UnBoliviable

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Bolivia huh? Didn´t think I´d ever be finding myself here. First on our agenda were the Uyuni Salt Flats. After quite a bit of time bouncing down dirt roads in hand-me-down buses, we reached the town of Uyuni. Here we scheduled a three day tour of the surrounding area. Six of us piled into a 1980´s Land Cruiser and set out to see the sights. The sights included a rusted out train cemetary, glassy lagoons full of flamingos, another volcano, hot springs, and the spectacular salt flats. Once again, pictures do not do this place justice. Our first day, we went to an "island" covered in cacti in the middle of the salt flats, stayed in a hostel made of salt bricks, ate some llama steaks, and did some exploring of the area. Waking before sunrise, we headed for some lagoons of various colors and to some great rock formations in the middle of the desert. That night we stayed near the red lagoon and froze in our shotty hostel. Waking again before sunrise, we saw some natural geysers before heading to some great natural hot springs. A lot of driving but well worth it. Check this place out if you´re ever in the area. After the trip we ran into some friends from Salta, had a good dinner, and a few drinks sampling the local flavor. There were a lot of local flavors to sample, including the No Me Acuerdo (I´ll leave it up to you to translate) which made the following day´s bus ride a bit more difficult than it should have been, what can you do?

So we arrived in Potosi, home of a huge mining industry. Silver is the big one but they also mine for zinc, tin, and other metals. You can take a sketchy tour of the mines and luckily we found a great guide who was an ex-miner. His story is that he had worked in the mines for over ten years starting at the age of 9. After he got lost in the mines for three days, he quit and after much other work is now a guide. PLaying with a few cards short of a full deck, he took us through some mines, told us stories, showed us the life of a miner (which is unbelievably difficult and short), and ran around with live/lit dynamite in his teeth. Blowing up TNT seems to be a popular tourist attraction and for good reason, explosions are fun. Vamos a LA PAZ!!!

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Photos

Bolivian Transport
Rest Stop

Salt Hotel
Everything was made of salt

Sunrise Hotsprings
It was about 35 degrees outside.

Our Guide
Self Proclaimed "Explosives Expert," playing with a few beers short of a six pack. He drank them.

Tio
You can sell your soul to this guy to find the gold.

Boom
There´s a stick of dynamite inside the big bag of TNT, YES!!!

Comments

[sara]

Glad you brought the creepy stache back.