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Published: August 27th 2007
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Salt of the Earth
Vicky, Lee, Hugo and Gen - Salt Flats, Uyuni, Bolivia So where are we now...............oh yes country number 4!
We stayed in Sucre, Bolivia for only 2 nights as not much to do apart from get very drunk and visit an awful touristy market the next day with an incredible hangover! Lee couldnt hack the pace and went home early so no hangover for him and a day of taunts for me! Its supposed to be one of the best markets in Bolivia but there was nothing authentic about it in the slightest. I picked up an alpaca scarf to peruse and it had a lable stitched in "Made in Peru"!
Early the next day we took a pretty traumatic bus ride to Uyuni, in the middle of nowhere town. The roads in Bolivia are not quite roads at all hence the reason we choose to fly other journeys. Uyuni is a town built purely for tourism of the Salar de Uyuni, a massive salt flat which funnily enough was once the sea floor. With our trusted Canadian duo we booked a 4 day 4x4 tour across the flats that would take us down to Tupiza, close to the Argentine border, rather than returning to Uyuni. Mostly these tours are run
Revenge!
Getting my own back! with 6 people, all their luggage, a chef, the food and of course the driver so we paid a little more for the luxury of only 4 tourists in the car!
The first day you visit the Potosi region "Train Graveyard", all the disused trains that used to carry silver from the mines in Potosi across the country, a little boys dream so Lee and Hugo loved it! Onto the salt flats, which as you drive across become a mirage - you cant make out what is salt, water or land as they all merge into each other. Very blinding aswell and after and hour or so your eyes are stinging and you cant focus properly. But it is amazing! (and good for some quality photo´s). You can only see a white horizon for miles and in the distance is the snow covered mountain tops of volcanoes. Awesome!
Day two and a leisurly drive through the desert for 8hrs taking in the views of 5 lakes all different in colour due to the mineral deposits and home to those crazy pink birds, Flamingos.
We also encountered our second active (smoking) volcano "Ollague". Which on one side is Bolivian and on
Vicky is the best photographer ever!
Salt flats with the volcanos in the background the other Chilean. Just west of here we drove across the lava fields which have created strange rock formations as the lava solidified. Our final stop on day two was the stone forest, where the wind has shaped the rocks into tree like figures. Very odd especially given its location in the middle of a sandy desert valley with nothing else around.
Holy cow how cold is the desert at 5am...... The answer is -15 c, But sooooooooo worth it. We traveled for a hour in the pitch black to arrive at the Geysers sol de manana. 5000m up a perfect place to watch the sun rise through the steam hissing amongst the rocks, Perfect but for the smell of rotten eggs from the Sulphur (or was that vicky!). Bleary eyed and still wrapped in our sleeping bags we continued on our journey to lake verde (green) before stopping for breakfast and a morning dip at the thermal baths at Laguna Challviri. Probably the only time we have bathed in hot water since arriving in Bolivia! The worst part was definitely getting out as by then the air temp was just a little above freezing before the wind whipped around
Smoking!
In the lava fields left from the active volcano (cold enough to remove your nips!). After one of the most impressive starts to a day i´ve ever witnessed it unfortunately became rather tedious with a total of 13hrs spent driving there is only so much desert a man can take.
The last day was yet again a bit of a slog and for some reason the driver became crazier as the roads became more dangerous (its a manhood thing in Bolivia). Regardless we arrived safe and sound in Tupiza by early afternoon ecstatic to not be sitting in a 4x4 for another moment longer.
One night in Tupiza allowed us some kip until 3.30am when we had to get up to catch the train! However very nice to be riding 1st class on the train than on a bus! Into Villazon, the border town between Bolivia and Argentina and into country number 4! Welcomed whole heartedly by the Argentines with a massive road sign announcing "Islas Malvinas es Argentinas" (The Falklands are Argentinas), as you hand over your passport to a man with a semi-automatic - not intimidating in the slightest! La Quiaca is the Argentine border town and we got on a bus for Salta, the most happening
(as the lying planet puts it) city in the north of the country. So another day on a bus but the hostel offers us an apartment for the four of us so not all bad! The next 3 days was spent chilling, drinking, cooking, shopping and watching our 1st film at the cinema since we have been here - Oceans 13 is really good! And the difference between Argentina and the last 3 countries we have travelled is immense. Im doubting we are actually in South America anymore and swear we are in Italy. Compared to the other 3 Argentina clearly has or used to have money as everything is a lot more modern and therefore a bit more pricey. Whatever Spanish I thought I knew is irrelevant here aswell as they speak so damn fast, what the rest of SA call "dirty spanish" as they dont pronounce the full word so back to Spanglish! From here we took a 20 hour bus ride to Mendoza, "The wine capital of Argentina", on the plushest bus we have been on since we started. Fully reclining seats and a hot meal was such a treat - the films were shit though!
Here
we left our fellow travellers and took another 4 hour bus ride west to the nearest ski resort to the capital - woo hoo we get to ski!!!!
Los Penitentes was unbelievably tiny (2 lifts, 10 runs) and very icy. As we did´nt arrive until 3pm and had not booked a room, the rest of the day was spent going to each of the 8 hotels and hostals in town. Luckily for us two had rooms, the most expensive at 50quid a night and the cheapest at 10 quid. Call us cheap but the latter suited our needs just fine and after a couple of bottles of wine what difference does it make really. The following day we arose early to sort out our skis and lift pass in time to catch first lifts (not as difficult as it sounds as the lift did´nt open until 10am). The equipment was of a much higher standard than we´ve come to expect in the rest of S.A. and although the resort was small it doesn´t matter too much when your the only people using it. Within an hour we had both remembered all the appropriate rules about which way to face and
what not to put in the way when entering the lift...... We were skiing yippie. After a further hour we had done every run (twice) and were knackered, time for lunch and a coffee. Two and a half more hours that afternoon and we were done. Knees aching but nothing more serious our snow comeback was complete. Back to Mendoza.
The next few days were spent catching up on sleep and genrally eating far too much meat (the steak here is to die for and unfortunately if i stayed i think that would be the case). Not to mention the trouble you could get into with your liver in the wine capital of Argentina. We have also found the need to do a little shopping as our battered hiking shoes and 2 t-shirts etc seem to be keeping us from entering a few places we want to visit in this ultra cosmopolitan country. Thats where we are now waiting for a bus 20hrs south to Bariloche, where we´ll be skiing for a week, I know its a hard life...........
Hope your all enjoying your bank holiday sunny sunny weekend, Love from us both until next time xxxxxxx
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Sis
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Hello!!!!!!!!!
ha ha! This was a very entertaining blog entry for my afternoon tea break - thank you!! Glad that you are back on the snow and having a great time - can't wait to see some pictures! Hope you managed to do me proud and get some bargains on your shopping trip?!?!? Looking forward to seeing you soon - love you lots xx