Bolivia - Salar de Uyuni
Once back in La Paz from our Inca Trail hike to Macchu Picchu, we started making plans for our next visit to see the salt flats in Uyuni. We were lucky to get train tickets to Uyuni as we decided to try to leave right away, having learned that my father was coming to Bolivia the following week! Ignoring the advice of most of my family, we decided to book the 3-day Uyuni tour in La Paz as we didn't want to potentially lose a day checking around in Uyuni.
A visit to Uyuni starts with a 3 hour bus to Oruro, which is an old mining town and now famous for its Carnival celebrations. From there, we took a 10 hour train ride to Uyuni. We managed to get some naptime in and even saw flamingoes on some of the lagoons on the way!
We arrived in Uyuni around 10 pm, about on time, and were met by a representative from Colque tours since our original hotel they booked for us was not available, so we moved to another hotel nearby. Fortunately Uyuni is a small town, so all the agencies, hotels, and bus companies are near each other, which made it easy for us to book our bus from Uyuni to Potosi in a few days.
The next day we started our Salar de Uyuni tour. We ended up with a Brazilian hippie chick, the funny-speaking Spanish/Chilean college student, and 2 Japanese tourists. Fortunately we all spoke spanish or english! Our tour started at the train graveyard near Uyuni. It merits this 1-sentence comment but that's really all there is to it. Next, we headed off to the Salar - yeah! Oh, but first is the requisite tourist souvenir stop in the next town to gawk at salt rock statuettes, salt-brick buildings, and a few llamas.
Ah, finally we arrived at the Salar de Uyuni. We were told that due to recent rains we wouldn't go all the way through the salt flats to the lagoons, but only to the salt hotel. Well, when we arrived I didn't think we'd go anywhere! The salt flat was a flat, huge mirror due to recent rains. However, this didn't faze our driver - he drove right onto the Salar and away we went! Wow! You have to see the pictures to believe it. Imagine the ground being a perfect, smooth mirror reflecting everything above it. The salt was still hard-packed, so the jeeps could drive on the Salar, and we got out and walked around a little. We didn't have any wind, and it was incredible to see the mountains in the distance and the clouds perfectly reflected off the water. It seemed like we were in another world. We also looked at the little salt mounds that grew from salt bubbling up from underground - it reminded me a lot of the tufas at Mono Lake in California's Sierra Nevadas.
Next, we drove to the Salt Hotel, which is not far into the Salar de Uyuni. Interesting place as it is completely made out of salt except for the doors and roof. Really! They have bed platforms, benches, seats and tables all made out of salt.
After this interesting stop, we went back to the neighboring town for a lunch of llama meat, salad and quinoa. After lunch, we swung by Uyuni to pick up our luggage and head off to our evening accomodations southwest from Uyuni. This was about a 3 hour drive, coupled with a drive through 2 towns because all the other jeeps had gotten the better accomodations. Well, I guess you can call it accomodation - they had little beds, a common room to eat in, and a pay shower. We were told the next night's accomodation didn't have a shower!
Day 2 included a variety of sightseeing stops. We stopped at Laguna Herionda, which was full of flamingoes. Apparently 3 of the world's 6 species of flamingoes lives in Bolivia! We also visited the stone tree, an area full of wierd rock formations. I rock-climbed (bouldering, really) a few monuments, which was really hard work at 4500 meters above sea level! Whew! Our final destination was Laguna Colorada, which appears as a pink-red lake when the sun is shining, has a good number of flamingoes hanging, and we also spotted a few llamas and viscachas (rabbit species) around the lagoon. This was the nicest spot of the day, and we had all the time we wanted around the lagoon as we stayed at the hostel beside the lake! Our night was quite interesting - we met a group of Brazilians with another tour agency and also a small group of guys doing a South American motorcycle tour!!! Very cool - there was even an American travelling through the Americas on a little Japanese dual-sport; I dunno how he was doing it because his seat didn't look all that comfortable...
Our last day proved to be the most interesting, and tiresome. We woke up at 4 am in order to see the sights and reach the Chilean border by 9 am. We saw some geysers and mud pools, and then drove to another lagoon with a hot mineral water pool where we relaxed before breakfast.
On our way to the border with Chile our jeep had a flat. This was not unusual as we and many other jeeps had flats during the 3-day trip. This time, however, our driver decided to tie the flat tire to the roof with the other luggage, but as he was finishing, he fell off the roof! We rushed over to see how he was. We were definitely worried when he mentioned he was in some pain and took a closer look at his wrist - it was certainly bent in an odd way. Strangely, our driver insisted he was OK and wanted to keep driving. Luckily all 6 of us protested to the contrary, and we finally convinced him not to drive - I think he would have passed out from trying to manage the stickshift and steering wheel... Only 2 of us could drive, myself and the Chilean college student... can you guess who drove that day???
Well, I felt kinda ready since I've done some off-road driving, but the Salar de Uyuni trip is all dirt roads. I was facing 9 hours of dirt road driving, ranging from a dirt "highway" to true off-road including 2 river crossings. During the drive we also had to drive through a lot of big water puddles and a few very muddy sections 1 to 2 feet deep! What an adventure. Not only did we have to contend the roads, but we also had to deal with a gate placed across the highway by a neighboring town, and then the town along the highway decided to blockade their section of highway to protest the illegal gate. Go figure... Unfortunately this all too often is the norm in Bolivia, with people protesting a situation they don't like and not at all thinking about the negative consequences of their actions. It is amazing how narrow-minded the Bolivian mindset can sometimes be, and it was particularly disconcerting to me considering that most of my dad's family is born & raised there, including my dad.
To cap off our day, we took a bus from Uyuni to Potosi that night, which is normally a 5 to 7 hour trip. They told us that the 7 pm bus would arrive at 3 am (that's 8 hours) due to the rains and it actually arrived at 5 am. Our bus was a local's bus, which meant every seat was full, along with every square inch of the aisle taken up by additional passengers. Thank goodness there were no fire hazards!
A visit to Uyuni starts with a 3 hour bus to Oruro, which is an old mining town and now famous for its Carnival celebrations. From there, we took a 10 hour train ride to Uyuni. We managed to get some naptime in and even saw flamingoes on some of the lagoons on the way!
We arrived in Uyuni around 10 pm, about on time, and were met by a representative from Colque tours since our original hotel they booked for us was not available, so we moved to another hotel nearby. Fortunately Uyuni is a small town, so all the agencies, hotels, and bus companies are near each other, which made it easy for us to book our bus from Uyuni to Potosi in a few days.
The next day we started our Salar de Uyuni tour. We ended up with a Brazilian hippie chick, the funny-speaking Spanish/Chilean college student, and 2 Japanese tourists. Fortunately we all spoke spanish or english! Our tour started at the train graveyard near Uyuni. It merits this 1-sentence comment but that's really all there is to it. Next, we headed off to the Salar - yeah! Oh, but first is the requisite tourist souvenir stop in the next town to gawk at salt rock statuettes, salt-brick buildings, and a few llamas.
Ah, finally we arrived at the Salar de Uyuni. We were told that due to recent rains we wouldn't go all the way through the salt flats to the lagoons, but only to the salt hotel. Well, when we arrived I didn't think we'd go anywhere! The salt flat was a flat, huge mirror due to recent rains. However, this didn't faze our driver - he drove right onto the Salar and away we went! Wow! You have to see the pictures to believe it. Imagine the ground being a perfect, smooth mirror reflecting everything above it. The salt was still hard-packed, so the jeeps could drive on the Salar, and we got out and walked around a little. We didn't have any wind, and it was incredible to see the mountains in the distance and the clouds perfectly reflected off the water. It seemed like we were in another world. We also looked at the little salt mounds that grew from salt bubbling up from underground - it reminded me a lot of the tufas at Mono Lake in California's Sierra Nevadas.
Next, we drove to the Salt Hotel, which is not far into the Salar de Uyuni. Interesting place as it is completely made out of salt except for the doors and roof. Really! They have bed platforms, benches, seats and tables all made out of salt.
After this interesting stop, we went back to the neighboring town for a lunch of llama meat, salad and quinoa. After lunch, we swung by Uyuni to pick up our luggage and head off to our evening accomodations southwest from Uyuni. This was about a 3 hour drive, coupled with a drive through 2 towns because all the other jeeps had gotten the better accomodations. Well, I guess you can call it accomodation - they had little beds, a common room to eat in, and a pay shower. We were told the next night's accomodation didn't have a shower!
Day 2 included a variety of sightseeing stops. We stopped at Laguna Herionda, which was full of flamingoes. Apparently 3 of the world's 6 species of flamingoes lives in Bolivia! We also visited the stone tree, an area full of wierd rock formations. I rock-climbed (bouldering, really) a few monuments, which was really hard work at 4500 meters above sea level! Whew! Our final destination was Laguna Colorada, which appears as a pink-red lake when the sun is shining, has a good number of flamingoes hanging, and we also spotted a few llamas and viscachas (rabbit species) around the lagoon. This was the nicest spot of the day, and we had all the time we wanted around the lagoon as we stayed at the hostel beside the lake! Our night was quite interesting - we met a group of Brazilians with another tour agency and also a small group of guys doing a South American motorcycle tour!!! Very cool - there was even an American travelling through the Americas on a little Japanese dual-sport; I dunno how he was doing it because his seat didn't look all that comfortable...
Our last day proved to be the most interesting, and tiresome. We woke up at 4 am in order to see the sights and reach the Chilean border by 9 am. We saw some geysers and mud pools, and then drove to another lagoon with a hot mineral water pool where we relaxed before breakfast.
On our way to the border with Chile our jeep had a flat. This was not unusual as we and many other jeeps had flats during the 3-day trip. This time, however, our driver decided to tie the flat tire to the roof with the other luggage, but as he was finishing, he fell off the roof! We rushed over to see how he was. We were definitely worried when he mentioned he was in some pain and took a closer look at his wrist - it was certainly bent in an odd way. Strangely, our driver insisted he was OK and wanted to keep driving. Luckily all 6 of us protested to the contrary, and we finally convinced him not to drive - I think he would have passed out from trying to manage the stickshift and steering wheel... Only 2 of us could drive, myself and the Chilean college student... can you guess who drove that day???
Well, I felt kinda ready since I've done some off-road driving, but the Salar de Uyuni trip is all dirt roads. I was facing 9 hours of dirt road driving, ranging from a dirt "highway" to true off-road including 2 river crossings. During the drive we also had to drive through a lot of big water puddles and a few very muddy sections 1 to 2 feet deep! What an adventure. Not only did we have to contend the roads, but we also had to deal with a gate placed across the highway by a neighboring town, and then the town along the highway decided to blockade their section of highway to protest the illegal gate. Go figure... Unfortunately this all too often is the norm in Bolivia, with people protesting a situation they don't like and not at all thinking about the negative consequences of their actions. It is amazing how narrow-minded the Bolivian mindset can sometimes be, and it was particularly disconcerting to me considering that most of my dad's family is born & raised there, including my dad.
To cap off our day, we took a bus from Uyuni to Potosi that night, which is normally a 5 to 7 hour trip. They told us that the 7 pm bus would arrive at 3 am (that's 8 hours) due to the rains and it actually arrived at 5 am. Our bus was a local's bus, which meant every seat was full, along with every square inch of the aisle taken up by additional passengers. Thank goodness there were no fire hazards!
Labels: Bolivia, honeymoon, Julie, Potosi, Salar de Uyuni, Xavier
posted by Xavier at 2:48 PM
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simply stopping by to say hey
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