Uyuni tour, Bolivia

Day 52

Today is our first day of our tour from San Pedro de Atacama, Chile, into Bolivia to a town called Uyuni. The tour takes you through some amazing scenery including the world famous Salar de Uyuni. We woke up at the crack of dawn very excited but also nervous for a couple of reasons; 1. We will be at an altitude over 5000m on some days which we have not experienced yet so we may get altitude sickness; and 2. Some tour drivers have been known to drink and drive on the job. I think this behaviour is being dried out these days but from reading reviews from 5-10 years ago it seemed very common. In preparation for the high altitudes we have been having a few mugs of coca tea each day and also bought some coca leaves to chew on – just like the locals 😉

Nonetheless we were picked up at 6:30am from our hostel by a minibus alongside 2 French & 2 Belgian travellers. They are around our age and very nice, this is our tour group for the next 3 days so we are greatful to have good company so far!

We arrived at the Chile-Bolivia border crossing and had some breakfast with a view of some big volcanoes. The border crossing is at 4500m altitude and we were feeling the effects just standing around. We got our passports stamped no problem and were greeted by our driver in a 4×4 land cruiser. His name is Philemon and he speaks a bit of English which is helpful! He also doesn’t smell of alcohol which also relaxed our nerves a bit. Although, the Belgians & the French can all speak Spanish, we were the only people who couldn’t understand which is a bit funny. Silly Australian tourists.

We got driving down the bumpy dirt road and for the morning we stopped at some nice Laguna’s which were very shallow so they mirrored the mountains in the background. These Laguna’s were called Laguna Blanca and Laguna Verde. We also had a short stop at the Dali Desert. We got a taste of Bolivian music which our driver played, but he often changed it up with a bit of ‘Slim Shady’ by Eminem.

We then stopped at another laguna for lunch which also had hot springs (water temp was 38 degrees Celsius). Everyone except for me had a swim. From what I am told I missed out!

After lunch we continued on and drove through a desert which had some massive mountains and vast landscapes. We were finding it hard to take in all the views, the scenery is so big. We also stopped in at some Geyser’s – the smell reminded us off Iceland!

We stopped in at Laguna Colorado which had a lot of flamingo’s just going about their business. We looked around here for about an hour – flamingo’s are funny looking creatures.

We stopped driving at around 6:30pm and checked into our hostel at a little town called Villa Mar. We had some dinner, and we later found out the beef was Llama. It tasted like normal beef to me! The Belgian guy, named Axel is feeling very sick and didn’t eat any dinner, he was given oxygen just before bed for the altitude. The French couple were also feeling a little bit headachey. Ellen & I felt perfect! Iron heads and stomaches from our country youth maybe?

Day 53

Ellen & I slept well last night even though there was loud music being played until around 5am. I was joking with our tour group in the morning that is was probably our driver, Philemon having a party. We all laughed at my funny joke, because I am seriously so funny. Anyway – we had breakfast & packed up ready to leave at 9am as instructed by Philemon, but he was nowhere to be seen! It got to around 9:40am before we finally saw him and he wasn’t as talkative as yesterday and was a bit slow! The French couple said to him “Mucha Fiesta (big party?)” as a joke because we wanted to know who was playing the music. He got very embarrassed, because as it turns out, it was him and the other drivers!

We continued on, even though Philemon wasn’t feeling too flash and saw some really cool volcanic rocks (Ellen loves rocks) and a valley that is like the grand canyon’s love child.

We then went and had some lunch at an awesome green valley, with a black lagoon surrounded by rocks with Llamas everywhere (Black Lagoon). So much scenery, it is almost too much to take in.

After lunch, our driver apologised a lot for his party last night. He said it was his birthday yesterday so he had a few drinks. To make up for it he said he has a surprise for us, tomorrow he is going to take us through the normal route in the salt flats and he said we will be the first one for the season! The normal route is closed between the months of January-March because it is the wet season and the salt is flooded. However, he thinks it is safe enough to give it a try. He convinced us it was safe so we all 100% agreed to do it! We would then avoid the huge number of land cruisers going the same route as us.

 

For the afternoon we drove through mountainous landscapes towards the eastern side of the salt flat. We saw a canyon our driver referred to as the Anaconda or snake and also had a short photoshoot in a quinoa field – who knew these could be so beautiful. I don’t think quinoa crops need much water! They are up so high and often the crops are on the side of mountains.

The rest of the tour groups de-toured to Uyuni (on the eastern side of the salt flat) as they must enter and exit from the east side of the flat only the next day. We continued to the western side and had a stopover in a little random town, Ellen & I tried Coca beer. Which is the Coca leaves somehow mixed into a beer. It was ok – I wouldn’t do it again though, it had a very thick taste!

We arrived at our hotel for the night, and man! It was so fancy! Philemon must feel really bad because this place would cost him a bit extra than the cheap hostels we paid for! The entire hotel was made out of salt bricks which was really cool, and we all got our own rooms and showers! Stoked – I think he really doesn’t want us to give him a bad review. But I mean, we can’t blame a guy for having a party on his birthday!

We had some dinner and headed to bed early. Philemon was in bed just after we arrived at the hotel at 6:30pm. He was very tired after his 5am 38th birthday party!

Day 54

We awoke at 4am to leave at 4:30am to arrive on the Salt flat for sunrise. It was around a 2 hour drive to the middle. It was a pretty edgy feeling, being the first group of the season to cross this section of the salt flat. The first point we entered from the road we were driving in around about a foot of water which was sitting above the firm salt plane. Because it was still dark it was like we were in a boat! So much water. The further we drove to the middle the shallower the water got and we finally stopped at a location with about 1cm of water above the salt plane.

We all got out and waited for the sunrise. I was the only dummy in thongs, my feet were freezing! I mistook the salt for sand, I thought it was a beach! The French & Belgians loved it, I think I painted the perfect Australian character for them. Like who the hell wears thongs and short shorts in 4 degree temperature and freezing cold salt water.

But wow, when the light started coming up, the water over the salt acted like a mirror and reflected it. This morning was one of the most amazing things we have both experienced. The silence, the splashing of the water under our feet & the gigantic mirror sunrise. Just amazing! It still hasn’t sunk in for me, I think I need to see it again.

After the sun came up we drove on a little bit with the water still getting shallower, and the car broke down! Oh well – it was time for breakfast anyway. While Philemon fixed the car we had some breaky (cake yum lol) and took some more photos. I think car breakdowns happen regularly, we were up and going again within an hour. It was a faulty wire due to the salt.

We continued on and arrived at a super flat salt plane with no water. Here Philemon showed us what 20 years experience of salt plane tour driving gives… fantastic photo taking skills! Some snippets below, also an awesome 1 minute movie – it was very fun. We mucked around here for an hour or so.

We continued on to a Salt mine, they do not export any of the salt internationally. Philemon couldn’t tell us why. However there is Lithium mines on the plane which export to China!

After this we exited the salt plane and headed into a small village called Colchani to look at some market stalls and then to the town of Uyuni. We were now winding down from our 3 day tour and went to an old train cemetery. It was very random thing to add onto this tour, but we had a wander around all the same. After this we had some lunch and said our goodbyes. Philemon dropped us all off at the airport (for the Belgians), bus station (for the French) and at the hostel (for us). Philemon apologised again for the party but we had a great time and would recommend him to anyone.

We checked into our hostel and had a relax for the afternoon! Tomorrow morning we are heading off to Potosi. Ellen also has a Skype interview for a job in Canada! Exciting!

More photos located here.