The Salars in south western Bolivia - truly amazing!
Just to give some contrast to our Bolivian experience, we flew out of the Amazon on Friday, spent the day in La Paz and then caught the overnight bus, straight to Uyuni; a small town sitting at an altitude of 3,600 metres with not really much going on, however on the edge of the amazing Salars, or salt plains. The sights, as well as the 3,000m+ change in altitude, does tend to take one's breath away!The major reason why travellers come to this area are the Salars - remnants of an ancient lake, Lago Minchin, that dried up about 10,000 years ago, leaving enormous salt plains that cover an area in excess of 12,000 square kilometres. The salt can be over 8 metres thick in places and it is growing, as every wet season floods the plains, that then evaporate in the dry season and deposit more salt and minerals.
We got into Uyuni early in the morning and immediately met up with our tour group, consisting of a german couple Dennis and Melanie, and a danish/english couple, Kat and Jack.
Our tour group (L to R): Dennis, Mel, Steph, Me, Jack and Kat
Our guide, Freddie, turned up about two hours late in the very dodgy white Toyota Land Cruiser (1980 model?) that was going to be our main travelling companion over the next three days as we explored the Salars and the surrounding countryside (Sandra Tours in Uyuni - we definitely DON'T recommend them).
After a brief stop by the "train cemetery" on the outskirts of town (includes some of the original rusting locomotives first used in Bolivia) we headed straight out onto the salt plains, which are truly amazing spectacles!
Some of the original trains used in Bolivia... the current ones are in worse shape!
The Salt plains - when the salt dries, it leaves these perfect hexagon patterns!
Springs bubbling up through the salt
Steph with some of the kids from a village in the Salar
We had a quick look around and then arrived at "La Isla des Pescadores" or "The island of the Fishes" - I think that it's named after its shape as there haven't been fish here since dinosaurs roamed the planet! Instead, there were loads of 4WDs and tour groups as this is the regular stopping point (with restrooms, food and drink) for crossing the Salar.
The train line that runs through the Salar...
One of the key photo opps on the salt plains is, due to the completely flat and unifom nature of the landscape, its possible to take some "perspective bending" photos.
Clowning around...
http://edwellard.blogspot.com/2008/04/salar-de-uyuni-salty.html
The silver lining on leaving Uyuni late was being able to convice Freddie, our unusually silent tour guide, that we should wait to see the sunset over the Salar - not usually seen by most groups. The colours in the sky ranged from the light pinks to deep indigos, and we also got to see the moon rise over the opposite horizon.
The sun setting...
...and the moon rising.
We then had an interesting night trip across the salt plain and surrounding area (I was convinced that Freddie was driving half by luck) to get to San Pedro where we were staying for the night - Freddie sounded just a little bit too excited when he announced the town was approaching. Our accommodations were in a hotel made entirely from salt: the walls, the floor and the furniture!
The night time entertainment!
The bricks that they literally cut out of the salar to build dwellings.
The next day, we set out to see rocks and lakes...but not just any rocks and lakes! The rocks here have really unusual and amazing shapes, carved by the winds. The lakes, in turn, have large amounts of different minerals and algae in them, that make them all pretty vibrant colours. There is Laguna Colorado, a strong red-rust colour and we would visit other lakes along the way.
Some of the cool rocks, shaped by the wind
The Laguna Colorado - the colour is caused by algae in the water. The pink dots in the foreground are flamingos.
The other prime feature are the flamingos, that feed on the insects that live in these high altitude lakes. There are three main types; the Andino, Chileno and rare James Flamingo.
Andino Flamingos, feeding on the insects in the lagoon
We stayed that night in a ramshackle accommodations over looking Laguna Colorado, where there was no insulation and, as we had climbed in altitude to about 4,500 metres - it was BLOODY cold. We all went to bed fully clothed, with hats and sleeping bags and as many blankets as we could find!We woke up the next day before sunrise, around 4am, to see the "Geyser basin" at an altitude of 4,950m - apparently the geysers are more visible and active at this time then at any other time during the day.
They were amazingly strong and the geysers of steam were clearly visible as the hot steam hit the sub-zero temperatures of the atmosphere.
As the sun came up, we stopped by some hot water springs for breakfast and I took the chance to warm up my freezing hands and feet - bliss!
We stopped by "Laguna Verde" which was looking decidely un-green today, due to the fact it was calm. Apparently, to see the green colouring in the water, it needs to be a bit choppy which stirs up the minerals. Instead, we got to take some good photos of the mountains reflected in the lake's surface.
We said farewell to Dennis and Mel at the Chilean border, as they were heading across to San Pedro de Atacama, and the rest of us started the long, 8 hour drive back to Uyuni.
At the Chilean-Bolivian border. Some of the lads - jokingly on the "Bus to San Pedro"
The ride back to Uyuni from the border was relatively uneventful, our Land Cruiser conked out a couple of times, but we were getting used to that. Freddie, the Unusually Silent Tour Guide, took the time to stop and point out some interesting rocks on the journey, but told us absolutely nothing about them - however the fortunate thing about the salars and countryside surrounding Uyuni is that the strangeness and beauty of it generally speaks for itself.
After our long day on the road, we pulled into Uyuni around 6:00pm, plenty of time to grab something to eat and then make our 8:00pm bus back to La Paz.
We holed up that night with Kat and Jack at Minuteman Pizza in Uyuni (we definitely DO recommend them - best pizza in Bolivia) and reflected on the amazing sights that we had just seen. We then said a fond farewell and Steph and I jumped on the overnight bus back to La Paz. By the time we arrived at La Paz (completing more than 20 hours on transport within a 24 hour period) we were greeted by the amazing view of sunrise over La Paz.
Sunrise over La Paz, nestled in a valley at 3,600m - the world's highest capital.
A stylised statue of Pachamama - the Incan earth goddess
Steph and I settled back into "The Adventure Brew Hostel", which felt like our home away from home, having stayed there three times during our month in Bolivia. As a side note, the day we arrived back in La Paz we heard that the company we had ridden the World's Most Dangerous Road with, Gravity Assisted Mountain Biking, had its first fatality in the history of the company that week. Later the same week, there were another 8 fatalities when an SUV went off the edge, taking a mountain biker with them...
Grim tidings aside, our last days in La Paz were marked with beers in the upstairs bar of our hostel, blogging, saltenas for lunch (for the princely sum of USD1.50...for both of us) and the biggest steak and egg sandwich you've ever seen. We also sent off our third package home which, at 7.5kgs (included our spanish books), literally took a load off our backs. We then took off on the morning of the 24th for the second great stage of our journey, Morocco and the Middle East, kicking off with a long weekend in London.
Doing some blogging on our PC in the pub
Steak and egg sandwich, less than US$3.00 - sensational!
Bolivia is a truly amazing country: huge contrasts in landscape and geography, fantastic people and retaining most of its indigeneous culture. We had a fantastic time there, met some great people travelling and it was amazing to reflect on how easy going and happy the locals are here, despite the poverty and significant challenges facing the country.If anyone is making a visit to South America, Bolivia is a "must-do"- we loved it!
