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

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South America » Bolivia » Potosí Department » Uyuni July 14th 2006

Well, lets see, where do I start? As I briefly previously described, the 3 day tour of the Salar de Uyuni was an experience of changing landscape like no other. Uyuni, the town that makes Lemoore look like hip and progressive "city", is a town that essentially serves as a starting/stop over point for all travelers to partake in the incredible scenary that awaits them on their 2-4 day tours. 3 days was he recommended length, and it was perfect. Day 1 starts around 11 am as you load up about 6 people, a driver and cook into what you hope is a reliable LandCruiser. The first stop is a small town that essentially exists on the processing of salt that is chopped up from the vast Salt Flats. ( I encourage you all to Google ... read more
Play Time
Isla Pescado
Laguna Canapa

South America » Bolivia » Potosí Department » Uyuni July 9th 2006

This country is fantastic! Where else can you start your day in the highest city in the world, catch a sketchy bus and drive down a dirty, rocky and extremely dusty road with a guy who thinks he´s Mario Andretti for 7 hours and land in a town called Uyuni. A town that starts what is expected to be by far the coldest days of the trip thus far. Arrive, surprisingly in one piece, walk 3 blocks and book my 3 day tour, drop off some laundry, find a room to sleep in and finish it off by grabbing a beer in the market and drink it while you reach out to the world. What a beautiful day....at least now that I know I´m not laying dead in some valley floor b/c Mario didn´t quite calculate ... read more
Plaza at Cafe Mirador
Cerro Rico, Potosi, Bolivia
Bomb Making 101

South America » Bolivia » Potosí Department » Uyuni July 8th 2006

"His cheeks were red, roughned by the wind, which for ten long hours had massaged his cheeks. Drops of water trickled from his hair. He had emerged from the night like a sewer-worker coming up out of his manhole, with his heavy boots, his leather jacket, and his forehead-plastered hair, blinking like an owl." (Southern Mail by Antone de Saint-Exupery) Felt a bit like this yesterday when Alain and I arrived in the Bolivian town of Uyuni after three weeks of cycling through the wilderness on the borders of Argentina, Chile and Bolivia. It was a brilliant experience, which included, volcanos, bright red lakes, climbing up to a height of 4,800 meters, two days cycling across the world´s largest salt plain, the Salar de Uyuni, a bit of cross-dressing and lots and lots of helpings of ... read more
Tropic of Capricorn
Lunch on the Salinas Grandes
Customs shed in Jama

South America » Bolivia » Potosí Department » Uyuni July 3rd 2006

Finally our high desert tour of South Western Bolivia... lakes, volcanoes, hot springs, GEEZERS and much more! Even got to see two ancient cemetaries with personal driver and cook to boot! (Sean guest-writing)... While most tours of the Southwest start from Uyuni, circumstances found us in Tupiza, to the south, and it turned out that you could start the tour from there too - works better, because it is a little less popular and there is less of a danger of anti-climax, because you end up at the Salar salt lake last. Basically you´re travelling in a 4X4 jeep for four days to see the entire Salar region... We booked for Sunday through the Valle Mermoso hostel, but the little matter of the Bolivian elections delayed us a day, and on Monday we were due to ... read more
Looking at our first salt lake
View from the ´Saddle´
Our driver Felix

South America » Bolivia » Potosí Department » Uyuni July 2nd 2006

Well, just when I thought my Bolivian experience could not get any more exciting (in a really frustrating boring way). I got a phone call in the morning to say that my bus to Uyuni would be leaving 3 hours early. "How strange", thought I. So I arrive at the bus station at 3pm. "It´s leaving on time now". Great. So I´ll just hang around for 3 hours then. So at 6.30, off we go. What lay ahead was to be unpleasant. The road once you get south of Oruro is unpaved, and extremely rough. And at night it get´s VERY cold. -15°C ouside, Ice on windows inside. Luckily, I had my 98 bolivianos (7-8 quid) sleeping bag. That generates enough static electricity to power a small city. Every time I moved I was treated to ... read more

South America » Bolivia » Potosí Department » Uyuni June 23rd 2006

Where to begin about this place, other than really not such a great place to live. It borders close to the most inhospitable and driest desert in the world, drops to below freezing temperatures at night, and there's not much to do. It's still a very lively place nevertheless, because everyone goes to the market in the town, or to a couple of the bars around (just have to make sure you're dressed up warm). When we arrived in Uyuni, we looked at a couple of different accommodations before settling at Tonito Hotel. This place is definitely worth staying at if you go just for the restaurant linked to it. The food there is sooo tasty and the owner is a cool guy and doing well for himself. After checking into the hotel, we went to ... read more

South America » Bolivia » Potosí Department » Uyuni June 16th 2006

Why the wierd title I hear you ask? Well, the answer is in the chattering teeth. Uyuni is FREEZING full stop. Possibly the coldest place on earth although this isn´t scientifically proven - yet. So why had we endured an 18 hour journey from Copacabana via La Paz to get here? I asked myself the same question as I arrived in Uyuni at 2am, in minus 20 degrees to find that some sticky fingered Bo!Livian had chiefed Marcelas sleeping bag from the rack over our heads. When things start off bad they can only get better (D-Reem, 1997) and in our case they surely did...we got to our hostel, got into bed fully dressed in coats and everything and slept like babes until the morning. Only my nose got frostbite...bonus! We promptly booked ourselves onto a ... read more
Salt Mounds Uyuni
Puro Chile...
Jump Around

South America » Bolivia » Potosí Department » Uyuni June 1st 2006

On continue notre route à peu près à 4500 m d'altitude. Le paysage est Marsien (vraiement) : rouge, ocre, désertique, avec des geysers, des sources d'eau chaude, et des énorment roches volcaniques érondés (dont le fameux arbre de pierres), le tout entouré de volcans culminant a plus de 6000 m. On notera cette fois la forte concentration de blagues dans les photos.... read more
La laguna colorada
La laguna colorada encore
Des algues donnent cette couleur rouge au lac

South America » Bolivia » Potosí Department » Uyuni May 23rd 2006

Just back now... It was good but not as I'd expected. We spent nearly all the time in the jeep, which was quite cramped. First day and I got an extra lolipop for sighting 4 condors on the ground. Apparently they were hunting. There was a mother and 3 young. I'd only ever seen them in the air before, so I was well chuffed (mostly about the lolipop though). My camera is useless so I don't have any good photos but some of the other in our group might have though. Will check. There were 6 of us tourists and a driver and a translator. The driver normally guides also but didn't spèak any English so we had a translator, Arcil. He was very funny and we gave him quite a hard time. We had to ... read more
my salty bed
um- Charlie's Angels...
dead baby flamenco

South America » Bolivia » Potosí Department » Uyuni May 21st 2006

Sad to leave the family in San Pedro but managed to get up for the 8am start from town. Met my tour group, a British bloke and a German couple. Got a small minibus to the border to stamp out of Chile and then continued to the Bolivian border. Casually driving down the main (tarmaced!!) road and napping when a sudden swerve to the left takes us off the road and into the dirt. Everyone is shocked but we are calmed by being told the main road goes to Argentina, we need to drive through the dirt for Bolivia, what country are we going to!! We get to the border (a shack in the middle of nowhere) and have to pay the dodgy guard for entry. Then our driver prepares breakfast outside (great for me as ... read more
White lake
Green Lake
Red Lake




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