Blogs from Salar de Uyuni, Potosí Department, Bolivia, South America - page 20

Vanuit San Pedro een 3-daagse trip geboekt naar Uyuni met de jeep. Deze trip heeft 3 dagen geduurd en we waren met 2 jeeps en 12 man. We zijn om 8u 's morgens vertrokken richting de grens met Bolivie. Vervolgens zijn we voor de eerste keer gestopt bij Laguna Verde, een meer gelegen op 5000m en als het waait dan verandert de kleur van Noordzee-achtig naar fel appelblauwzeegroen, echt prachtig. Vervolgens doorgereden door het woestijnlandschap (atacama-desert is de droogste woestijn van de wereld) naar een geiserveld. Deze waren anders dan de Tatio-geisers, veel modder, veel stank en vooral veel bubbels. deze geiser was relatief gevaarlijk omdat veel plaatsen insatbiel waren om op te lopen. Vervolgens onze trip verdergezet naar laguna Colorado. Een lagune die ze op de lijst van natuurwonderen willen zetten. Deze lagune ziet rood ... read more

Picking up where I just left off, the Chile/Bolivia border crossing is itself an experience! Chile was very organised, a big queue of people but a fairly important-looking building with soldiers, etc. A random Bolivian lady got on our (supposedly private) minibus which was taking us as far as the Bolivian border control carrying lots of bread. Ash asked the driver who she was and it turned out he was giving his mum a lift back to Bolivia. She was a happy enough old lady, when getting on the bus pointed at all her bags of bread and she cheerily shouted "Pan!" to everyone (´bread´ in Spanish). Fair enough, say what you see. Leaving Chile was pretty quick and easy, we hopped back on the bus with our "Pan!" lady, and drove for 10 minutes to ... read more

The time has finally arrived to seriously stretch a buck for once. Yes, we have arrived in Bolivia. We have desperately scraped our way here in order to complete this trip without having to enter the cocaine trafficking business. Upon a somewhat hectic entrance at the border crossing we made our way to Tupiza. All the stories are completely accurate; bus systems and roads in Bolivia fall way below the standard we have become accustomed to in Argentina and Chile. Potholes, complete washouts and stiff shocks make reading a chore and travel durations twice what they should be. No sweat, this needs to be accepted as part of indulging in new places and respect that they have roads at all I suppose. Besides a little discomfort the scenery is fantastic. The Southwest of Bolivia is similar ... read more

Dana and I hired a Bolivian man to drive us through the Bolivian salt flats over 3 days. This place is one of the wonders of the world and is the most beautiful place I have ever been to. Our journey was delayed a day as I was sick with giardia. Not only does having giardia suck, but being sick alone in a foreign country far from home and comforts isn’t fun either. Neither is being sick on a 12 hour bus trip over windy gravel roads. Luckily I was able to buy anti-parasitic medication over the counter, which kicked in quickly. We have not met a single person who has been through Bolivia and not been sick. We were prepared and took precautions, but it really is inevitable. Our first stop was at a train ... read more

The Great Bolivian Road Trip didn´t disappoint, in fact we loved it so much it´s definitely gone down as one of the highlights of our trip so far! We crossed the Argentine/Bolivian border at La Quiaca and once in Villazon, Bolivia wasted no time in catching a bus to the pleasant town of Tupiza, once a successful mining community but now an agricultural centre. Tupiza was only going to be stopping point on our way to Uyuni where we planned to book the salt flat excursion. However, once in Tupiza we realised that we could start the 4 day trip from there and still end up in Uyuni. After a bit of research we signed up with Valle Hermosa tours and off we went. Starting from Tupiza was convenient for us and meant we got an ... read more