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Published: March 10th 2007
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So we had come all the way to southern Bolivia to do one thing - the Salar de Uyuni tour. Actually we were doing the extended Tupiza version. We were to embark on a big loop through southern Bolivia and end up on the world's largest salt flat.
We were not leaving the first day until 9:30 the first morning, so Kevyn and I took the opportunity to wander around town and we stumbled into the already bustling central market. We definitely felt out of place and did not feel that great about shooting photos but we did shoot a few discreetly and I decided this was payback for all the times people take pictures of Kevyn at Silver Salmon. Anyways the beauty of the market was stunning and I am glad we left late.
At 9:30 AM we arrived at our already packed jeep and were wisked away. There were 5 of us: K&D, the Canadian / American Sarah and the 2 fifty-ish French ladies. We also had our 2 guides Alejandro and Moises. Sarah spoke English and Spanish almost fluently, we have our half Spanish and English, the French ladies spoke French and one was pretty fluent
in Spanish, and the guides, of course, spoke a very patient Spanish and no English. We were all able to communicate with each other fairly well.
As we left Tupiza and a checkpoint where our repair gear was checked, we turned left into a river bed / road. The scenery was almost instantly amazing. The rest of the morining was spent going up, against our pounding heads' wishes. The narrow and steep road passed us by red rock formations and tons of llamas. There were llamas everywhere and unlike Argentina, Bolivians do not have barbed wire fences everywhere keeping the llamas seperate. To distinguish the animals, the different owners of the herds they sew in different colored ribbons to their ears and sometimes their necks. Some of the bright colors really contrasted with the animals and landscape and were very beautiful.
The first 3 hours took us almost to 4000 Meters and we stopped for lunch. A tailgate lunch of great sandwiches and llama meat tamales. Here we realized two things - we would ultimately be traveling with 3 other jeeps and at this altitude there is not a lot of vegetation to take cover behind for using
the facilities.
After a great lunch and a seat change we were on the road (it was close to a road) again. This was our first taste of the marathon bouncey driving that we would be enduring for the rest of the trip. The driving was slow but the scenery was spectatular. We could turn a corner or go up a small hill and the scenery would completely change. The rest of the afternoon was spent passing through few very small (and some abandoned) villages. As you see in the pictures that the construction is very basic mud brick and simple wood and brush roofing. The style of construction has appeared to have not changed over several hunderd years as we saw old villages (350 years) with almost the exact same construction technique. Only a few builings here had concrete skins or metal roofs.
Later in the day we made it to the small pueblo of San Antonio de Lipez at 4200 meters and this was the first nights sleep. Three of the jeeps pulled into this very small compound and each jeep had a room with 6 beds and a table. There was one bathroom for everyone
and the guides each had a very small room where they slept and cooked the meals.
Before dinner and sunset we explored the village for a few minutes (that's all it took!) and headed in for tea and dinner shortly afterwards. For dinner we had an amazingly great soup and the meat eaters had chicken milanesa (thin breaded chicken) and mashed potatoes. I filled up on the soup and potatoes and told the cook that there was no need to cook up anything special for me. The generator was shut off at about 9 PM and we were quick to bed, but not before some more Pupusa Tea to help with our heads deal with the altitude.
Kevyn and the French ladies (determined by the snoring) slept very well that night and I hardly found any sleep, probably due to the altitude and/or the hours of bumping along the road. Thankfully I also had my book and knew ahead of time to bring the flashlight. I spent most of the night reading. Our new friend Sarah also told us the next morning that she did not sleep either.
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