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Published: October 29th 2005
Mini Doog
...being taught a lessonHi all.
Well the show is back on the road. In fact we´ve seen a lot of roads over the last week. The plan was to travel down to Uyuni and do a trip around the Salar de Uyuni, the world´s biggest salt flat covering 12,000 square km. First we took a bus south to Oruru from La Paz. All going to plan at this point - we only needed to either get the train or bus to Uyuni and all would be well with the world. However, the gods were not smiling on us, in fact their demeanor was to be positively hostile. Both the road to Uyuni and the trainline were closed because of a blockade and we were told that it would be dangerous to try the route. Rather than chancing our arm we decided to hop the border and approach the Salar from Chile. That meant getting an early morning bus to Iquique on the Chilean coast. The earliest one left at 1am, three hours after the bus station closed, so we found ourselves waiting on the bus.
Once again hopes of any degree of comfort were dashed straight away - we were to wait
in the dark and without heating in the sub-zero altiplano night. Blankets were provided but they could do little to keep out the freezing air and we didn´t have much warm clothing with us. It was a painful wait. 1 am came and went and the bus didn´t move. It was going to be a long night.
We finally got going at 2 am...... in the wrong direction. The passengers that we had been waiting for had been caught up in another blockade and we had gone to pick them up. Once they had boarded a mass of other people piled on the bus all freezing from having sat out in the cold. Just when you thought that no more people could squeeze into the aisle of the bus another load piled in. It should have been accompanied by Benny Hill music. The extras were dropped off back in Oruru and two hours later we were back where we started. Ah, the joys of travelling in Bolivia! On their logo the bus company rather generously awarded themselves five stars, though they did resemble the frost star rating on a freezer....
We had had optimistic thoughts that the bus´s
Laguna Verde
turquoise crystalline perfection central heating would kick in once we got moving. Oh, how foolish we were. There was no heating and the only difference was that now the freezing air could rush through the gaps in the windows. Sleep was a scarce commodity and it was a relief to see dawn break. Well, we couldn´t see it as such due to the thick layer of frost on the inside of the windows. The cold was so intense that Suse hardly slept a wink all night and Tom ended up looking a bit like Papa Smurf.
A new (flat!) road has been built to Iquique, though in true Bolivian style it hasn´t quite been finished. Frustratingly, we travelled alongside it swerving and juddering along a dusty track. As the bus was not stopping anywhere (there´s precious few places to stop anyway) it eventually became necessary to use the toilet in the back of the bus. However, it was virtually impossible to stand up as the bus careered across the road. Going to the toilet was a bit like being a contestant on "It´s a Knockout".
The scenery was impressive. The scrub of the Altiplano gave way to the peaks of the
The Three Amigos
braving the Atacama Desert Cordillera Occidental. Volcanos lurked in the distance. We reached the Chilean border at Pisiga and were lined up according to the bus manager´s list, which made it feel a bit like a school outing.
After a rather cursory search of our bags we were off again. As we descended on the other side mountainous scrub gave way to arid canyons and the air became hot and dry - we entered the northern reaches of the Atacama desert. There are parts of the desert that have no recorded rainful at all. There are Cacti flowering in the wilderness but animal life is sustained in some regions by the condensation left by early morning mists. It is a truely desolate and inhospitable place.
17 hours after having boarded the bus we caught our first glimpse of the Pacific and descended into Iquique. The relief was enormous. Iquique is heavily Americanised and a very comfortable place. People drive smart cars, dress well, eat well and generally live well. It made us feel sorry for their poorer neighbours. Part of Bolivia´s problems are based in the amount of land that it lost in the Chaco wars, when half of the land mass
Eh?
Don´t adjust your monitors - the astounding Laguna Colorado was ceded to Brasil, Paraguay, Peru, Argentina and Chile including some very valuable natural resources. Chile took Norte Grande, denying the Bolivians access to the Pacific, landlocking them. While Bolivia has suffered corruption and civil wars, Chile has prospered and is now one of the most affluent countries in South America.
We booked an onward bus to Calama and had a leisurely lunch. When we turned up for our bus we couldn´t understand why it wasn´t in the depot. Schoolboy traveller error! We hadn´t changed our watches - Chile are an hour ahead of Bolivia! Our bus was already miles away. The next bus was an overnighter and was our last chance of getting to San Pedro de Atacama in time to journey into the Salar. Our second night on a bus was far more comfortable. Chilean buses are a world away from their high altitude neighbours and at last we got some sleep. The only interruption was for a bag search at 3 am (a tadge annoying). Suse, whose superpower is being able to sleep through pretty much anything, refused to get up and snoozed merrily as the local police searched the bus around her.
One more
Doug - scales of justice
Larks on the Salar de Uyuni connection from Calama to San Pedro and we were finally at our launching point for our trip to the Salar. We booked a guide and jeep and settled in. We even managed to get another trip in - a rather touristy minibus tour of the local sights - natural caves and arid canyons, finishing with a walk up a large sand dune to watch the sun set over the desert.
The next morning we set off for the Bolivian border up in the mountains behind San Pedro. We were accompanied by Rob, Laura and Helen, who were a great laugh. Rob and Helen are from Guildford - small world, small world....
The border sits at altitude under the imposing sight of Volcano Licancàbur (5900m). We were hussled over the border without obtaining a stamp, but were assured that this was fine - we would do it later. First we dropped down to two lakes, Laguna Blanco and Laguna Verde (rather obviously so named due to their white and green respective colours). Many of the lakes in this region are rather unusual colours due to the high mineral content of the volcanic mountains. Laguna Verde is a stunning turquoise
colour that gives it the deceptive look of a warm swimming pool.
We climbed up to nearly 5000m along a dirt track which wound its way through the mountains. This was truely an epic journey. The towering mountains and volcanoes (some of which are still active) are deep red, orange, yellow, pink, white and black, giving them the appearance of a badly served portion of trifle. At the high point we visited a field of vents and boiling pools of mud. The stench of sulphur permeated the air, which was also filled with the scream of steam escaping at high pressure. The land here is angry and volitile. You have to watch your step - It´s possible to fall through the thin crust and receive very serious burns. Further down the track is a hot spring. It wasn´t pleasant getting in or out but the water was like a fabulous warm bath.
Our first night was spent in a hostal at Laguna Colorada. The lake is a brilliant red fringed with a mineral foam of Borax. You can scarcely believe your eyes! It´s also the home to three different types of flamingo. Our room was drafty and unheated
(surprise, surpise!). As temperatures dipped below -10 degrees C we put on all the clothing we had and curled up into balls until the morning.
The second day was spent visiting unearthly volcanic rock formations and watching local wildlife, such as Llamas, Alpacas, Vincuñas, Flamingos and Chinchilla type creatures. The second night we arrived on the edge of the Salar and stayed in the Salt Hotel - yup that´s right, it´s a hotel made entirely out of salt. It turned out that salt is actually a very good insulator and we had a comfortable night´s sleep on our salt beds. The sunset was incendiary, the most striking you´ve ever seen. It looked as if the sky had been doused in petrol and set ablaze.
We got up at 5 am and drove out onto the Salar. We stopped in the middle of the salt as the sun rose. It was beautiful. The sun slowly lit up the vast expanse of nothingness - nothing but flat and white. Three million years ago the whole Salar was the sea bed. It´s now been pushed up by tectonic forces to the height of 3700m. You can still see the coral made
rock on the hills around the Salar which shows you where the tide mark used to be.
In the centre of the Salar is the Isla del Pescadores, an island of life in a desert of salt. It´s formed of coral rock and covered in Cacti (one is 12 meters high - that makes it about 1,200 years old). However, better than this is walking out onto the Salar itself. The silence is deafening, except for the crunch of the salt (as if you were walking on snow). The emptiness is overwhelming. The horizon is a flat nothing and you lose all perspective of distance. We walked for about 20 minutes from Isla del Pescadores and it appeared to be still just behind us - until we noticed that the people there are now looked like tiny ants. It´s an extraordinary place and well worth four days travel to visit (incidentally, we were now only 6 hours away from Oruru, where we had started our diversion -grrrrrr).
On the way back to Chile we passed numerous mining operations. Foreign companies stripping the abundent minerals from the Bolivian wilderness and shipping them out via Chile. Little benefit is gained
by the Bolivian people, except for some top ranking officials who desperately need a new swimming pool. One mountain is due to be totally dismantled for its internal mineral wealth.
After another freezing night well into negative figures we headed back to the border. On the way back we had a puncture and a blowout. As we only had one spare tyre that meant repairing the tyre on the spot, which our guide did expertly. We all took turns hand pumping the tyre back up - not so easy - jeep tyres need a lot of pressure.
When we arrived back at the Chilean border it turned out that we had been scammed. We had been assured that the border guards would stamp us in and out at the same time. They shook their heads and talked of large infringements of the law and big problems. We left with our wallets and purses $20 lighter - a cheap shot and an annoyance. The tour agency coughed up half of the fine in the end. I guess that a spot of corruption is a fitting end to our time in Bolivia. That by no means colours all of our
The stone tree
Southwest circuit, Bolivia time in Bolivia - we´ve had memorable experiences and met some fantastic people. However, Bolivia has deep social problems and there´s no point in anyone hiding from that.
We´re now in Santiago - a mere 23 hour bus journey from San Pedro. Dougie has gone and left us which is an enormous shame. It´s been great to travel with him for a few weeks. We wish him bon voyage.
Look after yourselves..... and each other.
T&S
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Mind-blowing photos!
You guys are SERIOUSLY professional diarists! Watch out National Geographic, eat your heart out Paul Theroux! Mind-blowing photos, thank you, thank you for sharing it all with us - we are there, we are there....