Blogs from Bolivia, South America - page 551

In the middle of the Altiplano is the Salar de Uyuni, one of the biggest salt lakes on earth. I spent some days in the town with the same name visit the salt lake and to acclimatize to the high altitude conditions around there and the passes to come. With a group of mostly spanish speaking guys I had a guided tour of the lake. We drove in a run-down jeep across the extensive white, visited a salt producing family (Well, is more packing than producing, since the salt is already there. It just has to be dried and filled into plastik bags.), visited Isla de pescadores, a cactus island, had fun with salt crystals, and in the evening stoped for some pictures at the old train cementery. It was one of the best places I ... read more

After nearly 6 weeks in Bolivia we were in our final destination before heading to Chile. Bolivia is right up there with Peru in the great experiences department as far as we are concerned, but it had one more up it's sleeve: the huge salt flats of Uyuni. We arrived from Potosi on what could only be described as a cosy bus, no insignificant thing as the journey takes pretty much all day. After hastily checking into our hostel of choice, the vastly overpriced Magia de Uyuni, Em and I literally dumped our bags and headed out of town. The sun was setting on the local train graveyard, and with it was fleeting an opportunity to take some interesting photos.... We made it, although you can be the judge of whether we succeeded! A wander around ... read more

We have been trekking in the cordillera real for 4 days and it was stunning. We travelled in a car for about 4 hours out of La Paz and stopped at a tiny mud house and were told that we would have to camp there, we wouldn't be walking today, we would have to walk longer the 2nd day to make up time. The reason we couldnt start, was that our guide couldn't find any donkeys to rent- the donkeys were needed to carry our tents,all the food and cooking equipment. So we waited for them to arrive, thinking better to wait than struggle on with the stuff. It was just gone lunchtime and there was nothing to do, it was freezing too. Having never waited for donkeys before, we didn't know what to do with ... read more

After I got back from Lake Titicaca I hung out in La Paz waiting for the approval to come from Santiago for my student visa. For a while. I had already gotten the approval in Bruxelles but skipped out because of maddening Belgian bureaucracy (19 days of waiting then Oh, sorry, no appointments for another 2 weeks. I left the next day from grey belgian 5-hour day winter for Peru. Call me crazy), so I applied for my visa after Izzy left, thinking it would be a fast approval. Nope... The thing about Chile is that they actually do things that first-world countries do except with third-world efficiency. Well. That was my impression from the consulate. After 2 months of being a gringo in south america, I was annoyed when the entire consular system of Chile ... read more

San Pedro de Atacama, Chile We caught a Pullman del Sur bus from Santiago to Calama (20hrs overnight) for $30000p each for Salon Cama, downstairs on the bus, very comfortable. In Calama, we caught a TurBus bus to San Pedro de Atacama (fairly regular, about 1 hr trip, $1300p). The Atacama desert was extremely barren in places along the bus trip, sometimes absolutely nothing resembling life at all. San Pedro (2400m) is a nice little village in an oasis with adobe buildings everywhere. It has all the amenities a tourist could want but that also means the place is crawling with tourist. Still a very nice place to hang out for a few days, particularly if you are acclimitizing before heading up even higher. We did a good tour of the Valley of the Moon and ... read more