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Published: August 27th 2011
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The day dawned bright with a few clouds and we waited till 11am for our pickup (late and an indication of what was to follow - we are now on Bolivian time where 15mins actually means 50 or even longer). There were 3 others on the tour with us, a Bolivian from La Paz and a very nice young German couple who translated for us, we had a lot of fun with them.
First stop is the train graveyard just out of town and now that the snow has gone we see the countryside in all it's rubbish. Wind blown litter surrounds most towns on the Bolivian altiplano. These trains once took minerals from the mines until the 1940's when it all ended.
Back along the road to La Paz we come to the salt producing village at the edge of the lake. 80 families live in this rough and now muddy place and we saw how they process the salt and bag it for Bolivian consumption. They get less than $1.50 for 50kgs and they can bag, on average, 5000kgs/day. They supplement this income selling crafts etc.
There are 2 tracks that allow vehicles on and off
the train graveyard
the rubbish is exposed after the snow has melted the salt lake, one here and the other 100kms across the lake. Because of the snow there was a shallow layer of water over the salt making it appear that we are walking or driving on water. With no wind the reflections are perfect. And the sunset just stunning.
We also stopped where the salt is scraped into piles to be collected by truck, then at the salt hotel where you can eat lunch on salt stools at a salt table. We then continued to Fish Island for our lunch, also served on a salt table (everything is made of salt around this lake) and prepared while we explored the island of coral shaped rock and giant cacti.
There was an Englishman who stripped down to his boots for photos and later rode with his mate on the roof of their car. That car became known as El Loco....we got good photos of the roof ride and sent them to him.
After a 4pm lunch, we neared the exit of the Salar in the dark. Our car's high beam reached about 30m ahead so our driver, Miguel, opened his door and stood on the running board, one
hand on the steering wheel and one foot on the accelerator, peering into the darkness. Occasionally he switched to low beam. From our seats, where we were all rugged up against the cold, it appeared as if he was switching the lights off then back on to low beam.
We'd been driving like this for several hours with his brother´s car following, we missed the exit and drove into soft salt. We got out but the brother got very stuck. So we had a few hours in the dark on the Salar, dinner near midnight and a midday start after the stuck car was rescued. Our ¨hotel¨ had salt brick walls and granular salt floors and 2 toilet/showers for everyone.
For the next 2 days we spent little time on roads but travelled on rough tracks, often boggy and with 3 or 4 side tracks either side where cars had tried for a better ride. We were surrounded by volcanoes, wind swept, snow covered and desolate. Llama, vicuña and birds are the only wildlife we see.
We never stayed where planned because of the late starts and we didn´t get to see the coloured lagoons and flamingos
because there was too much snow. This unusual weather happens about once every 15 years, so we were told.
But what an adventure. We drove down the long Valley of Rocks where I got, I now realise, a little altitude sickness. For one afternoon, I sat in the car feeling a bit sick and not wanting to eat, wrapped up in all my clothes but still cold, but I was fine by evening.
Accommodation was very basic, sharing dorms and sleeping under the stiff, heavy blankets that slowly slide off during the night. I would ask, "what will I wear today?" and Jill would answer, "what we wore last night and yesterday and the night before that and the day before that". Easy decision really. It was everything in our bags!
We drove along snow tracks, mud tracks, sand tracks, rock tracks and wet tracks and eventually returned none too worse for wear to our hotel in Uyuni.
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