Salar de Uyuni Tour - Day 2
Trip Start
Nov 29, 2007
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41
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Trip End
Jun 24, 2008
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Laguna Colorado,
Bolivia
Friday, February 8, 2008
We finally got up at 5.10am, but I had not slept at all and felt terrible. Seems that everyone had trouble sleeping, except Epi! Breakfast was a little quieter than dinner the night before and the food was not as good either. We finally set off at 6.30am, cold, tired and grumpy!!!
Our first stop today was a little eerie again. It was basically a ghost town. It was where the original village of San Antonio de Lípez had been in the 16th Century, but the town had been abandoned long ago. Twenty years ago they decided to re build the village on the old sight, but on doing so a number of people got very ill and people started going blind and other weird things. The villagers believed that it was haunted by the devil (el diablo) and abandoned the village and moved up to the village we stayed in last night. Not the cheeriest of morning walks, but the freezing cold woke everyone up!
We then headed up to Kollpa Laguna, which I think was the highest point of our trip at some 4800 m, then it was onto Rio Amargo, hot springs where we all took a hot bath in the springs. It was nice to feel the warm water as we were still pretty high up and we are so bloody cold! You seem to go from hot to cold about 20 times and hour!!!! You are only allowed to stay in the hot springs for a maximum of 15 minutes as you can get very dizzy with the altitude. We didnīt even stay in that long, but I had another banging headache when I got out. Lunch was really nice, but a struggle to eat.
After lunch we were off to Salar de Chavili and then to Laguna Verde, which is just beautiful - even in the cold! In the background we could see Volcano Licancabur (5868m) and on one of the volcanoes we could see the highest road in the World!
We drove past Desierto de Dahli, which was pretty cool, we asked Geraldo to stop to take a quick photo and then it was on to Sol de Maņana to see the boiling mud and the geysers. Even the ground was hot and of course every where stank of sulphur! Then we headed off to our second hospedaje, just past Laguna Colorado (which is red). The red is due to pigments of algae and thin segments deposited at the bottom of the laguna, again a pretty awesome sight!
We arenīt staying in a village tonight, it is basically a bunch of hostels for these tours. It is basic again, but our room is ok. We ate together in a big room just outside our bedroom and Rafael lit a fire, which was very welcome! There is not much to see here, but we went for a quick walk as my head was killing, again! We have been chewing coca leaves everyday to try and help with the altitude sickness, but it doesnīt cure it all together.
We did get more sleep than the previous night though, so that was good news. Up early again tomorrow!!!!
Comments
Sorry about your headaches!!
You really are getting about aren't you! The headaches sound horrid. You will be so full of energy when you come down with all the red blood cells you will be making now!! Sent you an email too. Keep smiling through!
Suntan lotion!!!!!
Get the impression that it wsn't coming in that useful. Good idea to purchase more Ibuprofen though. Shame you were ill, but it looks fab.
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