BOLIVIA: La Paz>Uyuni Salt Flats
Trip Start
Mar 03, 2006
1
15
23
Trip End
Aug 30, 2006
Uyuni,
Bolivia
Saturday, July 1, 2006
En route to La Paz we stopped at the most important archeological site in the country, Tiahuanaco.... ah the border crossing.. no bags checked, but dodgy.... money changers were fine as had separate desks and that... but we were told to take it in turns to guard the bus as we passed through the crowds... poor old Scot Neil had his miney belt stolen but cant pinpoint where or when like... insurance covered the lost money apparently but was still downbeat..passport with him. unfortunate........... in Tiahuanaco, again similar scenario to Sillustani ruins... no1 as really involved in the tour but still appreciated the significance of the place. Our last self-prepared buffet lunch was prepared on site.. Had a short journey to La Paz...stopped off at the mirador watchpoint from the top.. the city seemed so comso and vast for the poorest s.american country really.... many high rises and abundance of buildings spread out in between the surrounding mountains....the ususal pursued upon arrival. hotel was just quids in..... planned to go to cinema with peeps that evening but not feasible. instead went to ice cream parlour and treated selves sufficiently...
Sat 24th: awoke independently and spent the day roaming La Paz (city is actually the de facto captial not the constitutional/juridicial - Sucre).. church, sqaure, many many markets eg witch market (medicinal and herbal products.....and llama phoetus)
each stretch of streets seem to have their own theme of goods eg electrical, clothing, home stuff, alcohol... you name it.. easy to find stuff.. avoided the famous black market though... city much nicer than say Lima, Peru but petty crime more obvious unforunately.... it has it all - markets, restaurants, beauty parlours, cinemas.......rather impressiv but bustling. dedicated a fair amount fo the day to booking a 3 day tour to the famous salt flats of Uyuni... Bolivia's highlight........ did our research and payed up happily for the Monday... was nice to go together as the rest of the group were leaving La Paz for home, or onward with Tucan doing a loop of the country on Sunday......except the irish sisters who were hanging round for a few days.... Lunch was in this trendy coffee and cake shop and dinner was our final group affair which I organised... nearly got free food and drink as the waitor though I was a Tucan tour leader like haha! Got together most of the people still in La Paz and had a nice meal at a hotel-restaurant. Tried Bolivian national drink similar to the Pisco sour but nice without the egg white froth shyte.mmm. Over dinner I learnt that a couple of people had been apparently nearly mugged - 1 woman had ben spat on as a diversion tactic for example.... shame as the city so nice.....
Then was again another mass farewell bid to 8 or so who were continuing 1 more week with tucan. however, me and welsh Jess (salt flat companion) planned to meet up with those people during our salt flat tour for dinner 1 evening!!!
Sun 25th: early rise but lazy morning....I had booked meself into the cheapest hostel listed in the Lonely Planet coz I just couldnt justify $20US a night room in the hotel in my position. nonethless, I still left my gear in a mates' room and used TV and hot shower facilities contently that morning to freshen up....had a v late lunch in a veggie organic place before saying bye to Irish sisters. spent the afternoon got on bus to Uyuni with Jess at 5. delayed by 1 hour and we didnt know we had to pay departure tax/use of bus terminal fee of US25c haha... night ride was bumpy and slow.. 13 hours to get there. roads atrocious..
Mon 26th: arrived at 7am to the bitter cold of Uyuni... a small dodgy ghost town with very littel to offer to anyone really... This is where the fun begins.. Having neatly organised and paid for our tour up front with one of the more renowned and reliable companies, we learnt that a group of 4 girls had postpooned til the following day earliest due to one falling ill at last minute. Now the funny thing was we had alreayd bumped into 2 enlgish lasses in the la paz agency office the weekend before when booking it.. they were on the SAME tour on SAME day but the 4x4 trucks will take 6 passengers only.. Now the boss of the Uyuni office said we couldnt go with 2 of us and then the English girls turned up also to make 4 as expected.. after agruing and reasoning etc we were given 3 options though the story didnt add up - pay extra and go same day.... have free accommodation in partner hotel and go the following day (not guaranteed though according to bookings), or tranfer our identical tour to another company though costs are slgihtly different etc etc.. well!!! very poor and disappointing but ecventually we bargained at 10dollars extra each for hte 4 of us which still cut the company short but 10 dolalrs each. tough! principal of it.. lies and manipulations methinks..... after a goregous brekkie at the Tucan hotel the others would arrive at a day later, we boarded the 4x4 with our supplies and embarked on our salf flat jounrey with our husband driver/guide and wife chef.....glad of the extra room in the truck to be honest so not all that bad.... solely spanish-speaking.
Day 1 of "Salars de Uyuni" consisted of a tour along and through the salt falts themselves.. look idential to ice but feel and smell differently... obviously not always white white either.... had a visit of 1 town to see how they manufacture the salt eg dig, burn, dry, crush, bag up and export onward domestically... pictures cool of the salt formations and hexagonal shaped ground.... About the flats - between 20cm and 70m deep..covers area of 2,500km....apparently used to be sea (lowest plain of the 3 connecting together ( lake titikaka one of them)... not sure what to believe..passed workers at work......
we continued on to the Salt hotel passing by some natural undergound volcanic spring things, smelling of iron and sulphur with dark liquid emerging in pools on the surface...made entirely of salt except the roof..salt blocks and beds and walls.... impressive...not to cold either. kinda like an ice igloo. A nice pasta and potato salad lunch was had at the Isla de Pescadores / Inca Huasi . this small island in the middle of the salt flats.....brown and green earth with huge rocks and sauring cacti of different species....1200 years old.... in stark contrast to the white flat plains obviously!! Got chatting to other people on other tours and bizarrely bumped across a guy from Jersey!!!!!!!!!!!! dont kn ow him or family as bit older and different school but lives 2 mins away from me at Hougue Bie lol.... that was freaky... first channel islander I have met on travels so far...
In the afternoon we drove fro miles through the flats and bumpy tracks to our accommodation for the night - Bella Vista.... basic but nice. hot shower. dorm room JUST for our group... ample blankets and sufficient electricity during evening... food great... soup, fried chicken and chips.. wine to wash down..... Jess had stomach cramps so retired early... wasn't much else to do...... did put 4 blankets on bed though as temperatures go below zerop here easily... especially heading into winter months..
27th - day 2 of salt flat tour: gradually exited the flats themselves and enteresd into dusty barren open land..... wildlife still appeared to raom free in middle of nowhere. Today's highlights were view of the active Ollangue volcano in the distance, 4 lakes opr lagoons (Cañapa, Chiankota, Hedionda & Ramadotas)....all semi frozen and dark in colour...pink and white flamingos and seagulls pottering around...... continued on into the desert de Siloli where there are no roadlike passages.. simply follow tyre tracks or go wherever around bumpy corners etc... stopped off in 1 place where there is a rock shpaed like a tree. not that thrilling. On we went to Colorada lagoon/lake... stained red (ocre) but frozen..... colour is due to the natural material (iron, sulphur etc) of the surrounding mountains being deposited by wind and rain movements..... very expòsed area with strong cross currents. wind biting. That night's lodge was more basic and some cardboard filled smashed windows.. we were in a dorm of 4 and exploited the other empty rooms by gathering as many blankets as poss to survive the -15oc - -20oc temperatures witout suffocating!!!! toilet bucket water had frozen over and the rooms were freezing cold....found it harder to sleep that night.... before a lovely spagbol tea, I emerged into the open for a quick sunset photo but stayed indoors thereafter..bed at 8pm for 4 am rise for final day.......
28th: rose in darkness and absolutely freezing.. boarded truck and carried on for an hour until reached Sol De Mena Geysers - these cool natural steam emitting chimeneys from the ground... mission to even exit the truck to take a photo.. Next was the hot thermal spring waters where we actually saw people bathing at 8am at sub zero temperatures (external) but body heat inside... craaaaaaaaazy folk....... had brekkie outdoors in middle of nowhere before driving through Valley of Dali (weird rock formations that a famous spanish painter represented)....Following on, we visited the Laguna Verde or Green Lake which isnt actualyl green due to winter season.. here more birds flocked... just before getting there, we had a flat tyre.. burst by hitting this big stone in the "road"..driver going fast though so not avoidable.. was funny.. we walked on 5 mins whilst he changed it... day before one group had problem with the ENGINE of their truck so I wasnt complaining..... Lunch point was in this small isolated town back up on the way to Uyuni. Took a different route and saw the Valley of the Rocks (funny shaped rocks like a lion, human face etc)....The final 2 stops were firstly the town of San Cristobal which actually has public transport links to Uyuni... had internet, a church, a school, internet caf, market, park etc....... quite cute......And the last stop (after yet another puncture for some unkown reason) was the train cemetery where old carriages are just abandoned...
Got back to Uyuni town at 6:30pm so good triming to meet our Tucan friends who had visited the salt flats for just 1 day and night...... however, we were warned that there would be local transport strikes the following day or something so out Tucan group had decided to drive on to their next destination...missed them by half an hour but had fantastic pizza in the hotel-resturant they were due to stay in... then we had to wait til midnight before catching our unaffected train to Oruro before getting a local bus back to La Paz...ended up being entertained by cheesy dvds in the communcal room which was fine but felt v tired..... Train ride back was OK then 3hr bus ride back to La Paz ealry morning..
29th: Honked so needed shower and that before anything else....... felt great to be back in civilisation. Moved gear into a funky hostal whilst Jess went up a class into a hotel. Then decided to do somehting constructive in La Paz so went round these 4 museums all linking together. not that interesting grrr..... Then I checked email to learn that the Irish sisters had been stranded in La Paz as they were due to fly out to Santiago, Chile that same morning. But the company they were with only informed them after departure time that the flight had been cancelled... company going bust and head on run from police apparently.. very unreliable and the staff on duty refused any compensation or apology or money back.. locals advised them NOT to just defer flight to saturday as would be same scenario. So they sent us an email that afternoon saying to meet up..did so... poor sould looked shattered but were going to get a bus the next day (today) instead, so not to miss onward plans...Hopefully travel insurance could cover them but poss not in this case.... I plan to meet with them soon in Chile or Argentina so looking forward to that.. Got a couple more things to do and see in Bolivia though so will go in a week's time....In the eve we all went for food at this dutch-run cool wooden pub.
Fri 30th (today) : Lay in til 9:30.. wow!!!! went to bus station to get a bus ticket for Copacabana tomorrow, Saturday (not famous Brazil place) and go solo to the Lake Titikaka again on the Bolivaian, arguably prettier side (40% vs Peru &0% of land/water mass)......Here I will go to the Isla Del Sol and Luna where there are ruins and the place where the Inca civilisation is deemed to originate from to the nail.....Afternoon today....After 3 hours of scratching head and consulting my rough journal pages, I have completed my journal blog to date at last.........Later, going for dinner in this "skyscraper" with Jess and the 2 peeps on our Salt Flat tour then saying bye to her as flies back home.On Sunday there is a referendum so riots may occur..Anyhow, all transport stops Sat evening and doesn't resume till midnight on Sunday so thought I should evactuate soon if all will be mayhem... Again, the Tucan crew on their Bolivian loop are due in to la Paz to finish their tour tomorrow, Sat afternoon..so I could have met up again for dinner but thats just the way things go guys...
Come on England vs Portugal. and France! Can't believe the sour crouts just knocked out Argentina...Ah well, I won't be near there until late July - early Aug anyhoo.
Over and out.... How goes it (1 paragraph fine instead of novel) ?!
(Will be amazed if more than a f ew people actually manage to get through all this, and in 1 go......
btw this took 2 installments so not that much of a geek lol)
Hope to keep on track better but plan to do another 3 day tour to the Pampas before Chile ie after the Lake Islands tomoz so who knows if it wil lay behind miserably once more... Quite like making my base camp in Bolivia in La Paz. Will feel homely before long lol.
PS - exactly 2 months til I return home. 4 down, 2 to go.. incredible... summer has arrived uncharacteristically EARLY I hear?!?! How can this be.....
