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Published: April 23rd 2006
Hola all
Well I finally made it to Bolivia for a brief visit on my way back to Lima. I left Salta Argentina on the night bus to the Bolivia Border with a friend I met In Argentina. we got to the border town at 4 am and the border was some where not even close to the border. I managed to get dirrections from a local on how to get there. the selection of locals at this time was limited, spanish sounds even harder to understand when thee are no teeth involved. We made it to customs just before they opened and met another guy there waiting to cross. after the customs there you have to walk across a bridge into Bolivia. their Border opens at 6 am but there is an hour time difference at the border so wehad to stand there for an hour and a half. We then found a bus to Tupiza. I found out that Tupiza is the final resting place of Butch Cassidy and The Sundacne Kid kinda cool I guess. We Decided to do the Salar De Uyuni (salt flat tour) from there rather than spend another day in transit to Uyuni. It is a four day tour through the mountains , lakes. volcanoes and salt lake of Uyni. The first day we pretty much just drove through incredible mountins covered with cacti and dust. We spent the night at a very basic hostel made of mud bricks, it had no heating. We froz are posteriors off. I was feeling the altitude very bad that night so I missed out on the fine cusine of the evening. the second day we saw many interesting lakes of all colors, each lake houses a different mineral make up giving it a differet color. We saw an active volcanoe, not much more than a puff of smoke really but still very cool. justbefore we got to the second hostel we stopped to see the guisers, lots of steam no spraing for us. It was to cold to stay for to long. Again another very cold night in a mud house. The locals live like this all the time , harsh. the third day we started off with a hike around the lake to a look out point where we picked up by the jeep and off again. We found the stone tree an rock that really looks like a tree pretty cool photos. From there we crossed many salt flats saw many flamingos and lots of dusty roads. Our third night was spent In a hostel built out of salt. The walls where made of salt the furiture ,everything. in the morning we looked out over the salt lake to see a spectacular scene with the most amazing sunrise I have ever seen. we left with out eating breakfast so we could make the most out of the sunrise. there was a couple of inches of water on the salt so the reflection was amazing, there are just no words for this beauty, you will just have to wait for the photos. from there we drove onto the dry salt where we found another Jeep with two flat tires. when we stopped to help we discovered our second flat of the trip. our guide borrowed a spare from the second jeep in our group and we have a tire change off of great proportions. we started to take photos and alot of fun. the perspective on the vast 9000square Kilometer salt lake is so much fun to play with. we had people on peòples shoulders, in there hands , everywhere. we begain to race across the salt again heading to an island for breakfast when we got yet another flat tire. No spare this time. we were the second last Jeep in the caravan, the jeep behind lent us a pump and a screw driver and headed off to tell our other jeep to head back. This is when our bolivian guide MacGiver started to work his magic . He pulled apart two flats, found the tube with the smallest leak. pulled the fuel filter out of the engine compartment used it to check for holes in the tube, cleaned the tube for a patch. patched the tube put the wheele back together in record time. We got to the island a bit late but it was still surounded by jeeps and people everywhere on the salt playing around. the island was covered with Cacti and provided an interesting hike. We had a great pancake feast and were off to finish the tour. We stooped again to see a salt harvest. lots of workfor next to no money 50 bolivianos for 50 kilos of salt 50cents for 50 kilos. we arrived in Uyuni and went to the Train grave yard, tonnes of old train engines and cars everywhere. When our jeep stooped out side of the bus station a guy ran up looking for me, he had the bus ticket that the girl in Tupiza organized for me. the Bolivians can organize a bus ticket from 300km away, the Argentines can´t do it with you standing there go figure. Is this a final end to my bus problems, could it actually be. I was off to LApaz over night, the only problem I had was the old lady behind deside to use my face occationally as a hand grip to pull her self out of her seat, i think my nose is a bit bigger now!!!
The Salar de Uyuni is a must do if you are In Bolivia , well wort being stuffed into a jeep for 4 days, some of the most amazing scenery out there. Also Thanks to Simon our guide from Tupiza, great guy
cheers
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Vanessa
non-member comment
MacGiver-ing
Sounds beautiful there, Brian. Definitely looking forward to photos from the salt lake. So glad that you had a MacGiver (or is that Mc-Giver, as in a giver of much, done fast) on board. Keep safe (and warmer).