Blogs from Salar de Uyuni, Potosí Department, Bolivia, South America - page 23

Early October morning in San Pedro de Atacama. A group of sleepy tourists on the sleepy main street in this sleepy dry desert town, waiting for the - probably - sleepy tour guide. I’m observing the assembly of co-travelers, knowing that I’m about to spend practically every second of the next three days with a number of strangers. Some talkative, some reserved, some more awake than others. The early morning is doing an effective job at disguising the level of anticipation and excitement among us. From my research on which tour operator to choose for this tour I found that it doesn’t really matter which company you decide on. All come similarly priced, visiting the same sight, with the same group sizes, and offering roughly the same standard (or lack thereof) of accommodation and transport. What ... read more

Dan woke up with a strong pain on his lower left side of his body at 4am this morning. Panadol Forte didn't help much as the pain kept coming in waves. So it was decided that after breakfast, our group would stop at the medical centre at San Juan de Rosario to get Dan some help. After our dramas of yesterday with the tour company, we lost another friend this morning by deciding not to take the cook with us in our vehicle. When we were sold the tour, we were told that there would only be 6 passengers with a guide in the car and that all of the cooks were located at the hostals that we were to stay. We were happy with that news, because it meant a less squashed ride throughout our ... read more

Glad to finally been able to have a sleep in, we rocked up to the office of Andys Salt Expeditions with great expectations for the tour that we had finally been able to book, since the strike in Uyuni ended at 6pm on the previous evening. We were glad to see that we had a 80 series Landcruiser, as it would be more comfortable than the older vehicles that the company uses, but were disappointed to find out that our guide could not speak any English. Having an English speaking guide with only 6 passengers max in the vehicle were the 2 main criteria for our selection process and we found out that both of these requirements were not to be met, as we were loading up our luggage. They wanted to fit a cook in ... read more

Tupiza is the wildwest of Bolivia - it was here that Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid came to plot their fated final heist. Paula and Yoav were with us, over on holiday. It was fantastic to be with them on this 4 day jeep tour which from start to finish was filled with the most incredible scenery. From Tupiza our 4x4 climbed upwards, twisting through the rocky red landscape. Under cloudless skies of the bluest blue, we watched the landscape morph as we travelled from Tupiza south-west towards the Chilean border and then north to the Salar de Uyuni. The earth changed through the colours of a painter´s palette. Multicoloured mountains flanked the track to the left and right, a kaleidoscopic vista from our windows. It didn´t surprise me at all to hear that NASA ... read more

Touch Down Bolivia Buenos Dias everybody. Yes that´s right the travel blog of The German Down Under is back. Same structure as before. For the new subscribers usually the first part is in English and second part in German. Or the other way around. It depends on how I feel I guess. The only difference is that I am currently not in Down Under anymore... So our big trip has started after spending a month in ze home land. We are finally in South America. First stage of our trip has landed us in Bolivia. Bolivia is the poorest country in South America and therefore makes travel very affordable. Bolivia has the size of Spain and France combined and is known for the world´s highest everything. Now that we have been here for almost 2 weeks, ... read more