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Published: July 15th 2006
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Well, lets see, where do I start? As I briefly previously described, the 3 day tour of the Salar de Uyuni was an experience of changing landscape like no other. Uyuni, the town that makes Lemoore look like hip and progressive "city", is a town that essentially serves as a starting/stop over point for all travelers to partake in the incredible scenary that awaits them on their 2-4 day tours. 3 days was he recommended length, and it was perfect. Day 1 starts around 11 am as you load up about 6 people, a driver and cook into what you hope is a reliable LandCruiser. The first stop is a small town that essentially exists on the processing of salt that is chopped up from the vast Salt Flats. ( I encourage you all to Google Salar de Uyuni) At this time of year, albeit Winter, it is the dry season and the salt is as white as can be. The first day consists of driving for hours "aimlessly" over this dried up lake that is reported to have at one point connected with L. Titicaca thousands of years ago. Thats kinda hard to imagine knowing the space that seperates them,
but I{ll take it for whatever its worth. This is the largest Salt Flat in the world, some 10,000 sq. km. Its like driving down the middle of Lake Tahoe times 2. We drove down what felt like the middle for a couple hours, stopping to take scenic and optically illusive photos. We stopped in the middle at Isla Pescado for lunch. This place alone boggles the mind. What started out as an oasis on the horizon turns out to be a small volvcanic island covered in 10-30 foot pillar-like cactus that grow at 1 cm/year. Hopefully the pictures will do it justice. After a short hike throughout the island, we had lunch on the "shores" amongst the other 5-8 tour groups. As some kicked the soccer ball around, others took random photos, our group was instructed to start walking in "that direction". So off we went with the sun beating down on us and absolute amazement for as far as the eye can see. After a while our driver showed up to take us to our pueblo where we slept in below freezing temperatures. However, being the Cubscout I am, a bottle of Rum helped us all prep for
the nights chill.
Day 2 began with the sunrise, standard breakfast of tea, bread hockey pucks and marmalade and away we went. As we left the salt flats, we made our way through what used to be a coral reef and into the higher plains. The scenary literally changed every 5 minutes as coral became volcanic rock fields, became dessert grasses and high altitude sage brush. I swear I haven{t seen a tree for at least a week. All the while 13,000-15,000 ft volcanoes provided our surrounding horizons with a new one every 1-2 miles. The highlights of the day were 3 different high altitude lagoons that were unique in their own right. Its hard to imagine relatively large bodies of water that dont get deeper than 1 meter. All are outlined in salt with light blue, aqua and red water filling them. Each is home to a flock of flamingos, which again throws you off a bit. The destination was the 3rd lagoon called Laguna Colorado, known as the "red lake" thanks to micro-organisms that rise to the surface in the afternoon and make the water a bold red, which is quite the picture with salt edges, yellowish
grasses and varied shades of brown mountains surrounding. From there was a brief drive to our next sleeping destination, which barely qualifies as a closed in structure with thatched roofs and mud walls trying to keep out the frigid cold. This was a night of card playing and sharing a drink or 2 with some of the other groups.
Day 3 started a bit cloudy in the head as we rose at 5;15 am and headed off for the geysers, doing their thing at 4,870 meters. This was unfortunately a bit of a let down since the sun wasn{t even up and you couldn{t truely appreciate their power and beauty. Not to mention no one wanted to get out of the car for photos b/c off the bitter cold. The next few hours consisted of indescribable terrain as we gradually dropped altitude to some hot "warm" springs at the base of the valley. One of the most amazing parts of the drive was a portion called Salvador Dali Valley. He is said to have painted here and having seen his work it all is starting to make sense. Moon stones are spread throughout and with the sun rising, the
long shadows, reddish-orange sand and setting full moon over the mountains, it seemed as though you were in one of his paintings. Once we arrived at the hot springs, the sun hadn{t even graced us with its presence, but what was one to do but drop your shorts and hop in. Only Daniel ( a Swed with the looks of EB and the personality of Nik) and I were willing to test the waters, which we did for a good 45 minutes watching the sun rise over a volcanic peak. With ice on the ground, this was an opportunity I couldn{t miss. After a brief breakfast, we made the 15 min. drive to what is essentially a drop-off point for people like myself who are planning on catching an alternate bus across the border into Chile. Now this is where things really start to get interesting.
After the usual good-bys, the car took off and I hung out for 20 minutes as a few of us from various tour groups waited for the bus. But as I was sitting in the bus, settling in for my next country, I realized my money belt wasn{t with me, which meant neither
was my passport, copy of passport, $200,and all my flight info. A small problem!! Hmmm, my car is starting an 8 hr drive back to Uyuni without any cell phone or radio, the bus has left and there I sit, pondering my next move. There is a small family of 6 that operates this drop-off point (in the middle of no where and at 4,300 m. Long story short, we tried relaying radio messages at the only 2 times available during the day back to Uyuni, with the idea that a car would be leaving early in the morning from Uyuni directly to this sight and the driver of another company would somehow get my goods from my car and bring it to me in time to catch the bus the next day. If things only worked that honestly and smoothly around here. I must confess, I thought it would actually work, even if he took the money, who cares. But the reality of it all is, my touring friends didn{t trust the situation based on some advice from our driver (thank goodness for honest and good people) and left it with a Ranking company here in Uyuni. So, here
I go, on an 8 hour trip back to a town full of nothing but tour agencies, bitter nights and roaming dogs. Now, here I sit, with all my possessions as I left them, counting the seconds until I can catch a train south to the border. I guess Ill have to chalk it up to part the whole experience. If thats the worst thing that could happen to me on this trip, Id say Im lucky.
Today was spent farting around town, unsuccessfully trying to change my departure date, having laundry done AGAIN and reading in the sun to try and stay warm. So with only a couple days left, Ill make a bee line to Salta, Argentina and then to Mendoza where warmer weather and good wine awaits me. Its hard to believe its down to the wire and I feel like there is so much more that needs to be seen and done. I guess it just means its time to start saving for the next journey.
Well, its finally 10 pm and I can now make my way out of this town. Time for a new means of tranportation and a new country. May
there be great hours spent in Argentina and warmer pastures traveled. Once again, I hope all of you following along are doing well and I look forward to sharing many of the finer details of this journey in person. Until then, time to go see what other types of experiences I can add to the journey.
Vio con dios Bolivia! Don{t cry for me Argentina!
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