So back to the bus trip.....
The first 3 hours weren't too bad...I listened to my ipod and maneuvered back and forth trying to find a position where my legs weren't being completely smashed against the front of the bus and I finally managed to doze off for a few hours. The bus didn't have a toilet, reclining bed seats, or leg space....but it definitely had a heater! I woke up drenched and confused. Apparently the heater was right under us and had been releasing it's fury on everyone. Our friend Sarah was sitting behind me and was equally as perturbed. Jonathon, Sara, and I were almost dying when I opened the window to cool us down a bit....until I got yelled at by some old Bolivian guy and the bus driver. I would not sleep again for the remainder of the trip. I was filling sick to my stomach and had one hand over my mouth and one over my butt, trying to make it through the rest of the trip. We finally pulled over in some tiny town in the middle of nowhere to go to the bathroom and grab a bite to eat. I had a moment as I hovered over a little hole in the ground toilet in the middle of the desert in Bolivia....it was one of those moments where things are so bad that you can do nothing but laugh. So I crazily giggled to myself until I felt better, then stepped back onto the bus....but it got worse. We would not see another paved road for the remainder of the trip. Riding for 8 more hours on washboard, dirt and gravel roads in the clunky Bolivian sauna. It was hell. My head ached from my brain bouncing back in forth in my skull and my bum and knees were aching from the uncomfortable position I was forced to sit in. After what seemd like an eternity, the sun started poking through and I saw some hope....my first glimpse of the salt flats. It was the same sensation you get when you approach the ocean....you first see land, then the wide, endless blue horizon starts getting bigger and bigger. It was just like that except we were in the middle of the desert and it was white instead of blue.
We finally pulled into Uyuni and were bombarded by a crowd of tour guides trying to get us to grab papers. Somehow somebody picked a guy and we followed him to his store ''Lipez'' to discuss an excursion to the Salt Flats. He was a pretty nice guy and he set up a 3 day, 2 night trip leaving at 10 30 am for $75 a piece. We discussed over a hearty breakfast and decided to take it. We booked and paid and wandered around the city through the local market, buying random, cheap crap that would break or get lost within the week. The group returned to the shop to pack up our 4 x 4 Toyota Landcruiser and head off on our journey. 7 gringos and Noel, the 40 something Bolivian tour guide, packed into our mobile home for the next 3 days....exactly what I had in mind after that lovely bus trip. The vehicle was fine and Noel was a really nice guy, soft spoken and didn't know a lick of english, but he was just a good person. The first stop was an old railroad track dotted with rotting trains and pieces of metal. These cars had been used to deliver minerals and metals to Chile in the early 1900's, but had been abandoned in the 50's due to its obsolescance. We used it as a grown ups playground, hopping from container to container and crawling in and out of the rooms. The fun had to end and we got back in the car to head towards the largest Salt Flats in the world.
We passed through a little salt mining village and were stopped by some guy who asked our driver for insurance (that's a funny joke in Bolivia). Noel had us get out of the car and walk around as he dealt with the man....he slipped him a 5 bs and we were on our way. We passed through the edge of the Salar de Uyuni and accelerated towards some mini salt pyramids. We stepped out and inspected them as Noel explained the process of extracting the salt and how the salt flats continue to grow each year. I tasted some.....and it was definitely salt. It was spectacular. It looked like we were standing in the middle of Antarctica....except it was 90 degrees out and sunny. 12,000 sq km of pure salt, 30 ft thick, as far as the eye could see. We continued on and stopped at the world famous Salt Hotel. Everything is made of salt....the doors, the bricks, the chairs, the tables, the bed frames.....you get the point. You can't legally stay here anymore, so it has turned into a little museum/tourist stop. We took some of the perspective photos where one person stands close and others stand back to give an illusion of size perspective (please see photos when they are up, because I can't describe). I stomped on miniature Kroopf. We didn't spend much time there before making our way to Fish Island. It was another 1 or 2 hours of full speed driving over the barren salt flats. We pulled up and our cooks starting preparing our lunch as we hiked around the island. It is crazy....the rocky island is in the middle of the salt flats and covered with massive cacti. Some of the cactus are over 1,000 years old and 40 ft high, similar to saguaros, but a little fuzzier. We hiked to the top and took in the views of one of the worlds most impressive natural features. We hustled down to get our much anticipated lunch and rest and take in the warm sun. Our cook was great, she was cooking for a total of 14 people and always made prompt and delicious meals. There was still more driving to be done, so we left the island and passed a few more hours on the salt flats to get to our hostel. The hostel was just outside of the salt flats and was completely made of salt (just like the salt hotel). It was shaped like a huge igloo with rooms on the outside and a big dining area and bar in the center. Our rooms were great and we had electricity for some of the night. We dropped our bags off and drove out to see 2 more sights before the sun set. We arrived at a small set of caves and got a brief tour from the ancient Bolivian man who discovered the caves in 2001 and restored them for tourism purposes. One was a natural wonder.....fossilized corral and seaweed from a period when the entire land was covered cy an ocean. The other was a pre-Incan cemetery full of underground graves, tools, and markings. There weren't any bodies because they had all been looted before they had money to implement any sort of security at the site. It was really cool to speak with the guy and hear all about why he did it and the Bolivian culture that had ppreviously prevented them from restoring the area. He explained to me how their society had always relied on the cultivation of quinua (grain like food that they put in everything) and that the government didn't want to make tourism a big economic driver. Massive periods of drought in 2000-2002 forced the farmers to look for other means of living, hence, the search and restoration of this archeological site. Anyway....we walked throug here and climbed to the top of the cave to watch the sunset over the mountains in the distance, a nice cap to a very long day. We returned to the hotel and ate a great dinner, drank a bottle of Bolivian wine, and played cards for most of the night. We did take the time to step outside and admire the desolate position we were in. It was a full moon and clear sky and the sensation of being in the middle of nowhere in BFE Bolivia was indescribable. We hit the hay early knowing that we had to get up at 7 for another full day of driving.
Day 2 started off with another 2 hour drive to a huge field of fossilized coral. They stood about 3-6 ft high and covered the land like teddy bear cactus in the AZ desert. We then took off in search of a few lagoons in the middle of the desert. We made a few stops along the way including an active volcano and the lava fields that it had formed, a railroad track where we had a rock throwing contest because our other group got a flat tire, and a hike through the high desert to meet up with Noel as he drove through horrible terrain. I was surprised at how much wildlife thrived in the area. We saw picunas, which are a cross between a deer and a llama, small rabbit like things that had longer tails and kangaroo faces, foxes, birds, and lizards. Apparently they have mountain lions and andean cats as well, but they are much more difficult to spot. We continued driving until we reached the green lake where we set up for lunch and were given 15 minutes to explore around. I never thought I would see a clear blue lake in the middle of a 13,000 ft desert.....let alone one that was filled with hundreds of pink flamingos. They were everywhere....moping around, eating micro organisms in the water. The lagoon was huge, but only reached about 2 inches in depth, so you would see flamingos walking around in the middle of the lake. The mountains, lagoon, and flamingos made for some great picture taking. We finally left and headed towards the red lagoon, with a quick stop at the ''rock tree''. We drove through miles and miles of mars-like red desert until we came upon a small forest of giant rocks. We climbed up the big ones and looked down at the widely photographed rock tree, a giant rock formation shaped as a tree in the middle of nowhere. The day was winding down and we quickly got back in the car to head to our hostel. We drove by the red lagoon and got out for more photos. The lake is 4 times bigger than the previous one and is home to over 38,000 flamingos. It has a deep red tint caused by wind stirring up red microorganisms in the water. Again, amazing scenery, but by this time we just wanted to get out of the car....it was another 20 mnute drive to our hostel. It smelled like poop because they didn't have real toilets, but the rooms weren't bad.....just 7 beds lined up in a small room. It was absolutely freezing there, so we all bundled up in our sleeping bags to make it through the night.
The next morning was the worst, with a 4 30 am wake up call to go see the steam geisers do their job. We drove through more barren, red rock landscape until we reached the open air steam room. The active earth and the rising sun were a good combination. We walked up to the bubbling sulfur and snapped shots of our shadows in the steam, but the cold was unbearable, so we didn't spend much time there. The next stop was the natural hot spring, but only 2 of us got in there....everyone else was a weeny about the cold. The hot spring was amazing, not sanitary, but amazing. It was filled with stinky travelers (like myself) that had not showered in days. It was relaxing and rejuvenating and it warmed up sufficiently by the time we got out. We then had breakfast and got in the car for our last sight. We drove another 45 minutes, passed Dali Monument Valley (a group of brontosaurus sized rocks in the middle of the mountainous desert) on to the Green Lake. The tint of the lake was a perfect turquoise blue and was surrounded by dormant volcanoes. We had reached the corner of Bolivia, Chile, and Argentina and gazed out at the similar lands. The other half of the group got out here to cross the border into northern Chile and we turned back for the 6 hour drive back to Uyuni.....sweet. The drive was pretty uneventful and I was very ready to get out of the vehicle when we got there. We then hopped on a 9 hour night train to the border of Bolivia and Argentina. It took 2 hours to cross the border and we got a mini-van to drive all 10 of us to Salta (another 5 hours) before finally ending the trip. I am tired just writing about this....
All in all, Bolivia was amazing. I was pleasantly surprised by the kindness of the people, the beauty and diversity of the land, and the deliciousness and cheapness of the food. However, it will be nice to be back in a developed country with paved roads and toilets that flush....
Gotta go check out Iguazu falls right now...I will be writing about how awesome Argentina is shortly.
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