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Published: July 22nd 2007
Valley of Death - San Pedro de Atacama
For the geology geeks, this amazing landscape has been created over millions of years by uplift of the sedimentary rock. We know, it's got you excited! Apologies for the long entry. We've had an action packed two weeks and just didn't know what to leave out. For those of you who make it to the bottom, we're running a beauty competition...
Don't forget, you can follow our route via
this map Bolivia bound... via Salta It was time to take ourselves north to Bolivia, but we had a last stop to make in Argentina before bidding the country farewell for good. As with the rest of our trip we had impractically failed to plan in advance and once again crossed from one side of the continent to the other, giving the bus companies a large chunk of money and doing our bit to keep them in business. We had an overnight schlep to Salta, getting into town mid morning. We met up with another traveller, Thomas, who joined us in bleary eyed status as we got off the bus and tried to decide which hostel would suit us best (an ongoing joy of backpacking). Luckily he had a good recommendation with a sunny courtyard, free internet, pool table, sound system and a bbq out the back.
Once showered and with our boots airing (smelly
Cath & Rob - Valley of Death
For all you people in the UK getting wet at the moment, spare a thought for the people, plants and animals here who only get 80mm of rain per annum. You can feel the moisture being sucked from your mouth. feet being an unfortunate side effect of wearing hiking boots 24/7) we heard cheering and fireworks from the street outside. Assuming that this would lead to activities more exciting than sitting around in the hostel, we set off to determine the cause. A football stadium was discovered 2 streets away, the game had just started, so we duly bought tickets to our first South American match and went in to watch. Although we were a little confused at first - both groups of supporters being dressed in identical colours - we picked the supporters on our right (as they were the noisiest) and eventually worked out which team was theirs. Luckily we had chosen the home team who went on to win, and we had the amusement of seeing the highlights of the match on the news the next morning!
Salta was a pretty town, although we only had 1.5 days here, so we dutifully climbed up Cerro San Bernado for the views, wandered the streets, had a brilliant lunch in the huge market, and tried to see Andean mummies but chose to visit the museum the one day it was shut. Typical!
San Pedro de Atacama A
10 hour bus journey saw us arrive at our final destination for Chile - San Pedro de Atacama (altitude 2,600m). Although the town is VERY tourist focused, it retains a lot of charm (as long as you don't mind European prices for everything).
The journey there was Caths first experience of high altitude, and we went over a 4,100m pass on the way. We stopped for lunch at about 3,500m and it was here Cath discovered that running after llama's for a closer photo is not a particularly good idea. Rob decided that climbing a hill to get even higher would be the best way for him to tackle the altitude. We both passed a little more time at the border itself by spinning round in circles on one foot and enjoying the head rush that followed. Travel, obviously broadening the mind...
Our hostel (Florida) was fun despite needing to disturb the slightly mad night concierge to get the pilot light lit for the showers in the morning. Not doing so was a mistake we made on the first chilly morning.
We went on a trip of the Valley de la Lunar. Spectacular scenery and a very
well informed guide, our photo count just keeps growing. As we looked out over the valley listening to our guide talk about rainfall Rob wondered to himself whether the mountain in the distance should be smoking quite so much. Upon pointing out the huge plume of smoke to our guide (and the rest of the group), the guide's excitement made us realise that spotting a rumbling volcano was a fairly rare event so we dutifully whipped the cameras out again! By a wonderful coincidence it was Rob's dads birthday (Happy Birthday Dad), so a huge candle had been lit halfway across the world to celebrate!
The following day we hired mountain bikes to cycle to the Pukarra de Quitor fortress ruins and the Devils gorge. Rob was in heaven with the amount of off road / river based terrain to tackle. Again tried to see mummies but they'd been removed from the museum a month earlier out of respect to the deceased. We're sensing a pattern emerging...
3 day Salar tour into Bolivia Our purpose behind schlepping across the continent again was to enter Bolivia off-road via the salt flats / Andes for even more amazing scenery and
Thermal vents at 4950m - Bolivia
The jet engine sound of steam gushing from below made the fact we were standing on top of a boiling cauldron of gas, mud and water that little bit more unnerving fun photo opportunities. We booked onto a 3 day tour with Estrella del Sur, one of only 4 companies in town. We met our fellow jeep companions - Pamela, John, Cheryl, Amir, and Yair (team Shakalav) and set off for the border.
The whole trip was brilliant fun. Zipping across the landscape in a 4x4 we had great companions and the landscape was simply stunning - mountains, vast landscapes, lagoons of green, white, blue and red, the Polque hot springs to bathe in (we both braved the elements to do so), thermal vents / geysers to run around dangerously on (they don't seem to have heard of safety measures on this continent), the Dali rock desert, many cool rock formations to photograph and clambour on, a volcano or two, and of course the Uyuni salt flat.
Our first nights stay was the highest at 4400m in the hostel Hualla Jara. With no heating at the hostel, the prospect of -10C temperatures ensured that we put on every item of clothing we owned for bed. We then went on to freak out Yair, who, unable to sleep, lay and listened to the rest of the group suffering from periodic
Flamingos
Doing their thing in the Andean lagunas breathing (normal at high altitude) as we slept. Our breathing gradually slowed down, then paused, before we gasped for air every now and then. Second nights accomodation was in a relocated salt hotel, Villa Martin (built not surprisingly from salt!), and it had the added bonus of showers. We refrained from licking the walls to check its authenticity...
We finished our tour with sunrise over the Uyuni salt flat and breakfast on Isla de los Pescadores, before heading out into the middle of the salt flat for some messing about with the near infinite perspective to get many entertaining photos. The tour ended in Uyuni, and although the people in town were very nice (including the very small 13 year old who seemed to be running the restaurant we had dinner in single handedly), the town itself wasn't very inspiring so we left the next day.
Potosi The highest city in the world (at 4060 metres) is also a world heritage site and a very pretty city to walk around. We spent a few days here to enjoy the atmosphere and were both still fine with the altitude, although Cath freaked herself out reading about altitude sickness and
Dawn on the Uyuni Salt Flats
Our long shadows cast across the salt flats by the low sun. pulmonary / cerebral edemas on the internet. Nowhere in Bolivia appears to have heating (especially not in the bedrooms) so the sleeping bags were getting a good workout. It was also here that we noticed a strange phenomenon that continued in Sucre, there are at least 4 lawyers (abogado's) on every street. We weren't sure whether to be reassured or concerned at this.
Our group from the Salar tour was still together and we all decided to do a tour of the old silver mines. After donning our beautiful outfits complete with head lamp and helmet we set off with our guide to tour the mines. It was fairly shocking, most of the silver has run out but miners still work their allotments to extract other minerals and metals. The conditions are appalling, temperatures can fluctuate widely, and there isn't much air circulation. Much of the work is done the same way it was 300 years ago, i.e. by hand with no machinery, and certainly no health & safety! Two miners died in one of the other tunnels the week before we arrived.
We walked through tunnels, climbed down 3 consecutive rickety ladders (one held on by an
Cathcus
Cath dwarfed by the giant cactus of Isla de los Pescadores which sits surrounded by the Uyuni Salt Flats. elastic band) to get to a lower level 15 meters below, and saw dynamite packed to explode. 30 minutes later, back on the upper level, we felt the air compress around us and heard the rumble of each charge being detonated. The miners were friendly and happy for us to take photo's, we took down gifts of soft drinks and coca leaves, but wish we'd taken more.
Potosi was notable for one final thing, the amazing vegetarian cafe (Cafe Koala) we located just off the main plaza. Their almuerzo (set lunch) left us ridiculously full and Rob was in veggie heaven.
Sucre We rejoined the others in Sucre, another pretty town at a lower altitude with lovely white buildings, teracotta roofs and a huge market. We looked in bemusement at the fairly dodgy hotel they'd landed in. We had to request to move rooms after the first night due to the layer of dust that shook down from the ceiling and coated everything. Upon mentioning this to the owner, he was well aware of the problem because there were building works going on above! Still, we probably couldn't expect much more from $2.50 each per night.
After
Crawling out of the bottle - Salar de Uyuni
After a hard night on the grog Cath finally crawled out of the bottle. hearing about the 'Dino tour' which takes you to view fossilised dinosaur tracks we were ready to go at 9am the next morning. We jumped happily into the 'Dino truck' (complete with dinosaur head on the front) and set off. Located next to a cement factory the tracks were uncovered during work at the factory. Until recently you could walk right up to them, now however you can only view them from a distance. The information centre and guide were very good though, and the life sized models of dinosaurs are brilliant. We were concerned to hear that the factory owns the land, only the wall with the tracks is protected, and they are still blowing up the landscape with dynamite, so the chances of any other remains nearby aren't looking good.
After wandering about the town looking at churches, and the amazing view of town from the top of a hill, we visited the Museo de Arte Indigena an amazing textile museum with a ridiculously comprehensive amount of information to absorb. It aims to revitalise weaving in the local area / communities and the works on display are wonderful. So wonderful that we returned the next day and
Giant Cartman - Salar de Uyuni
The thin air made Cartman expand to human size. purchased one.
After a few days of town action we needed mountains again so set off on a one day hike to take in two different rock painting sites, views of the Maragua crater, and a walk up the pre Hispanic Chataquila (Inca) trail. Another gorgeous day, wonderful weather and a great guide called Freddie who gave even more information. The Inca trail was well preserved and still in daily use by the local communities. The south of Bolivia really is a beautiful part of the world.
Miss Llama Competition Now... the competition... If you look down the pictures we've included with this blog you'll see our three beautiful contestants. Yep, they're llama's, we think they're all gorgeous, so cast your vote and own opinion via the comments section below. The winner will be announced in the next blog.
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Damo
non-member comment
and we go to Dexter for the compatability score
Well greg, I think it just has to be contestant no. 3