for even beginnrs to summit this mountain, but why you would want to is beyond me. I hate climbing pretty much anything. Vicente tells us he has been up it five times. Hanging out at altitude, I am developing an increased appreciation for people who summit Everest without oxygen (though I think they're a little loony). High concentrations of lead, sulfur, arsenic, and calcium carbonates give the lake its greeen colour and keep it liquid down to -70 degrees Farenheit - yes, it gets that cold here. Again, why would anyone want to climb that volcano?
From the lake, we climb to the Geisers Sold de Maņana, the highest point of our trip at 5000m (that's 16,400m). Yellowstone easily beats these mud pots, but staggering about in the crazy wind is an intense experience. The headache is full force right now, and I'm sure the oxygen shortage is not being helped by the cold I've developed. Just try getting sufficient air through clogged sinuses at this altitude.
For the night, we descend to 4300m in Huayllajara. Tonight, all three Jeeps are at the same hostel (if you could call it that). Some Italians strike up a game of futbol with the local kids, some girls buy local jewelery, and at dinner, we compare the food our cooks have made us. The Canadians think their guide told them of a lunar eclipse at 9:30, so we procure a couple bottles of wine and stay up drinking. It appears, the Canadians aren't so hot at Spanish, though, and at 10:00, no eclipse in sight, we call it a night.
I had hoped my headache would disappear overnight, but no luck. Instead, the morning finds me in dire need of both ibuprofen and gravol. The breakfast pancakes look lovely, but I can't eat them. I've got nothing on Karen, though, who spent most of the night in the bathroom and who spends most of the day sleeping in the Jeep.
Today is flamingo day and our first stop is the red Laguna Colrada. Andean lakes are filled with flamingoes who eke nutrients out of their salty brine. Kind of challenges your tropical perceptions, eh? These flamingoes are noisy creatures, but they fly away from us before we can get particularly close, and being the first tour of the day, we inadvertently scare all the birds away from the other groups, too. Jen even manages to ward off four llamas who had been standing around. Fortunately, we have five more flamingo lakes to visit.
By the time we get to the third lake, I am convinced that if the Jeep goes over one more bump, my head will just explode and put me out of my misery. My drugs aren't helping. I leave everyone else to visit more pink birds and fall asleep. This is the low point for me. Most anywhere else in the world, one would ascend during the day, but sleep at a lower altitude at night, offering some relief. We're on a plateau. I haven't been below 4000m in two days and it hurts. Somehow, magic is worked in my sleep, though, and I wake up with headache fading and improving spirits. I have finally acclamated!
Later, we stop at the Arbol de Piedra and other rocks randomly placed in the desert, and I actually feel like climbing them! Jen, Rosio, and I clamber about taking pictures of each other as ever increasing numbers of Jeeps arrive. We are now on the same route as tours out of Uyuni which are much mroe popular, hence the added number of people. Fortunately, Vicente has a plan .For lunch, he takes us to the Laguna Negro in a wonderfully tranquil setting. It's the perfect place for a picnic and at first ,we assume other groups will be turning up shortly, but htey never appear. Apparently Laguna Negro isn't on the standard tour.
Just past Laguna Negro, we hit a road. A real road! Granted, it's still dirt, but Vicente races down it (safely) honking the horn to get straying llamas out of the way, their red ear tassles fluttering as they run off. Our final stop of the day is the Valley of Rocks, which is just that: gorgeous scenery and lots of red rocks to climb around.
In the evening, we have our choice of staying in an ecologically sensitive salt hotel (a hotel made entirely of salt) or a basic hotel, but one with decent bathroom facilities. Given Karen's state, we opt for the latter, which proves to be quite lovely and as an added bonus, offers the first showers since leaving Tupiza (for an extra 60 cents) and there's even hot water! Night in the desert begins when the sun goes down around seven, and by eight, we're drinking and partying with the other tour groups, there's even some karokee going on. Of course, early starts mean early bed times, and we're all tucked in and asleep by ten.
Our last day is salt flat day. Vicente loads our packs on top of the Jeep one last time and we set off for Uyuni. We stop in twon to buy bus tickets to Potosi before heading to the Salar de Uyuni: a salt flat covering 12,106 square kilometers and formed when an ancient lake evaporated. Now is the wet season and the Salar is flooded, amking it difficult for tours to cross as they do when it's dry. Instead, we drive through foot high water as far as the only salt hotel remaining on the flat. Salt hotels used to abound, but as they had no decent way to dispose of their waste, the government has been shutting them down. This one alone remains as a museum, though it's possible to stay there for $25/night, an exorbintant price in Bolivia.
White and covered in water as they are, the salt flats reflect the sky almost perfectly, making objects in the distance appear to float and eliminating the horizon. We spend a good amount of time jumpin inot the air in front of the hotel and mtaking pictures, going for interesting effects.
Instead, the hotel beds are raised up on blocks of salt and table and chairs are made of the same material - which unfortunately sounds cooler than it looks. Nonetheless, more pictures are taken before we head back to the Jeep. Vicente has taken our packs off the top and we pile on for the drive back across the flat, our bare feet salty white after wading in the water. We pass salt extractors along the way, men and women piling salt into small mountains above the water to dry and then loading it onto "the oldest trucks in Bolivia" as Vicente puts in. Each year, 20,000 tons of salt is extracted from the flat this way.
Back in Uyuni, after an amzing four days, we say goodbye to Vicente and Porfie who being the five-hour drive back to Tupiza, and prepare ourselves for the bus journey to Potosi.
Logistics:
For anyone thinking about doing a southwest circuit tour, I would highly recommend leaving from Tupiza. Uyuni is overflowing with operators making it difficult to select a good one and all the sigths will be more crowded as Uyuni sends out 15-20 Jeeps with six people each per day while Tupiza sends out 1-5 Jeeps with four people each per day. The Tupiza tours are also a day longer, including the Quebrada and El Sillar, which offer a different kind of scenery from the rest of the trip, and the ruins ofSan Antonio, which I found pretty interesting. The standard tour from Tupiza in low season is $15o/pax for four people to a Jeep and $130 for five. This includes food, transport, park admission, accommodation, soft drinks, and sweets. The things I spent money on were wine, my shower, and tip. Four is a lovely number in a Jeep - there's plenty of room to spread out - but five or even six would be comfortable. The other advantage to four is that each person gets a window.
There are significantly fewer operators in Tupiza than in Uyuni. Nonethelss, you will be approached at the bus station. Hotel Mitru has been running the tours the longest (under the company Tupiza Tours) and as such, charges $10 more than everyone else. Looking at the Mitru tour, I couldn't see what made it better, but $10 isn't that much. Another good operator is El Grano del Oro, though the group seemed disappointed by the food this time. Valle de Hermoso operates an over-priced hostel in Tupiza (dorms there are more expensive than private rooms at El Grano del Oro) and runs frequent tours (their HI affiliation attracts people) that get consistently poor reviews. At the root of their problem are vehicles slightly more likely to break down and no requirement for their drivers to be mechanics. Believe me, when you're in the middle of the desert, you want your driver to be a mechanic. La Torre (the people I went with) require their 15 drivers to be mechanics. I found them a wonderful company and couldn't have been happier with my tour. All of the above operators have tours leaving every 1-2 days, and with the exception of Valle de Hermoso, you can't really go wrong. In the end, I'm sure a lot of the success of the tour depends on the personalities of the driver, cook, and your fellow passengers. I was lucky in that my five other people were great.
As a final note, THERE IS NO ATM IN TUPIZA! Bring money with you! Bolivian ATMs will dispense US dollars or Bolivianos and it's usually cheaper to pay for trips in Dollars.
