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Ok, so we’re back in Bolivia. We’re in Uyuni this time, which has pizza, pool tables, but NOT atms. Here’s how we got here..
Cliched Sunsets and Psychadelic Landscapes
GringoAndGringa2006-02-18 14:52:28
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We shared our jeep with three French-speaking Swiss guys. Turns out I’ve forgotten a lot of French and a lot more has been replaced by Spanish. Even still, we had a good chain of translation going with one of the Swiss guys being able to speak Spanish. The driver would say something in Spanish, which the Swiss guy would say to me in French, and I would then say to Mike in English. “Ya, that’s what he said, we’re sleeping in an igloo!” We saw all the stuff that everyone sees on this tour: white lagoon, green lagoon (from the copper), red lagoon (from the algae), volcanic geysers, other tourists, wild llama things, rabbits with long tails, weird rock formations, old volcanoes, flamingos, colourful mountains, lots of salt.
One of Heavey metals will do that.the neatest things was the Salvador Dali landscape. Apparently the tours pass right by where Dali came to gain inspiration for his paintings. And it really does look just like a Dali painting, so really he was more of a landscape artist with a thing for clocks than a surrealist. Unfortunately our pictures don’t do it justice.
The salt hotel was also pretty neat. The floor is made of ground-up salt, and the main building is made of salt bricks. The tables and chairs are also salt. To my disappointment, the bathrooms are not made salt, but they redeem themselves by having hot showers.
Driving across the road-less desert was pretty fun too, and took on a Mad Max feel when our driver started racing the other tour jeeps to the hostel.
The whole thing went pretty well accept that I got sick (from the tour food of course, you’d think they could give you clean food!) and our driver was drunk starting 8:30am on the third day. Luckily one of the Swiss guys was able to take over the driving. So, I can’t really recommend the tour company (Pamela Tours) even though similar problems are reported for all companies as far as
ok, really they were bubbling puddles of steaming volcanic mud. Refreshingly, no safely barriers.I know. Actually, despite some bad reviews, Colque Tours seemed to have the best guides, food, and jeeps.
During the tour, and keeping in mind the not-so-sober driver and the food that made me sick, we decided to just do three days and stay in Uyuni. We weren’t able to pay for the whole tour in San Pedro, as the only ATM wouldn’t accept my card. The guy at Pamela Tours assured us that there were more ATMs in Uyuni and we could pay the rest once we got there. “Mucho bancos automaticos!” It’s obvious now that that guy had NEVER been to Uyuni, as it’s the middle of nowhere and our ATM search produced only amused Bolivians. I had to get an advance on my visa, which was expensive but thankfully pretty easy.
We have a really nice hostel here (Hostal Marith), clean with laundry sinks and only 3 dollars (20 bolivianos) for a double. It’s nice to be back in Bolivia. Uyuni is a small isolated place, but it seems that enough travellers come through here to keep several pizza and internet places in business, so we won’t be suffering too much while we wait to see if Mike’s glasses
It´s like you're cruising across the arctic tundra (in actuality the world's largest salt flat) and you come upon rocky island covered with cacti. Truly bizzare. They grow 3 cm/year and some are 10 m tall.turn up. *Update* they are lost forever. Damn.
So, we’ll be off again soon either to Potosi (the highest city in the world, in terms of altitude) but also cold and with little oxygen or Salta, Agentina, nice climate and with lots more oxygen. Hard to pass up the opportunity to buy the “highest city in the world” t-shirt though, and there’s an old silver mine there that has historical significance, AND you can buy dynamite in the market. Decisions, decisions….
Bye for now and see you in Argentina,
Kathleen
See photographs from:
Chile Gallery
I have just read with interest your travel stories.
We are a family of 4 from Australia going to soth America for 6 weeks over Christmas 2008. I am trying to work out our route from Puno to Iquique and think it is best to go from La Paz to Iquique via bus.
I read in the lonely planet that you can get an overnight bus, just wondering if you know any more about that, whether they go every night, it they have sleepers and where they depart from
Thank you
Jo Lockyer
Jo Lockyer, 2008-08-03 23:00:22