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Published: February 19th 2009
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After a few weeks without internet access (or telephone or electricity for that matter), we present Blog no. 3!
Valpo
When we last wrote, we had finished our Spanish language course and we were on our way to Chile. We decided to give Santiago a miss for various reasons; instead we headed straight for Valparaiso. Valpo, as it´s called by the locals, is such a charming little city. Dave hit the nail on the head by saying it´s as if the city was created by children. The houses are all brightly coloured, constructed in unconventional shapes on a severe gradient up from the sea, and artistic graffiti greets you at every turn. Funiculars, constructed as far back as the late 1880s, still pull people up the steep hills and onto buena vistas. It was a great place to spend a few days, including poping along to the trendy Vina del Mar beachscene only 15 minutes away.
Mendoza
Although originally we were going to head north of Valpo within Chile, we changed our plans and instead headed back into Argentina. We stayed only a few days, but managed a cycling tour of some vineyards in the region. There
are over 400 vineyards in the area, mostly specialising in rich red wine production. A little museum, dedicated to Mendoza wine production over the ages, was really special. Wooden barrels, dating back more than 100 years, with a diameter around 5 m, lined the mud and stone-walled buildings, which kept the interior cool, despite the soaring 30 degree + weather outside. Fierce local competition between the wineries drives the cost of quality wine down, which allowed Dave and I to enjoy a nice tipple or two!
Mendoza would be our last taste of Argentina, for the next day we began our 26 hour bus journey to the Bolivian border...
BOLIVIA
Despite 26 hour and 1500km of travel by bus, we arrived in the border town of La Quiaca fresh as daisies (ok, we weren´t terribly fresh, but we were awake and excited about the next adventure!). We´d heard first and second hand accounts of the immigration process at this point being utter chaos. Although a bit of a wait in the queue (about 2 hours), we walked on through to Bolivia with relative ease. As an added bonus, we met Martin and Mette from Denmark in the
Salar de Uyuni
Our new little friend queue, who we went on to do the Salt Flats tour with and are still travelling with now!
I started to feel a bit heady and queasy waiting for our train to Tupiza, but assumed it was the strong sun and lack of sleep. Although these may have been contributing factors, I think the symptoms were more likely the cause of the elevation. At 3,600m above sea level, your body feels it! (Little did we know, the worse was yet to come!).
Luckily, we were heading down (in altitude) to Tupiza (3,000m asl). The distance between the Bolivian border town of Villazon and Tupiza is 92km. Our options were a 2.5hr bus ride, or a 3hr train journey. We selected the latter, as train travel in South America is so limited, it would be a rare experience. We had one day to acclimatize in the town, before heading off on a 4 day 4x4 tour of south-western Bolivia!!! Even though Dave and I consider ourselves relatively fit, walking 100 metres at a snail´s pass in Tupiza was absolutely exhausting - we were completely out of breath.
Salar de Uyuni (Salt Flats)
The next day we began
Salar de Uyuni
Our first night at 4,200 m above sea level...and feeling the effects of altitude sickness our 4 day tour, known as the Salar de Uyuni; although the name is slightly misleading. The Salt Flats of Uyuni are the biggest in the world, a breathtaking, magical site. But the tour also includes desert landscapes, volcanoes, high altitude lakes coloured green, white, and red by various minerals, an array of animals, indigenous peoples etc etc etc. On top of being overwhelmed by the sites, we were once again overwhelmed by the altitude. The first two nights we slept at an altitude of 4,200m and on the third day we went geyser spotting at 5,000m asl. Despite local remedies (i.e. chewing on cocoa leaves like tabacco), we all felt a bit queasy and heady.
We can´t possibly tell all the stories of these four days in this blog, so I´ll leave it to some pictures...
We ended our tour in the Uyuni - an uninspiring little town in the middle of Bolivia. Instead of spending the night, we decided to head straight over to Potosi. In a bit of a rush, we booked our bus tickets with "11 de Julio", returning an hour later to board. All we could do was laugh at the site of
Salar de Uyuni
Nothing like a pool or arsenic to get you in the swimming mood! our transport: c. 1960s school bus, with the words "Executive Class" written on the side. Every small little broken seat was taken, and averaging 26km/h, it was a little bit like torture. Oh well, we lived and we have learned!!!
We are currently in Sucre heading to the Carnaval celebrations in La Paz this weekend. We´ve already had a taste of what´s to come with water balloons, super soakers, marching bands and colours, colours, colours!
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Jamie
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HAHAHA
The Salar de Uyuni giant-like pics are awesome... The one of Dave "hungy again" I set as my desktop... looking forward to more blogs... Wish I could be there!