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Published: March 8th 2008
A couple hours after getting on the night bus from Salta to the Bolivian border the rain started. Seen as this was a dirt road, when you looked out the window it actually looked like we were driving up the middle of a river. I'm sure this wasn't the worst conditions this driver has experienced and we got to the border town early the next morning.
With a couple of Israeli girls and a Swedish girl we had met along the way we headed to the Argentinian immigration office to get our exit stamps. No problems here except the fact that the Israelis seem to have taken every belonging they have to South America for a 3 week holiday. Apart from there backpacks and frontpacks they also have the biggest suitcase available on the market to drag around with them, so they need someone to mind it at the bottom of the steps while they go and get there stamps. After this it's a short walk across the bridge to Bolivia.
This is when the fun starts as we join the back of a rather large queue to get into Bolivia. A few of the locals in front of
us in the queue are trying to tell us that we don't need to queue up and can go to the front, so we wander up to the front where kaos reins. The problem is the Bolivians have provided one door at the end of a narrow passageway for both people trying to enter Bolivia and people trying to leave Bolivia and the people who now have there stamps have to fight there way out of the door past the people trying to get in the door to get there stamps. Anyhow we can't figure out what´s going on so we head back to the back of the queue again. A few minutes later a more western looking guy, but still speaking Spanish comes down to us and again tells us we don't need to queue up and tells us to follow him. As we get towards the front he just pushes his way right upto the door with us in tow and then leaves never to be seen again. The locals in the other 2 queues are shouting something like 'cola'(which I later look up and means queue) and don't seem to happy that the backpackers don't have to
queue up as well. A couple of minutes later the door opens and we are ushered inside and get our stamps and then force our way back out again past the mass of heaving bodies to find the 2 Israeli's standing wondering how they are ever going to get to the front of the queue with there suitcase. Niamh, being far too nice, offers to mind said case while they get there stamps and I indicate to Niamh that we need to shake this pair off or we'll never get anywhere as already we risk missing the next bus to Tupiza. When they eventually get out we start heading up the hill towards the bus station but of course the girls can't drag there bag up the hill so have to hire a local with a trailer to tow there bag for them. We took this opportunity to ditch them and didn't hang around while they no doubt tried to bargin for the so called 'Israeli price'. When we get within 100m of the bus station we are met by a barrage of place names being shouted at us and follow a guy who has just shouted Tupiza where we
Now that´s magic.
Paul Daniels eat your heart out.want to go. We promptly buy tickets for Tupiza for the bus that is due to leave in ten minutes.
Ten minutes pass but no sign of our bus. Half hour still no sign. An hour still no sign. 2 hours later and after numerous discussions with the girl in the ticket office as to the where abouts of our bus we end up buying tickets for another bus that has the engine already running and is going to Tupiza. A couple of hours later over dirt roads (there are no paved roads yet in the southern part of Bolivia) we reach Tupiza.
Tupiza's a small place at over 3000m above sea level that looks like a town Clint Eastwood would have rode through in one of his Western movies and is also the place (or close to the place) where Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid were gunned down after robbing a mining payroll in 1908. It's also very indigineous compared with anywhere we've been to date and most of the women wear very traditional clothes and bowler hats. The men don´t seem to partake in the traditional clothing craze with denim being the material of choice.
Salt Hotel Musuem
The only salt hotel still on the salt flats and according to Nimah the worst toilets imaginable. So bad she didn´t go. We decided just to take it easy for a couple of days while we get used to the reduced oxygen levels before we head off on our 4 day 4 wheel drive tour to Salar de Uyuni.
A couple of days later we do the Tupiza Triathlon of horse riding, cycling and driving through the canyons around Tupiza. The first leg involves cycling a relatively easy route out to a viewpoint but along the way we have to pass through a two way tunnel that is only one lane wide. I stop to take a picture of Niamh cycling through and as I'm putting my camera away a truck is coming in the other end of the tunnel. Niamh rather than just dismounting and standing aside has decided that she has right of way and is waving frantically at the truck driver to go back. Amazingly he doesn't give way to the waving gringo backpacker on 2 wheels, so Niamh gives way at the last minute and stands aside. Next up is the horseride up one of the canyons and having still not mastered the art of going with the horse we're all glad this only lasts a couple
Traditional Dress
Traditional Bolivian dress complete with bowler hat worn in the Alto Plano. of hours. Then we're driven up to the top of another canyon at around 4000m for the ride down the 'Death Road of Tupiza'. Within a couple of minutes my front break fails but I manage to slow myself down and fix it but it doesn't exactly instill any confidence in the bikes we've been given to ride down the narrow and steep dirt track with nice 200m falls to the valley below if you miss a turn. Niamh has adopted the cautious approach and continuously screeching brakes can be heard long before she comes into view for the photo ops. After about an hour we arrive safely back in Tupiza with sore arses and I help Niamh unfurl her fingers again.
Next morning we head off on the 4 day Salar tour with another Irish honeymooning couple that we met at the bus station a few days ago. These turn out to be a pair of right dickheads (only joking Anthony & Jacinta). Not wanting to be stuck in a car for 4 days with a pair of dickheads, I had marked these 2 down as our tour partners after a brief chat with Anthony before he got
Bolivian fruit seller
Woman selling fruit at the bus station in Villazon. The long plated hair is standard. The hat is also one of the standard traditional hats. on his bus to Tupiza. When anyone else asked us what our tour plans were I'd mention our Irish friends who we were doing the tour with, even though we hadn't mentioned this plan to them. Thankfully Anthony had mapped out a similar plan for them so I wasn't to be foiled.
Tour didn´t start too well when we had our first puncture within the first hour. They went to replace it with the spare but when they had a look at the spare they must of decided it was a bit too slick to use in the present conditions. It was as bald as a formula 1 tyre. Not a problem. Out with the crow bar, off with the tyre and the puncture repair kit is put to use. Thankfully that was our last puncture and it was smooth sailing the rest of the way. As for the other jeeps from our tour company, they had 5 punctures and were 2 hours late getting to the accomodation each night much to the disgruntlement of the Israelis in one of the jeeps. Our driver wasn´t into waiting around for them so we hit the road first each day so
Bolivian Kid
A kid in one of the villages on day 1 of the Salar. We gave him a few sweets hence the big smiles. we wouldn´t have to be there backup but they´d be ours if we had any issues. It was probably best that we weren´t around the Israelis too much as the few times we did meet up with them Niamh tried to get some incite into the current state of affairs in the conflict between them and the Pakistanis. Don´t know when the Pakistanis started argueing with the Israelis but Niamh asked about it twice.
Without boring you all with specifics of the tour we spent the next 3 days driving around at between 3500m and 5000m through deserts, past different coloured lagoons, past volcanoes, geysers, rock formations and hot springs before arriving at the Salar De Uyuni. The warnings in relation to this tour are endless due to some dodgy operators, and we´re fully expecting to sleep on concrete with straw or cardboard as matresses and eat gruel for the next few days. The reality of our tour was we spent our nights in nice but basic accomodations that to be honest I thought were luxurious after spending the last month sleeping in a tent. Certainly the matresses I was on were the best of the whole holiday. The
food was magic, with pancakes for breakfast, veg soup as a 1st course for dinner and beautiful dinners each night. As for the Dulce de Leche, well you´ll have to go to South America to sample this culinary delight of sugar mixed with more sugar boiled together with more sugar. Only problem encoutered was trying to sleep at this altitude breathing air completely lacking in mositure. So we woke up each night with a completely dry mouth and sinuses.
The last morning was spent on the Salar De Uyuni itself which is the largest salt flat in the world bar none at over 10,000 sq km. Unfortunately due to it being wet season we weren´t able to drive across the whole thing but instead spent the last night of our tour sleeping in a hotel made almost completely out of salt on the edge of the salt flat. There used to be a few hotels on the salt flat itself but due to the fact that they were pumping the toilet waste down into the pristine white salt flat that everyone was there to see they´ve now been relocated to the edge of the flat. Next morning it´s an
The triathlon tunnel.
A couple of seconds later Niamh tried to turn back the truck. early start so we can get out onto the salt for sunrise. The one advantage of it being wet season is the perfect reflections due to the couple of inches of water lying on the salt. Magic.
We spent that night holed up in Uyuni which in reality is a bit of a hole. We went to the Mad Fun Bar that night for a drink. This place has a suicidal competition in place for anyone mad enough to try. It involves drinking the equivalent of over a litre of spirits out of numerous different size and shape shot glasses as quickly as you can. I´m not talking baileys and the likes here either. The shots consisted largely of tequila (which was about 4 of the shots), whiskey, gin and vodka. If you manage to do it fastest it´s free, otherwise you get your name on a plague on the wall with your time. Pride of place goes to a Swiss guy who managed to do it in a phenominal 40 secs. The owner showed us a video of him doing it and at the end he took a few deep breaths and then lit up a cigarette. No
problems. Most just make use of the sick bucket provided. Of course in 4th place was an Irish guy, but to make us even more proud was in 5th place a girl from Galway. They breed them differently over in the west. If you don´t have an iron stomach and a death wish you can try it using water instead of spirits. Anthony gave the water a go and after a long 1min 50 secs managed to finish and was little short of needing the sick bucket himself.
Next day it was the bus to Potosi, the highest city in the world at 4060m.
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