Pass the salt please.

Wed 15th-Fri 17th Dec
Wednesday
We woke early to pack bags and went to the same restaurant as the night before as the girls said they had a great buffet breakfast. Which they did. I filled up on scrambled eggs and cereal with yoghurt, pancakes and tea. Pete had left over pizza from dinner. We arrived at our tour company to meet the fresh faces that would become our companions for the next three days. After the fog of stuttered spanglish had cleared we found their names were: Jordi and Gemma, a couple form Spain, and Aleksandra and Maria from Poland. Lucky for us they all spoke good english and fortunately ended up being useful translators. Our guide, Waldo, could speak english, but wasn’t very good at it, we could understand the others far better.

We started off our journey with a trip to the Train Cemetery in Uyuni. No surprises here, only a wide open space where all the old steam trains were left to rust. The locals have stripped the trains of their value, now they are ‘protected’ so that all the gringos can come from miles to get their photos jumping over them. We were expecting a few more trains; a bunch of old trains in the middle of the desert wasn’t that exiting, and was off the beaten track.

Our next stop was a small town where they cleaned and refined salt and was also a bano (toilet) stop. Lucky for me there were more markets where I was able to buy a floppy hat! The last one was not from the floppy family and got itself broke.

We drove for a bit and ended up at Salar de Uyuni: the Salt Flats. Situated 3653 meters above sea level and is 12000 square meters in size, it is a massive, bright, white spectacle. There are many resorts situated on the outskirts of the flats, but there were a couple that were actually on the flats that were closed down due to the contamination that they caused to the salt flats. We stopped at one to take photos and met some people who were cycling(!!!)- found out they were on a three year cycling trip. And I thought I was doing okay when I had the gusto to cycle to work!

Interestingly once we were in the middle of this dream-like location, equivalent to a snail’s worst nightmare, we came across a very unassuming volcanic rock island of sorts that was surrounded by a sea of salt. We stopped here for lunch (which was the biggest T-bone steak I had ever seen) and had a walk up and around its summit. It really was amazing to witness a gigantic prickly monolith emerge out of a blinding white haze, and although we thought we were sick of playing eye-spy with the cacti, this desert oasis restored our lost interest we had with the pricks. Easy done considering the local architecture, furniture and even rubbish bins were fashioned from cactus wood. With the free time we were allocated we went back to tourist mode, attempting to pull off the somewhat compulsory ’optical illusion’ photograph which are plastered on every wall, free space in Uyni. Pete really sucked at taking them but the photos he’s in turned out fantastic, due to my technical expertise, you be the judge.

By about four pm we were at our accommodation for the evening, a hotel that was entirely made of salt, apart from the roof that is. It looked like a location you’d expect to see James Bond in the grips of some lame super villain. We had a little problem with the rooms, with the management wanting to pile all of us into the same salty room after we were promised one to ourselves. Thankfully, again, our new found friends spanished our way out of it, saying something to the effect no private rooms we want our money back. On the brightside it was then time to join the six deep line to que for the only hot shower.

After dinner we had a peek at the stars. It was so dark out, save the luna light which by then was almost full. My brain kept tricking me into thinking that we were on a beach for some strange reason- telling me that big empty had to be water!! Maria and I saw a huge shooting star, and the boys went inside, too cold for them. I braved it for a bit eventually giving in to the cold, enjoying the thought of a big salt brick with a mattress laid on top- bed.

Our first day of driving had consisted of 200km, with 110km of those across the salt flats. That equals a lot of driving in next to unbearable conditions, with your knees around your shoulders and your shoulders around someone else’s, dust in your mouth and your tongue being bitten by the bumpy roads.

Thursday

We stirred really early the next morning to watch the sun rise over the salt flats. We bundled into the jeep in the dark drove for fifteen minute to arrive to our own private viewing plane. It was so cold that we all jumped around trying to keep warm. The sun started to rise and place different colours over the sky. It was so peaceful on the salt, again my brain was scrambled by the awesome sight of seeing so much salt that every time I went to say salt, snow or ice would fall out of my mouth instead…figuratively that is.

We went back to the crystal castle hostel to pack our bags and have some breakfast. From there it was more driving through very small towns, another bano stop, and off to a look out to see Ollague, Bolivia’s active volcano. Apparently, it spits out larva that the locals mine and try to sell to gringos, we only saw some smoke rising from it from a safe distance. The stop was amongst some very large boulders and little canyons and there were some small green rocks completely covered in this hard moss- quite pretty.

It was then off to Canapa, our first lagoon of the tour and our first glimpse of the native flamingo!! Maria just about jumped out of the jeep while it was still moving she was so excited. Uniquely, all the lagoons we visited had a lot of different minerals in them, none of which were any good for human consumption, with one lagoon that was so concentrated in sulphur and arsenic that even the animals wisely choose to dip elsewhere. Canapa, in contrast, it was teeming with bird life, with the most common sight being the flamingos chowing down on the plankton in the water. We didn’t realise just how big flamingos actually are, or how god awful they sound when they squawk.

Continuing lagoon hoping we stopped at Hedionda. We had a walk around, took some more photos, Pete peed in the water to then see a sign that said not to (opps). While we were looking around Waldo prepared lunch. The lunches we had on tour were good, either cold meats, salad, pasta or rice. The dinners were average however, and although they did attempt to make us gringos at home by whipping up lasagne, unfortunately it tasted like cooked onion with mouldy cheese. So Carol if you’re reading this, we think we’re in need of your wonderful interpretation of this dish. I have heard so much about it since we excused ourselves from eating its hideous bastard distant relative. Pete said it needs to have a crispy top too xx

Rochelle, Alex, Jordi, Maria, Gemma, Pete

On the road again we another bumpy hour to the majestic ‘Stone Tree’. At Jordi’s recommendation, we did stop for a group photo in the middle of a desert, where we all yelled at the top of lungs, just because we could and because boredom makes you do such things! We had been driving for ages, and getting pretty sleepy and mellow, so it was a great pick me up. We arrived at a bunch of big rocks and yes there was a stone shaped, you guessed it, as a tree….well if you squinted! Erosion had shaped it that way, and it was pretty big. The thing that added to its splendour was that we were out of the jeep actually looking at something besides the featureless dessert. It really was harsh, merciless terrain and I couldn’t help but think of those poor, loco cyclists.

We drove to our last stop for the day- Lagoon Chiarkota. And although Waldo wasn’t a great conversationalist he was great with getting us to locations on time. Importantly so as the lagoon gets a red a tinge to the water in the early afternoon when the sun reflects on it and so many of the tourists we know have missed this spectacle due to tardiness. The minerals in the water are the cause for this colourful chemical reaction, or something technical like that. It was so windy as we were on a hill looking down into the valley that I kept on getting pushed over by the wind. The lagoon is where a national park begins, so there was a look out room with all information on the animals, plants and water in the area.

We paid a small fee to be able to go through the park and went to our next hotel, which was far less interesting then our last. Some of us had a warm beer and we all tried but failed with the bottle of wine we got as part of the tour. Jordi was so disappointed with the taste of the wine, he was looking forward to it all trip making reference to it so often it was almost like it was our seventh passenger. We all opted for an early one as we had just driven 250km in a day and had a big day next. Four am was to be our morning call.

Friday.

In the dark and the cold we all struggled to get to the promising natural hot pool to watch the sun rise. On the way there we stopped at some really big geysers. It was too cold to appreciate them. We all had so many layers on. We would jump out of the jeep, run and take photos, then jump back in the jeep. We were getting pretty good at it by the end!
There are so many tour companies on route, so when you get somewhere there are usually at least a couple of jeeps that have beaten you there and unless you’re on the salt flats you don’t have miles of space to get your own little pocket of special goodness. We managed to beat everyone to the hot springs this morning, so it was lovely to be able to walk around for at least ten minutes in our own company. With the sun starting to come up over the horizon and reflect off the steaming water on the ground it was a stunning sunrise to behold.

Arriving at the hot pool I’m proud to say that I was then the only person in my group to strip down to my bikini and go for a swim at six-freezing-o’clock-in the morning. It was hard, but the water was so good, just as good as a drawn hot bath at home. Once it had warmed me to the core, getting out was relatively painless. Steam was coming off me as I was drying myself. By the time I got out most of the other jeeps had arrived and the little pool was slowly getting full. As I said Waldo had great timing.

After our breakfast of pancakes and caramel sauce (they use it like Nutella) we headed off to Honda, the very last lagoon on the trip. On the way we went past the very smooth and picturesque flats of the Salvidor Dalhi desert. Just as the name suggests, it looked very much like it was missing a couple of melting clocks and strange surreal lobster telephones. Photos could not do it justice at all not even illusionary ones.

Lagoon Honda normal gives off a bright blue colour, but it didn’t that day. Apparently it has something to do with the toxicity of the minerals, the depth of water and the velocity of the wind. When the wind hit’s the water at a certain speed it then stirs the minerals bringing out its colour. We still had a gork and got our last group photo in. Sorry to say that it was a pretty boring finale. For standing on a gigantic mound of volcanic rock peering into a age old valley is was bit of an anticlimax due to the promise of something even more spectacular.

Bolivian immigration

Border crossing

Waldo and the group then took Pete and I too the border of Bolivia/Chile. We were hopping on a bus to take us onward and the guys were heading back to Uyuni- they had to travel 500km back come full circle then had be endure a further seven hours on a train ride into Argentina! We said our goodbyes and Pete and I played the waiting game. This border control building strangely had no seats, no inside seating, and no toilet!! No basic of the basics. More jeeps showed up and we all waited and waited and peed behind an old abandoned bus and finally our bus came to take us over to Chile and San Pedro de Atacama. We said goodbye to chilly Bolivia and Hello to sunny Chile!!

Pass the salt please.

Uyuni, Bolivia