Bolivia here I am, Uyuni is where I´ll start!

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So I always have a hard time gathering my thoughts when a lot has passed in such a short amount of time. I left Salta with three friends that I have made and we headed for the border. We all arrived in La Quiaca at about 6 in the morning and had to wait for the sun to come up before we left the bus terminal. It was brutally cold compared to Salta, but we found a coffee shop, had something warm and headed for the border. You can walk to the border from the bus station in about 20 minutes or so and during this walk you could already see the setting of your surroundings changing. The amount of trash everywhere and everyones appearance where the first clues. Getting into Bolivia was pretty fast although it looked like a much larger line to get into Argentina from Bolivia. We walked immediatly into Villazon which is the Bolivian side of the border and searched out food and our method of getting to our desired destination, Uyuni.

From Villazon we took a train the same day at 3pm so we had some time to kill. Hanu and I ended up getting the executive seats as the normal seating ran out when Gerrad and Alegria bought there tickets. Executivo is like setting in an airline seat (normal one), but we got a small meal and lots of movies, although it was extremly hot. We arrived in Uyuni at midnight and found a hostel from a local soliciting her hostel at the train station. The hostel is called Hostel Salamaca and given it has hot showers, is fairly clean and cheap it is a good choice when in Uyuni.

First full day in Bolivia there was a huge street market in Uyuni and basically we spent the day shopping and searching out our guide for the Salar de Uyuni. Everything is so cheap here so I got some Alpaca socks, hat, a crazy shirt and some presents for my parents to be disclosed at this time.

The markets here are more like street markets and there are no supermarkets, the restaurants are all a little run down looking, but it costs about $1 or 2 for a full meal which is a pretty decent meal, but you have to always hope that you don´t get sick. I have tried llama now and I must say that it tastes a lot like elk, so I am hooked on llama. You can order other normal meats or even false rabbit (cat) in some places. The typical food is soup with a little meat, rice, and fruit for desert. There are lot´s of interesting things on the street, but I tend to try and not eat from the street vendors if it´s anything that can go bad easily.


We left the next day on a four day tour of the Salar de Uyuni, 6 tourists, one guide-cook, in a Toyota Landcruiser. We chose Isla Tours and got a pretty good deal. $60 for four days, hot meals for lunch and dinner, breakfast as well, beds to sleep in each night at different destinations, and so many memories for four days. I just got back so hopefully I can remember them well.

The first day we started out by visiting the Train Graveyard which had some very old cool trains, and I managed to find an arrowhead! We then drove into the salt flats which is the most well know part as it is the biggest salt flat in the world. There we saw hotels made of salt, drove through one small village that was solely there to make things with the salt, llamas, a big lake full of flamingos and my favorite La Isla de Pescadores. La Isla de Pescadores is a big hill more or less in the middle of the slat flat, covered in giant catus, big rocks, and is much more than worlds can describe, also we had llama lunch with the tradicional rice like concoction called Quinoa. That night we slept at the edge of the salt flats in a hotel made yes of salt and I found myself playing the Didgeridoo under the stars with nothing around but a couple friends. Also climbed the hill behind the Hotel and had one heck of a view, plus found a dead flacon yeeehaw.

Second day started early (6am) especially since I did not sleep much due to an upset stomach that I had to deal with for about 2 days, I will leave the stomach thing at that. We continued on to see four lagunas whcih all had lots of flamingos as well as viewing lots of Vicuños (Cuños) a smaller less hairy version of the llamas that we continuely saw the entire trip. The lagunas were nice and we managed to catch some type of lizard at the last of the four, where we also had lunch and Alegria managed to step into the laguna and sink in to her knee. Ah yes good times, continuing on we stopped at a place with massive volcanic rocks shooting out the the desert which we had entered after leaving the salt. I wanted to climb desperatly, but found myself with little strength due to not eating from my stomach ache. We stopped at a couple other rocky places and I missed the Vizcacha, large version of a Pika, that everyone saw while I tried to climb a little. We ended the night at the Lago Colorado which is a very colorful lake boasting everything from blue, red, green, white, and yellows from its mineral content. Also more flamingos, which not to seem fairy or something but flamingos in the wild are pretty cool. The place we stayed the second night was not much more than a shanty, the bathroom had three toilets of which none had lids and only one would flush. I must say that after Bolivia I will never be grossed out by bachelor pad toilets such as the one I had before, in fact I feel lucky to have had such a toilet. Also having stomach trouble in the middle of the night, with no electricty and the floor of the bathroom flooded was quite and experience. I will leave the second day at that.

Third day started at 4am as we headed to see the geyers at sunrise. I must say that the geyers where not much having been to Yellowstone, but the main difference is that here they have no rules, no railing, no walkways. You can just walk up to the one nice steamer and stick you head in the white hot air erupting from the earth, you can walk right up to the mud pots and no one is going to tell you to be careful, except our guide Juan, he was good enough to warn everybody but not tell them what to do. Every day Juan starts by making the cross on his chest and saying ¨con Dios¨ as we first start to drive. Something about this makes me very conforterd as these tours are a bit all over the place and anything can happen. Also all this was in a desert setting at almost 5000 meters, so factor in altitude sickness for most people and it makes for an intense morning. Next we had to stop so Alegria could touch the nasty leftover snow drift, crazy Columbia, then onto another lago which had a natural spring that we all got in like a hottub and heated up while waiting for breakfast, as it was quite a cold day. We then went to Laguna Verde and Laguna Blanco which were very picturesque, but I could not take pictures as I had some water in my waterproof camera from taking it into the hot spring. So I messed with my camera a lot, which is now working fine, as we went to the Chilean border to say goodbye to the two french friends who had joined our tour. Then back tracked through alot of the same things I mentioned, which was worth it as it was all crazy in appearance. Then we drove a large strentch that reminded me of the Red Desert in Wyoming and stopped at some more giant rocks, which I gladly climbed a bit. Also we went through nemerous villages, one set in some cliffs which I wish I had more pictures of, but my camera was still acting up. Ended our night in nice hotel Alojamiento de Andes in another little village, where we could make our own fire in the fire place where we had dinner and played Swimmin a card game our German friend Hanu tought us. Nothing like breaking sage next to a drying llama hide in what most people would call a shantyville in the US. The best part is that we all were so content and really once you get used to these surroundings you apreciate everything so much more.

Last day (today) we basically stopped in three different villages, took pictures, saw people, mud-rock-clay buildings, an amazing church for the area or anywhere really, lots more of the same critters plus a couple Nandu (Rheas) and arrived in Uyuni in time to try to find a new hostal, walk out on one that we said yes and changed our minds, go back to our old hostel, buy bus tickets, and now write on some blogs. All is great thus far and I am glad I did not skip Bolivia. Here´s hoping it gets even better.

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Photos

Salar de Uyuni
Lake, Mountain, Flamingos, some Rock Walls, and Shear Amazment

Salar de Uyuni
I Crush You!!!

Salar de Uyuni
Salt Flats are sure Pretty.

Salar de Uyuni
Las Isla de Pescadores

Salar de Uyuni
Flamingos at Laguna Onda

Salar de Uyuni
Early Morning Geyer to the Face Anyone?

Salar de Uyuni
Cross on a Locals House

Salar de Uyuni
Flamingos: a Desert Bird, well that´s new to me.

Salar de Uyuni
Little Village in Cliffs

Salar de Uyuni
The Crew the Salar