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Published: April 11th 2006
Hola de Uyuni, Bolivia! (Note, Blog 2 of 2 today, since found a good Internet cafe.) We just returned from a 3-day tour of the Salar de Uyuni, which included stops at famous dry salt lake of Uyuni and other nature reserves in southern Bolivia. In short, the trip was absolutely fantastic—definitely a highlight on our South American adventure!
Goodbye La Paz: We said goodbye to world´s highest capital city, La Paz, after three nice days there. After hearing so many scary things about the city as far as attacks on tourists, we were a bit wary of going there. We are happy to say, though, that our time there was very nice, the locals were gracious and the vigilant ¨tourist police¨ were reassuring and helpful.
We arrived in Uyuni after a 10 hour bus & train trip. The trip was uneventful except for the thousands (millions?) of mosquitoes that tried to infiltrate the train through the windows, much to the horror of my bug-fearing husband. The end result of the bug attack was a roasting hot train trip due to the windows being shut the rest of way—thank goodness for the distraction provided by the 3 Spanish language
movies! Our minds were also taken off of the heat by the amazing scenery passing us by, including a gorgeous sunset.
The pueblo of Uyuni can best be described as the wild west of Bolivia, very dry and dusty. Once a thriving train outpost to Argentina and Chile, its survival now depends on the growing tourism industry. Each year, more and more people from around the world are coming here to visit the Salar, and Uyuni is trying to make the most of it. For our part, we would highly recommend a visit here. It is still a largely unknown, uncommercialized world wonder (although that might be changing soon as the Discovery Channel is coming next week).
Day One: During our hearty breakfast at the hotel, our Irish friend Niamh (we met her in Copacabana) met up with us and we were happy to find out she would be joining us on the tour. The three of us set off for the tour agency, and shortly found out that the ¨plans needed to be changed¨ from a 4-day tour to a 3-day one, due to rain. (Last minute changing of plans has been quite the theme here in
S.A. so we are learning to go with the flow!) Anyway, to make a long story short, the two American lawyers and Irish doctor were able to negotiate in Spanish for a complete 4 day tour packed into 3 days and for the extra night of hotel to be greatly discounted.
Once that was straightened out, we met the other half of our tour group—a very nice German family of three: dad, mom and 20 year old daughter. They did not speak much English and apart from saying ¨Gezundheit¨ after a sneeze, our German is nonexistent, but we were able to get by nicely on a Spanish-English combo. After the six of us loaded into the trusty dusty Toyota Land Cruiser parked outside, with our very able driver, Orlando and great cook, Marlena, we were off!
We drove a lot the first day through amazing desert scenery, stopping first at a pueblito, San Cristobal. Interestingly, the town was recently relocated from another location, due to the fact that it had been sitting on a gold mine, literally. Now, the world’s largest gold mine is in its place at the old site. We entered the town church, which had
been lovingly reconstructed stone by stone—the locals having carried the stones to the new location one at a time during a gruelling six hour hike. Quite amazing.
After more driving through the desert, and stop at the Valley of Rocks, we arrived in the late afternoon at what had to be the highlight of day 1—Laguna Colorada, a lake that is the color red due to minerals in the water. It is also home to an amazing number of flamingos, including the rare James Flamingo. We walked on the beach and were awe struck by the beautiful birds on the red waters. It was made all the more beautiful with the sun slowly making its exit behind the mountains.
That night we slept dormitory-style not far from the lake, in tiny house with no running water. We rented sleeping bags for the occasion as the temperatures there can get to minus 20 degrees. Fortunately, we were quite warm that night (the 6 bodies in the room probably helped!), although Bryan could not quite fit on the twin bed with footboard. Before bed, we were treated to a great dinner of quinoa soup (a delicious, healthy local grain), salad
and BBQ chicken. Then it was lights out, quite literally, as the generators were cut off at 9 PM sharp! Forget about bathroom trips during the night—unless you wanted to light a candle to find it!
Day Two: We were awakened the next morning at a very early 4:30 AM! After stumbling around in the dark with the aid of a few candles we loaded into the Land Cruiser and headed for Sol de Mañana, an amazing park of geysers that we were able to enjoy by the light of the rising sun. The geysers were huge and unlike at home, completely unrestricted, meaning no ropes to prevent us from walking right up to the steam. Although it was bitterly cold we warmed ourselves with the steam and had a great time (despite smelling like sulphur afterwards).
Then it was off for breakfast (finally!), but first we had a chance to partake of the natural hot springs near another lake. Of our group Bryan was the bravest and got in, but had to endure the cold when he got out (so cold that the plants near the springs were covered in ice). The rest of us played it
safe and just dipped our legs into the hot water. Flamingos and a beautiful lake surrounded us—majestic!
After an egg sandwich breakfast, we were off to Laguna Verde, another amazing lake that is the color of emerald green in the right light. Then it was off to the Garden of Rocks, where as you can see from the photos we saw some amazing formations. Throughout the drive we were amazed by the desert landscape and often felt like we could be on another planet or at least the moon.
You might be interested to know that the close of Day 2 was made a little more exciting due to the ¨fight¨ between the tourists of our car, and the tourists from Spain in the other car with the same tour group that had been following us all day. In order to understand the fight you have to understand that the terrain that we covered is very damaging to the vehicles and breakdowns are to be expected. In fact for most of Day 2 we parked on a slope so our SUV could be starting again by coasting down the hill and popping the clutch. We decided that
since the driver and cook were not worried, we wouldn’t worry either.
The same cannot be said, though, for our Spanish counterparts in the other car, as their vehicle broke down throughout the day, and they needed our vehicle to push them in order to restart. To put it mildly, they were not happy—a sentiment which they expressed quite forcefully throughout the day to us and anyone else who would listen. At first we sympathized with them, but by the end we were just annoyed. Hadn’t they read the darn books that talk about the breakdowns???
To make a long story short, we pulled into the last stop before our final destination later than planned since we had to keep stopping for their car through most of the day. At the pit stop, the furious Spanish told us without consulting us that we were going to have to stay the night with them at this really dumpy place since they did not want to proceed with their car. At least that is what we think they said since they spoke so fast and a very thick Catalonian accent! Our group wanted to proceed in the dark and get
to the final stop, as we had been promised very nice accommodations and a hot shower (too important to pass up!).
So, with their patience already thin, and exhaustion setting in, Niamh and Melia (the Spanish speakers of our group) told the Spanish (in Spanish) that their approach to the situation was unacceptable, that they could not make unilateral decisions affecting OUR trip, and that we were leaving PERIOD! They could either continue following us and we would continue restarting their car as we had been for most of the day, or stay. They wanted none of it, so amidst a bunch of unnecessary drama (including our outspoken cook spouting off all the reasons why she hated Spaniards) our group fled away in the pitch black of night to our final destination, leaving them behind. After the dust settled and our blood pressure came down, we began to wonder whether our decision had been prudent, or just made out of spite. After all, we were driving over CRAZY terrain in the black of night, in a car that COULD NOT START without a push from behind, and now no car behind us if anything went wrong, and ABSOLUTELY NO
WAY to contact help in the middle of the freezing desert. Hmmm. Let’s just say none of us said one word (I think we were all praying) until we safely arrived at our final destination, Bella Vista, completely to the credit of our amazing driver Orlando who was able to navigate the desert blindly, and avoid huge potholes and ditches, with no signs and different paths branching off in every different direction. How he knew where to go remains a mystery. We all toasted him that night: Three cheers for Orlando!!!!
Day Three: After a very comfy bed and hot shower (as promised) we set off on our last day, quite happy with our decision the night before to push on and leave behind the drama of the other group.
Day Three was by far the most spectacular! We arrived at the amazing Salar of Uyuni, the site of an ancient salt lake that is now dry (except for when it rains). Many times bigger than the Great Salt Lake of Utah, with many islands, the lake bed was made even more stunning by the 2 feet of rain water that covered a very large part of it.
The water was crystal blue—a complete mirror of the sky, such that you could not tell where the sky ended and the water began. You can imagine our delight when our fantastic driver turned off the road that has been constructed in the middle of the lake, and drove us through the water the rest of the way to the Isla Pescado (Fish Island). Unbelievable!
The island afforded us incredible views of the Salar, and what was best, was that we were the only tourists there. We hiked around for about an hour took a bunch of pics. Then it was time for lunch at another part of the lake bed that had no water at all. It was like being at the North Pole since we were surrounded for miles by blindingly white salt. We ate by a hotel that had been constructed completely of salt (now closed for environmental concerns), and relished the fact that we were all alone in the middle of this natural wonder. After lunch we saw how they process the salt, but to our surprise learned how little of the abundant salt is actually developed and sold.
Then, it was back to
Uyuni and a quick stop at the train cemetery. During this stop, we thought a lot about Bryan´s Grandpa Harry, who loved trains. We took a bunch of photos of Bryan behind the engine that we think Harry would have loved.
After the trains it was back to the hotel, a hot shower and a great pizza dinner with our new friend, Niamh.
We cannot say enough how great this adventure was. We often found ourselves saying ¨What if this amazing natural wonder was in the U.S.? It would surely be so commercialized, and a market for the salt would be certainly be tapped.¨ Bolivia is truly sitting on amazing natural resources that have yet to be untapped. Of course, from a tourist perspective quiet Bolivia is a real gem right now, but we are hopeful for more positive growth and better standard of living opportunities for the lovely people here. We are very humbled to have experienced this great country.
Tonight we are off by overnight train to Argentina. More stories to come!
Love,
Melia & Bryan
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rob o'neal
non-member comment
looks like fun
hey guys, rob from the public defender here, looks unbelievably great there... look forward to getting you back bryan, much to update you about (how out of touch / in touch are you? you know your office was burgled? and that your crazy-ass lucky client got found NOT GUILTY AGAIN when susan did her trial?!? that tony is gone mercenary now, etc etc?)... enjoy yourselves, such news can wait I suppose.