Salar de Uyuni

  Uyuni, Bolivia
Thursday, February 14, 2008

me at Salar de Uyuni lake

After sloshing around my seat on the unbearably long and uncomfortable bus ride from La Paz to Uyuni for a good 13 hours I thought surely I had seen the worst of Blovian roads... think again! The next three days were spent primarily in the back of an old Toyota jeep, bouncing up and down dirt roads in Salar de Uyuni and the vast desert that surrounds it.

Our bus deposited us at the bus terminal in Uyuni early in the morning. 'Bus terminal' being a dusty intersection of this altogether non-happening town. We were supposed to be in the middle of a desert, but at 8 in the morning at that altitude it felt more like being in the Andes. I quickly sniffed out three other passengers who had booked the same tour as myself. Considering everyone else got picked up by their guides within the first 15 minutes, it was hard to miss one another. But we all had our clear instructions from our La Paz booking agencies to wait at the 'bus terminal' to be picked up, and like faithful westerners we sat and waited.

truck and salt piles at the lake

Two hours later, and five layers of clothes less, we thought we might walk over to the mountain, because the mountain sure as hell was not coming to us. After a short walk through town we arrived at the tour agency - sure enough, our guide/driver/cook Luis was sitting there waiting for us, as were another two passengers, who apparently had more common sense (or experience with South America) than us. Then off we were.

funny photos in the Salar

Uyuni, by the way, is a god-forsaken place that I never want to visit again. It boasts only 100,000 inhabitants, but its dirt roads are wider than those of La Paz with its 1.5 million citizens. While we were waiting I took a walk around to check it out. I found out that an ATM had recently been installed on one of the main streets, and was being zealously guarded by a policeman. So recent, in fact, that my 2008 guide book warns to take extra cash as there is no ATM and hardly anywhere to change cash.

I was also curious enough to wander into the local post office. This was basically the building on whose corner we spent 2 hours waiting. It strangely reminded me of a post office in a small village on the Danube in Bulgaria - or, for that matter, in any small village in Bulgaria. The counters were made of wood that was rotting to the core and would surely be blown over by a gust of slightly stronger wind. On the other side of the counter were three ageing women dressed very formally. They hardly had anything to do, but all three of them had this an air of officiality and importance about them that you can only experience at a government counter in the smallest villages. Those of you who have lived under communism probably have a good picture in your mind of what I am describing.

laguna colorada

At the end of this three day trip I was headed to Chile. In fact, I was altogether happy to leave Bolivia behind. On the morning of day 3 we were to drive within 7km of the border with Chile, so I made arrangements to be dropped off there. This would spare me having to endure the ride back to Uyuni, covering in 8 hours what would take us 2 days to traverse on the way into the desert.

For being a tour of the salt flats, I was disappointed to discover that we would actually spend surprisingly little time of the 3 day trip at Salar de Uyuni - which, during this rainy season, actually turns into a lake - shallow, but a lake nonetheless. We were blessed with cloudless skies throughout our trip, and the blinding whiteness of the salt started hurting our eyes very soon after the jeep trodded into the waters. Somewhere out in the middle of the lake we reached a restaurant (made of salt blocks) where we fooled around taking funny photos, and ate lunch. I had to tread very carefully in order not to get any of the salt onto my still fresh wound from the crazy bike ride at Coroico.

shadows in the desert

We also observed the locals gather salt with shovels and throw it onto trucks, which then took it to the nearby rudimentary processing plants. There was not an inch of exposed skind on these men and women - they wore full on ski masks, sunglasses, gloves and long sleeve shirts. As we discovered, its impossibly easy to burn from the sun's reflection on the salt.

My fellow passengers found the landscape fascinating throughout our trip. I admit it was pretty, and some of the rock formations were downright cool, but I have to weigh that against being tossed around in the back of an old Toyota jeep (that does not have air conditioning but whose windows must stay up to avoid dust getting in the car) for 8 hours each day. The mineral rich environment has produced some rather impressive colors, and that was the highlight of the remainder of the tour. One lake we visited was bright red, another - green and still, reflecting the snow capped volcanoe peaks surrounding it. The desert seemed to change color around every bend. On the afternoon of the second day, after we had reached our resting spot for the night, I took a walk around and was amazed to see a clear demarcation in the ground - on one side, the desert was brown-reddish; on the other - clear orange.

whole group right b4 separation

Vicuņas roam freely around these high altitudes. I guess that alone was worth the uncomfortable and lengthy ride. Vicuņas are from the camel family and look a little like llamas, except far more gracious, with shorter fur and longer necks - actually more like a cross between a deer and a llama.

Our accomodations were beyond basic. On the first night there was no water at all, and on the second night we had a sink to wash up in. It was freezing cold both nights, so I slept with all my clothes on, including hat and gloves. But who'se counting... it's all an adventure, right???

tree rock

So that's Bolivia, my friends. I didn't see all that much, but then again - I've seen plenty of misery in other parts of the world, so that does not excite or fascinate me as much as it might some other people. Sure there is more to experience there, just not by me. Moving on to Chile!!!