Bolivian Jeep Crash! Salt Flats Day Two

---

OK so its the blog entry for the crash. Its going to be a long one. Get yourself a cuppa and make yourself comfortable. Nice one.



So we woke up on Day Two of the trip, in a school, at 5,000ft, in the middle of nowhere in Bolivia. Excellent. The general consensus was that everyone had had a really rough night and we couldn't wait to get out of there. Brilliant people, excellent hospitality considering they weren't expecting us, but just far too bloody high!

So day two was off to a flier. I took all the placebo's I could possibly think of to try and get rid of my altitude sickness (it felt a lot like a hangover - bad headache, sickness, lethagy, etc). So I had some headache tablets, an alka seltzer, ate some plain toast, drank some water, had a cup of tea and chewed some coca leaves. If someone suggested it as a cure, I tried it!

Bingo! Back on the road and singing to Celine Dion in no time! We started the day in high spirits and swimming shorts. We were headed for some kind of natural spring in the middle of nowhere (I'll stop saying that now, just assume everywhere was extremely remote because, well, it was). A lot of the day was driving because we were covering pretty huge distances, but around lunch time we made it to this spring type deal and it was amazing. There were flamingos and llamas knocking about while you soaked yourself in some naturally salty water that was apparently really good for you. After a bad night and all morning in a jeep a nice bath was just the trick!

After lunch we headed to a place called 'Laguna Verde' - the green lagoon if memory serves. It felt like I was in a post card, it was a really beautiful place. I thought we were going for another swim but it was just a quick photo stop before we went to the geysers up the road. The geysers - possibly the smelliest place in the world. If sulphur is your thing this is the place for you. Lets just say we didn't hang around there for long!

I know what you're thinking - what about the crash Tom?! I just wanted to say we were having a cool day up to that point. I guess the final warning was when we nearly killed an Irishman. The Bolivians haven't exactly got a bad history with Ireland so we had to assume it was accidental. The other jeeps had stopped for a photo opportunity and we were late catching up, as always. This Irish guy was stood in the road and obviously didn't see us coming. We all expected our car to slow down but we were really travelling at speed. Barely slowing, the driver beeps his horn at the last minute and the guy only just jumps out the way. FINAL WARNING SIGN: THE BRAKES ON THIS CAR DON'T WORK. The driver had been using his gears to slow down all day, we wondered why he'd been revving the engine so hard.

What do you do? Get out and refuse to get back in the car? All the other jeeps were full. Try and walk somewhere? This is pretty remote - remember?! And to be honest you never expect what happened to actually happen.

So we left the geysers as a group of four jeeps, after about 10 minutes our jeep was way out behind again and we were on our own. We were so extremely lucky in so many ways. As we headed down this long, straight road at about 85 kilometers and hour we all feel a big clunk, and the car slid to the left. It felt like the car had had a blow-out, like a tyre had gone. We slid right as the driver counter-steered, I think he thought the same thing. We were all pretty calm, a blow-out isn't really a big deal, there's a spare type on the back. Then we slid left again. Paul was watching a film on the PSP, I was watching Ali G on Matt's iPod, it's funny the things you remember. The driver and chef were in the front seat, Paul, Rosie and Lettie in the middle seats, and me and Matt were in the back. None of us were wearing seatbelts.

It's not like its going to flip is it. Oh yeah, it is. I remember that thought going through my head. Oh, its going to roll over, OK. I better try and save this iPod, its not mine! Later in the hospital, I was asked if I'd remained conscious. Who knows?! Next thing I know, Matt is lying on top of me and everyone is screaming. Matt starts shouting, 'No one panic. Everyone stay calm! No one panic!' I'm not sure he realised that he had one knee on my head and almost all of his body weight on my lungs, but I could barely breathe. I'll bloody panic if I want to mate! I remember screaming for him to get off me and thinking I was running out of air and might die. (Don't worry this has a happy ending remember!) The next thing I know people are moving and then I'm outside. The jeep was on its side. It turned out we'd climbed out through where the windscreen used to be.

The girls were crying. There was blood everywhere because Matt had a fairly bad cut on his knee and my finger was starting to look fat.


And I felt possibly the happiest I've ever felt in my life. (See attached manic photo)

We were all alive and there wasn't that much blood. The bags were taken off the car really quickly and it didn't seem to be in danger of exploding so everyone sat against it trying, wrapping up warm in the cold Bolivian weather. I went straight to my bag, found my Saint Christopher and had a big old look at the sky. Then it started to snow. It's like that is it, Big Man? What else are you going to throw at us?! In a way it just proved, if you think things can't get worse, you're wrong!

I laughed, I was making jokes. I couldn't sit down with everyone else, I had too much energy. I was still alive! And there wasn't that much blood. It's funny how shock affects you. Paul was in a similar mood, and suggested we kick the footy round a bit.

In the distance we saw a truck appearing. We joked about spraying ketchup everywhere and making our bodies look mangled, just to scare the driver. It really was that sort of mood. I think it was helpful to the others because they were younger than us and in a pretty bad state of panic and shock. But I'd be lying if I said that was why I was doing it, to keep their spirits up. The truth was, my spirits were up. I was still alive!

The truck was waved on by the driver, apparently they have a half hour check point system which meant the maximum distance another jeep could be away from us was an hour (half hour drive in each direction), plus waiting time before they became suspicious. Not too long to wait propped against an upturned car in the snow!

Anyway, the wait wasn't anywhere near that long and before we knew it another jeep had arrived to take us to the hostel that wasn't too far away. Half an hour later we arrived, to horrified stares and shouts from the other people on the tour, who had no idea what had happened. We were told the jeep that had collected us would go for the driver and cook and then take us to a local hospital, if we wanted. Or we could wait until the morning and do the 6 hour drive to the nearest proper town and go to the hospital there. Utterly no choice but to get back on the horse when it came to jeep travel, (we were in the middle of nowhere!). Going to hospital anywhere in Bolivia is a scary idea, but one in the middle of nowhere, in what was now the pitch black night, and who was probably more of a vet than a doctor was not top of my to-do list, to be honest, so we decided we'd drive straight to Uyuni in the morning and head to the doctors there.

Colleen, the American girl we'd first met in Iguazu who was in another jeep, spoke fluent Spanish and also had first aid training. Sometimes in your life you just meet genuinely nice people. She found some iodine and a pair of tweasers and set about removing all the dirt and grit from the cut on Matt's knee, and then negotiated with the drivers about how to get us to hospital the following day. One jeep down and full jeeps, remember. Then she offered to cut her tour short so she could come to the hospital with us and speak to the doctors for us. Overwhelmingly, genuinely nice of her. She did much, much more than she needed to and helped us immeasurably.

I just wanted to go to sleep, but it turned out I had six sizeable lumps on my head, three on each side. By this point we'd decided the jeep must have rolled on its side about three times, and I think I had a bump for each roll, on each side of my head. Three from hitting the window, and three from Matt's elbows and knees! It was decided I was concussed. And well, I was. Apparently sleep immediately after a concussion is dangerous so I had to stay away as long as I could. When I was finally allowed to go to sleep, my shoulder was in a massive amount of pain and my finger was getting more and more swollen.

Relieved, overwhelmed, and uncomfortable, I contemplated another long jeep ride and a day spent in a Bolivian hospital.

---