Advertisement
Published: February 17th 2010
The time has finally arrived to seriously stretch a buck for once. Yes, we have arrived in Bolivia. We have desperately scraped our way here in order to complete this trip without having to enter the cocaine trafficking business. Upon a somewhat hectic entrance at the border crossing we made our way to Tupiza. All the stories are completely accurate; bus systems and roads in Bolivia fall way below the standard we have become accustomed to in Argentina and Chile. Potholes, complete washouts and stiff shocks make reading a chore and travel durations twice what they should be. No sweat, this needs to be accepted as part of indulging in new places and respect that they have roads at all I suppose. Besides a little discomfort the scenery is fantastic. The Southwest of Bolivia is similar to the Southwest of the States. Red hills, canyons, cactus adorn the roadside and horizon. Our destination of Tupiza was selected just for this reason; it is a jump off location for tours of the area and is ideal for hiking, horseback riding, 4x4 excursions and four day journeys to the Salar de Uyuni. This is also a neighboring town to Saint Vincent, the small
town that is home to the famous shootout between Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid versus Bolivian police forces. Jess and I took the opportunity to explore a nearby canyon by foot and then get back into our britches for one more go at equestrian escapades. The price was definitely right but we certainly got what we paid for. This was no knife slinging, sombrero wearing
gaucho that guided us this time around, but rather a 17 year old picked up on the side of the road (on our way to the stable) sporting jeans, T-shirt, shaggy hair and tennis shoes. His gear consisted of wrist bands and an i-pod with headphones that he would generously remove from his ears when prompted with a question about the area. Nice enough kid but far from a seasoned vet. The horses were quite a bit different as well. We were allowed to gallop but my horse had a bone to pick with Jess' for every time she came along side of me he would veer hard in her direction bearing teeth. It was really quite frightening. My horse this go around was named Lucero. For some reason, Jess was given the bigger
horse and when we asked his name, we were somewhat shocked to find out his title was, Terrible. Interesting. Good times were had regardless though as we had a variety of awesome scenery to take in.
The following day we geared up with a new friend from Israel, Daniel, to head out on a four day tour of the Southwest, culminating at the Salar de Uyuni. This is the biggest salt flat in the world, it encompasses 1200+ square kilometers. Our sweet wheels for this ride was an '85 Toyota Land Cruiser driven by Ervin and co-piloted by the cook, Lleri. These two were exceptionally cool and provided us with plenty of info on the area, safe transport and a plethora of food that didn't turn our intestines inside out. Day one consisted of an 8 AM departure from Tupiza and included some highlighted sights of the Sillar, some abandoned mines that were home to many exploited Bolivians for years, abundant llamas and a late afternoon arrival to the small town of Kollpani; home to 120 inhabitants, a boatload of sheep and llamas and our accommodation in a small family home that had all of the bells and whistles.
By all the bells and whistles I mean they had a dead puma in the closet.
The next morning we were out the door at 6:30 AM and on our way to get glimpses of Volcano Uturuncu (altitude 6008 meters) followed up by several lagunas that were host to flamingos. This sighting was great as we were able to capture some photos without getting an unpleasant nosefull like last time. We departed from our long necked friends to make our way to the thermal pools where we "chillaxed" for a while in the 85 degree water. Once we had a nice soaking and some food we headed out to see Laguna Verde. The namesake is due to its vibrant color (muted here due to overcast skies) that it inherits from the high levels of arsenic in the water. Needless to say, we did not go swimming. Next stop, geysers and boiling mud pits. Our driver did us the service of dropping us off near the first of the geysers which did not have signs stating that entering the area is prohibited. Void of this knowledge we were able to explore every stretch of sulfurous sand between pools of mud
and vents of steam that wold have melted more faces than Jimmy Page in 1970. This was a great finale for day two and we headed for our accommodations at Huayllajara.
We rose the next morning for another early departure to catch more flamingos bathing in the warm waters of Laguna Colorado. They decided to name it thus the day a wild, red-haired, naked man broke into a mad sprint and dove into the waters. No, actually it is named for its red water that is gaining publicity as one of the natural creations to be voted on as one of the world´s new 7 wonders. Another two hours in the Toyota and we arrived at the Arbol de Piedra. This is one of the more popular features in the area that has been shaped from volcanic activity and erosion from wind and rain. More cruising around with distant volcanoes spewing smoke into the sky and we arrived in Uyuni where we would spend the afternoon and night before embarking into the Salar. Usually the route goes directly through the salt flat but it is currently the rainy season and the majority of the surface is covered in 2-6¨of
Flamingo Strut
Early morning at Laguna Coloradowater. The water perfectly reflects the sky and an allusion of a horizon less land that can inflict vertigo on the mind and has led to many a man hunts for those lost for days in the vastness. Spending the third night in Uyuni (a small town bordering the flat) circumvents this issue and allows day access to the Salt Hotel; a hotel (currently a museum only and illegal as no structures are to be within the salar) made completely out of blocks of salt. The endless, horizonless salt flat provides the backdrop for entertaining photography opportunities. Our tour guides returned us mid-day to our hostel before returning back to Tupiza.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.11s; Tpl: 0.018s; cc: 14; qc: 26; dbt: 0.07s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Ali
non-member comment
Freakin' Sweet!
God, Bolivia looks so freakin' sweet!