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Published: January 13th 2009
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Bolivian owls
A family of owls discovered when I popped over a hill to go to the loo! For me, border crossings are a mixture of fascination and tedium - entering a new country means new people, cultures, currency, landscape etc. But along with this comes arse-numbingly tedious queues, bureaucracy and often uncertainty about whether you´re in the right queue with the right documents (and often, I am not).
And so just after new year I found myself on the Argentina/Bolivia border after a rather long bus journey from Tucuman, where I had spent Christmas and New Year. I had slept most of the way, so got a rather rude shock when I realised I was now at an altitude of 3,600m and it wasn´t long before the breathlessness kicked in. Luckily, there was a guy wandering around at the border with a bag of coca leaves, so I got stuck in.
After the most tedious border queue yet (over 2 hours and no shade from the sun), I got a bus to Tupiza where I planned to do the Salar de Uyuni tour. One of the best things about arriving in Bolivia from Argentina is the difference in accommodation prices: in Argentina, I paid 7/8 quid for a bunkbed in a dorm, and my first night
Cementerio de Tren
This is a train graveyard just outside Uyuni - the Bolivian rail infrastructure is virtually nonexistent these days in Bolivia, for the same price, gets me the biggest, pinkest double bed you´ve ever seen, along with TV and ensuite. Just as well really, as felt absolutely rubbish for the first couple of days with the altitude and spent many hours lying on the giant pink bed watching HBO on the telly.
Two days after arriving in Tupiza, I set off with four others (plus driver and cook) on a four day tour of Salar de Uyuni and the surrounding areas. The traditional Salar de Uyuni trip goes straight across the lake, but due to rainwater this wasn´t possible so we drove to the edge of it, then spent the other days visiting smaller lakes and spotting wildlife.
Each night was spent in basic accommodation with our cook bringing us a meal - I thought she knew I was vegetarian and was happily tipping vegetable soup into my bowl on the first night, and then found a leg of some description floating around in the bottom of the pan. After this incident, though, things were generally fine and I get vegetarian food every night. (I got offered pork sausages on my last night of the tour, but
Cementerio de Tren
Another train going nowhere so did a muslim guy travelling with me, so I knew I wasn´t being singled out).
After a while, the days started to blur into one - endless driving over bumpy unmade roads, stopping off at various lakes full of flamingoes, constant monitoring of altitude (we hovvered around 3,500 - 4,600m), but there were two events that are most memorable: on the third day, we had to get up at 4.30am and were on the road by 5. I felt hideous - cold, sleep-deprived and breathless. After a brief stop-off at a geyser, then some volcanic mud (I don´t think anyone wanted to get out and look at it as we were all so cold), we arrived at the thermal pool. The pool was full of screaming tourists but the water was heaven - I don´t think I´ve been so in need of a hot bath in all my life.
Late in the afternoon, we climbed up even higher into the mountains until we reached an old mining village, abandoned 500 years ago after the villagers were driven out by the devil. It was hard to get the gist of the story as our driver told it in
Reflections
A small building on the edge of Salar de Uyuni Spanish, but it seems that most of the villagers died of a plague, and the survivors were driven out by the devil, who had subsequently appeared before them. The village is full of ruined houses, church and cemetery and is proper creepy! And then some strange things started to happen...
We had a walk around the remains of the village and I took a photo of the cemetery (which contains most of the villagers). For some reason, the shutter stuck and the photo is virtually white, although a crucifix can be made out in the photo. Then I spotted a viscacha (a local rodent similar to a rabbit) - previous attempts to photograph them had been unsuccessful as they run for their lives when they see me normally, but this one just sat still on a rock and allowed me to get within a few feet. Not long after, we drove out of the village under a darkening sky and then there was a hissing sound... one of the rear tyres had somehow got a large puncture in the side - bit strange as I don´t see how something could have hit that part of the tyre. We stood
Me!
At the edge of Salar de Uyuni on the roadside for several minutes while the driver swapped the tyre for the spare. While we were waiting, a terrible wind suddenly rushed over the long grass nearby, making a horrible whispering sound, with the sky and mountains getting ever darker. It was horrid!
I was happy when we drove into the next village where we were going to spend our last night. But the weird stuff just kept coming - seconds after getting out of the jeep, I heard my name being called - someone who I travelled with in Chile weeks earlier had arrived in the village at exactly the same time and spotted me. And then later on that night, a group of us went outside to watch the (almost) full moon, and were treated to a mysterious light show from a large cloud in the distance. We were told it was a distant thunderstorm, but it was very strange to not have thunder or streaked lightening accompanying it. Maybe its a speciality of Bolivia? Either way, it was a weird few hours, and I can totally understand why those villagers 500 years ago got the willies and ran for it.
The following day
Footprint
My giant foot in the salt we were in Tupiza again, and I was briefly reunited with my beloved giant pink bed for a rest before getting on the bus for a hellish journey to Sucre.
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Agnes
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A pinch of salt?
Great travel stories accompanied by wonderful pictures... Good stuff for the miserable people stuck in (now) rainy England. Bolivia has been on my travel-to-do list for so long. Reading all this, it just shot up a couple of places to my top three - just made a mental note of packing my thermals when I go though...