Blogs from Salar de Uyuni, Potosí Department, Bolivia, South America - page 15

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South America » Bolivia » Potosí Department » Salar de Uyuni December 10th 2010

It turned out that they weren't lying or overexagerrating when the tour agency had casually told us: 'There's no road for the last five hours of the journey'. That, we were soon to realise, was why our bus had wheels suitable for a juggernaut battling through a Russian winter. At around 2am we shifted from tarmac roads to dirt tracks, our new road formed with rocks easily the size of footballs. And unfortunately for the passengers, our driver insisted on tackling them front on- testing the suspension as regularly as possible. The bus was jumping around and bouncing everywhere, it was impossible to sleep or talk, and made for an extremely interesting toilet experience thats for sure. This wasn't however the first disruption to our night's sleep. Earlier on when we had left La Paz (after ... read more
sun setting over the salt flats
the red lagoon
flick

South America » Bolivia » Potosí Department » Salar de Uyuni December 10th 2010

Our 2 week whistle-stop tour of Bolivia...... La Paz We arrived in huge bowl-shaped, frantic La Paz and checked into The Adventure Brew Hostel right by the bus station. Enjoyed their free beer every night policy but at 3660m above sea level, one beer was enough! Wandered around the city and took advantage of the cheap shopping. Browsed the Witches Market, which sold all weird and wonderful potions and good luck charms including disgusting dead dried llama fetuses. So many traditionally dressed locals here, the women wear full skirts and bowler hats and have their hair long and in plaits, even the little old ladies. Excited to find a Brit run Indian curry house (Star of India) but although the food was tasty (Bolivian food is not!), we're sure they made everything with jars of Pataks. ... read more
Salar de Uyuni
Dangerous Road (6)
Salar de Uyuni (5)

South America » Bolivia » Potosí Department » Salar de Uyuni November 15th 2010

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 ... read more
Horror bus
Border with Chile
Rusty trains

South America » Bolivia » Potosí Department » Salar de Uyuni November 10th 2010

So. After the miserable ATM afternoon, i headed off for the much anticipated tour of the salt flats and Atacama desert that would eventually take me into Bolivia. As seems to kind of a recurring theme because of sub-par Spanish from me and misinformation from most tour providers here, i didn't really know what to expect. The first few hours involved shuffling through buses in the wee hours of the morning and joining queues and getting stamps to get out of Chile and into Bolivia. Eventually, we got sorted into groups of five or six at the Bolivian border and allocated our drivers and the landrovers that would be driving us through to Uyuni in southeast Bolivia. I ended up getting a GREAT group of people; Jim, a kiwi, and his partner Elke who were living ... read more
Me and some llamas
Sunrise over the Salar
Laguna Colorada


Days Two and Three AKA Waste of Time and Money A 7AM start and a reasonable breakfast had day two of the trip off to a good start. We piled in to the Land Cruiser and were told we’d be at the Galaxy Cave within twenty or so minutes. We got out at the cave, paid B$10 each to enter and saw a cave. Ten minutes was more than enough to walk up in to the cave, confirm that yes, it was a cave, then leave and get back in to the car. We had been told that other trips didn’t go to the Galaxy Cave, which was one of the reasons why our trip cost B$100 more than some of the others. So we spent an extra B$100 to spend 10 minutes in a place ... read more
The Galaxy Cave
The Boss and Flamingos
A large rock


Day One - The Only Day Worth Doing We ate breakfast at a local cafe where the lady who ran the Hostelling International found us. We gave her a B$100 note to which she replied she didn’t have change. “Well that’s all I’ve got,” said the Boss with a shrug. The woman went to a nearby store and bought a bottle of Sprite to break the note. After breakfast we headed around to Expedicionez Lipez, the travel agent where we’d booked the trip. We’d been told to be there by 10:15 and, at 10:20, we were worried we’d be pushing it. However we arrived to find the footpath out front of the office littered with people and backpacks and the office itself locked up. We waited the better part of a half hour before someone arrived ... read more
Uyuni Grafitti
Me and a dead armadillo
The Boss


When I think about the dessert, what pops in my head are brown sands, dunes and extreme heat. It’s probably due to varied movie cinematography’s coupled with ignorance. While we contemplated on things to do prior in heading to Bolivia, we constantly ran through the “Salt Flats of Uyuni” on varied internet searches as a renowned location to visit. My better half coined it appropriately; “that seems interesting, what’s a Salt Flat honey?”… Ahhhh, a flat plane/area with Salt, I guess (it was worth a shot). With a little help from Wikipedia we found the appropriate answer. The “Uyuni Salt Flats” or “Salar de Uyuni” is a dried lake situated in the Altiplano region. Unfortunately, I didn’t had a chance to find out when it actually dried up (I guess Google can shed some light on ... read more
Oxide patterns
Panoramic view of Salt Flats
Exotic wildlife


Comme vous le savez, moi et Véro avons voyagé pas mal lors des dernières années. Pendant ces voyages, nos yeux ont pu se régaler de paysages parfois laids, parfois beaux, parfois très beaux, parfois extraordinaires...Et parfois, des paysages qui ressortent encore plus du lot, des paysages grandioses, qui me rappellent pourquoi je continue de voyager. Dans cette dernière catégorie, je ne rajouterai certainement pas le village d'Uyuni, un endroit très laid dont on veut partir au plus vite. Fin de l'article. Mais non, je n'ai pas fait cette intro pour rien. Dans la dernière catégorie, une nouvelle région se rajoute pour moi et Véro: le Salar d'Uyuni et les environs, dans le sud-ouest de la Bolivie. Bien sûr, venant d'une aussi belle ville que Gatineau, je suis difficilement impressionnable, mais cet endroit est tout simplement majestueux, ... read more
Photo 4
Photo 5
Photo 6


Vulkan, solne plane a laguny s plamenaky Super vylet! 4 dny dzipem. I kdyz jsem se zpocatku bala, ze budeme porad jenom v dzipu a obcas vybehneme neco vyfotit, bylo to opravdu super. Bylo nas 6 zen, 2 francouzske kanadanky, 2 danky, 1 svycarka a ja. Plus jeden mistni ridic a kuchar v jedne osobe. Prvni den jsme si nejdriv prohlidli staricke masinky na vlakovem hrbitove v Uyuni (tak tomu opravdu rikaji...) a pak uz jsme zamirili na solne plane! Neuveritelna plocha! Obed si davame v solnem hotelu - postavenem ze solnych cihel! A pak uz pres plan smerem k vulkanu s mensi zastavkou na fotecky... Vecer jeste vyrazime pozorovat zapad slunce a pocitujeme vyrazne teplotni rozdily mezi dnem a noci. Zacina foukat a je teda dost kosa... Snad to v noci preziju, varovani ze bude ... read more
Salar de Uyuni-1
Salar de Uyuni-2
Salar de Uyuni-3


Saa har vi vaeret paa tur i Bolivias oerken. (ja til Martins mor, vi var i bolivia, og vi lever, tak for bekymringen). Og Iguazu vandfald gaa hjem - denne tur var mega meget federe. Fra Salta tog vi til Uyuni et lille stykke nordpaa i Bolivia med bus og tog der var 1800-tallet vaerdigt. Da vi ankom til Uyuni var der serioest koldt, saa jakkerne vi har med var pludselig ikke doedvaegt laengere. Det skal siges at byen ligger paa det saakaldte Altoplano i cirka 3700 meters hoejde, hvilket er grunden til det kolde klima. Fra den lille by, hvis eneste eksistensberettigelse var ture til saltoerkenen for turister. Vi hookede her op med 4 tyskere og fik skaffet en engelsktalende guide ved navn Juan som var for cool, til en 3 dages tur i 4-hjuls-traekker. ... read more
Mere oerken, en martin og en bil
Vinsmagning i Mendoza




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