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Published: April 5th 2008
This particular morning was one of the most efficient I´ve had yet. Having just arrived on a bus from Potosi at 1am (see previous post) I was anxious to book a tour of the Salar de Uyuni and leave this morning as I´d learned that the town of Uyuni is not a particularly fun place to spend a day. I woke relatively early and happily discovered that virtually all of the tour operators (and there are hundreds) were literally steps from the door of my hotel.
I had a few reasonable recommendations from travellers I´d met along the way, and I spoke with a few agencies to get the basic details before heading into Juliet Tours. As they´d come recommended, and they were the only ones to show a menu of what we´d be eating, and they had what looked to be a good Toyota Land Cruiser, and they were the same price as everyone else, I decided to book with them. By 10am I´d booked my tour, had breakfast, packed-up my stuff, bought supplies for the trip, sent some emails, called home, and was ready to head-out to see the largest salt-flat on the planet. Along with me in
this adventure were 4 Israeli girls who´s names I never did get straight (they´ll forever be las chickas), a french-girl named Fleur and my new friend Jaime from San Diego (Jaime is remarkably similar to my friend Jenn in Chicago ... so obviously we got along smashingly well).
Day 1
First stop on the tour was the train graveyard just outside of Uyuni. A short bumpy ride later we were at a village where they earn their money, what little they can earn, from processing the salt from the flats and selling it as table salt. As you can imagine there's not much money in that business, so they have a sideline in selling tourist gifts carved from rock salt, I bought a couple of small items.
Next stop, the Salar. I had to keep reminding myself that it was salt and not snow (the warm temperature helped). I think it has to be the wierdest landscape I've ever come across, and certainly one of the most beautiful. In places the stunning scenery was made all the more bizarre and interesting by the layer of water that had collected which created the most fascinating reflections, and really
a salt house
this cute, strange little house is made entirely of saltmade it difficult if not impossible to tell where sky stopped and ground started. I don't know if all salt flats look like that, but this one had us all speechless....
Next stop was the Salt Hotel, a tourist trap but interesting nonetheless. It's exactly what it sounds like - a hotel made entirely of salt: the walls, furniture, everything. That salt can be put to a variety of uses!
By the time we arrived at the Isla de los Pescadores, we started to appreciate that this was going to be a tour of jaw dropping sites. I still don't understand why they call it the Isla de los Pescadores (Island of Fishermen) as it is in fact covered in giant cactii, but there you go. I can´t understand how anything can grow when surrounded by 12,000 square km of salt that´s 50 meters deep.
We had a delicous lunch at the island and took some interesting photos. This seems to be the thing to do around here as the blank white landscape lets you play with visual images in the distance. But, it was so bright that it was next to impossible to see the image
piles of salt
Salt piles, used to dry the salt before it´s processed. on a camera to take a proper photo.
To our surprise, for the evening we actually stayed in another salt hotel. We´d read that it was illegal to do this, but the facility in which we stayed was actually just off the outskirts of the Salar. It was still probably illegal but it was pretty damn cool nonetheless.
Day 2.
The second day was all about lakes and rocks. We saw coloured lakes (red, blue, green), lakes with flamingoes, you name it. Our group actually consisted of 2 jeeps from the same company. The other jeep had 6 other gringos plus Nena who was the cook for both groups. At lunch on the 2nd day the suspension on the 2nd jeep (an older Land Cruiser) started having some problems. This wasn´t particularly surprising as our drive was straight out of an SUV commercial (after this trip nobody in the city will ever convince me that the NEED an SUV ... in south-west Bolivia you NEED an SUV, in Toronto or Ottawa it´s just a luxury).
Our 2 drivers did some on-the-spot mechanical adjustments and we were on our way again. One thing about our driver Reuben,
the train cemetary
Urgently in need of an experienced mechanic ... ha! regardless whether we started our day as the last jeep to leave, we still managed to get to our destination first. With all the horror stories I´d heard about drivers being drunk or reckless I was very happy with Reuben. He always seemed to know the fastest way from point A to point B and while he drove fast, I never felt that he wasn´t in complete control. Reuben is the alpha dog.
The landscape reminded me of Mongolia to a certain extent. But, since Eric is the only one who´ll understand that comparison I´ll say that some parts of it were straight out of a Mad Max movie.
The day ended at Laguna Colorado which is a deep red-brown colour having something to do with algae and micro-organisms and wind. Apparently it´s only this reddish colour when it´s windy. I get the impression it´s always windy though as we had to walk at a serious angle just to stay upright. For the evening we spent the night beside Laguna Colorado in ¨basic¨ accomodations. I actually expected worse but it was obvious that the Israeli girls weren´t all that thrilled with the lodging situation. It did get quite
piles of salt
Me, with the piles of salt (at least I didn´t climb on top of them like some people) cold in the place but we all managed to make it through the night ok.
Day 3
The final day of the tour for Jaime and I was day 3. Although the jeep was returning to Uyuni (in a dreadfully long 8 hour drive), we were being dropped off near the Chilean border and from there heading by bus to San Pedro de Atacama in Chile. Before that though there were yet more fascinating sites for us to see, the first of which were the geysers, which also necessitated a 4.30am start so as to see them at sunrise - ouch! They were incredible though, the sun rising through the steam and sulphur clouds rising from the geysers is not a sight easily forgotten. Next were the thermal baths, and probably the nicest ones in which I've ever been, really comfortable temperature, no sulfur smell.
Getting out (after about 45 minutes) was not nearly as bad as I thought it would be even though the temperature was well below freezing.. We were after all at close to 5000m above sea level, in most countries there'd be snow all around at that attitude. We were treated to yet
the salt hotel
Inside, all the furniture was also made of salt. another tasty meal and then it was time to head to the border. Jaime and I said goodbye to the group, who we'd got along with quite well, and were soon on a bus to San Pedro de Atacama.
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Jen
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I made the post!!!!!
Awwww..... Thanks Gerry! You made me smile, and I only hope I can one day meet your new friend Jamie. My cousin lives in San Diego, and I have been threatening to move there for at least 4 years now... Anyway, thanks Sweetheart for the shout out. For some reason, I'm in a funk tonight, and you put a big smile on my face. It's the little things... Good friends, good peeps. Okay, enough sap. What kind of beer do they have? :P