Advertisement
Published: April 1st 2005
Edit Blog Post
Propellor
Not sure why it was there but it made a nice snaphot. I had always planned to visit the Bolivian Salt Flats (Salar de Uyuni), I just didn’t realise that it would be such a mad dash to get there.
This trip was next on my list after the bike ride but I hadn’t actually researched transport or booked anything in advance. This policy which seems to be working quite well, I’m saving money by paying at the pointy end and I have less stress about whether I am going to be in the right place at the right time.
BUT… It requires some quick decisions.
I chatted to someone about it in La Paz one morning and, an hour later, I had all my stuff packed and had leapt onto a three hour bus ride to Oruro to connect with the train to Uyuni.
Talk about cutting it fine… The bus got into Oruro at 3:20pm and the only train, on the other side of town, left at 3:30pm. When I jumped out of my rocket-cab and asked for a ticket on the Expresso del Sur, the guy at the counter looked at me... looked at the train puffing and whistling and generally getting ready to leave... and
Run!
Our race to the mountain was called off due to a lack of participants. gave me a look as if to say: “I’ll take your money but I bet you can’t get over there before it pulls out”. Turns out I made it with a few minutes to spare and missed out on all sorts of Indiana-Jones-style train chasing action.
Probably for the best…
I plopped into my first class seat (Seven hours…AUD15…Bargain!) next to some highly irritating young Brits and immediately began praying that they didn’t end up booking the same four day jeep tour. As it turns out, the foxy South African girls a few seats over were destined to join me in the desert, so it all worked out nicely.
The next seven hours was an interesting view of the Bolivian flood plains. It stretched on and on and on, the horizon was so far away that occasional lightning strikes were the size of a fingernail.
Out there, in the middle of nowhere, I saw some odd things as the hours ticked away… An Indian on a bike, a lonely guy with a spade filling hundreds of bags with salt, villages with one or two people wandering around but no ceilings on the houses, a beautiful sunset and…
Am I downwind?
I stalked the bull of the herd until he turned around and made it clear that it was time to leave. a funeral.
The train seemed to rumble right through the middle of this tiny town and into the middle of a very private moment. All of the mourners had turned away from the glass casket were staring at the train. I suddenly felt like I was responsible for the intrusion.
Off in the distance was another church built into the side of a mountain, though everything was so old out there that you could easily believe it to be the other way around.
After a fairly uneventful trip (not counting Bolivian Van-Damme and his confrontation with the annoying English kids) it was off into the dark and deserted streets of Uyuni to find a bed for the night. After being turned around by an enthusiastic sentry at the army base, I found a bed and also met Claudia from Cochobamba (Bolivia). I was starving so it was off to find food with her and a couple of holidaying Porteños. My feeling about the Argentinean people was only confirmed when I was told that there was no food left at the restaurant (!!) and the one guy who had been served stopped half-way and insisted that I share
Money Shot Flamingos
These lawn ornaments were everywhere and made the whole place really tacky. his meal.
I woke to the odd sound of army-drills and I discovered that I had luckily scored a good group of fellow travelers for the two-jeep adventure into the desert. My jeep contained: Lucas (the one-eyed driver/cook/guide), Moneah (the kooky French New Yorker trauma nurse with 101 questions), Lina and Karin (funny, funny Swedes) and sisters Bianca and Daniella (hilarious South African heiresses to something or other).
The fact that I had a good group was more important than I could have realised. It really is 4 days living in each other’s pockets and I am sure I would have duct-taped someone to the roof-rack if I had been stuck with those kids from the train.
Each night was spent at an isolated outpost with varying facilities and food options. On the first night we were treated to an enthusiastic table-tennis competition followed by a lesson on the Bolivian dice game “Cacho”. (Bianca and Daniella had been taught this while house-guests further North). The game itself was almost as much fun as listening to the siblings and their mile-a-minute patter.
Here and there we came across some other travellers severely affected by altitude sickness
Wabbits?
I only got this photo because he was blind and had nowhere to run. and I again felt lucky to have dodged that one. Or maybe I am just super-tough. Yeah, that´s it.
We saw some amazing things during our days grinding gears around the base of the Andes. Cool salt crystals, spitting geysers, llamas, far-away active-volcanoes, crazy French people riding bikes, a cactus island, odd rock formations and constant, colourful, mountains with brushings of snow on their peaks.
Between choking on dust and solving the problems of the world, we all had a good laugh and enjoyed ourselves thoroughly. It seemed like it was over in a flash but I am still fondly remembering; chasing the bull llama, getting spanked at Uno, being chastised by Bianca and Daniella, climbing up and down big rocks, being driven insane by the Swedish “I´m thinking about you” game, keeping Lucas awake at the wheel with chocolate goodies, setting a world record with Daniella for the first downhill piggyback at five thousand metres, fumbling in the dark as the generator gave up and... just generally having a good time in the middle of nowhere.
Roxy, my partyhard friend from Buenos Aires is arriving in La Paz on Monday and we are flying off
Catus! Five O Clock!
I didn´t hear him creeping up until it was too late. to the Amazon (Rurrenabaque) to give the mosquitos something to do. This should be a good laugh and a worthy replacement for Sucre and Potosi, which I have decided to skip. This also continues my theme of refusing to travel in an economical straight line, instead choosing several missions from a city base.
You can take the boy out of the city…
Advertisement
Tot: 0.146s; Tpl: 0.01s; cc: 15; qc: 77; dbt: 0.0847s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb
anonymous
non-member comment
Great to see you are free wheeling!!
Dear Alex, We eagerly await every issue as we enjoy you writing style so much. Great to see you playing it by ear as this will bring the greatest surprises. Nothing wrong with cities but smelling the roses or salt or mountains or sweaty bodies on a crowded bus is good too. We are on another remedy for frozen shoulder - herbal patches from New York $$$$- so if you come across an ancient South American remedy send it on. Be safe and well and great to hear the High altitude has not bothered you but I did not think it would as you were Vail trained!!?? 11,000 feet. Keep the water up and you will be right - how is the small pack going with the water Love Dad and Corrie xoxoxooxxoxooxxoxoxoxo - Ian and Corrie