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Published: October 1st 2007
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Uyuni
It's evolution, baby I arrived in Uyuni late last Saturday night. Journey details:
Origen/Destination... Villazón - Uyuni
Mode of transport... Train
Company... Expreso del Sur
Cost.... 63 Bolivianos
Duration... about 8 hours
Remarks... this was a fantastic journey. The scenery was quite spectacular until Tupiza. Unfortunately thereafter it started getting dark so I couldn't really see much. The train was comfortable and kept spotlessly clean but the train staff. They showed three films during the journey: Jurassic Park (classic Speilberg summer blockbuster), followed by 28 Weeks Later (gore-fest zombie movie), followed by Nanny McPhee (horribly sissy story of a pompous English dude and his inability to look after his sprogs). Quite literally something for the whole family!
I arrived in Uynui quite late. I was tired and it was seriously cold. I went straight to a hostal I had earlier picked out and banged on the door. The woman who owned it shouted down at me from upstairs & told me that a room would cost 80 Bolivianos... not much in Sterling terms but an absolute rip off in Bolivian terms. I knew she was taking advantage of my "I'm fed up and need a bed" situation. Still, being tired and cold
Uyuni
Las Banderas at the Salt Hotel I accepted the offer (though I definitely wasn't happy about it).
I passed the Sunday shopping for things at the market and searching for a decent tour company to take me to the plains. I had heard that it gets extremely cold on the plains due to the altitute, so I bought myself some gloves, a hat and a super high quality "Nike" jacket that promptly fell apart in about 4 hours or so. It was expected.
I was asking just about every single gringo in town whether they had done or were planning on doing the tour. I spoke to a group that had just returned from a tour with "Colque" (one of the bigger operators). Their report wasn't exactly glowing however, so I decided to strike this one off my list. After a wee bit of tinternet research I found that "Oasis" have a pretty good rep, but they seriously need to work on their opening hours. Later I came across an American dude and English girl that had booked with a company called Expediciones Latitudas. They told me that the deal looked fairly sound and that if you "um" and "ar" over the price a
Uyuni
My group of seven little, they'll drop it down for you. Sure enough they dropped it from 600 to 560 bolivianos for the three day excusion. I had previously enquired at a few other operators that day. It seemed to me that the route is more or less the same no matter what company you go with. The only variables are the state of the car, the quality of food and accomodation and the quality of the guide. One thing I noticed is that they'll say anything to get your money. If you're Australian they'll say they already have a couple of Austrailians signed up... if you're Chinese they'll say they have a couple of Chinese people signed up. I made sure to ask them to see the list of people already signed up... if it turned out they did actually have a couple of English dudes then fair enough, if not they're lying through their teeth, innit. I went to one company who told me they had some English guys signed up... something that was later confirmed as a lie when my tour company and that company pooled together their customers. The two Englishmen turned out to be four Israelis!
We all
Uyuni
Stone Tree met Monday morning at the company's office at around 11am. After a few tours around the block (some confusion over sleeping bags - best to ask if they're included in the price) we finally set off. Overall the vehicle was in a good state and both the food and accomodation were way better than expected. The only niggle I had was that there were seven of us in the car.... not the most comfortable situation, and also our guide (Theo) was more of driver than an actual guide. By this I mean he didn't really tell us anything about anything. He was a nice guy, but I guess after 11 years of the saying the same stuff he probably just couldn't be arsed anymore.
The tour started in the Salar de Uyuni... the world's largest salt flat. The flat used to be a giant lake until it dried and split into two lakes and two salt deserts (the larger being Uyuni). The landscape was so bizarre here. All I could see was salt as far as the horizon. It was amazingly flat and surreal and void of any kind of vegetation or animal life. The tour went by La
Uyuni
Sunset on the first night Isla de los Pescadores... a rockey island covered by big fat cacti. We walked to the top viewing point and from there looked out on to the plain. It looked for all the world as though the plain was covered in snow. From here we moved south west spending the night in a small village. The next morning we woke painfully early and the tour passed by a few lagunas (including Laguna Colorada). We saw some flamencos and later a rock that had been formed into the shape of a tree! We spent the second night close to Laguna Colorada and then next morning we woke at the unbearably early time of 5am in order to arrive at the Sol de Manaña geysers in time for sunrise. We took a break for breakfast and later stoppd by La Laguna Blanca and its toxic neighbour La Laguna Verde.
From Laguna Verde I left the group along with the American in order to catch a transfer bus to San Pedro de Atacama across the border into Chile. The rest of the group returned to Uyuni. Despite my driver's inability to speak I really loved this journey. The landscape was unlike anything
Uyuni
Sol de Manaña I'm likely to see again and the experience as a whole I thought was good value for money. It was seriously cold and windy however, so I would recommend to anyone doing this tour to take some warm clothes!
Anywayz, its on to Chile with its stong economy and messed-up Spanish...
Luego.
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