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My time in Bolivia thus far. Tupiza, the Salar, Uyuni, Potosi and Sucre.
Tupiza.
Despite the fact that the bus ride from Salta to La Quiaca on the border was the shortest so far it was easily the most difficult. Seven hours in an upright bus seat with vomit on the floor is a lot harder than 23 hours in a clean bus with fully reclining seats. The arrival in La Quiaca was a shock as well. After two weeks of 20-30 degrees day and night we arrived at 7am to about 5 degrees! A cruel taste of things to come. The walk to the border post from the bus stop was uneventful but as we cleared the Argentine side we were greeted by gunshots. Unfazed we continued on and after an easy passage through the border we were on a dodgy bus and soon after, in Tupiza. Tupiza is a nifty little wild west town in the south. It is famous for being the location for the demise of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid at the hands of angry miners after they robbed the pay chest of a local mine. It was an amazing place surrounded by huge red hills and it was also our first real taste of altitude. Here I discovered how cheap things can be here. 9 bolivanos for a main meal (NZ$2) and 50 bolivanos for an awesome cowboy hat (NZ$12). Feeling the altitude a bit I skipped the horse trek the others went on but went out later to see an amazing lightning show in the hills around the town that had strikes every few seconds! The time there passed quickly and after our second night there we took off for the tour through the altiplano out to the Salar, the largest salt flats in the world.
Salar de Uyuni.
A 9:30am start for the tour felt early at the time but looking back it was the easiest day by far. As the 4WDs only took 4-5 passengers our group spit up. Nick, Jason, Tim and Pete were in one while Rob and I were joined in the other by Maria (27), Anna (23) and Palerma (6-7) from Sweden. It was a big help having them with us as they spoke spanish and english so could translate for us. Carlos, our driver/guide and Esperanza, his mother and our cook, spoke only spanish. We began driving a fairly standard Bolivian road (basically not much better than a 4WD track) which wound its way up through the earthy wild west landscape around Tupiza up to our first stop. A viewpoint overlooking a ragged red landscape of half eroded pillars and looking down into the valley we had just driven up. Moving on up along the narrow roads around increasingly dangerous corners, which were perfectly safe as Carlos was careful to pump the horn as a warning before taking them at high speed, we came to our lunch stop. A broad grassy plain strewn with llamas where we had a delicious picnic lunch, including some of the first vegetables I had seen in a while (I don`t think Argentina believes in them). After lunch we climbed up to the real altiplano where the landscape became more and more alien, dry and empty.
Our first night was spent at around 4200m in a tiny flyspeck of a village where I bought a handwoven llama wool hat (actually quite hard to find here, there is so much machined tourist trash). Another delicious meal courtesy of Esperanza and a surprisingly good night`s sleep followed.
Our start the next morning was at a brutal 5am as the day was due to be a long one. And despite being in the tropics it was a little colder than I had hoped, I was warmer back in Canada! I shivered in the back of the Land Cruiser for half an hour or so as I warmed up but once I started looking outside it was incredible. From sunrise onwards we travelled through a series of out of this world landscapes that were really indescribable. At the same time we came across the first of many high altitude lagoons that were full of sleeping flamingos of all things. Later in the day we moved in to the Reserva Nacional de Fauna Andina Eduardo Avaroa, a huge reserve in the far south west corner of Bolivia. Brilliantly coloured lagoons, bright pink flamingos, mighty volcanoes and vast mineral deposits surrounded us for the next couple of days. One of the lagoons we stopped beside was a brilliant green caused by arsenic and other toxic compounds dissolved in its water. We spent our next night in another small village that again had no power save for a few solar panels to power lights in the rooms at night. The meals Esperanza prepared were getting better every time and still managed to include fresh veggies.
After a quiet night the plan was to sleep in until 6am but we were rudely awakened when someone in the group forgot to change their alarm from the morning before. Not impressed Nick. On the third day (again freezing cold) we drove up to our highest point at around 5000m before dropping down to a volcanically active area at 4870m. This was an area of steaming holes in the ground, bubbling mud and an obnoxious sulfur smell in the air. It didn´t help that at that altitude the body tried to suck down as much air as it could.
From here we began our descent from the highest level of the altiplano down out of the reserve. We stopped for lunch in an old lava field almost under the shadow of the still smoking volcano in the distance. From here we moved to the edge of the Salar to a hostel made of salt. Nearly everything in there was salt from the bricks making up the walls to the tables, chairs and beds. As we were all exhausted and had to get up for the sunrise we didn't stay up too late. A quick trip outside to see the stars in the clear night sky was just about all we could manage. The next morning we were up at 5am and on the move by 5:30. We drove out onto the Salar in the dark to wait for the sun. As it came closer to the horizon the sky went through a rapid kaleidoscopic shift in colour culminating when the sun rose above the slat flats. Our next stop was the cactus island for breakfast. The cactus island is a small piece of land rising out of the salt, the only disturbance on the flat expanse that stretched off to the mountains in the distance. After a quick look around we took off again across the Salar. we alternated between driving through areas of dry flat salt and areas with with a thin covering of water, in one place holes in the surface of the salt looked like holes in arctic ice, showing that the water was much deeper than the surface. Once the sun was high enough we stopped in a dry area for almost an hour so that me might take the traditional Salar photos. What followed was our hilarious attempts to get the most out of the distorted perspective provided by the Salar. Standing on each others' hats, small figures on shoulders and giant bottles all came out in our photos. From here we headed off the Salar stopping briefly at the illegal salt hotel on the flats. Due to the environmental damage it causes hotels are now allowed only on the edge of the flats but the one in the centre still continues to operate somehow. We drove past mineral harvesting operations near the edge of the Salar before stopping for our final lunch in a small town. From here Carlos dropped us off at our hostel in Uyuni and we had to start to look after ourselves again. Uyuni. Uyuni was a singularly horrible little place. A town of 10,000 or so it exists mainly now to cater to the number of tourists heading for the Salar (we went in the unorthodox direction). Our hostel had no running water and for most of the time we spent there we were the only ones in a huge spooky building. The only redeeming features of the town were internet (slooooow) and Minuteman Pizza. The pizza here saved the town in my opinion. We had dinner there on our one night in the town and the pizza was the best I'd had so far in South America. Added to this was breakfast the next morning. We had an early bus to catch so Jason, Tim and I went for a food mission before we left and couldn't find much in the town so we returned to the pizza place for muffins, cookies and chocolate mud cake to last us on our journey to Potosi. Potosi. The bus we caught left at 10am (on time for once) along the horrible dirt roads I had become accustomed to expect in Bolivia but wonder of wonders we came across sealed patches as we came closer to Potosi. We arrived in good time (for Bolivia) sometime in the mid afternoon and wandered up to our hostel about half an hours walk up the hill (at 4060m!). After Uyuni Potosi was a treat. It is a real city of 140,000 or so with paved streets and real history. It is the location for a huge mine that one provided Spain with much of her wealth and as a result the city was once larger than London or Paris! On our last day in the city we took a tour of the old royal mint that stamped out the coins and processes the silver ingots. It was amazing and had examples of the changing technology through time. Potosi is an amazing place with old colonial buildings and narrow streets and our time there passed quickly. Soon we had to leave and catch our bus to Sucre. Sucre. On leaving the hostel we were told to catch a taxi to the bus station for 5-7 bolivanos per person. Feeling that this was a bit steep Jason led us onto one of the many micro buses that constantly drove around the city. One bolivano per person was a bargain when we got there safely despite the slight trepidation felt when the micro took off in a strange direction and led us into increasingly dodgy areas of the town. The bus station was a huge modern dome situated in one of the outlying areas of the town and I was a little relieved when it finally came into sight. The bus journey was uneventful and only a few hours long along good sealed roads but we still arrived in Sucre after dark. The hostel here is similar to the one in Potosi, ok but not great, but after a couple of days here we decided to stay an extra night as the city (of around 200,000) is one of the coolest we've stopped in. It has a fairly major university and just looking around you can tell that there is a lot more money here than in any of the other places we've been too in Bolivia so far. At the same time we've met some cool people here so it feels worthwhile staying the extra night. Hopefully in future I'll keep this a little more up to date but no promises, especially when the internet is as fickle as it is here.
Tupiza.
Despite the fact that the bus ride from Salta to La Quiaca on the border was the shortest so far it was easily the most difficult. Seven hours in an upright bus seat with vomit on the floor is a lot harder than 23 hours in a clean bus with fully reclining seats. The arrival in La Quiaca was a shock as well. After two weeks of 20-30 degrees day and night we arrived at 7am to about 5 degrees! A cruel taste of things to come. The walk to the border post from the bus stop was uneventful but as we cleared the Argentine side we were greeted by gunshots. Unfazed we continued on and after an easy passage through the border we were on a dodgy bus and soon after, in Tupiza. Tupiza is a nifty little wild west town in the south. It is famous for being the location for the demise of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid at the hands of angry miners after they robbed the pay chest of a local mine. It was an amazing place surrounded by huge red hills and it was also our first real taste of altitude. Here I discovered how cheap things can be here. 9 bolivanos for a main meal (NZ$2) and 50 bolivanos for an awesome cowboy hat (NZ$12). Feeling the altitude a bit I skipped the horse trek the others went on but went out later to see an amazing lightning show in the hills around the town that had strikes every few seconds! The time there passed quickly and after our second night there we took off for the tour through the altiplano out to the Salar, the largest salt flats in the world.
Salar de Uyuni.
A 9:30am start for the tour felt early at the time but looking back it was the easiest day by far. As the 4WDs only took 4-5 passengers our group spit up. Nick, Jason, Tim and Pete were in one while Rob and I were joined in the other by Maria (27), Anna (23) and Palerma (6-7) from Sweden. It was a big help having them with us as they spoke spanish and english so could translate for us. Carlos, our driver/guide and Esperanza, his mother and our cook, spoke only spanish. We began driving a fairly standard Bolivian road (basically not much better than a 4WD track) which wound its way up through the earthy wild west landscape around Tupiza up to our first stop. A viewpoint overlooking a ragged red landscape of half eroded pillars and looking down into the valley we had just driven up. Moving on up along the narrow roads around increasingly dangerous corners, which were perfectly safe as Carlos was careful to pump the horn as a warning before taking them at high speed, we came to our lunch stop. A broad grassy plain strewn with llamas where we had a delicious picnic lunch, including some of the first vegetables I had seen in a while (I don`t think Argentina believes in them). After lunch we climbed up to the real altiplano where the landscape became more and more alien, dry and empty.
Our first night was spent at around 4200m in a tiny flyspeck of a village where I bought a handwoven llama wool hat (actually quite hard to find here, there is so much machined tourist trash). Another delicious meal courtesy of Esperanza and a surprisingly good night`s sleep followed.
Our start the next morning was at a brutal 5am as the day was due to be a long one. And despite being in the tropics it was a little colder than I had hoped, I was warmer back in Canada! I shivered in the back of the Land Cruiser for half an hour or so as I warmed up but once I started looking outside it was incredible. From sunrise onwards we travelled through a series of out of this world landscapes that were really indescribable. At the same time we came across the first of many high altitude lagoons that were full of sleeping flamingos of all things. Later in the day we moved in to the Reserva Nacional de Fauna Andina Eduardo Avaroa, a huge reserve in the far south west corner of Bolivia. Brilliantly coloured lagoons, bright pink flamingos, mighty volcanoes and vast mineral deposits surrounded us for the next couple of days. One of the lagoons we stopped beside was a brilliant green caused by arsenic and other toxic compounds dissolved in its water. We spent our next night in another small village that again had no power save for a few solar panels to power lights in the rooms at night. The meals Esperanza prepared were getting better every time and still managed to include fresh veggies.
After a quiet night the plan was to sleep in until 6am but we were rudely awakened when someone in the group forgot to change their alarm from the morning before. Not impressed Nick. On the third day (again freezing cold) we drove up to our highest point at around 5000m before dropping down to a volcanically active area at 4870m. This was an area of steaming holes in the ground, bubbling mud and an obnoxious sulfur smell in the air. It didn´t help that at that altitude the body tried to suck down as much air as it could.
From here we began our descent from the highest level of the altiplano down out of the reserve. We stopped for lunch in an old lava field almost under the shadow of the still smoking volcano in the distance. From here we moved to the edge of the Salar to a hostel made of salt. Nearly everything in there was salt from the bricks making up the walls to the tables, chairs and beds. As we were all exhausted and had to get up for the sunrise we didn't stay up too late. A quick trip outside to see the stars in the clear night sky was just about all we could manage. The next morning we were up at 5am and on the move by 5:30. We drove out onto the Salar in the dark to wait for the sun. As it came closer to the horizon the sky went through a rapid kaleidoscopic shift in colour culminating when the sun rose above the slat flats. Our next stop was the cactus island for breakfast. The cactus island is a small piece of land rising out of the salt, the only disturbance on the flat expanse that stretched off to the mountains in the distance. After a quick look around we took off again across the Salar. we alternated between driving through areas of dry flat salt and areas with with a thin covering of water, in one place holes in the surface of the salt looked like holes in arctic ice, showing that the water was much deeper than the surface. Once the sun was high enough we stopped in a dry area for almost an hour so that me might take the traditional Salar photos. What followed was our hilarious attempts to get the most out of the distorted perspective provided by the Salar. Standing on each others' hats, small figures on shoulders and giant bottles all came out in our photos. From here we headed off the Salar stopping briefly at the illegal salt hotel on the flats. Due to the environmental damage it causes hotels are now allowed only on the edge of the flats but the one in the centre still continues to operate somehow. We drove past mineral harvesting operations near the edge of the Salar before stopping for our final lunch in a small town. From here Carlos dropped us off at our hostel in Uyuni and we had to start to look after ourselves again. Uyuni. Uyuni was a singularly horrible little place. A town of 10,000 or so it exists mainly now to cater to the number of tourists heading for the Salar (we went in the unorthodox direction). Our hostel had no running water and for most of the time we spent there we were the only ones in a huge spooky building. The only redeeming features of the town were internet (slooooow) and Minuteman Pizza. The pizza here saved the town in my opinion. We had dinner there on our one night in the town and the pizza was the best I'd had so far in South America. Added to this was breakfast the next morning. We had an early bus to catch so Jason, Tim and I went for a food mission before we left and couldn't find much in the town so we returned to the pizza place for muffins, cookies and chocolate mud cake to last us on our journey to Potosi. Potosi. The bus we caught left at 10am (on time for once) along the horrible dirt roads I had become accustomed to expect in Bolivia but wonder of wonders we came across sealed patches as we came closer to Potosi. We arrived in good time (for Bolivia) sometime in the mid afternoon and wandered up to our hostel about half an hours walk up the hill (at 4060m!). After Uyuni Potosi was a treat. It is a real city of 140,000 or so with paved streets and real history. It is the location for a huge mine that one provided Spain with much of her wealth and as a result the city was once larger than London or Paris! On our last day in the city we took a tour of the old royal mint that stamped out the coins and processes the silver ingots. It was amazing and had examples of the changing technology through time. Potosi is an amazing place with old colonial buildings and narrow streets and our time there passed quickly. Soon we had to leave and catch our bus to Sucre. Sucre. On leaving the hostel we were told to catch a taxi to the bus station for 5-7 bolivanos per person. Feeling that this was a bit steep Jason led us onto one of the many micro buses that constantly drove around the city. One bolivano per person was a bargain when we got there safely despite the slight trepidation felt when the micro took off in a strange direction and led us into increasingly dodgy areas of the town. The bus station was a huge modern dome situated in one of the outlying areas of the town and I was a little relieved when it finally came into sight. The bus journey was uneventful and only a few hours long along good sealed roads but we still arrived in Sucre after dark. The hostel here is similar to the one in Potosi, ok but not great, but after a couple of days here we decided to stay an extra night as the city (of around 200,000) is one of the coolest we've stopped in. It has a fairly major university and just looking around you can tell that there is a lot more money here than in any of the other places we've been too in Bolivia so far. At the same time we've met some cool people here so it feels worthwhile staying the extra night. Hopefully in future I'll keep this a little more up to date but no promises, especially when the internet is as fickle as it is here.
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Shelley This is the most exquisitely wonderful blog in the world - especially as it is one step away from some might cool blokes on an amazing adventure. Thanks Alan - heaps.