What do Neil Armstrong and Michael Jackson have in common?

This keyboard is zany and lacks some punctuation keys (and my brain is not functioning at normal capacity at this altitude)....

Sooooo, last Sunday I took the train from Tupiza to Uyuni. It was basically a Gringo Express. Nothing too exciting, watched "Enemy of the State" and then some soccer blooper movies, and then some sort of blooper reel about cats (ala Americas Funniest Home Video).

I arrived in Uyuni (3,600 m) at midnight. After claiming my bag I followed the crowd out, but veered off and found a cheap hotel. I had no bathroom, but I had my own room and that was all I wanted.

The next morning I wandered around and bought some street food. Salteñas, like empandas, but spicier. They are way better. The spicy food here is refreshing, coming from the bland Argentinean cusine.

Afterwards, I went to 4 or 5 guide operators, looking for a good deal on the salt flats tour.

I eventually chatted up an English couple and we decided to use our group power for bargaining.

We decided on Cristal Tours after looking around. When we returned there was a a new fellow there, and I told him we had been offered the 4 day tour for $80 (normally $90). It almost worked out, but I felt guilty, so we ended up paying $90.

The remainder of the day consisted of playing dice and cards. We went out for pizza and had a couple beers before calling it a night. Uyuni is seemingly quite expensive compared to Tupiza...

On Monday I awoke and headed to the bank. Unfortunately the ATM was not working on Sunday, and I had already borrowed $10 from the guide yesterday in order to get my pizza and beer. The ATM was still not working, so I was somewhat perturbed as to what my options were. I figured I could borrow some money if it was not up and running in next hour.

I went back and packed. Right before the tour was to leave the ATM miracously began to work, and I was able to get enough money to pay back the guide and hold me over for the week.

Another British couple joined us, and two Argentinian women.

We drove out on the flats and toured around for awhile, had a great lunch then headed towards the edge of the flats to get some sleep.

We stopped at a little museum in a small village, where a friendly man took us on a tour. He showed us his stuffed duck, puma, and fox, which he would point out with the beating of a stick. In fact, he smacked everything with a stick, including his 300 year old antique pots. This drove us to laughing hysterically for the next two days in remembering this wannabe curator.

We then went and saw some mummies he had locked up, and his stone collection. I got a good photo of him riding a stone llama (with beating stick and all).

We found our basic accomidations and hung around for awhile before challenging the local 10 year olds to a game of football (soccer).

I joined Team Bolivia and we took on Team England. At 3,800 m I quickly retired to goalie, where I was able to pull in a shut out against the limeys.

After everyone appeared to be in some sort of semi cardiac arrest state (aside from the locals), we headed down to the flats and watched the sun set, then did some star gazing.

Afterwards we had dinner, a little whiskey, and called it a night.

We woke up at 0600, had breakfast and headed up the ever so looming volcano (Volcán Tunupa - 5,400 m). We drove up to 4,200 m or so, and went into a cave to see some mummies. They had apparently died 3,000 years ago due to toxic gases emitted from the volcano.

Afterwards, we headed up the volcano. We had 3 hours or so, and I was set on summitting one of the peaks.

Everyone got up to around 4,700 m or so, and with half an hour left before my decided turn around time I took off solo. I made a good pace and managed to get to perhaps 5,000 m, just near the base of one of the peaks. Perhaps if I had another hour... Oh well.

I returned to everyone, and we took a light jog on the way down, losing one of the Argentinians for awhile after she took a wrong turn.

We woke up the guide and he drove us to Fish Island (not really an island, nor are there any fish). We toured around the island, had some lunch, then hung out. The two Argentines left and a French man took their place.

We then drove off the flats, and rally styled to a small town, I believe it was called San Juan. Jose Luis, the guide, is destined to be a offroad rally driver. A few times I found myself doing the nervous laugh as I thought we were going to flip.

San Juan was something out of a western. Dusty streets, no people. We had dinner, listened to some little kids playing traditional music (I have a hilarious video), had a few beers, a whiskey, watched the stars, and called it a night.

We were set to wake up at 0500, but our guide, Jose Luis, awoke us at 0400 for some reason. Confused, half of us got up and made strong whiskey coffees and sat around until 0600 before Jose Luis returned and we left.

Apparently his friends had got drunk and crashed into a lake so he had to go rescue them and winch their jeep out... Therefore he did not trust us to wake up on our own, so he awoke us an hour early. Oh well.

We cruised over the highlands, saw some rock formations, I did some bouldering, saw some volcanos, lagunas, and flamingos. We had lunch at a hotel we would stay at then we headed to some hot springs and geysers.

That night we had salty spaghetti and some drinks. Jose let us sleep in until 0800 so we stayed up a little later.

The next morning we got out around 0900. Saw some more lagunas and flamingos. We stopped at a canyon. Jose and I scrambled up a peak and then threw giant boulders off it. It was his idea.

We had lunch then continued on to Uyuni.

We all stayed in the same hotel and we went out for pizza!



Today I got up and took a 1000 bus to Potosi. I arrived here at 1600.

The city is supposed to be the highest in the world at 4,060 m. I can certainly feel the elevation.

I got a hotel room, then had some food. I then booked a guide for tomorrow.

I will be going to the market, buying some coca leaves and dynamite (you can buy it legally in the market... although some people wont sell it after some Aussies got drunk and blew up their hotels bathroom) as gifts for miners.

I will then be going down a kilometre into the depths of the mountain. The mine here is the oldest in South America, and was directly responsible for funding the Spanish empire at the time of colonialism.

It is thought that since the 16th century, over 8 million people have died due to this mine. So, it should be throughly haunted.

The miners apparently worship El Tio (the Uncle), a devil like character. Apparently God cannot protect them when they are inside the mountain.

Check out "The Devils Miner", a documentary on the subject.


I figure I will be heading to La Paz on Sunday!

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