Shake It Like A Salt Shaker

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We left San Pedro de Atacama at 8am on a bus to the Bolivian border. Chris was still not feeling 100% but we were not able to switch our tour day to the next day to give him a day to feel healthy. So whether he liked it or not, we were off. Both Hadyn and the Kiwi couple (Clint and Shannon) joined us for the trip, so we were set.

We arrived at the Bolivian border at 9am and were all ready to get stamped in to Bolivia. Americans have to pay a $135 Visa fee for Bolivia, but we were told by the Bolivian consulate in Mendoza, Argentina that we could do this at the border. So when we were arrived, we were ready to fork over some cash and get into Bolivia. Then a man came on our bus and asked for the Americans. We raised our hands and he escorted us inside the building. Since we did not already have our visa he explained to us that we would have to get our visa in Uyuni at the end of our 3 day 4x4 tour. That was ok with us, but then he took our passports and threw them in a drawer. Uhhh.... what is he doing? What we think he explained to us, in Spanish, was that our driver would give us our passports at the end of the tour. Um.... ok?! Luckily, we met another American who was on his way back to Chile from Bolivia who explained to us the process. They would take our passports, seal them, the driver would hold them and then we would go with our driver to immigration when we arrived in Uyuni. I was still not completely comfortable with this, but I did not have a choice and I just made sure our driver had our passports before we left the border. So while everyone else got stamped in to the country, we sat there: no stamp, no passport and no clue!

We had a simple breakfast at the border and then got into our 4x4 vehicles. They fit six of us plus the driver so our car was the trio, the Kiwi couple and Hadyn. We left the Chilean border behind and entered the national park in Bolivia. Immediately the Bolivians looked a lot different from the Argentineans and Chileans. 60% of the Bolivian population is made up of indigenous people, so they look a lot less European than the other South Americans we have encountered. Our guide, Louis was a prime example. He lived in Uyuni with his family and he had been driving salt flat tours from Chile for a long time.
Our first stop of the day was at Laguna Blanca or the White Lagoon. The color of the lake is white due to a lot of mineral deposits. The shores of the lagoon are foaming from all the minerals as well. It is like someone took a giant bubble bath. It was pretty cool because I had never seen a lake foam before! The lagoon was set against this amazing backdrop. There were snowcapped mountains mixed with the desert that we were in. It was quite an odd mix that made for some beautiful scenery. Next, we hit up another lagoon, but this time it was Laguna Verde (Green Lagoon). I bet you can guess the color of this lagoon... it was a teal green color and gorgeous. Once again the color is caused by the different minerals in the lake. There was an odd smell at this lake and I am not sure what minerals in the lake caused the smell.

After the two lakes, we continued on through the national park. We passed amazing desert formation, llamas, and vicunas (the animal who's name I forgot in the last blog). One of the desert formations we passed was called the "Dali Rock Garden". In the middle of the desert, in the middle of a sand dune, were these amazing weird shaped rocks that were very surreal and thus named after Salvador Dali.

We arrived at our next destination, the Polque hot springs. It was still really cold outside and we prayed that these hot springs were much hotter than the ones in San Pedro. Once again, we changed under a towel in the middle of the desert and got into the hot springs. Lucky for us, this hot spring was perfect. The temperature was hot enough, but not too hot. It was an absolute treat and much needed since we weren't going to have showers at our hostel that night. After the hot springs, we continued to another valley of thermal activity, but this time it was much warmer. We went to the Geyser sol de Manana *Morning Sun Geyser Basin." This basin had many geysers similar to the ones we saw in San Pedro, but these were full of mud. The water inside the geysers was so hot that it had melted some of the surrounding dirt and caused these weird bubbling mud geysers. They didn't erupt like regular geysers, but they smelled just as bad and were just as hot! It was pretty interesting and not like any other geysers I had seen before.

We arrived at our hostel around 3pm that afternoon. It was in the middle of nowhere and all these amazing Bolivianos lived there and helped us check in. We ate an amazing lunch and then met up with Louis again so he could drive us out to Laguna Colorado. Laguna Colorado (Red Lagoon) is a shallow salt lake that contains borax islands, whose white color contrasts proves for some amazing views against the red of the lagoon. The lagoon is also home to many flamingos. I usually hate flamingos in the zoo, but it was really neat to see them in the wild. They were really pink and white with black tips on their wings. They were everywhere and covered the shores of the lake. It was also the first time I saw a flamingo in flight. They would have to get a running start, but would take off and glide for a bit before landing and taking a running finish. It was very cool to see. The lagoon itself was amazing. The white and blue and red colors were beautiful to look at. It was definitely a highlight of the three day trip. As the sun went down, it started to get colder so we headed back to the hostel. The electricity went off at 9>30pm in the hostel which forced all of us to get to bed pretty early. Since we slept that night at 4,200 meters it was really cold. I had four blankets on my bed and still needed extra clothes and socks on to even manage a good night's sleep. I really didn't sleep all that well, but I still felt pretty rested the next morning when we awoke.

It was another full day for us on the second day of the trip. I put on as many clothes as I could and got in the jeep. Our first stop was the Arbol de Piedra (Stone Tree). It was this random rock that looked like it was about to fall over at any second. The bottom was really eroded and the top was much bigger which gave the rock the shape of the tree. Around this area was a bunch of funny shaped rocks due to the erosion in the desert. There were also many great spots to use nature's toilet. Since we were drinking almost two liters of water a day to prevent altitude sickness, I had to constantly use the toilet and let's face it there were not many real toilets around. To help with the altitude sickness, Louis gave us coco leaves to chew on. The Bolivians use them as part of their daily life to get calcium and other vitamins found in them. The only problem is that cocaine is made from coco leaves, which means the USA hates the fact that Bolivia produces so much coco. We chewed on them, but it doesn't give you a high or anything. It just helps with altitude sickness, so I am clean. Don't worry guys!

After the rocks, we headed to some more high altitude lakes. There were four different lakes that were called Lagunas Altiplanicas. Once again, these lakes were set amongst an amazing setting and all of them were gorgeous. We had lunch by one of the lakes and this time Louis made us this casserole of tuna, potatoes and cheese. It was a good hearty mix and kept us all pretty full.

After lunch, we headed for the Ollague Volcano. This volcano was smoking and looked really cool. The smoke was sort of coming off the side of the volcano which made it look different than all the other volcanoes we had seen. We stopped at the lookout point to take a few photos and the boys decided to climb onto a rock to do some classic karate kid poses.

The end of our day was spent visiting the second largest salt flat in the area. Salar de Chiguna. There was a train that ran straight through the salt flat from Bolivia to Chile. It was pretty random to see this train track in the middle of this bright white salt flat. We didn’t spend too much time at this salt flat, however, because the next day we were heading to the main one, the reason people come on this trip!
We slept that night in the small town of San Martin. The town was really tiny and only had a few shops and a church. When we arrived at the hostel there were pieces of llama meat hanging on a clothes line to dry. It was at this moment that it hit me that I was in Bolivia. I mean where else would you get dried llama meat hanging on a clothes line. It also reminded me that are easy traveling days were over and it was back to the nitty gritty. Again, I had to pile on the blankets to sleep since it was so cold due to the elevation. I slept better this night than the night before, which was a good thing, since we were meeting Louis at 5:30am to leave the next morning.

So 5:30am came and everyone piled into our 4x4 for our last day of the trip. We were heading to the main event, the Salar de Uyuni. Salar de Uyuni is the world's largest salt flat at 10,582 km² (4,085 square miles). Salar de Uyuni is estimated to contain 10 billion tons of salt, of which less than 25,000 tons is extracted annually. We arrived at the salt flat in time for sunrise. As the land started to get brighter, all I could see around me was white. As far as the eye could see was white. I guess this is what it looks like to be in the middle of a salt flat. We began to see the sun at the horizon and words can not explain how fast the sun actually rose. Once we saw it, it was only a few moments before it was high in the sky. When the sun rose, the view of the salt flat and the surrounding mountains was amazing. It was the perfect lighting for taking some amazing photos and the colors were awesome. It was pretty crazy to be standing on salt. The salt when down 8 meters (around 24 feet) below us and it looked as if we were standing in a giant snow field, but it was salt. We spent some time taking some photos there before heading to Isla de los Pescadores (Fisherman Island).

The salt flat was formed because it used to be an ancient lake. Actually, it was once the Pacific Ocean, but the plates kept pushing together and rising causing the ocean to head westward. What was left was a lake. This lake has dried up over the years and left the salt flat. However, there are two islands that were left. These islands are made of coral because they used to be in a giant salt water lake. So we arrived at the island, which was filled with hundreds of cacti, and went hiking to the top for beautiful views of the entire salt flat. I’m not sure if it was the altitude or the fact that we had been up since 5:30am, but we got the bright idea to take some pretty interesting photos with the cacti. Jeff turned himself into the shadow of ¨cactus man¨ and we dressed up a cactus with scarf, beanie and sunglasses. Oh the fun you can have!

After breakfast at the island, it was time to take the best photos of all. We had been looking forward to taking some cheesy photos on the salt flat ever since I had seen someone else’s travel blog with them. Since the salt flat is so completely white you can take some pretty funny perspective photos. We spent a while taking these photos and coming up with all sorts of ideas!

Then it was off for the last part of our day. We visited an old salt hotel that is now a museum. There used to be plenty of salt hotels on the slat flat, but they could not manage their waste which meant that your potty water was being absorbed into the salt the hotel was made of. Not a good idea! Many of the salt hotels have moved off the salt flat, but one remains as a museum. There were signs all around the salt hotel making sure people did not pee there. Since we would drive all day, our only toilet had been the wild outdoors, but this was one place we were not allowed to go for the very same reason I mentioned before.
Closer to the edge of the Salar de Uyuni were the salt mines. This is where the salt gets taken up and processed so it can be used in Bolivia. None of the salt is exported because there is no need internationally, but this is where Bolivia gets its salt. There are no machines and the people work all day to mine the salt. They are out there with shovels and their trucks and loading up as much salt as possible into the truck beds. It is a very interesting process. We stopped not far off the salt flat in a village where most of the salt flat workers live. They were selling some of their handy crafts so Jeff bought a scarf for about 1/2 the price I bought my scarf in Chile. Got to love Bolivia!

Just outside of the city of Uyuni is a train cemetery. This was the last stop on our tour. It was nothing more than a junk yard, but it was pretty interesting to see all these old trains in the middle of the desert. All the train companies just dump their old trains there and they sit there and rust and get eaten by the sand. While we were there, there were some local boys just playing in the rusted trains. I guess that’s what you do if you are from Uyuni.

We arrived in Uyuni in the afternoon and got all checked in to our hotel. The town was dusty and full of people dressed in traditional Bolivian wear. The ladies wear these bowler hats that really do not fit their head, but pretty much every old lady wears it. They all carry their kids and gear in these brightly colored slings over their back. We were definitely in somewhere foreign.

At 3pm, we had to meet Louis so we could head with him to immigration. He still had our passports after all. We met him and went to immigration where we paid our money to get in, plus a processing fee (of course). It was the first time we had to show proof of our yellow fever vaccination so I was glad I still had my little yellow card on me. I was pretty happy to get that taken care of though and get my passport back in my hands with my proper Bolivian visa in it.

We spent the rest of the day shopping in Uyuni for warm clothes for the cold weather to come. I guess I just thought it would be warmer here, but I was wrong. We took a hot shower, which was much needed after three days and enjoyed a good dinner for cheap. We had beer, appetizer and a main course for about $5. Not bad! This put me in high spirits and rejuvenated my sense of traveling. I am excited to see what more Bolivia has to offer. So far... so good!

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Photos

A shore of foam!
From all the minerals

Our crew at Laguna Verde
Me and Chris with Kiwi couple Clint and Shannan and Hayden the Brit

Comments

[Courtney Enriquez]

Salt Flat
WOW, talk about incredible. I am surprised there wasn't a shot of the TRIO licking the flat... however it was fun to see your "fun" pictures too like.. the palm of your hand ;o) Bolivia was not at all like I thought.. thanks for sharing!!!! Travel safe!!! court ;o)

[nins]

AWWW
AWWW lamas have the CUTEST pink ears! who knew! I want bolivian beer now! and those salt pics are FAB