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Published: June 13th 2006
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Laguna Verde
A picture perfect reflection of Volcan Licanabur I've spent the last 3 days stuck in the back of a jeep listening to Michael Jackson's 'Bad' and Bolivian National music.... Thankfully the scenery more than made up for it!
We needed to cross the border from Chile into Bolivia. As there are no proper roads between the two we decided to take the excursion across the Salt flats which also got us across the border.
We got up bright and early and arrived at Pamela Tours for 8am. We then got into a bus which took us to the Chile immigration where we got our stamps. We then had to wait for some more people to come. It was only when the others turned up we discovered that the border might be closed due to snow! Well we all set off in this mini bus and the road soon turned into snow... yet the driver didn't seem concerned and was sliding around the road gladly. We somehow managed to make it to the border without dying. Here we got given our 4x4 car and driver. There were 8 of us but we split into 6 and 2. Matt and I in the group of of two. We
then drove to a place for breakfast. Here we discovered they had switched us to another company and we picked up 4 more people, a Danish guy and Guatamalan girl and another Danish guy and an English girl.
Our first destination was Laguna Verde, where we got a brilliant reflection of the volcano in the lake. We had some minutes to take photos before jumping back in the jeep and bumping down some more rough roads. We stopped at some hot springs but this time we decided not to go in as we had done it a few days before at the geyers... and it had been stupidly cold! We came across some more geysers, but they weren't as good as the one the other day, before arriving at our first nights accomodation at around 3-30 pm.
We took our bags off the jeep roof and into the stone buildings. Before we could unpack anything we were off again to the nearby Laguna Colorado. Here we saw Llamas and Flamingos! And the lake really was red! We arrived back at our home (5000m high) at around 5.45pm , just before the sun was setting. It soon got really
cold. We had dinner, which consisted of rice with a onion and mushroom sauce and some potato cake. We had a beer before going to bed around 9pm. Due to the high altitude it was really difficult to sleep and I could feel my heart pounding with every breath.
The next morning took an age to arrive and after around 2 hours sleep we all got up and were off again after our breakfast of bread and jam. First stop was the Arbol de Piedra, or stone tree. A strange rock formation in the middle of the desert that guess what? Looked like a tree! We visited a few more lakes and then stopped for lunch with a view of Volcano Ollague. At first we thought that snow was being blown off the top then we realised it was steam coming from the top. We arrived at our second night's accommodation at around 530pm, the Salt Hotel. Everything was made out of salt, the walls, chairs, tables, beds even, but it was really comfortable and much warmer than the last place we'd stayed in. This time for dinner we were treated to meat (the guide said it was just
The stone tree
Strange rock formation in the middle of the desert 'carne', but we suspected it was Llama) and 2 bottles of wine for the table. We played some weird card game that the germans in the group had before going to bed.
We got up early the next day (5-30am) to catch sunrise on the Uyuni salt flats, it was sooooo cold I thought my toes were going to drop off. It was however an amazing sight. It looked like we were surrounded by ice and was like something out of Antartica. We climbed Fisherman Island where we found giant cactus and bumped into someone we had met in Mendoza, Wes from America. One of the most remote places in the world and we see someone we know! This guy had also been back America first before coming back to S. America so it was even stranger we met up. We then visited the original salt hotel, I picked some salt crystals from underneath the salt flats outside before we headed off the Uyuni and our final destination of the trip.
Uyuni wasn´t quite as dead as I expected it to be and we spent a a night and day there before getting the overnight bus to La
Ice on Laguna Onda
Onda means deep. When you pressed on the ice suface it rippled across. It wasn´t about to stand on here and find out really how deep this lake was! Paz. What a journey this was... We got on the bus at 8pm, it was already freezing by this point. I was wearing 2 t-shirts, 2 pairs of socks, 2 fleeces and my waterproof coat and I was still cold. We had to put our bags on the roof before setting of on our 11 hour journey with no toilet on board. Luckly we did make some bathroom stops, which consisted of jumped off the bus and weeing in the street! Suddenly we stopped and didn't move for a while, we then realised a train was blocking the road and wouldn't move. We had heard about road blocks in Bolivia and it seems that this was one. We were there for about 30 minutes before the driver got out and the next thing the train moved and we were off again. We stopped again for another break, then as we set off we heard a big crack from underneath the bus and it tilted to the left. It sounded like the rear axle had snapped! The driver jumped off and did some 'banging' before attemping to set off again. Almost immediately it went again and we all thought the bus
The Salt Hotel
This is where we stayed the second night. Everything was made out of salt... well apart from the roof and windows... and light blubs.. nearly everthing! was going to tip over. Again the driver did more banging and we set off virtually straight away. This time everything seemed fine. We soon left the rough unpàved roads and the driver got up some speed. We kept thinking "if the axle snaps now we will die for sure!" Thankfully we arrived in La Paz in one piece only 3 hours behind schedule!
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Dan
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Fantastic Photos
You look a bit cold though! What was the temperature there at the salt flats?