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Published: January 3rd 2011
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So we were sad to be leaving Argentina where we have spent most of the last couple of months enjoying the food, wine, sights, sounds and scenery. But the plan for the second half of our South American trip is to head north, and so this is what we did.
We had booked onto an early bus that would take us from Salta across the Andes to San Pedro de Atacama in Chile. We just made it to the station in time, but the rush was unnecessary as for the first time our bus turned up late. Fortunately there were only 7 of us making the 10 hour journey, and we were the only 2 on the lower deck, quite the luxury we thought until it turned out that the doors to the luggage compartments didn’t open, so we shared our spacious surroundings with everyone’s bags. We drove for an hour or so, and then pulled into a bus depot to see if the door problem could be fixed. It turns out that if the doors didn’t open, the chances are we wouldn’t cross the border as the customs officials need to be able to inspect the whole bus. After
an hour and a half, hey presto, the doors opened and we were on the road again.
The next couple of hours were taken up re-tracing a lot of the ground that we had covered a couple of days earlier towards Humuacha, but we turned off that road and then the fun started. We seemed to drive up, and only up, and this went on for a long time. At each turn we climbed, and this was doing no favours to my complexion, or stomach. Suffice to say it was lucky there were only 7 of us on board, our best man Chris will remember the trip we took from Harare to Pretoria in ’97, and it wasn’t far from that.
We made it to the Argentinian exit and had climbed up to 4400m above sea level, by far the highest we had been. Then we got back on the bus, still slightly nauseous, and made our way to the Chilean entry side of the border. We thought this would only be a couple of hundred metres down the road, but oh no. We drove for hours through spectacular winding roads, and an almost lunar landscape across the
Andes until we reached the other border crossing, which turned out to be 160km away. I guess no one wanted the bit in the middle, and I am not really surprised as it offers little more than headaches and dust.....
We arrived in San Pedro de Atacama a few hours late and were dropped in the middle of a dusty square with no idea which direction to head. Fortunately we found our hostel without too much difficulty as the town itself was mercifully small. Despite its size, San Pedro offered plenty to do, with more tourist agencies picking on gullible gringo’s than you can shake a travellers dreadlock at!
Our plan was to spend a couple of nights in San Pedro seeing the local sights before heading up to Salar de Uyuni (Salt Flats) in Bolivia. So our first morning took us to a few agencies that had been recommended. Even though we had dropped back down to 2500m, I was still feeling a little ropey, and it turns out that there are many things that make altitude sickness worse; Red meat and alcohol being 2 of them. I guess the last month or so in Argentina enjoying
what they do best (cow and plonk), had not put me in pole position to tackle this so we ended up extending our stay in San Pedro until I had dried out and felt strong enough to cross into Bolivia.
We spent a couple of days playing cards in our hostel before spending an afternoon out on Salar de Atacama, where we were able to float in a salt lake (Laguna Cejar) which was extremely relaxing. When we climbed out, we were naturally coated in salt, so at the next stop, 'Ojos del Salar' (Eyes of the Salt Pan), two freshwater “eyes” about 15 metres in diameter and 12 metres deep, we took a running jump and dove in to rinse off!! Good fun!!
The next morning we set off on a 3 day tour into Bolivia – after an hour we crossed into Bolivia and jumped into one of the many Land Cruisers waiting for tourists at the border, and began our climb uphill!! Along the way that day, we bathed in a hot spring, and saw some beautifully coloured desert lagoons. We arrived at our hostel for a late lunch and that’s when the altitude hit
Megan! No special descriptions are required here, but it’s suffice to say that for about 4 hours she was pretty miserable, but luckily came good just before bed, when a lot of the others in the group began having terrible headaches!!
Luckily the next day we descended, and everyone was feeling a lot more human. We travelled through some real desert scenery, with endless views of brownish gravel as far at the eye could see, before arriving at the edge of Salar de Uyuni where we spent the night in a hotel made completely of salt!!
The third day (Christmas Eve!) we headed out early to watch the sun rise over the salt flats, and to play around with some silly photo’s. We were then dropped in Uyuni where we killed a few hours before spending the evening on a shabby bus, bumping along even shabbier roads until we (or at least Megan) passed out with fear. In the end we arrived safely in La Paz about 7:30 Christmas morning!
So for now, we shall wish you a Merry Christmas, and we hope to see you sometime in the New Year!!
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Susie Shillingford
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Happy New Year
Hey Dudes, love the photos! Looks AMAZING and brings back good memories. Sorry to hear you both suffered a bit on the journeys though:( Have fun in La Paz - remember to drink copious amounts of coco tea!! Hope you had a lovely Xmas and bought in the New Year in style -this'll definitely be one you never forget! Lots of love, The Snooze xxx (P.S. Bub due in two days! eeeek!)