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4 day jeep tour of the Bolivian Altaplano - Day 1
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Day One
Our 3 israeli comrades must have found someone else to go with (probably more of their own kind, as where you find one israeli, you inevitably find a dozen more) as our jeep buddies for the next 4 days turned out to be 2 germans (Nicole and Jerry) and a frenchman (Raphael). Jerry is about 20 and doing social work in Chile instead of military service (he's a conscientious objector). Nicole is the same age as Kat and working with Jerry. She's been a nurse and social worker but, like a lot of the people travelling over the age of 30, is looking for a change of direction upon returning. Raphael I think is the youngest. Fortunately for us they all speak good Spanish (Or 'Castellana' as the Latinos prefer to call it). Despite assurances to the contrary, our driver and guide speaks next to no English and Jerry is kindly translating for us.
Setting off we climb rapidly and get some great views of the crazy landscape around Tupiza (Valle de los machos). We're travelling as a loose convoy of 5 jeeps. Kat and I are sat in the back of our jeep, which means we don't get a great view out of the windows and are sat over the real axle which means we get to feel every bump along the way. Our jeep is usually at the back - we attribute this to our driver probably being the mechanic. And boy was he busy. He wasn't needed for the first incident - a jeep in front got a puncture after only 30 minutes - however, after only two hours we suffer our first serious casualty. The car with the 3 irish lads in has suffered some sort of engine problem and despite efforts by the mechanics we're forced to leave them behind. We don't hear what happens to them until half way through the second day.
Once we've finish climbing and reached about 4000m, which is pretty much the base level for the altiplano the scenary has gone through several mutations. We're in Llama country now. The landscape is more gentle and rolling, although a hard moss replaces grass as the meal of choice for our curious Llama friends. As we pass them it's almost like a Mexican wave as one after another they raise their heads to see what it causing the commotion (perhaps they only have 6 second memories like goldfish...). At about 2pm we stop for lunch and all immediately run off to find somewhere to pee or poo. Inconvieniently we're on a plain in the Ahuanapampa valley so there is precious litte privacy... Lunch was lunchean meat sandwiches, really tasty actually with all the veg freshly prepared and plenty to go around. At this point we get talking to a New Zealand couple, Debbie and Derek, who are suffering in their jeep from the constant chatter of 2 israeli girls.
It's also around this time that we're able to work out the mixture of nationalities. Having lost the one jeep with 3 Irish, a kiwi and a swiss girl we're now 4 jeeps containing 17 people - 2 brits (us), 2 kiwis, 2 germans, 1 french and the remaining 10 are Israeli. 8 of these had just finished their military service (although the two travelling with the kiwis were trying to distance themselves a little from the more noisy 6 others). The other 2, Itamar and Pez were both in their late 20s and weren't too impressed with their countrymen. After lunch we pretty much just travel in the jeep through similar countryside until we finally arrive at our destination, the small village of San Antonio de Lipez at about 7pm. As promised the dorms were basic to say the least. Basically a mud / clay brick hut with 7 beds in. Absolutely no form of heating and by this point we're at about 4500m and it's getting decidedly nippy. Dinner doesn't turn up until 9:30pm, so we're left to our own devices which basically meant picking up some beer at the village shop and staring at the stars. Matt impressed many of the other travellers by talking knowledgably (and, on occasion, accurately) about the night sky. It was also fun to watch the village children playing with their toys (this mainly involved them rolling around car tyres).
It turned out that one of the Israeli girls had the same rash as Kathryn - so we reckon it was an allergic reaction to something in the hostel - probably the washing detergent used for the linen. She had been so concerned she'd gone to hospital before setting off to get some jabs and was running around looking for someone to administer them. Eventually one of the villagers gave her the shot. Matt was very proud that Kat hadn't needed shots - she's harder than a trained Israeli killing machine! Also, a lot of people were suffering from altitude sickness - throughout the four days various people at various times had splitting headaches - even people like Jerry, who were initially fine, succumbed in bouts. Kat and I consider ourselves very lucky that neither of us really suffered at all.
For dinner the inhabitants of our jeep and the kiwi's jeep shared a cold room together for a surprisingly tasty meal of brothy soup followed by pasta and some sort of Italian/Mexican hybrid sauce - it was certainly interesting. It wasn't long after the meal that we were all tucked up very tight in our sleeping bags - both Kat and I kept on our clothes as well for extra warmth. Matt was starting to regret buying his very portable, but only fit for a british summer, sleeping bag... More thumbnails ...
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| 20. | 4 day jeep tour of the Bolivian Altaplano - Day 1 - Uyuni, Bolivia Feb 24, 2008 (  15 ) |
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