Salt flat tour from Tupiza
Trip Start
Feb 23, 2008
1
18
43
Trip End
Jul 04, 2008
Tupiza,
Tupiza,
Bolivia
Saturday, April 19, 2008
It is a cute, one horse country town. It is set in red mountains, sort of like Sodona. Its definitely not a bad place to be, but we ended up booking a tour the next day so we left.
The tour is a 4 days spending everyday in a Jeep 4x4 with the driver and the cook. We ended up in a really good group, Genevieve from Montreal, Ela from Poland (but grew up in the US) and Lucas from France. It was good we had Genevieve so she could play translator if necessary.
Day 1-mostly driving through small towns and desert spotted with cactus
Chris in Tupiza
. We saw a lot of Alpacas! It was a total of 7 hours in the car. The first night we slept in an empty house in a small village. We tried to play soccer and basketball with the local kids but they kept telling us to leave. I guess they see enough tourists! For dinner that night the cook made each of us a steak bigger than a plate (although most of it was too tough to eat) and Ela, the vegetarian, one fried egg. Ha. It was really cold outside so we spent the night huddled in a small room drinking tea.Day 2-12 hours in the car! Then the guide rushed us through the whole day. We entered the National Park and drove past many great lakes full of pink flamingos. We also saw Vicunas running though the desert. Then we went swimming in a hot springs and saw Laguna Verde, called so for its great green color. We also went to a vast land full of smoking geysers. It was all very strange! That night, we slept together in one room in a bare bones hostel. The cook took forever to make our dinner, but we didn't care because there was a store in town selling wine. This town was so cold we spent the night drinking wine and hanging out by the wood burning stove. Just don't ask Lucas to stoke the fire or you will end up with a room full of smoke! None of us could sleep well because it was freezing! I couldn't feel my feet all night.
how romantic . .
Day 3-Another 12 hours in the car. We woke up and there was no water and every toilet in the place was full of "stuff". This day we went to Laguna Colorado. It is a red hued lake that is full of pink flamingos. It is really a sight. It is so crazy to see all these flamingos in the middle of the desert and the colors are so beautiful. Today we also entered the Uyuni Salt Flats. We stayed this night in a house made of salt. It was so interesting so see salt walls, floors, even beds. We stayed at the house with other tour groups. Lucas and Chris went to find beer and there wasn't much left so they bought the place out! Then we felt bad drinking it in front of people so we sat in our room all night drinking (we all shared a room again). Again it was good we had something to drink because our dinner wasn't ready until the other groups were going to bed!
