San Pedro to Uyuni by jeep
Trip Start
May 27, 2008
1
13
26
Trip End
Sep 06, 2008
Uyuni,
Bolivia
Tuesday, July 8, 2008
Jeep trip to Uyuni, Bolivia from San Pedro de Atacama
We set off from San Pedro at 8am with a company called Estrella del Sur (they were excellent and would recomend to anyone) the trip started with a bus ride from San Pedro to the Bolivian border, we had breakfast here high up in the mountains and then were split into groups to transfer into the jeeps. We were with 2 australian guys, Chris and PJ, Brenda from the US and Sung Hee from Korea who were all really nice also in our jeep was our cook for the trip Amaelia and of course Abet (no idea of the spelling) our driver who was good the whole trip. The first couple of stops were at lakes, Laguna Blanca which was surprisingly white and Laguna Verde which was strangley enough green both were stunning. we then saw the Dali Rock Dessert so called after Salvador Dali the spanish painter that painted them on several occasions (right up my street :-) next on the itinery was Polques hot springs, which I'll admit I was a bit dubious to go for a swim in since, although it was sunny it was freezing cold becuase of the wind. but we both braved it and changed into swimwear and jumped in, it was lovely a perfect temperature I really didn't want to get out and when we did it was so cold! After we'd dried off it was back in the jeep to the next place which was Geyser Sol de Manana, a Geyser Basin which was pretty cool and looked like something from Jurassic park.
We arrived at our hostal, Hualla Jara at about 3pm and at an altitude of 4300m we were all feeling it with headaches and general crappiness, but it wasn't to bad we had something to eat then set out to the Red Lagoon or Laguna Colorada, this was one hell of a sight the waters were a deep red and there were parts that were iced over which were a bright white then standing in the water were bright pink flamingos all of this against a barren brown landscape and bright blue sky, wicked!To top it off there was a Llama herd by the lake shore, all of this at 4300m above sea level, madness!
After this it was back to the hostel. I didn't sleep at all that night I got a bad case of altitude sickness and was up the whole night I wont go into detail as it wasn't pleasant! All 6 of us didn't get much sleep that night either due to the cold (it was Mucho Freeo) or the altitude. To try and explain what this hostel was like might be quite difficult, the 6 of us slept in one room which was cool literally cool since it was about 3 degrees C at just 6pm I wouldn't like to guess the min temp it was that night. The beds were wooden slats with a 5mm mattress with 2 blankets luckily we all had sleeping bags as well or extra blankets, the toilets were outside around the back in a shed where all the water or other liquid stuff... iced over at night. Anyway it was definately an experience! one thing I'll always remember was seeing my first shooting star on one of my wanders that night. The night sky was even brighter here than it was on Easter Island you could see the milky way stretching right accross the sky not having an artificial light in sight and being in the middle of nowhere helped.
The following day we all got up bleary eyed but ready for another day had pancakes for breakfast then got in the jeep, our first stop was the Stone Tree or Arbol de Piedra which was erm weird, I wasn't really sure what to think to be honest but then it was the morning and you know what I'm like in the morning! It was basically a weird rock formation that resembled a tree shape (surprisingly enough). Next we saw 4 more lagoons called as a group, Lagunas Altiplanicas, all very beautiful and our cameras were working overtime. Ollague Volcano was our next stop and the first time I've ever seen an active volcano, there was smoke coming out of it but luckily no lava flow! After that we drove over the Salar de Chiguana. Which is a mini salt flat. the hostel that night was actually a salt hotel, built of yep you guessed it salt blocks, which was pretty cool had another nice meal consisting of chicken, rice and roasts (I was definatley grateful about the food we'd been cooked on this trip especially after reading some blogs about the jeep trips and the quality of the food not being to great) we were all much more comfortable that night, the hotel was warmer and cosier plus we were alot lower at about 3600m above sea level so sleep was possible! yay!
Just a note (I am not the best at writing these things) but Rae forgot to mention that she managed to sleep on a road that was the equivilent of the Himilayas (SP) the road had rocks the size of beach balls and it was at about 30 degrees it took about an hour and a half to navigate with her head banging on the window every 20 seconds, I have been told that she can sleep anywhere but this really was impressive.
I've been told i have to write some!!
Day 3 was up at dawn and out to load the jeep as usual we were the last group to leave (our driver was very good and safe but sometimes a little too laid back when we needed to get somewhere, i dont think the sunrise waits for anyone!!) we made our way out on to the Salar salt plains and just about made it to the position we needed to be at before the sun came up (me stressing about nothing again!).Another sun rise for the albumn i couldnt believe how big the salt flats were. Not only area but aparently 15m thick as well. After the sun set we set of for fishermans island stuck right in the middle of the Salar, and covered in cacti. We wandered right around it waiting for the sun to warm us up a bit, i'm guessing it was around -5 stayed here for about an hour and stuffed our faces again, and played around with the cameras using the white background to scew the perspective and make things bigger or smaller than they are, i could have spent hours messing about here.
Then it was off to a salt museum which used to be a hotel until it was shut for sanitary reasons (nice!!) tHere were some salt statues and the old bedrooms etc, but the best thing here for me was the shop, i hadn't had a twix for 6 weeks.Off again to see the salt mines which is basically where the locals (ranging from what looked like 12 years old to 70 years old) pile up the salt into heaps ready to be shoveled on to a truck and processed for sale. I was knackered just ambling about at this altitude how they stood in the sun alday sholveling salt i will never know.
We carried on to a town called Colchani where there were some locals selling the same stuff that you could buy just about anywhere in south America as well as just about anything you could think of made from salt. We had lunch in the middle of a shop, it was random and cold and ironically the food needed more salt!! Saw some pigs running about in the street and PJ managed to offend one of the local girls, when he wouldn't let her play with his video camera,she kept running up and punching him!!
Onto the train grave yard at Uyuni, by now were were all feeling the jeep and most of the group needed to get a bus booked for the onward journey and wanted to get to the ticket agent before all the other jeeps!!with this in mind we had a glance at the old train, steam engines etc and then got away before anyone else to book bus tickets. As usual Rae and me were undecided what to do and made a snap decision to buy a ticket for La Paz that night. There is only one tourist bus which was full so we booked on the local bus which is meant to be cold uncomfortable and very bumpy. We stashed our bags and went of for a bite to eat and a drink. During my second beer i changed my mind and decided it would be a good idea to stay in uyuni for the night and then on to Potosi to blow stuff up with dinamyte (SP). We finished our drink and went off searching for a hostel.We didnt get a refund on the bus ticket but as it was only 4 quid we didnt worry to much!!
