SALAR ADVENTURE

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Before I start getting on this blog I just have to say sorry for all the photos and the probable waffling on.....but this has to be the best tour that I have ever been on and the most amazing place that I have ever visited!!!!! Words are not going to be able to describe what we experienced in the four days that we drove around the southwest region of Bolivia, and of course the photos do no justice. Though saying that I have attached a tonne just to try and convey what this area is like.

Our tour was going to run from Tupiza to Uyuni and take 4 days and three nights to get there. We soon realised that we would spend most of this time in the car looking out of the window, which in the end did not bother any of us. We were told that the car would be a Toyota Landcruiser - we found out that we had got a car called a Toyosa instead, maybe the Bolivian version! After an early morning start and some good breakfast we said farewell to Micala who was heading south to Argentina for some snowboarding and said hello to our next fellow traveller Anna, from London. So that would make five, me, Katie, Dale, Jimmy and Anna. After a stop for us to buy snacks, which turned out to be the largest bag of collective sugar I had ever seen (all of us professed to never eating this much at home!), we were off on our adventure. We started by travelling through dry river beds and through similar country side that we had ridden the horses through the day earlier. Soon we were ascending and we seemed to do this for the rest of the day. I think Tupiza is around 2000m and we ascended to 4200m for our first night. Along the way the scenery changed so much along with the vegetation. We drove through areas called the Quebrada de Palala, where the rock formations look like needles in the valley and El Sillar or Valley of the Moon where the landscape looks similar to the moon - like I´d know! As we made our way up the mountain we came into very barren land where surely nothing could ever grow. We did pass some gold mines, one is the deepest antimony mine in the world, and along with the mines came random small villages. These villages amazed us with their simplicity and the fact that people can survive in such a harsh environment......I was loving my life back in Australia when I saw these. After hours of sitting in the car taking in all the surroundings and breathing in copious amounts of dust that was coming in through a hole, we arrived just in time for sunset at our first stop the small village of San Antonio de Lipez. It is at an altitude of 4660m, has 250 inhabitants, more than 50% are children and some who were quite friendly once we arrived. After an amazing sunset it didn´t take long before the chill set in so I put on everything that I owned basically.....thermal pants, pair of trousers, 2 x LS thermal tops, tshirt, 2 x jumpers, 1 x fleece, 1 x wind proof jacket, 2 x beanies, gloves and scarf....I was toasty mostly but felt like michelin man. When it came time to go to bed I slept in my thermals and had other layers close at hand...along with a sleeping bag and 4 blankets tucked in around me like a worm. All everyone bloody says about this trip is how damned cold it was! Problem was that with all that on I had problems breathing, also not helped by the altitude, and it took me forever to get to sleep because I was breathing like I had just done some aerobics.

Day 2 was an extremely early and cold rise, around 5am, and after quickly packing and eating some breakfast we were on the way. All the windows of the car were frozen over and once the sun was up it was necessary for us to scrap them to see out. We drove for over an hour as the sun started to rise and I was excited to see where we were going to find ourselves. The thing that we were quick to learn was that ever corner of this tour would bring another amazing sight, so of course when the sun arrived we were given quite a show. This day was so packed with changing landscapes and sights that we were struggling to remember what we had seen by the end of the day. Snowcapped mountains, valleys of yellow vegetation, volcanic rocks, llamas, snow, iced rivers, salt lakes, green lakes, hot springs, volcanoes, deserts and geysers....all at over 4000m! It´s really hard to say that I have a favourite part of this day as it was all amazing, I did not sleep one wink as I did not want to miss a thing, but the natural hot springs has to be a highlight. The actual pool is man made but the water is supplied by a massive lake, all of which is situated at the bottom of mountains and in a spectacular area. After being cold all morning this was an absolute treat as it was around 38c and was perfect to thaw us all out. That night we stayed in what seemed to be mini gringoville in the middle of nowhere, basically it is where all the tours stay. Our accommodation was very basic as was every night, a simple mud hut with a roof and absolutely no heating or insulation at all. This one actually had a small potbelly fire but it was surrounded by another group so we resorted to drinking to get heat. After some good dinner I was in bed again early attempting to get rid of my everlasting cold, I had not removed any of my clothes for the whole day other than for the hot springs as it was too cold and actually they were to remain on for the entire tour. That night was much colder than the first and when we woke at sunrise we found a mug that had been left full of water that was frozen completely solid.....our guide told us it had reached -15c...that with no heating at all!

Day 3 we rose a little slower than the rest of the groups and we were not sure if it was because our guide slept in and didn´t wake us or if there was a problem with the car. Either way the pancakes that we had for breakfast were stone cold before we could make it out, doesn´t take long here. Again we packed up and loaded the 4x4 and were all excited about what lay ahead for the day.....well the boys maybe not so much as they had stayed up until 2am drinking. Again another day of amazement as we drove for another 8-9 hours across ever changing landscapes, but not as drastic as the day before. Today we were to see a number of different lakes like Laguna Colorado that is based at the bottom of a black mountain. The laguna is not very deep, but internal ice and borax islands can be formed. This was simply spectacular! Also just next door to that one we saw a red lake that is formed due to algae pigments, clorofitas and fine sediments placed at the bottom of the lagoon. In the middle of the lake we found pink flamingos.....yes I couldn´t believe it out in the middle of no where - a freaky pink bird! Pink Flamingo drinks will never taste so good now after appreciating their namesake. During the day we head into Desierto de Siloli where we find these crazy rock formations including the famous Tree Rock....ahh what can you say when there is absolutely nothing around you and then all of a sudden these random massive rocks! Our day was finished by driving closer to the start of the highlight of the trip, the largest salt flat in the world, along the way we passed a smaller one and got a taste for what was to come. After another great dinner and some wine we all hit the sack early as we didn´t want to miss the wake up call that would get us to the middle of the salar and an island for sunrise.

Day 4 and sadly our last day on tour, we had all gotten used to sitting in a dusty Toyosa for hours on end eating way too much sugar. We had decided to rise earlier than planned just to give us that extra bit of time in case we got our first flat on the way to the island. As we headed out we realised that we were the only group that were up and getting active, which meant that we might have the whole island to ourselves.....we were hoping anyway. After around a 40 minute ride where we got to witness a nearly full moon setting and the start of the sunrise along a complelely flat and white salt surface we arrived at the Incahuasi Island, or Fish Island, just in time for sunrise. Miraculously no one else was there and no other cars could be seen for miles so it seemed we would get the whole place to ourselves. The island which is the biggest of 14 on the salar, is formed by calcareous rocks, rests on corals and marine shells and is covered in cacti. Words can´t really describe what this all looks like in the full 360 as for as far as the eye can see it is very white salt flats edges with mountains and amazing colours made by the rising sun. We spent the sunrise watching and waiting to see what daylight would unfold and again we were not disappointed. We managed to have a good hour up there by ourselves before all the other tours descended on us. A perfect setting to have some much needed breakfast and copious mugs of tea to warm us up before heading off for the day. Just a little information about the salar...it is thought to be the biggest salt flat in the world, it is formed by 11 stratums, with a thickness of around 2-20m and each of these have water in between them, so in some parts the salar can be around 200m deep. It is thought to be the leftover of an inland sea that was in the area many years ago and due to evaporation only the salt remains. It is the biggest reserve of energetic minerals in the world for lithium, magnesium, potassium, nitrogen, phosphorus, borax and others. And it´s basically very impressive. That morning we set out to take some photos that we could distort due being on the salt flat. With nothing to use as a reference it is possible to distort sizes and make little things look big and big things look small. We had been planning what we would do for this for the last few days and we were now on the mission, which proved to a lot more involved than I thought....see photos below.

To finish the tour we stopped at a small town where they actually mine the salt for sale. At the edge of the salar we found small mounds of salt stacked to dry out before being packaged and sent off. We also visited a salt hotel, yes the whole hotel is made from salt, which had been operating until environmental concerns, mainly the sewage, made them close it down and it is no longer operational....thankgod for some sense. It is still there and used as a museum rather than having people stay there. After some lunch in another salt building, one that later Katie and I would be cursing the cook for, we took one last dusty road to a small town called Uyuni. After an amazing four days we were all ready to get out of the 4x4 and the clothes that we had literally had on the whole time, it was too cold to get undressed, and have a nice hot shower and de-dust.

Along with all the amazing scenery and different landscapes that we saw, the thing that amazed me the most was the people out in these barren areas. There didn´t seem to be much ability to grow crops here, they managed to farm alpaca and llamas who ate small shrubs, but as far as veges etc go it looked no good. They had homes built out of mud bricks with no form of heating other than fire and when they cooked, some had gas to do this, but they were basically in the middle of no where. They had no more than 10 houses in the village and I wondered what their lives were like living out there, so very different to my life back in Australia. Often over the tour we would pass people by themselves or small groups walking carrying items on their backs, they were also in the middle of no where so it made us wonder where the hell were they coming from and going to. This included little old ladies who looked like they were in their 60´s and were probably grandmothers....god forbid us sending our grandmothers off to the middle of no where! It is just such a different way of life and one that has been lived by these people for many years, I just hope that the tourists don´t impact too much on such a resilent and strong people and culture.

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Comments

[Dianne]

This is amazing Jane - can't imagine anyone reading this and not wanting to travel to South America.