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Published: November 5th 2010
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Me and the Active Volvano
Small bit of steam spewing out of the top left corner Days Two and Three AKA Waste of Time and Money
A 7AM start and a reasonable breakfast had day two of the trip off to a good start. We piled in to the Land Cruiser and were told we’d be at the Galaxy Cave within twenty or so minutes. We got out at the cave, paid B$10 each to enter and saw a cave. Ten minutes was more than enough to walk up in to the cave, confirm that yes, it was a cave, then leave and get back in to the car. We had been told that other trips didn’t go to the Galaxy Cave, which was one of the reasons why our trip cost B$100 more than some of the others. So we spent an extra B$100 to spend 10 minutes in a place with a cover charge.
The rest of the day was spent in the Land Cruiser. I’d like to say that the scenery was stunning and that I spent the day mouth agape at the sheer beauty of Bolivia’s Badlands. But I didn’t, because they were badlands (read "desert"). There was sand, rocks and mountains which don’t change minute to minute. I was glad as hell
that the “Berlin Noir” book I’d bought was actually three books because in the next two days, cramped up in the back of that car, I read two of them. The occasional glance up from my book every two to five minutes confirmed that no, I hadn’t missed anything whilst reading, so I would continue.
We saw an active volcano (when we returned on the third day we heard the scammer at the office telling some girls he was trying to sell the trip to that they would climb the volcano) a bunch of big-enough-to-climb-rocks and a few lagoons. We had lunch at one lagoon with a stack of flamingos at it and that was about the high point of the day. As dusk started to set we arrived at the Eduard de Avaroa (the guy featured on my favourite war memorial of all time) national park, where we each had to pay B$150 to enter. Our accommodation that night was a basic hostel where the six people from our car all shared a dorm. Dinner was chicken and veggies and they actually broke out a bottle of red for our group, so the night was a bit more interesting
and due to the lack of bad-singing beggar children, more enjoyable.
Sunday October 31st
We were up the next morning at 4:30 for a 5AM departure. It was freezing - like sub-zero, actually freezing cold. Expdicionez Lipez had promised the car had a heater. It didn’t. We froze our arses off on the ride to the geysers that, for an unexplained reason, we had had to get up before dawn to see. The geysers were ok - basically they were holes in the ground with bubbling, boiling water or cracks in the ground with steam spewing out of them. Having visited the natural pools of Rotorua in New Zealand earlier in the year, I was intrigued to discover that the Bolivian geysers smelled the same as New Zealand’s - like sweaty chicken meat.
We drove for another ten minutes before arriving at a thermal pool. Having spent better part of two hours freezing our arses off, the prospect of stripping down to a pair of boardies to get in to a thermal pool was not in the slightest bit appealing. But after seeing how much those already in the pool seemed to be enjoying it, I decided to join
in. Unfortunately, the B$150 to enter the national park did not include using the park’s toilets, so I had to change in public. I whipped on my boardies hoping no one noticed the affect the cold was having on little Joseph (FYI it’s pronounced “hosef” from now on, like in Spanish) and jumped in to the pool. Awesome. Totally awesome. Almost worth being woken up at that ungodly hour and feeling reminiscent of Arnold Schwarzenegger in “Batman Forever” just to warm up in those pools. Almost.
Breakfast was had at a small restaurant near the thermal pools. Throughout the whole tour, there was a constant convoy of Land Cruisers all having departed from Uyuni at the same time and doing the same trip. So there were probably half a dozen groups in the restaurant and our tour guides were nowhere to be found to tell us just which table was ours. Turns out they decided to squeeze the 12 of us around an 8 seater table without giving us enough chairs, cutlery, crockery or mugs. That was annoying enough but the English girl from the other Land Cruiser decided that what little utensils and plates there were belonged to her
Me
The geyers group, despite the fact that half of them had not arrived back from the pools. I told her it was the quick and the dead and we got on with breakfast.
After eating we went back to the cars to head to our final destination. I had left my boardies out to dry on the car’s side mirrors and discovered that, since it was still so cold out, they had frozen through! I put the solid shorts in to a plastic bag and half an hour later we arrived at the Green Lagoon which sat on the border of Chile. Here we got some final photos and said goodbye to the Austro/Germanic med students who were going on to Chile. Then the Boss and I piled in to the other Land Cruiser, swapping with the English couple who were also headed for Chile, and started back to Uyuni.
The trip back had a few highlights, including seeing some llamas, a native hopping marsupial-style creature and eating lunch in some town where the other Land Cruiser, having dropped the Austro/Germans and Poms off at the Chilean border, caught up with us. The Boss and I got back in to that Land
Cruiser so as to spread the six remaining people over two cars instead of one and therefore get ourselves a bit of leg room. I lay down in the far back and slept, whilst the boss did the same in the middle seats. However we stopped in a town for a toilet break and the guide picked up three hitchhikers, so the Boss and I were crammed back in to the far seats for the final hour of the trip.
Returning to Uyuni, I was just glad the trip was over. The Salt Flats are given the biggest wrap by all the guide books, websites and testimonies from fellow travellers - "It’s beautiful, absolute cannot afford to miss stuff." Honestly, it was boring, over-priced and over-rated. The first day spent on the actual salt flat I would recommend. The second two days were the companies’ way of getting money out of you. There was nothing done or seen on either of them that was particularly memorable and certainly nothing you couldn’t afford to miss.
Our tour agency was pretty ordinary. The guide’s lack of English was frustrating but in the end it wasn’t really an issue because he didn’t even
explain things in Spanish unless we asked him to. He was just a driver. We paid extra for things that were either a complete disappointment or weren’t even shown to us. At least the food didn’t make us sick.
But to be honest, I just don’t see how anyone on any booked trip of the Salt Flats can bang on about it as much as they do. Even if you had Dmitri Martin as your guide, stayed in five star hotels and ate Michelin star quality food, it doesn’t change the fact that it was three days of driving in a desert. Sure, it was nice to see the desert but spending three days in it was way too much. I’m not saying don’t visit but I am saying don’t waste your money on a three day trip - there are better things to do in Bolivia.
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