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Published: June 16th 2006
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Ghost train
Going nowhere...fast Why the wierd title I hear you ask? Well, the answer is in the chattering teeth. Uyuni is FREEZING full stop. Possibly the coldest place on earth although this isn´t scientifically proven - yet. So why had we endured an 18 hour journey from Copacabana via La Paz to get here? I asked myself the same question as I arrived in Uyuni at 2am, in minus 20 degrees to find that some sticky fingered Bo!Livian had chiefed Marcelas sleeping bag from the rack over our heads.
When things start off bad they can only get better (D-Reem, 1997) and in our case they surely did...we got to our hostel, got into bed fully dressed in coats and everything and slept like babes until the morning. Only my nose got frostbite...bonus! We promptly booked ourselves onto a 3 day jeep tour of the salt plains and the desert, and we left at 11 that morning, in the company of Robin and Pablo (Colombia), Philip (France), Jayne (Scotland via Cheshire, who turned out to be Rob Cawstons (ILAS) cousin...small world indeed) and most importantly Don Pedro and Beatrice our driver and cook.
First stop was a much touted train graveyard on
the outskirts of Uyuni, a bit spooky to be surrounded by rusting trains in the middle of the desert...why here? The trains were previously used to export minerals to the Chilean ports of Antofagasta and Iquique but now they just sit there attracting tourists like flies to...well you know.
A couple of hours further on we entered the surreal and spectacular world of the Uyuni salt plains...the Toyota loved driving on the salt, natures best motorway and we soon arrived at the area being worked by the locals. They scrape the salt into small mounds, which allows the salt to dry a bit, before they put it on trucks and drive it to a refining plant. The scraping looked easy so we gave it a try...it wasn´t so easy...the old lady in the Turban, ski mask and shades laughed at me as I pathetically got my egg-pop muscles to move the scraper a full six inches! Hmm. In what must rate as a harsh job these people work 14 hour days out on the salt in the blinding light, and they dont even stop for proper breaks according to the lady...they also don´t like being photographed hence no pic
Puro Chile...
...es mi cielo azula-ado... of the workers. The salt itself goes to the Bolivan market with a small amount exported to Paraguay.
Further into the salt plain we passed one of the salt hotels (totally made of salt), where I bought some totally dud batteries and where I found a Chilean flag to pose with. Alguno de ustedes Shilenos han representado su pais en Bolivia? Yo si! and this is in a country where they have statues of Chileans being bayonneted to death in their squares.
From here we drove on, until we reached an ancient coral island in the salt. This island is covered in 10 metre tall, 3 thousand year old cactii. It was here that we could fully appreciate the immense size and the spectacular sight of the salt plain. Dazzling white stretched in all directions, the blue sky seemed to heighten the whiteness of the plain, which met with shimmering brown hills in the far distance...walking out onto the salt it was hard to tell if something was 500 metres or 5 kilometres away, and the sense of isolation was immense, in spite of the other tourists on the island scant metres away. I wondered how the ancient
Jump Around
yes, the salt flats, but mostly ME... peoples made it onto this island without shades...maybe they made them out of stone or something...
Onwards we drove, out of the salt plain and into brown scrubland, where we surprised flocks of Vicuñas as we passed. We reached our deluxe acommodation on the outskirts of San Juan around 6 that evening...picture a room with blue walls a concrete floor, and six camper beds crammed into it. We decided to sleep all together (kinky!) in the same ROOM... in order to conserve body warmth, as the wind had been cold all day, and the temp threatened to drop yet further when the sun went down. Nearby was a large pre-conquest Necropolis, which we wandered out into. This consisted of roundish rock shapes called "chullpas"...I wandered about as it got dark, taking pics of the sunset and the like, when I suddenly found myself face to face with a skeleton in the foetal position, sitting in the middle of a half broken chullpa. Now that aint something that happens to you in Roundwood cemetary! It turns out that this necropolis is populated with loads of skeletons, some of which are actually mummies due to the dry climate...It made the whole
On the island..
Anyone for cactus? place feel different when we realised that it was still full of dead people...
The following day, after a hearty breakfast of the worlds thickest pancakes we headed out into the desert once more, passing through landscapes that became evermore rust coloured until we finally arrived at the Bolivian side of the Ollague volcano. Here we found bizarre rock formations, and a wind so cold it cut like a knife. We were glad to drive on towards the first of many lagoons in the desert. The first was appropriately called "laguna hedionda" which means "smelly lagoon" and it fitted its name well as the place reeked of sulphur. Here we saw our first flamingos and desert fox´s. Each lagoon was beautiful in itself, reflecting the surrounding mountains in its waters. bloody cold though. The most spectacular lagoon was the red one, the laguna colorada...it really is red, (although not due to local campesinos slaughtering flamingos in it as Don Pedro humourously told us) Philip told us afterwards the white sand around the lagoon is toxic (Borox) but this didnt take the shine off it and I gratefully inhaled the toxin as I stood observing one of the worlds natural
Chullpas
Now who lives in a house like this? wonders. From here we were not far from our second nights accommodation, which was if anything more basic than the first nights...we slept in a barracks in the desert. We shivered our way through dinner, and then through games of cards until they switched the generator off. The silence of the desert is something to hear I tell you. Especially when its 18 degrees below zero. Nice!
The last day we drove out to the last of the lagoons- the green lagoon, via some geysers at just under 5000 metres and a thermal pool in the midst of it all. pachamama has her kind side too! The cold at the geysers was incredible, and we nearly wailed when we saw trusty pedro driving off without us in the jeep...luckily for us he stopped a couple of hundred metres further on, no doubt highly amused by his leetle yoke.
Laguna Verde was worth the wait...water that was emerald in colour, surrounded by snowcapped mountains...unfortunately the ice cold wind (have you noticed a theme here?)meant that we could only spend a couple of minutes looking at the view before being driven back into the Toyota. Not before I got Pablo
with a high altitude snowball though! Har har...unfortunately they don´t have snowball fights in Bogota, so instead of joyfully chucking one back at me, he just looked hurt and wandered off...ooops. Cultural misunderstanding eh?
After dropping off Jayne and the Colombians at the Chilean border, we headed back to Uyuni in a 9 hour ride through some amazing scenery. The land changed from red desert, to a landscape of broken rock, like giant apple crumble, to green altiplano cut by small streams. We spotted a few ostriches as well as the obligatory herds of llama before making it back in time for our bus to Potosi.
All in all it was well worth the cold and everything. The landscapes were otherwordly and unforgettable, and we had a great time with everyone we met, although we might have bored Pedro and Beatrice with our World Cup talk...tough, its their fault for not qualifying.
Hope you are all well, and still awake (Harry Di-Po-Ta-do)
Much love,
Vic and Marce
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Phnita, your lovely niece
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hey! this travelblog thing is such a goood invention, i can hear about all the amazing things you're getting up to :) it properly sounds like little articles in travel guides, with lots of hilarious (!) jokes hehe. i am veeery jealous of you two!! good to hear everything is so exciting....while here it is so monotonous, and everything bears the tinge of guilt if i don't do revision....much like now. so, erm, better get back to work! lots of love to the Torias and Babexxxx