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Tupiza & Salt Flat Tour, Bolivia
Our night bus from Salta dropped Nicola and I at the border town of La Quiaca at 7am. We lugged our stuff about a mile to the border and saw first hand the stark contast between Argentina and Bolivia. We crossed with no hassle into the town of Villazon, armed with zero Bolivianos and all of our worldly possessions. You would have forgiven us for feeling a little intimidated but it´s quite hard to considering how small the Bolivians are. I feel like some kind of circus freak walking around; with all the trees along the sidewalk only being trimmed to Bolivian size, I even have to duck just to walk down the street. We finally got some dinero from the banco and shared a 2 hour minicab ride to Tupiza with some other French travellers. All for a whopping great 2 quid each! It´s fair to say that we are loving the cheapness!
Tupiza is where we booked our tour of the Salt Flats from and is also famous for being a watering hole of ´Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid´. We truly had arrived in the Wild West. We really enjoyed being right in the thick of the indigenous culture and were keen to try out the infamously terrible Bolivian food. We both feel that, on the food front, the Bolivians have got a bit of bad press. We´ve enjoyed everything we´ve eaten so far, even if it was llama!? The only thing that´s been rubbish is the altitude. Tupiza is 3000 metres above sea level and the Salt Flat tour stays between 4000-5000 metres. We´ve both suffered at different times. The best way to describe it is like having a constant hangover. I even got out of breath and light headed brushing my teeth! We spent a couple of days in Tupiza and did a short trek of the surrounding countryside to help us get acclimatised.
Tour Day One:
We were picked up early by the jeep and paired up with two Belgian women in their fifties. We were all given strict warnings that there would be no showers for the first two days and that the accommodation would be very basic with limited electricity and hot water...happy days! Off we went into the dizzy heights of the Bolivian highlands.
Throughout the day many a ´death road´ was navigated and the altitude situation only got worse. I went for a cheeky toilet break down a hill at one of our stops and nearly died walking back up. The scenery and breathable atmosphere all beared a striking resemblance with Mars. A million llamas, a snake and some very rural towns later, we reached a stunning highland plateau. We saw some semi-active volcanos and very strange salt lakes that boasted all kinds of different colours.
At the end of the day we arrived at our basic ´mud hut´ accommodation. We both agree it is the most rural place we have ever stayed. The good thing was that many different Jeeps stopped there, so it was a chance to meet people and share in the hardships. As it´s winter here at the moment, the night times are freezing cold. We layered up and slept under about 4 duvets each.
Tour Day Two:
Up early and fighting to use the big bucket of water to have a wash with, we had some breakfast and set off. It´s worth pointing out that all the food we were given as part of the tour was really nice, so no complaints there. We first visited some huge lagoons that hosted thousands of flamingos. They have three different species that are attracted to such high altitude lakes for two reasons: 1) the minerals in the water; 2) there´s no predators that fancy it. I must admit, I don´t blame them.
We then visited a natural hot spring and got to have a relaxing swim. All very welcome after bumping around in the Jeep for a day and a half. We were then taken to a group of Geizers at the foot of a volcano. They were awesome to stand next to and another thing that we had both never seen before. Lastly, we drove to one of the biggest lakes, Laguna Colorada. This was a stunning multi-coloured lake that felt surreal to stand next to. I couldn´t help but think that parts of it looked like a huge Heinz tomato soup! This got me thinking of Heinz baked beans so I got homesick on the way to our second accommodation. More of the same on that front.
Tour Day Three:
Another rough nights sleep was endured all round, but pancakes seemed to cheer people up. We set off into the desert to see the famous Arbol de Piedra (Tree Rock) that has been eroded by sand storms over millions of years. It was really interesting and also an excuse for me to climb some other strange shaped rocks. We then drove onto a lava field at the bottom of a volcano and had some lunch. Lastly, before settling down at the Salt Hostel (actually made of salt) we visited an Inca burial ground that was facinating. Large heaps of lava rock housed skeletol remains and treasures that they believed they would need on their journey into the afterlife.
Tour Day Four:
The grand finale of the tour was the Salar de Uyuni. We were kicked out of bed at 5am in order to see the sunrise which was beautiful. The is salt flat once a land locked sea is a 9,500 km sq expanse of nothing but salt. It was absolutely breathtaking. The sheer vastness of the glistening white landscape is hard to imagine until you see it. Scale is no issue so we spent about an hour taking some funny pictures, although this was more difficult than it looks! We also stopped at a bizarre island of stone coral where hundreds of cacti now grow, despite the harsh conditions. It also made for a great panoramic viewpoint to take in the salt desert.
Tired and weary we have now night bused it to La Paz where we will spend a couple of nights before flying deep into the Amazon for a 5 day jungle and pampas tour in Rurrenabaque.
Happy Easter to everybody!
Harry & Nicola
Copa Del Sh*thead Scoreboard: NH 123 - 135 HF
- comments
Joe This entry made me has made me really nostalgic! Even though its crackers i loved Bolivia (ok apart from La Paz!). The pictures are great and the little ladies in bowler hats always make me smile! Good to speak earlier see you soon. Ps I take it you never to the photo of snake Nic?
Uncle Graham I think this is the best blog and set of photos yet! Happy Easter to you both.
Paul Danaswamy Great stuff guys, and awesome photos too, brings back plenty of great memories. Sounds like you're having a cracking time, massively jealous, the highlight of my day was finding a pack of minstrels down the back of the kitchen cupboard, trade places?!
Bill and Linda Absolutely gob smacked , the best yet . I fear that you both will never return to normal life , can't wait to read the book and see the film, makes an old man feel he's wasted his life, treasure every second and come home safely, keep out the puddles Harry. Happy Easter to you both . Gramps