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Casting a long shadow
HJT attempting to be artistic Back at high altitude in La Paz and therefore prone to another attack of the runs, I decided I would take a gamble and sign myself up for a trip down to Uyuni to do the 4WD tour. Many fellow travellers have described it as a South American highlight so I was eager to see what all the fuss was about. After the events on the trip from Cusco to La Paz, it was with some trepidation that I boarded the bus for the 10 hour trip south to Uyuni. I was pleasantly surprised with the standard of the bus, and the feed they gave us after we took our seats was top notch by bus standards. Though I had felt the onset of rumblings in my stomach and should have known what I was in for, I put my earphones in and drifted off into a fitful slumber.
I was awoken some time around 4AM by a loud thud, followed by the revving of the engine, and then silence. It seemed that the back wheels of the bus had fallen into a ditch and we were effectively bogged in the middle of nowhere on the Bolivian altiplano. Thinking
The bog
A bloke toiled away under the bus for 4 hours that the problem would be swiftly resolved, I lay back and did my best to ignore the increased intensity of the bubbling in my stomach, and the imminent disaster that it signalled. The situation became critical when the driver decided that there was too much weight over the back wheels and ordered everyone off the bus. I grimly hung on as I stood outside the bus shivering. When it became clear that our weight was not the problem and that we wouldn't be moving any time soon, I had no choice but to face my greatest fear and use the toilet on the back of the bus.
Drained but momentarily relieved, I returned to my seat and once again tried to sleep as the driver continued working on removing the bus from the bog. I had a feeling that his efforts were going to be in vain, and we remained stuck in the same spot for around four and a half hours until someone arrived in a tractor to tow us out. The road became even worse beyond that point, and by the time we arrived in Uyuni (over five hours late) I was in unbridled agony. The thought
A long horizon
Miles of nothingness behind the 4WD of spending much of the next three days in a 4WD on rocky terrain with access only to toilets of a standard befitting a rural area of a third world country had me deeply in despair. I had no option however but to grit my teeth and take my seat.
Our first stop in the 4WD was on the Salar de Uyuni, the largest salt flat in the world. It was an eerie, almost surreal sight, impressive in its seemingly endless bleakness. Stranger still were the cactus studded islands that dotted the salt flats and broke the otherwise plain horizon. Even in my terrible condition I was taken aback by some of the most unique scenery I have ever seen. By the time we finally reached the hospedaje where we were to be sleeping that night, I was bordering on delerious. If it had been cold during the day, it was to be positively freezing that night. I slept (or attempted to sleep) fully clothed, including thermal underwear and a fleece, in a sleeping bag with another three thick, heavy alpaca blankets over the top and even then could have been warmer.
When I woke the next morning
Sunglasses required
HJT on the Salar de Uyuni my stomach had marginally cleared up, giving me renewed hope that the next two days were not going to be the worst of my life. I will let the pictures do most of the talking, but some of the landscapes we witnessed would more acurately be described as moonscapes. Cold, windswept and at extreme altitudes (we got up to 5,000m) there was not a tree in sight for the whole tour. Vegetation was limited to a few hardy varieties of grasses and small shrubs, but even these were sparse on the ground.
Most of the last day was spent in the 4WD as we drove all the way back from the Chilean border to Uyuni. This was actually not a whole lot different to the previous two days as we could only spend a maximum of five minutes outside the 4WD before the biting cold drove us back in. As I reflected on this on the bus back to La Paz, I realised that I was very glad I did the tour, but also very glad that it was over. There was no other way I could have seen what I saw without spending a significant amount of time
A salty reception
The Salt Hotel - entirely made from... salt sitting in a 4WD, but there are more enjoyable things to do than to sit on one's tush all day.
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