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Published: June 22nd 2010
After this weekend excursion, I now am aware of the Wisconsin Winter Strength I have.
This was one of the most amazing weekend adventures I have ever had (I feel like I say that a lot) It was a true test of “roughin it” in harsh cold conditions, but for me-the sights trumped it.
Uyuni Salt Flat Tour 3 days-2 nights
The group loaded onto a double decker bus for an 11 hour ride into Uyuni (southwestern area of Bolivia) We were scheduled to arrive at 7:00am, and were told our tour company would be waiting for us with a warm office to wait in until our tour began at 10:00. Well, shocking surprise #1 we arrived at 5:00 am! I think it is almost unheard of for Bolivians to be early. Obviously, this early, our tour company was not waiting for us, and as most confused tourists do-we wondered around the deserted and COLD town trying to figure out what to do. Randomly a lady pulls up in a pick-up truck and claims she has a hostel for us, and that no business will open for at least another 3 hours. Well the cold got the best of the Californians
and we ended up following this truck down the street to a hostel. I was prepared to sit and wait outside. (Maybe I was prepared for this from Black Friday Shopping?)
10:00-we found our tour company and boarded our Lexus/Toyota Land Cruiser (see picture for confusion) with our awesome tour guide-Waldo. (The “Where’s Waldo" joke…never got old)
The tour began at the train cemetery. Although these rusted out old trains were not functioning, there was a railway that ran through the land all the way to Chile and was for the export of salt. From there, we cruised through sandy off-road tracks to Colchani. It was crazy, just this land cruiser driving through the middle of nowhere, with llamas and vacunas running wild and then really out of nowhere, out pops a little pueblo.
Vacuna Lesson: A vacuna is in the family of a llama but looks a little more awkward. They are super rare and Waldo said their fur was only used for the kings and queens.
About a ½ hour after Colchani we hit the world’s largest salt flat!!! Pictures again don’t really capture how cool this really was! White (salt) land in a 360 degree circle with
Group 3 picturas 039
Is this a Lexus or a Toyota???all blue sky—literally just white and blue all around me. Tip: bring sunglasses! I being the unprepared one, was blinded the majority of the day without sunglasses.
We stopped for lunch at Fish Island (Incahuasi) which in my opinion was not named properly. In the middle of all this white salt land, BAM an island of Cacti! I had never seen a real cactus before, so this was super exciting for me. We got to hike up and around this island with spectacular views of all the salt, mountains, and cacti. We also spent some time out in the middle of the salt flat and YES I did try some of the salt…just to make sure 😊
After lunch, I took the VIP co-captain, shot gun position next to Waldo. Oh my gosh, Mom-you would have passed out in about 10 minutes. We drove off of the salt flats back into the sand/dirt off-roading track. At one point-we did get air. I felt like I was in the Mario-kart dirt bike track—SOOOOO FUNNN!!!
The day ended in San Juan. To describe this simply, about 8 dirt “roads” with 2 stores and brick buildings all the same size. A neat part
of the stay in this town was, our hostel was made of salt! The floor was little granules of salt, and the walls were blocks of salt!
Saturday-the scenery changed from salt to volcanoes and mountains. Waldo set us up with a good soundtrack—a saucy Latino mix which reminded me of a Spanish version of 50 cent! Really completed the experience for me. Throughout the day we saw ACTIVE volcanoes (yet another first for me) and Lagoons *Lagoon Canapa and Lagoon Hedionda. In the afternoon we entered Reserva Nacional de Fauna Andina Eduardo Avaroa. This was AMAZING! It included a RED and GREEN lagoon. (The green we did not get to go to since it is considered the “winter months” and the emerald green appearance is only during the summer) but the Red Lagoon was so cool. It actually looked like it was polluted, but Waldo assured us it was just the combination of minerals. The best part—FLAMINGOS!!!!
While in the national park we also cruised through “El desierto de Siloli” and saw the Tree Stone. It was a little area of volcanic rock formations, one being in the shape of a tree!
We stayed at a hostel right outside
the Red Lagoon—There was a warning here that it gets VERY cold and a sleeping bag and warm clothes were highly recommended. Meh, there wasn’t even SNOW. Not bad at all 😊
Day3-Sunday…MY FAVORITE!!!!!
Waldo got us up at 5:00 am to watch the sunrise over the mountains and volcanoes! Absolutely breathtaking, and yet again another great soundtrack for the ride which included: Mama Mia songs, Avril Lavigne, and Lady Gaga! We all could not stop laughing as each song came on.
Just 2 major stops for the day. The Geysers! ANOTHER first for me.
I have had a stuffy nose and nasty cold ever since being here, but the Sulfur smell was so strong even I could smell it. We got to walk in-between these bubbling little holes of sulfur. Waldo said the boiling geysers were at least 100C!
After the geysers we headed to the hot spring! It was believed that these waters are used for medicinal purposes—and that they were. The sinuses were cleared instantaneously after jumping in. It was like doing the whole hot tub thing in Wisconsin winter. The water was so clear and warm-it felt amazing! Not to mention this was our first “bath”
of the trip, so that was a whole other great feeling. We spent the entire afternoon swimming and enjoying the scenery.
Then, the long trek back to Uyuni-about 5 hours. Stopped for lunch in another pueblo, and while waiting we played a pick up soccer game with 2 little boys. We believe our loss was because of the altitude and the lack of proper respiration.
On the way back to La Paz, is when the second adventure began.
Typically an 11 hour bus ride straight through turned into an over 24 hour fiasco.
Bumping along, bumpin along-all of a sudden the bus pulls over and shuts off. Side note: the entire ride, the door to the bus was flapping open and close, and there were now 2 scarves tied together and a man sat on the stairs of the door, holding it shut. If that was not a red flag…
Not thinking anything of it, since we had been stopping to let people off along the way, I fell back asleep.
Wake up an hour later and we are still parked in the same spot. Scott, the kid next to me informed me a bus had broken down ahead of
us and there was no way around it since the road was too narrow. So there we sat, waiting. It was entertaining for the first hour since a group of tourists from London had speakers and turned there lights on their phones into strobe lights and broke out into a dance party yelling “AMERICA WE CAN’T HEAR YOU” as they wanted us to sing along to the Brittany Spears “Hit me Baby One More Time.” One thing for sure, this trip had awesome music-couldn’t have made a better sountrack myself. After everyone was tuckered out, we fell asleep. All night, we slept on this immobile bus. In the morning, approximately 2 hours after we were supposed to have arrived in La Paz, I decided to get off the bus and get some fresh air. Turns out, there was not a broken down bus. There was a line of buses and cars, but looking ahead at a bridge-there was a blockade of people behind the Bolivian Flag. Apparently they were on strike against a cement factory that was going to be built in their city. They were not letting anyone through their city until their meeting with the government that night.
GOOD.
We had 3 options: Wait until their meeting with the “government” that night and hope that they let us through, walk through this blockade to the other side where there was a bus turned around going onto La Paz, or stay on the bus we were on that was going to turn around and go back to Uyuni if they were not going to open up. By this time, a couple people from our group were sick, tired, and we were all SO dirty. We decided to chance it and walk. It was SOOOO awkward walking through the blockade, even a little scary. About 100 Bolivians, looking very upset with us, chewing on Coca leaves and just glaring. We walked another 4 miles on this dirt road, through the other side of the blockade and THERE WAS A BUS! The driver had 8 open seats and was headed to La Paz in 30 minutes! How our timing was so impeccable is beyond me, but I am not questioning it. We enjoyed the next 9 hours on a MOVING bus back to La Paz.
All in all, it was a weekend that I will NEVER forget and truly did enjoy!
Love from Bolivian Bear
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Andy
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Donde
Is this Bolivia or Mars?