Salar de Uyuni Part II - Bolivian breakdowns


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Published: October 29th 2007
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It was half way through day two of our San Pedro to Uyuni trip and things were going swimmingly. The plan was to get to the Salt Hotel at the edge of the vast Salar de Uyuni salt flat in time for sunset, however the previously superficial mechanical anomalies were about to get more fundamental...

The first major problem was a broken leaf spring, a rather vital part of the suspension for those unfamiliar with mechanical things. But heh, no problem for these guys and with the help of more old strips of tyre, the whole thing was strapped back together successfully and we were soon back on the road, although now driving a little more carefully over the rough stuff.

We headed on, feeling positive that sunset at the salt flats was still a real possibility, that was until we came to a stop again another half an hour later and lifting the bonnet revealed a lot of oil and the need for some rather more serious repair work. With our fairly bad Spanish and a driver that spoke no English, we ascertained that some part of the clutch mechanism had gone and that this time the damage was a little more difficult to fix. They tried all the same and 10 zipties that I donated to the cause disappeared somewhere into the engine compartment to no avail. After half an hour things were looking grim, the Kiwi’s truck had returned to find out where we were and the two drivers were now beginning to look out for passing vehicles to help.

Being parked up in the middle of a high altitude desert late in the day, hailing a passing truck wasn’t working and we were beginning to wonder about the reality of spending a night in the truck with freezing temperatures. With some further struggling the guys managed to get our truck into first gear and the possibility of moving on reappeared. Starting was a bit tricky and took all 5 Kiwi’s pushing to get us underway and top speed wasn’t good in 1st gear, but the feeling of progress was however slow was welcome. We had swapped drivers, happily accepting the older and more experienced driver who after a while got better at driving with no clutch and successfully managed to change up and increase our speed. This was fine on the flat, but we did have a number of occasions when he tried to change up/down and couldn’t get back into another gear for a few minutes and we would coast or come lurching to a standstill and require another push start....

Having asked a few more probing questions we began to appreciate quite how far we still had to go and that we wouldn’t be getting to the hotel until well after dark even if things held together as they were. Unfortunately things got worse!! Sometime later it was already dark when we realised that the Kiwi’s truck had dropped back out of sight and we decided to slow up as much as possible to let them catch up. Of course stopping was not a great option with our vehicle, what with the starter motor issue and the distinct lack of gears. Luckily after agreeing that they weren’t coming and that we should return to find them, the driver managed a swift U-turn on a wide bit of road without stopping and we were heading back the way we had come....away from our beds and food, although at the time we were just glad that we hadn’t stalled and been left struggling to push start the truck and jump back in ourselves!

A couple of miles back we found the strange scene of an abandoned bus with the driver trying to fix it and the Kiwi’s truck driver siphoning fuel from it. Yep, they were out of gas... just a slight concern when you are crossing miles of wilderness...you think they might have a little too much, rather than not quite enough! Anyway, after a bit more siphoning from our spare fuel cans to their truck, an amusing people powered three-point turn for our vehicle (being undrivable at low speeds without its clutch) and a final push start from the Kiwi’s we were off on the final leg of our epic day. The Kiwi’s were beginning to look a little tired at this point having spent half the day heaving a 4x4 down soft sandy roads at 5000m, but spirits were high never-the-less and the whole thing had become a bit of a bonding experience that just added to interest of the trip!

After another 15 minutes of driving in convoy we saw another jeep approaching and it turned out to be the shiny new one belonging to the diplomats. They were happily ensconced in the hotel (and had been for hours) but their driver had realised something was wrong and had driven back out to find us. We quite happily accepted the transfer to the immaculate, infinitely faster and more comfortable Landcruiser - it’s amazing what a difference suspension makes! In half an hour we were pulling up to the hotel in the pitch black, the Kiwi’s rolled in a bit later and the poor driver of our truck limped in quite a while after them, having had a particularly bad day at the office!

So at 8.30, about 2 and a half hours after sunset we walked into the Salt Hotel. We thanked the diplomats for the use of their lovely jeep and asked how much extra they had paid so as to avoid the one with the bonnet tied on with string! Apart from the roof, doors and windows, the hotel is made entirely of salt - the walls, floors, beds, tables and chairs....very handy if you tend to spill a lot of red wine. The hotel is at an altitude of 3653m and sits right on the edge of the Salar de Uyuni, the World’s largest salt flat covering 12,000km2. The salar is part of prehistoric salt lake (Lago Minchin) which covered most of southwest Bolivia and dried up leaving a few seasonal puddles and the famous salt pans including Uyuni and Coipasa.

We were up early at 5.30AM to see the sunrise over Salar de Uyuni and our first view of this amazing landscape. Then it was back to hotel for breakfast before heading onto the salt flat for the 50 or so kilometre drive to the Isla de los Pescadores that sits roughly in the middle. Thankfully they had arranged a new vehicle and driver, that whilst not exactly luxurious did have suspension and a full set of gears!
Out on the salt flat it was very difficult to gauge distances, maybe you can see from the video clips what I mean. We would be whipping along at 60km/h and nothing seemed to be getting any closer. It certainly is a huge area and I can’t say that I envied the couple of cycle-tourers we saw winding their way across this vast expanse under the burning sun. After an hour or so and a stop for some photos we arrived at the island, taking a stroll around to admire the 1000 year old cacti and the panoramic view of the salt lake. Then it was back on the white stuff for another long drive toward the distant hills and the town of Uyuni.

Some mirages were starting to appear, an effect that out here can sometimes leave you losing sight of where the sky stops and the land starts. Before leaving the salt lake we stopped to check out the salt mining works, where some men with shovels were scratching the surface of the lake and making some artistic piles of salt ready for shipment out by truck. Then we stopped for a lama steak lunch at Colchani before continuing on to Uyuni.

Before stopping in town we headed 3kms out of town to the Cementario de Trenes (Railway graveyard). I’m not sure how these 50 odd trains ended up here, but they certainly made a weird sight rusting away in the middle of nowhere. It’s a bit sad but one of my abiding memories is of one piece of graffiti we came across - ‘Shepton Mallet Kicks Ass’…hmmm and they say travel broadens the mind!

And so we headed back to town and said goodbye to our driver having survived our eventful 3 day trip from San Pedro de Atacama. I have since seen some statistics on the number of people making this journey and over the last 10 years, the figures have risen from something like 500 to 30,000 each year - I can’t remember the numbers exactly, but you get the picture. Obviously travel in Bolivia is greatly increasing in popularity and that makes perfect sense, given that for £45 each we were driven, fed and watered for 3 days and shown the most bizarre landscape we had ever seen.



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