Advertisement
The Quito airport, a very busy place this time of year or so it seems. I'm sitting here in a sectioned of 'special' section for those continuing on to Colombia, it seems they need us to stay away from the others....ooooh.
I've been here since 8 this morning, yep I was up at 4, at the airport at 4.30 and asleep on the plane by 6.30. I've been sitting here playing around on my computer; skyping, blogging, stalking, you know, the usual. I've been eating my way through my bag; bread, hello panda (yes they had them in a lima supermarket!!) chocolate,you know all the things you should be eating before lunch time and well i've just been waiting. Luckily there's wi fi, otherwise I would be super bored. You see I have no book to read, no photo to take selfies, nothing...i could go on forever writing about nothing, it entertains me but i'm not so sure it does the same for you, so this brings me to today's blog about Sucre. Beautiful Sucre. The weather was glorious, the food delcious and the people lovely. I holed myself up in a 3dollar a night room complete with double bed, city
views and cable tv; what more could a girl want, well a lot more actually. I would have loved for the very bad bad man who robbed me to return my bag and its contents, namely my camera and book (which i'd thankfully read) but i wouldn't mind being returned my hand sanitiser and toilet paper; these things come in handy, but yes are easily replaced. I would also have loved for the mean policewoman to give me a break. Yes I was being a stupid tourist skyping my beloved pip when my bag was stolen, no I wasn't paying attention, yes my bag was at my feet and no I didn't get a look at him, but he did indeed steal my camera and my lovely colombian hand made bag and no i'm not going to get them back and yes it would be wonderful if you could take some time to write up my report as it is absolutely completely necessary for insurance purposes and no its not my fault if your printer isn't working, you could easily fix it by buying a new ink cartridge and just for your information I have places I need to be.
UHHHH!
Regardless of everything the point is that I had to wait a further two days in Sucre; luckily I liked the place and it wasn't too much of a drag, but I did have a schedule, days were running out!!
You'll be happy to know I received my police report and made it to Uyuni, albeit in the freeeeezing cold of the overnight bus. I managed to book myself into a tour and I did indeed enjoy that tour through the glorious salt flats and desert surrounding Uyuni.
3 days of amazing scenery, 4WD's, freezing cold nights, warm soup, tourist photos and cards. A great trip where I was able to see the vast difference in landscape from one hour to the next; magical mountains, incredible lagoons (of all different colours) hours of red dirt, dust and desert, flamingos! geizers and general wonderment.
Hmmm I've had a little break, this sitting at the airport all day is hard work. I'm not sure if I prefer this or sitting on a bus all day; at least with the bus I know I'm going somewhere, but you just can't beat one hour from Quito to Medellin, let me think how
long that would take in a bus, something like 30 hours?!! yeah I think i'm happy with my decision to fly.
Back to the reason i'm writing the blog. The Salt Flats trip. I'll be honest here, because I feel like it. It was a nice trip, a trip with amazing scenery, very unique scenery BUT I was a little bit dissapointed. I'm not sure if this was because everyone I spoke to talked it up so much or the fact that I spent so long in a car, couldn't sleep because of the altitude (well it was either that or the snoring couple in my room) or the fact our guide barely spoke (which means I don't know all that much about what I saw). I would do it again, absolutely and I'm so glad that I have done it, however I wouldn't pay any more than what I did. The food was great, my company wonderful (thank god for Thora and Rachel!) but it was as I said a darn long time in the back of a landcruiser and I think I prefer the more hands on tours; a bit more hiking, a lot more talking, a
little less of that and little bit more of this if you get me!
However as I said I would recommend the trip; the scenery is like nothing I'd really seen throughout my travels in South America; and in this respect it is completely unique and in every way wonderful. From the vast whiteness of the salt flats to the endless kilometers of red sandy deserts, rocky valleys (with might I add the most incredible rock formations) to awe inspiring coloured lagoons; yes there's an ice blue, deep red, turquiose and green lagoon, one for everyone's liking!
You'll see flamingos; now here's one animal I never thought I'd see, tiny little pheasant looking birds, a lot of llamas/alpacas and other very close relations the vicuna and the odd fox!
I was lucky enough to have two wonderful girls with me; rahel and thora who made the trip all the better; jokes/music and general conversation which I wouldn't have been able to have had they not been there....a korean couple (bless them!) and jorge our token chilean we're also wonderful but their lack of english made it difficult to communicate in the way you want to communicate when you're in
a car with the same people almost all day every day!
Accomodation was simple but comfortable; cold, simple and comfortable. The food, as mentioned was just what you needed, the soup on the second night was especially delicious and the 3 bottles of red wine didn't go astray either!
All in all a great trip, one I would recommend if only for the magnificent views you see along the way. This trip with a group of friends would be amazing. oh and it really is the photographers dream....what a pity i had my disposable camera and how wonderful I had two great girls take photos for me (thanks rahel and thora for the photos!)
This was my last 'tour' in south america and what a lovely way to end things (I will try adn forget the 50 odd hours it took to get back to lima!
Advertisement
Tot: 0.102s; Tpl: 0.013s; cc: 12; qc: 51; dbt: 0.0722s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 4;
; mem: 1.1mb
anonymous
non-member comment
Very nice photos.
You were very creative. Looks like you are having fun. Happy Travels.