Salar de Uyuni--tour

Alright peoples, so here it comes... this will be long, so brace yourselves... I'll try to summarize as much as I can...

Day 1- Tupiza to San Antonio de Lipez

We got up early and had a pretty decent breakfast, bought a couple of last minute things, and met our travel companions, Angie and Matt, a really nice Canadian couple.

Our jeep driver, Rafael and our cook (yep, our own cook!) Margarita seemed also very nice... so we were happy and excited to start the tour.

Tupiza is at an altitude of 2950m above sea level, which is really not bad... but then we started to go uphill... and uphill... and uphill...

I forgot the name of most of the places we passed through that first day, we crossed deserts, a couple of little villages, a gold mine (serious, apparently in the rainy season it's possible to find Gold along the streams!!!) and lots and lots of llamas... (which eventually would become dinner!)

Finally, we arrived at San Antonio de Lipez, the little village at 4200m, where we were going to spend the night. Margarita, who had done miracles at lunch, again surprised us with a little coffee break before dinner, and gave us this tea of some local herb called Pupuna, which is supposed to help with the altitude. We'll see...

We tried to go for a walk and take a few pictures before the sun went down, but at that altitude, we couldn't really walk very fast! It really was an effort to catch your breath, and the worse part is that some kids around were playing basketball!!!

The temperature went down with the sun, and if it weren't for the nice hot soup that Margarita had for our dinner, we would've died! But the stars though.... and the milky way.... just breath taking!

Then it's bed-time, and we piled lots of blankets on top of ourselves to try and keep warm. That was a terrible night though. We weren't cold, but none of us could sleep... It was really an effort to breathe, and the lack of oxygen to our brains resulted in a pretty bad headache (which prevented us from sleeping and probably caused some brain damage as well... hehe... there, now I have an excuse!)

1250m of difference from Tupiza at 2950m to San Antonio de Lipez at 4200m is a heck of a lot! But we survived... barely...


Day 2-- San Antonio de Lipez to Laguna Colorada

We got up really early, at 5:30am because we were supposed to leave at 6am to see the sunset at this little village...

BUT--- the jeep was not cooperating. It just wouldn't start. Damn cold! So Rafael starts taking things apart and doing what he could while we crawled back under the covers to try and keep warm. We hadn't turned off the ligths, so the two boys started a competition trying to throw shoes at the light-switch to turn it off... unsuccessfully however... so the light stayed on.

At around 8am, Rafael produced a miracle and the jeep started. We jumped from our beds and in minutes, we were on our way, trying to make up for the lost time.

In about 45 minutes, we reached at this Ghost Town, or Mundo Nuevo, an old Spanish settlement from the 16th century, when the Spaniards reached that part of Bolivia. I kept wondering how the heck they made it here, since today, 5 centuries later, it was still pretty damn hard to get there! But anyway, the Spaniards managed to get there and bring the plague with them, which eventually killed everybody, natives and spaniards alike. They left behind the Ghost Town, where, rumor has it, there are treasures buried, because the families never made it out. Today, the tow belongs to the "biscachas," these funny rabbit-looking creatures, with small ears and a tail.

Well, on we go, for there are many things yet to see. We spent the day crossing deserts and finding colorful lagoons, mountains, hot springs, geysers, etc.

At lunch, we stopped at the hot springs, and that was incredible! The plae was a little sheltered from the wind, and the water was deliciously hot, so we juped straight in and felt warm for the first time since the beginning of the trip. We couldn't stay long however, because according to Rafael, the hot springs dehydrate us, and that would make the altitude headaches worse. We really didn't want that.....

So we got out of the pool and air dried, the sun was really hitting hard and it was great! Lunch, once again was delicious.... Margarita was wonderful, and always made food for an army!

From there we kept going to the different lagoons, Laguna Blanca, Laguna Verde, Laguna Colorada... My favorite was Laguna Verde... it was gorgeous! Too bad it was really windy and terribly cold. Funny thing though= the lagoon is green because it has a high concentration of Arsenic! So we didn't get very close...

We crossed the Dali Desert, which gained its name due to the crazy rock formations which resemble a Dali painting. By this point, we were going along the Chile/Bolivia border.

Eventually, we got up to 5,000m above sea level, to see "El Sol de Manana" which I really have no idea why it has that name. Those were the geysers, bubbling greyish color water and steam coming up from the earth, smelling of sulfur. This whole area has a bit of volcanic activity, and most of the mountains/rock formations are of volcanic origin.

Finally, we arrived at Laguna Colorada, home of 25,000 flamingos, but there were only a few left, because they're already migrating north, running away from the cold. The lagoon is red because of the microplancton in it, which also explains the presence of the Flamingos and their red color. The lagoon is at 4270m, but sheltered from the wind by the mountain on top of which is our hotel for the night.

Yep, you got that right... The view was great, but the wind and cold at 4300+ meters was unbearable!

We slept with all our clothes on and 7 blankets (count them, 7!) on top of ourselves. The night was a little better than the night before though... They say it takes a couple of days to get used to the altitude, and I think the Pupuna tea was also helping a little...

Day 3-- Laguna Colorada to Salar de Uyuni

When we got up in the morning, the sun was barely rising. It was so freaking cold, we really didn't want to get out of bed...

Eventually we understood why we were so cold though.... apparently, during the night, temperatures had gone as low as -25 degrees Celsius (that's about -30 Farenheit!!!) Seriously!!! So at least we knew we weren't being wusses, and it really was that cold!

But the jeep cooperated this time, and with the sun coming through the windwos, it was almost warm.

Detail= a water bottle we had left in the back seat was frozen solid...

The first stop of the day was El Arbol de Piedra, a funny-looking rock formation that looks like a tree. Interesting though, this is the middle of nowhere, with miles of empty dust and desert as far as the eye can see, and someone managed to put a big Parking sign there... just to show us where to park... seriously??? Seriously!

From there we continued on, desert, lagoon, desert, mountain... it's hard to describe it, and the pictures wouldn't make it justice, but we're talking about spectacular landscapes and beautiful empty spaces... things that you'd never really get to see, and here I am, in the middle of nowhere, in this 4x4 jeep, crossing the deserts of Bolivia... feasting my eyes with the beauty of this place. In one word: Amazing.

We stopped for lunch at these volcanic rock formations from where we could see Volcano Ollague, at 5865m. It's actually considered an active volcano because it's constantly sputting up smoke. It's also a natural border between Chile and Bolivia.

After lunch, we crossed a small Salar called Chiguana, and made our way to our accomodation for the night... We had to get there early because this place was very popular, for a couple of reasons: 1st, it had a SHOWER with HOT WATER! That might not be all that exciting to you, but it certainly was for us, after 3 days of eating and breathing dust!

The second reason is more interesting though: the place was entirely made out of SALT! Bricks of salt made walls, floor, steps, tables, seats, beds, everything! Even the decorations were made of salt, with "salticles" (think of icycles) hanging from the ceiling. It was pretty cool! The only downside is that everything you touch turns white...

Oh, and since it was a little high up, we had some awesome views of the Salar de Uyuni, the star of the tour, which we would see upclose the next morning...


Day 4-- Salar de Uyuni

We got up at 6am, and by 6:15 we're already on the road. Breakfast will be at the Island of Fish, in the middle of the Salar. We're leaving early because we want to see the sunrise on the Salar...

At the middle of the salar, the sun starts to rise, and we stop the jeep and start taking pictures like mad people. Luckly, Matt and Angie are just as fanatics as we are, so out we go with our tripods and cameras, in the freezing cold but very incredible and beautiful Salar de Uyuni, which has a total surface of 12,000 square kilometers, and at some points, as deep as 50m! That's a whole lot of salt!!!

Rafael told us that the bricks of salt used in constructions are basically carved out manually with axes and such. That's just insane!!! They also exploit the salt commercially, and remove about 20,000 tons of salt per year!

After the sun was up and our fingers and toes were just about to fall off, we got back on the jeep and made our way to Isla del Pescado.

From there we can go up, and up, and up... (this is a like half the Saleve, but at a slightly higher altitude, which means I made it to the top almost puking my lungs out!!!) but the view from the top is well worth it. This is an island, but instead of being surrounded by water, it's surrounded by salt. And completely covered by cactii. They say cactus grows at a rate of 1cm per year, and the oldest cactus on the island died last year, at 12m, which would make it 1,200 years old!

We went down and Margarita again surpassed herself with an amazing breakfast of cereal, yogurt, cake, dulce de leche and coffee. We really ate very, very well on this trip, and it seemed every 5 minutes she had something else for us to eat... incredible! :)

After another picture session, where the Choo-Choo Shoe was re-created (if you don't know it, go find out!) we got on our way again, and crossed the 40km of Salar, to this little village called Puerto Chuvica, where we walked around, bought a couple of handicrafts (I got alpaca gloves and socks...!) and Margarita served us our last meal of the tour, a delicious lunch!

Then we made our way to the town of Uyuni proper, where we finished our tour, and where we would stay until 8pm to wait for our bus to La Paz...

So that's it, that was the 4-days/3 nights tour of the Salar de Uyuni. Sorry it's long, but I could've said SOOO much more about it! Despite the cold and dust, this was an amazing trip, and I really recommend it to anyone who wants an adventure! :)

Pictures...

Hey peoples...

I have to do the whole post on the Salar tour, and that's going to take a while... so I thought I'd just post a couple of pictures to give you an idea...

Right now I'm in Peru, just crossed the border this morning, after spending a comatose day/night in Copacabana... I slept close to 12hrs... serious!! It was nice to have a big comfortable bed, and not have to have 7 blankets to keep warm... :)

Alright, pictures!



Crossing the border into Bolivia... if you look carefully, there's a Bolivian flag on the background... but we were running so as to catch the train, and the guidebook had said several times "no pictures allowed at border control areas" so we thought it safer to avoid them...



That's Laguna Verde, in the middle of the desert, almost on the border with Chile... altitude? Somewhere around 4100m I think... cold and hard to breathe, but beautiful nonetheless...



Sunrise on the Salt Flats.... it was freaking cold (yep, it was cold during the whole tour!!) but it was really beautiful!!! :)

Alright, that's all for the moment.... I'll get my act together and write about the whole tour day-by-day before I have too much more to write and it gets hard to catch up... Tomorrow we're already going on another 2-day tour, to some islands on Lake Titicaca... :)

Spur-of-the moment...

So I don't need to remind you people that I'm crazy, but I thought I'd start with that anyway... :)

I have a friend from Greece who had been living in Buenos Aires for like a year and a half, but recently went back to Greece for a month and was passing through Buenos Aires again just to catch a bus because he's going to travel through South America and stay in Colombia for a couple of months...

Well, he was only going to be in town for a day, so we met Monday night just to catch up a bit, before he left at 10am Tuesday morning. We started to talk, and eventually, without me knowing exactly how it happened, I was on board to go on the trip with him, at least until I ran out of money... Keep in mind that this is Monday at like 11pm, and the bus leaves at 10am the next day. So I go home, start calling people, start packing, write a letter to my roommates and leave rent for the next month, and try to sleep (although that didn't work very well).

Next morning, 8am I'm out the door, because I still have to try to change money and buy a ticket... to the bus that will take me from Buenos Aires to the town of La Quiaca, on the border with Bolivia, some 29hrs later. No joke.

When I actually get in the bus, his jaw dropped... he just couldn't believe that I was really there. I was. I'm just that crazy... :) and translation is great because it's an online based job, you can do it from anywhere... so it´s all good.

Here I am, 6 days later, after just finishing a tour of the Salar de Uyuni. I'll have to write about that on the next blog, especially because I just realized that I forgot my little journal thing at the last hotel... a salt hotel... meaning, a building completely made of salt bricks... unbelievable!! Pictures later...

Anyway, we're here in Uyuni until tonight, where we take an overnight bus to La Paz, and from there try to get on another bus to Copacabana... nope, not the beach in Rio... it's actually a little town on the shores of Lake Titicaca... and after that, it's all up in the air.

So to sum it all up, I'm crazy, but it's always been a bit embarassing that I've travelled all over and haven't seen much of my own back yard (meaning South America). This was a crazy decision, one that I didn't really think over, even because I didn't have much time, but sometimes opportunities knock and you just have to grab them! That's what I did, and so far, it couldn't have been any better... :)


Yes, I'm crazy... but you already knew that...

So stay tuned for the next episodes of crazy South American trip!