A tale of two tours

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Tahlei

It's been a long time between blogs; now it's time to think back a month and remember our final week in Bolivia. Much is said and written about the Bolivian salt flats and associated tours, and a lot of it is bad. There are horror stories galore of poor tours, dangerous driving and bad food, so we spent a bit of time and did a bit of research before chosing a tour company that was not drowning in bad reviews on the internet. We also kept our expectations fairly low, which I think was necessary, and in the end we had a fantastic time, enjoyed spectacular scenery and met some lovely people along the way. Our first week in Bolivia might have been full of setbacks and disappointments, but the last week had plenty of enjoyable moments and some nice surprises.

Getting to Uyuni to start the tour of the salar was not a pleasant experience however. We finally endured a horror bus ride like those we had heard so much about. Usually we don't book bus tickets ahead, preferring instead to rock up and see what's on offer on the day, but following advice from our guide book (silly idea) we went ahead and booked our bus to Uyuni through Silver Tours, the company that we did the mine tour with in Potosí. When we arrived at the area where buses leave - a bustling stretch of highway lined with pokey bus company offices and with markets down the median strip - we were shunted from one office to the next, as it turned out Silver Tours had booked the tickets with Diana Tours, which in turn had booked through America Travel, which cancelled the bus because not enough seats had been sold. A pity, because it looked like a decent bus. After waiting around not knowing what was going on and being totally ignored by the bitch behind the counter we were on-sold AGAIN to 11 de Julio and given the last two seats on a small, smelly, thoroughly uncomfortable bus. A German chick who just rocked up (smart) paid 20 Bs for the privelidge of being squished in beside us on the back seat, while the 45 Bs we had paid served to remind us why we don't book in advance, and also why our guide book is crap.

The bus ride itself was 6 hours of off-road bouncing and bumping - this part of Bolivia being devoid of paved roads - with no recline and people laying in the aisles as there were not enough seats. There were also two drunks seated about half way down the bus who shouted and sprayed into each others faces when they weren't busy banging on the drivers compartment, probably asking to get off to relieve themselves. They nearly got themselves kicked off when the driver had enough. After the lunch stop halfway (where they had another few beers) one of the men gave us gringos up the back a lecture about something but I could barely understand a word. It must have been a poignant speech though as he got a bit teary and had to sit down. We got chatting to the couple sitting next to us and discovered that the drunks belonged to a group of 10 travelling down to work on the construction of a bridge, and the man we were talking to was their new boss. Talk about making a bad first impression.

Finally we arrived in Uyuni and making an effort to avoid the hotel touts we made our way to Hotel Avenida, chosen from the guide book. I had also read much about the poor standard of accommodation in Uyuni, so we were quite happy with Avenida - a double room was 60 Bs and it was comfortable enough. The only complaint I could make about the place was the very few number of bathrooms for so many rooms, but it didn't become too much of a problem. Having already booked our tour in Sucre we didn't have to worry about that, so we spent the rest of the day wandering around the town. Uyuni is a strange place - I have never seen so many gringos together in one place, especially in a place that has absolutely no appeal, apart from being a jumping off point for the tours. The main drag is lined with pizza restaurants - apparently that's what gringos like to eat! We did have pizza that night, and it actually wasn't too bad.

The next morning we began our trip with Oasis Tours. We had been worried about ending up with a group of unsocial French - the great fear on all organised tours! - so we were pleasantly surprised when our group of two jeep-loads (11 people) did not include a single French person. We actually shared a jeep with four other Aussies, from Sydney, who happily were lovely people and were a big part of the reason that we enjoyed our trip so much. The other jeep held a Spanish couple from Barcelona, a German-speaking Swiss couple, the German chick from our bus to Uyuni, and an American girl who had been living in Argentina teaching English, so we had lots to talk about. I was very happy with our group. I can't quite say the same for our driver, who was definitely a driver and not a guide. I mean, Panfilo was fine - at least he wasn't drunk as I have heard happens sometimes and we was a good driver. He was a very quiet man whose first language was Quechua rather than Spanish so he was difficult to understand. He gave us a little explanation of places we stopped at and he didn't rush us back into the car as some others do, but I was hoping for a little more interaction and information from the guide. It is a bit too much to ask though, in general the guides are little more than drivers.

We set off about 10.30 after splitting the group between the jeeps and loading our stuff onto the roof. Kyle and I sat in the very back of the jeep which was a tight squeeze, but luckily our jeep had one spare spot so it was just the two of us in the back rather than three and we could twist around a bit. The first stop was the train cemetery where old steam engines sit around rusting away in the expanse of dessert just outside Uyuni where the railway runs past to Chile. I guess it was something you don't see every day, but I was more amazed and shocked at the rubbish. Every tuft of grass had plastic bags clinging to it, as far as you could see. Plastic bags are choking this continent, it really is very sad. After a brief wander around the cemetery we headed to small township on the end of the salar where salt is mined and processed, and also made into lots of little knickknacks for the tourists to buy which I suspect is the main purpose of the stop. I restrained myself from buying salt yahtzee but we did buy a water bottle holder - not made out of salt.

Soon we were on the salar itself. It's a very strange place - dead flat, nothing but blinding white, in some directions you can see mountains and volcanos on the horizon and in others you can see nothing except where the salt meets the sky. The salt is hard, and forms patters of pentagons for some reason that I never discovered. It's such a bizarre landscape, like nothing I've ever seen before. After climbing a few salt pyramids that had been mined near the edge we drove out into the middle of the salar, where there is nothing but white. Well, not nothing. Our first stop was a salt hotel in the middle of the nothingness- totally made out of salt, from the walls to the furniture to the statues of llamas and the like that decorate the place. You have to buy something to take a look around - a good excuse to buy a snickers! After a while we continued the drive right into the middle to where an cactus covered island - Incahuasi - rises out of the salt. This was to be our lunch stop.

Now I don't know if it's particularly an Aussie thing, cause none of the other nationalities in our group knew what we were on about, but we were all looking forward to one thing on the salt flats - taking those silly photos of people crawling out of backpacks and standing on your hand that you can do thanks to the total lack of perspective on the salt. At the place where we, and a dozen other jeeps, stopped for lunch the salt was stained and dirt from so much activity so we got Panfilo to drive us around to the other side of the island where the salt was pristine. There we spent a busy half hour getting as many stupid photos as possible - it's quite tricky really, matching up the foreground and background. Anthony and Alana (two of the Aussies) also staged a wedding to fool people back home - they came prepared with outfits and a bouquet, and Panfilo even obliged by standing in as the celebrant.

Back on the other side of the island for lunch we took advantage of the time it took them to prepare it to take even more photos - Kyle attempted to squash a passing Japanese tourist just for the fun of it - and we got the hang of it eventually. After lunch I thought we should probably check out the island of Incahuasi but we only had twenty minutes before we had to move on, and the walk up and around the island takes forty minutes, or so they say. I wasn't going to miss out though - I set off at a run and puffed up and around in 15 minutes. A decent effort I must say, as the island is at 3,800 metres altitude. My chest was burning afterwards, but it was well worth it. The views were amazing - the island rising out of the sea of salt looks like it is floating in a cloud. The island is also home to a 900+ year old towering cactus, and hundreds of other cacti besides.

Driving on and leaving the salt behind we bounced around as the jeep took rock-strewn paths through the arid landscape at the edge of the salar until we reached the Cueva Galaxia, or Galaxy Cave. This is another ancient island, this time covered in petrified cacti. The island is home to a recently discovered cave that is dripping with petrified seaweed and coral in amazingly delicate looking formations from hundreds of thousands of years ago when the area was a sea. Walking into the cave was like stepping into another world - I was amazed and could have spent longer in there but with only a small number of people allowed into the small space at once we didn't have long to linger before it was the next group's turn. On the same island was also the Cueva del Diablo or Devil's Cave, which is not a very nice name considering it is a sacred site of ancient pre-Incan tombs. It was a bit spooky. We also walked up to the top of the island for a view of the surrounding area and to get a good look at the cacti made of rock.

Our sightseeing over for the day we drove a bit further to our accommodation for the night. Knowing that it was going to be basic we were surprised to be given a private room with a comfy double bed and plenty of blankets. There was no shower, but we knew that before hand and were prepared for three days without showering. We passed the evening at the dining table playing cards with our travel mates and waiting an extraordinary amount of time before dinner was served at about 9.30. It was a strange tasting lasagna made with carne de soja, that is, vegetarian soy "meat". Lucky we filled up on the soup. Then it was straight to bed as breakfast was to be served at 6.30 the next morning.

Day two was a day of lagoons and flamingoes, but first stop was a valley of towering rock formations that all lean in the same direction. Driving through the desert it is curious to come across areas like this of certain rock formations or other geographical phenomenon, and its times like these that I wished our guide was more of a guide. According to Panfilo, the legend says that the rocks are a petrified army marching toward Chile. Driving on we came to our first lagoon - a beautiful blue lake crusted with white borax at the edges, watched over by a brooding red volcano perfectly reflected on the surface of the lake and home to hundreds of beautiful pink flamencos. Absolutely stunning landscape; understandably we took hundreds of photos. This lake was followed by two others of similar beauty before our route took us right into the desert. This stretch of the trip was quite long, with nothing around but wide expanses of bare gravel ending in the multicoloured volcanos that rise up in the distance. We saw two smoking volcanos - very cool.

We pulled up for lunch in the desert where another area of strange rock formations was home to vizcacha, that rabbit like animal with the bushy tail that we first saw in La Paz. A few were brave enough to come close hoping for scraps from our lunch. After lunch we continued on until we came to the arbol de piedra - another area of rock formations with one much-photographed rock in the shape of a tree. Kyle was expecting it to be lame but it was actually quite cool. The last stop for the day was the famous Laguna Colorada - the Red Lagoon. I had seen plenty of photos, but I was still blown away by the colour of the lake - it really is red, very very red. The colour is due to micro-organisms in the water, which obviously don't bother the flamingos because they make their home here too. Large parts of the lake are covered in white borax which contrasts nicely against the red and makes for unforgettable scenery. The lake is big too - much bigger than the ones we'd visited earlier in the day. Panfilo drove us to a lookout from where we had a great view over the lake as the sun lowered behind us and the temperature dropped - the lake is well over 4,000 metres.

We spent the night near the lake in accommodation a little more basic than the previous night. We shared a six bed dorm with our jeep-mates and we all had to wear quite a lot of clothes to bed as the altitude meant it got very cold at night, though not as cold as in July apparently. Luckily dinner was earlier that night as we had to be up at 4am the next morning to visit the geysers. It was absolutely freezing despite the fact that I was wearing all my clothes, and getting into the jeep provided no relief as it was an ice-box and the heating appeared not to work. Although we were told to be ready for a 4.30 departure it was more like 5 by the time everything was packed onto the roof and we were ready to go, and we set off in the dark and watched the sunlight light up the tips of the mountains to the west before it finally reached us and began to warm the jeep. The early start is so that we could visit the geysers while the outside air is still cold and the plumes of steam spewing out of the ground are more impressive. It was cool - pools of bubbling mud and clouds of steam that stank of rotten eggs. The cold forced us back into the jeep fairly quickly though - Panfilo laughed at us running back to jump into the car. I think It was the only time I saw him smile.

We drove not far from the geysers to some hot springs that was to be our breakfast spot. A small pool had been built at the edge of a lake and those who braved stripping off in the freezing temperatures were rewarded with a well-deserved soak in the clear, warm, water. It was a lovely sensation, sitting in the warm pool as the steam rose into the chill of the morning air and the sun rose over the lake behind. For me the termperature was perfect. Definitely worth it, although getting out and getting changed was a bit tough. After breakfast we headed toward the Chilean border to drop off those heading to San Petro de Atacama, but not before stopping for a look at the Laguna Verde - the Green Lagoon. The colour of this one is due to copper and arsenic, with the latter preventing anything living in it, so no flamingos here. At this time of the morning the colour was not so vivid - on the road later on we caught a glimpse in the distance and it looked much greener, so it might be better to visit when the sun is higher.

The tour proper pretty much ends here - we drove a little further and said goodbye to our companions who were going on to Chile (many do this) and we stretched out in the car for the six or so hour drive back to Uyuni. We had a few stops along the way and passed through some pretty scenery - green little valleys filled with llamas and desert with yet more rock formations. We arrived back in Uyuni about 5pm - dusty and dirty and in great need of a shower. The last day is not much except driving - going on to Chile is a better way to go, but Chile was out of our plans due to cost, and unfortunately we couldn't find a tour ending in Tupiza (our next destination), although they do go the other way around. All in all we had a really good time on the tour and saw plenty of amazing things that I doubt you could find anywhere else in the world, and for that it is definitely a recommended trip.

As we headed back to Hotel Avenida we ran into Joe, who was heading out on his own salar trip in a day or two. We caught up that night for a drink but I had to bail early and head back to the hotel as I started to feel sick. That night we realised another downfall of the tour - food preparation. Kyle came home a few hours later to find me curled around a bucket, violently ill, which I blamed on the chicken lunch which had been cooked in the morning and not refrigerated. Kyle was a couple of hours behind me, but it hit him too a bit later on, and harder than it hit me. That was probably the sickest we've been in South America - I'm just glad it didn't happen on the trip. That would have been impossible to deal with. So I would add another recommendation - don't eat meat at lunch as it would have been cooked hours ago. Stick to the salad.

Consequently we did not travel the next day as planned, but spent the day in bed, not sick any more but too weak to contemplate doing anything. The day after we continued on to Tupiza - another early morning as the buses only left at 6am. Tupiza was to be our final stop in Bolivia, and I was pleasantly surprised by the town as it is not big on the tourist trail. It's a lovely little place with a leafy main plaza and very friendly residents. We stayed at the Residential El Centro which was cheap and run by the nicest lady. That afternoon we organised horse riding for the next day - at about $25 for a full day excursion with lunch included in was great value and it turned out to be one of the best days we had in Bolivia.

At 10am the next morning we were at El Torre Tours were we were given some cowboy hats to wear and sent off with a boy who walked us a way out of the town to where the horses and our guide were waiting. Our guide Vladimir was very a very friendly young guy who explained alot about the areas we went through and was one of the better guides we've had in South America. The horses were not the greatest. My horse, Pancho, was fine - responsive and sure-footed, but Kyle's, despite at first sight appearing strong, was a bit of a plonker, stumbling constantly and refusing to walk on the path. After Kyle's last experience in Ecuador he was not happy about being on a horse that couldn't seem to keep its footing on the flat, so eventually he swapped with the guide and was much happier after that.

The ride itself was great. The countryside around Tupiza is very wild wild west - stark red hills and green valleys. As we arrived at the place we stopped at for lunch all I could saw was wow! A little river ran through a gravelly floodplain where a herd of goats were grazing on the green grass and weeping willows provided shade. To the right a towering red rock formation known as The Cathedral stood at the bend of the river. It was beautiful. The horses went down and immediately headed for a spot under one of the willows and parked themselves in the shade - they know where to go. Lunch was salteñas - those delicious savoury pastries that we haven't had since unfortunately. We rested a while in that lovely spot, and I had a paddle in the river, before we continued on.

The second half of the day was just as beautiful, especially at the beginning. We passed through a heavily cultivated area where donkeys stood among the crops and the afternoon light gave the valley a dreamy hue. The light at high altitutes is gorgeous. After the valley we followed the river, fording it several times, and passed La Torre - a huge pinnacle of rock - before leaving the river and following the train tracks back to town. We passed a huge pack of perros bravos that chased us down the tracks for a couple of hundred metres - I was glad to be on horseback then! We arrived back to town very sore but very pleased with an excellent day out - a fitting end to our time in Bolivia.

In just over three weeks in Bolivia we saw some amazing scenery on the salt flats tour and in Tupiza, delved into the heart of Cerro Rico in Potosí and enjoyed the sophisticated towns of Sucre and Cochabamba. Not being able to do all we wanted in Sorata and La Paz is just an incentive to return one day. One other thing of note - I am always a fan of poor English translations on tourist publications, but my favourite, possibly of all time, has to be in Tupiza. The typical Bolivian dish of pique macho consists of sausage, beef, tomato and capsicum served over a bed of fries, and is very tasty, but the translation on a menu at a restaurant in Tupiza was not so tasty sounding - someone has done a google translate and come up with the very appetising "male itch". Yummmmmm.

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Photos

Rubbish anyone?
At the train cemetery

Rusty trains
going nowhere

All made of salt
at the salt hotel

Stretch!
that really hurt

Very old cactus
and very tall

In the Galaxy Cave
photos don't do it justice

Desert
and multicoloured mountains

Llama filled green valley
on the way back to Uyuni

Through the railway tunnel
Lucky the train only runs twice a week

Comments

[Louise]

awesome recount!!! that tour was my favourite part of my trip too (apart from the amazon). glad you guys had fun. thats awful about getting sick after

[Kay]

Wow!
Wow! This leg of your trip sounds amazing - the best post so far. Can't wait for the next one!

[bob watson]

cactii
What were the cacti scared of?

[Aussies por el mundo]

dad ...
you're a goose

[Liliana]

What a beautiful place! I have enjoyed it very much looking the pictures and reading the article. It is so strange and misterious, that I could not belive. Cheers. Liliana