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Published: July 21st 2008
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Uyuni, Bolivia is a tourist destination in the loosest sense of the world. The only real reason for coming here is to get in a jeep and drive out again to see the nearby Salar de Uyuni, the world´s largest Salt Flats. We arrived here on the surprisingly comfortable train from Tupiza sometime after midnight, only to be greeted by sub zero temperatures and feral dogs. Originally we´d planned to get straight out of town, but we couldn't bring ourselves to obey the call of the alarm clock in the morning, and instead took to shopping for a tour the following day, and loading up with Alpaca wool clothes to get us through the extremes of temperature. It may be warm, but you look like a dufus.
Our hotel was nice enough, with a great restaurant (minuteman pizza - mmmm!) but you´d think a part of the world which typically lingers around the zero degrees celsius mark would invest in some heating. It did boast a hot shower, but you were left with a number of dilemmas: to get in the shower would involve getting your kit off, which offered the risk of freezing to death in the intermediate minutes.
Then when under the ´power shower´, you could choose between a scorching hot setting, albeit with the water pressure of a urinating hummingbird, or a torrential downpour of ice water that would freeze miliseconds before touching the skin. Of course I shouldn´t moan, as most of the locals probably don't even have running water at all.
As expected, the town of Uyuni turned out to be nearly as basic as it´s plumbing, with a couple of noteable highlights. The first, a child´s playground park complete with ferris wheel that played the Birdy Song on a loop (I believe the CIA do something similiar in Guantanamo for torture purposes - nearby neighbours must have the highest suicide rate in South America), and second, a local Rally Car race that was doing laps of the town and local countryside. The cars were brightly coloured and ramshackle, and LOUD! You wouldn't want to be standing too near to the kerb edge when they rounded the corners either! It was fun to watch though.
We set off on our 3 day trip the next morning with Latitudes tours - the only company we could find open when we wanted to book, so
The Start Line
I´d be nervous too if I were driving one of the bangers they motored about in! all in all a bit of a risk. Some of the 4X4s you see setting off are complete hunks of garbage. Fortunately our Toyota land cruiser was in a better state, even though we were rammed to the rafters. 6 tourists, a cook and a driver in one vehicle. This is pretty much standard for the Salt Flats tour, though not the most comfortable when there are 3 guys in the car well over 6 foot, and as you know Natalie won´t travel anywhere without her cuddly 4 foot T-Rex beanie baby and golf clubs...
The basic deal with these tours is you drive somewhere, get out, take photos, and 15 mins later you get back in the 4X4 and drive somewhere else. This is not really our scene, and you can go crazy fairly quickly, however the scenery round these parks is fairly incredible, and much as you´d rather be hiking or riding a bike or a beast of burden, the jeep tours are really the only way to see them. It´s Looking At Stuff, International.
The first stop was the train cemetery. A lot of old trains. Somehow Bolivia has turned a rubbish dump into a
tourist attraction. It´s relatively fun climbing on the rusty old trains, but my attempts to get any info out of our guide (basic questions like "how long have they been here") were met with a general shrug of the shoulders. To be fair to the guy, he was working the whole time on the tour - either driving, loading the motor, fixing something - and it´s fair to say he had little time for explanations or info. It´s sad really, as a little bit of information can bring a place to life.
We then headed to the main attraction - the Salt Flats. The Salar de Uyuni is a massive dried up salt lake. It´s definitely otherworldly, white as far as you can see, with only a few mountains in the distance. There´s a whole community set up to gather, dry and bag up the salt for basically a pittance in wages, living in a village where all the buildings are made out of salt. The craziest stop by far is the island of Incahuassi - right in the middle of the lake. There´s not much on the island itself but cactus and fossilised coral, but it´s a great
view point, surrounded with salt on all sides. Its the strangest sensation - you feel like you´re on an island, but where the sea should be instead you have seasoning.
We spent the night in a hotel made almost entirely of the stuff you put round the rim of a margarita glass (I forget the name). There used to be just one Sodium Chloride (insert common name please) Hotel, but others are springing up all over the place. It turned out to be relatively charming - (even if the promised double bed and en suite bathroom failed to materialise!), and was definitely the nicest condiment constructed establishment that I´ve ever stayed in. Mind you, the less said about the Paprika Inn Bed and Breakfast, Woking the better.
Day 2 of the tour struggles to live up to the first. You have a long drive south, with little to occupy you but looking out of your window at the mountains and the desert. There are a few perfunctory stops - a volcanic rock field, a rock that apparently looks like a tree, more desert etc, before arrival for lunch at a flamingo filled lake. Then it´s another relentless drive
Ragging it round
That soldier is nerveless! to the Laguna Colorado, where we spent the night. This is a truly beautiful lake - vivid red in places with Algae, and surrounded by white mineral deposits, mainly sodium and borax, which sounds like a great combination to put on your chips. The only option to spend the night however, is a hostel of the most basic kind. Dorm beds and a toilet each for the genders for about 80 people to share. There was no running water, but this was really not a problem. The hostel drops to about -10 degrees overnight and early morning, thus nobody is in a rush to get in the shower.
The third day thankfully involved a lot less driving for us, though it did begin with a 5am start. We´d elected to transfer into San Pedro de Atacama, Chile, while our tour mates had to face the long drive back to Uyuni. First however we got to see some Geysers doing their thing at 6 in the morning (still at about 20 below), and stop off at some more colourful lakes for photos. Finally we crossed a tin shack border point, and we were in a bus on our way to
So much industrial decay
It´s a wonder they weren´t shooting a soft rock video here Chile. While Argentina sort of merges into Bolivia (the buses decay, the roads get worse), the border crossing between Chile and Bolivia is a paradigm shift. All of a sudden you´re in a proper bus, on a proper road, at a border crossing with officials that have some degree of organisation. Woo hoo! The down side however: everything is five times the price...
Sadly we number our stay in South America in days now, and are leaving on Thursday. ¡Que asco!
Si xx
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