Stuck at the Salt Flats

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  Uyuni, Bolivia
Wednesday, August 13, 2008

The train ride south from Oruro was one of the transportation highlights of this trip, at least until it got dark. Beautifully bleak scenery, and for a few minutes a flock of flamingoes flew alongside the train. I arrived in Tupiza late Friday night, and promptly crawled into bed in order to keep from freezing. The next morning there were lots of tourists piling into SUVs to begin their tours of this desolate corner of the country. I foolishly decided to have a leisurely breakfast and look into tours for the following day. I hadn't considered that since the following day was referendum day, there would be no tours departing. In fact, the country passed a law forbidding any sort of travel, by train, plane, boat, or car for the 12 hours before and after the election. So I was stuck in Uyuni until Monday. Not the ideal place to be stranded as there's next to nothing to do in this tiny, frigid town. I spent several hours a day (OK, twice a day) at Minuteman Pizza, a great little restaurant run by an expat from Boston

driving

. Best pancakes I've had in forever and of course great pizza too. I also met a couple from New Zealand (who live in London) who were similarly stuck on Sunday and we walked out to the nearby "train graveyard" that afternoon.

When Monday finally rolled around, I joined a tour group consisting of 3 Lithuanians (who primarily spoke Polish), a Chilean guy, and his French girlfriend. The six of us and our tour guide Bernardo rolled out of Uyuni late that morning in our Toyota Land Cruiser. Every guide in the region appears to own the same make and model. We were beginning a 3 day, 2 night tour of the far southwestern corner of the country, which contains some of the most otherworldly scenery on the planet. First stop was the Salar de Uyuni, the world's largest salt flat. The remains of a prehistoric salt lake, now it's 4,000 square miles of blinding white. We visited an island in this former lake, which is now covered with cactus, and spent the night in a hostel constructed of salt blocks. I didn't take one of the obligatory photos that plays with perspective in this land without points of reference, but you can see some good examples of what can be done here and here.

On the second day we visited several lagunas, culminating with Laguna Colorada, a lake dyed bright red by algae

skinny legs

. It's one of several lagunas we visted that day that are home to large flocks of flamingos. The second night was even colder than the first (somewhere near 0°F) and we were up at 5am to drive to the geyser basin, which sits at an elevation of over 16,000 feet. This was followed by what I felt at the time was possibly the best moment of my entire life, when we arrived at a natural thermal pool and I felt truly warm for the first time in days. Somehow I never even felt cold climbing out of the water, drying off and getting dressed while exposed to the freezing air. The rest of the group was headed to Chile, so after a stop at Laguna Verde, we dropped them off at the border. Bernardo and I then began the 7 hour drive back to Uyuni. It wasn't a cheap 3 days (thanks to my sister and grandparents for funding it with b-day money), but definitely a memorable experience.

Warning, there are a lot of flickr photos from this trip.

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