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Tupiza to Uyuni
We really enjoyed our rest day in Tupiza. Our heads were much clearer, but we still did everything really slowly. The fact that our room was on the second floor was a challenge in itself! The small town had a completely different atmosphere on a Monday morning, as it had been quite deserted on Sunday evening. We wandered around the market, which was crowded with little bowler-hatted ladies doing their shopping (some of them keep their money in their hats!) and bought some fruit.
We sat in the tiny square to get our breath back, then Tony decided to go and oget a hair cut in a small barber shop he'd seen. It really was small, it only had one very old barber, and one very old chair. We waited while he finished with the previous customer, an elderly gentleman, with a fine head of thick black hair, who I have to say, looked much better when he came in than he did when he went out! Tony agreed with me, but was undeterred. The barber made a great show of sterilising his clippers (manual, not electric) with a blow torch, which nearly made me jump out of my skin! He told us he had been cutting hair for 76 years, and added - 'I started when I was very young'. I hoped that after all that time he knew what he was doing, as he cut Tony's hair with a huge pair of what looked like kitchen scissors, and then went round with the clippers, and round again, and again, I was a bit worried he would end up with no hair at all. He then got out a cut-throat razor (new blade), to finish off the back of Tony's neck, then back to the clippers, for one more round, and then finally, declared the job finished. He then sprayed Tony's hair with the same stuff he had used to spray the comb and scissors, so his head should be nicely disinfected. Tony said it was the longest time it had ever taken anyone to cut his hair, but it only cost the equivalent of £1.50, and we'd had a nice rest!
We went back to the hotel to eat our fruit, and then needed another rest. In the afternoon we climbed the (small) hill overlooking the town, to watch the sunset over the mountains. It reminded us of our time in Australia, as this area seems to be the 'red centre' of Bolivia. In the evening, there were a lot of processions around the town to mark the anniversary of the secondary school, with girls carrying lighted candles, and singing, accompanied by a school marching band. One of the songs was to the tune of 'the animals came in two by two', which made us chuckle.
The next morning we had to leave at 7am and drive to Uyuni, taking two long sides of a triangle, instead of one short one, as unfortunately the short road was unsuitable for our truck. The scenery was stunning. We hadn't gone far, when we arrived at a road block, comprising two ambulances, two motorbikes, two landrovers and a crowd of people. At first we thought it must have been a bad accident, then we realised all the vehicles just seemed to be parked, so we got out to investigate. It turned out to be the start of a 10k road race for boys and girls from the secondary school in the next little town, which was 10 k away, hence the start in the middle of nowhere! There was now a queue of traffic, and they wouldn't let us through, so we had to wait about 20 mins for the start of the race, then crawl along behind the rolling roadblock of the two landrovers, and ambulances, which followed the runners for the duration of the race! The two motorbikes were in front, belching out great clouds of exhaust fumes for the youngsters to run through. Occasionally one of them would drop out of the race, (probably overcome by the fumes, rather than exhaustion) and when the support vehicles rushed forward to pick them up, we managed to squeeze past a few of the runners. When we eventually got to the town, there didn't seem to be any kind of a finishing line, the runners just went off to chat with their friends!
So we headed further up into the mountains, round lots and lots of hairpin bends, and climbing to over 4,500m on the way. There were also lots of detours onto unsealed bumpy or soft sand roads, where the main road was being repaired. I had a thumping headache, as did Tony, and for the last two hours I felt really sick. By the time we got to Uyuni, at 3,900m it was 6.30pm and we both flaked out on the bed, feeling awful. We took painkillers, but they didn't help. We decided that even though it wasn't affecting anyone else, it must be the altitude, which wasn't a pleasant thought, knowing that we'll be going higher over the next few days. I decided to go straight to bed! Tony felt slightly better after a lie down and went to the pharmacy and got some pills. They were just a combination of paracetamol, aspirin & caffeine, but they did help, and we both felt much better this morning.
Today we went to the salt flats, which cover 12,00km sq. and are fabulous! It's like walking on shimmering ice, but without being cold or slippery. We went in landrovers, with a driver and a cook, who rustled up a lovely lunch while we tried to take crazy perspective photos. Afterwards, we went to see a hotel made of salt, (even the furniture), but it was closed, so we could only look in through the windows. Next we went to the train cemetery, where the old trains that were used to transport minerals to Chile, lie rusting next to the current railway line. It's a bit like an adventure playground for adults, so we had lots of fun!
Tomorrow we have to drive back part of the way we came, along one of the long sides of the triangle, as far as Potosi, which means going back up to 4,500m. We'll find out then if the tablets are really any good!.......Goodnight
- comments
Pedro How did I miss this post last night? You really got to ernexiepce quinoa in a big way, didn't you? Lucky you! :-) I had no idea it came in all those colors either! I only knew about red and white quinoa. And all those snacks made from it and power drinks? Hey, we're being seriously deprived here on the quinoa front! Now I'm going to be on the lookout for quinoa in other colors! (Wonder what a bowl of all the colors mixed together would look like!)Those plants are really beautiful. They'd make nice edible landscaping in the right places!