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Last night's dormitory accommodation with a single shared outside toilet and no running water, let alone flush, redefined basic accommodation, but the dawn was wonderful and the snow the fell overnight adds an ethereal quality.
However the mood is disrupted by reports that the Chilean border is shut due to the weather conditions. Another 4X4 that has been shadowing our itinerary has 3 occupants who wish to go to Chile and a German couple for whom this represents a 5 hour detour. The Chile posse throw ugly accusations at the tour guide and expect him to foot the bill for any rearranged transport. He artfully readjusts their expectations in a foreign language - muy impresivo!
The weather prevents the tour reaching the green lagoon, but the black lagoon is within our grasp.
It turns out to be the most beautiful landscape yet. Huge boulders and weathered molten larva combined to provide a landscape that, from a distance, looks like El Alto - red windowless and unfinished buildings standing in serried ranks stretching off into the distance.
To think that this is not part of the standard tour!
It's a 2 hour drive back to Uyuni for our last stop at the train graveyard. This was a late 19th century deal to nationalise the silver production process from the raw material mined at Potosi, some 120 miles away, which fell apart in the1950s.
A sad farewell and email address exchange with Joel and the Dutch contingent (who cycled from Cusco to La Paz - 800 km and an uphill effort across the 3 week journey of more than I care to contemplate! They also took nearly 250gb of footage - I wouldn't want to be their best friends or neighbours invited round for dinner any time soon!)
Our taxi to Sucre is ready and waiting for the 200 mile journey and our driver crosses himself three times as we join the best road we've driven on in South America to date. A good sign?
After 6 hours plus of up and down and twisty turny roads we arrive in Sucre about 00.30 and are welcomed by a very clean suite, the best showers on the continent and freshly made beds with clean linen. Heaven!
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