From Salta, we took a
7-hour overnight bus to the Argentina/Bolivia border town of La Quiaca, with
two other couples from Australia and France that we met along the way. Once we
got our visas and passed through immigration, we took another 2 hour bus ride
to Tupiza, Bolivia
.
We arrived on a
special day in Tupiza because there was a parade celebrating the Dia del Mar or
“Day of the Ocean”. That’s funny, we thought, because Bolivia doesn’t even
border an ocean. It turns out that they were celebrating the day that Bolivia
lost the war against Chile, which in turn, cost them their ocean border. I’ve
never heard of a parade for losing a
war.
The Tupizans were out in full force and the parade route was packed 3-5
people deep. It’s a good thing that Bolivians are, by nature, extremely short
people. Steve was at least a foot and a half above everyone else in the crowd.
Tupiza was the starting
point for our 4-day four-wheeling tour through the Bolivian countryside,
culminating with Salar de Uyuni – the world’s largest salt flats.
Day 1
It was time for
introductions. Gemma and Dave are best friends from the UK who have been traveling
around South America for three and a half months. Tours are booked with 4
passengers, and we were incredibly lucky to be paired up with these guys. They
are super laid back and easy to talk to. After 4 days in a car together, we
became fast friends.
Milton was our
28-year old driver and guide. He’s a Tupiza native and has been touring people
to Uyuni for 10 years. He speaks very good English and has an impressive
collection of American pop hits from the 80s and 90s. There were 3 trucks in our
convoy…Milton’s brother and cousin were the other two drivers.
Natalia was our cook
extraordinaire. When not preparing meals with the two other cooks, she sat in
the back of the truck knitting, chewing on coco leaves, or napping. She’s a
very sweet lady.
And last but not
least, our trusty Toyota Land Cruiser.
These trucks were comical. Ours had
about 300,000 rigorous kilometers on it. The drivers were constantly checking
the suspension, engine and tires. The windshield wipers didn’t work. The locks
froze overnight. To get the windows up, we had to pull up on the glass with our
hands at the same time as pressing the button. One morning we saw one of the
drivers pumping up his truck’s tires with a bike pump.
From Tupiza we
traveled about 7.5 hours over 200 kilometers. First we stopped at Quebrada de
Palala to view the needle-like red rock formations.
From there we entered
El Sillar or “Valley of the Moon” where erosion has caused the countryside to
look like a lunar landscape. This is llama farming country. The llamas are
farmed for their wool and their meat, and to our surprise, were wearing
colorful tassels on their ears. When we asked Milton what the tassels were for,
his very matter-of-fact answer was, “fashion”.
Along the drive we passed
through several tiny llama farming villages of no more than 200 people, and eventually
arrived at the village where we would spend the night. At 13,780 feet, San
Antonio de Lipez sits at the base of Volcano Uturuncu.
We had time to hike up
the hillside and play with some of the local children before our dinner of hot
vegetable soup, Bolivian meatloaf and mashed potatoes.
After dinner, a local
10-year old boy sang us a couple of traditional Bolivian songs. He was
cute, but his guitar was so incredibly out of tune that it was terribly hard to keep a
straight face.
Milton came in to deliver the bad news that our call-time for
the next morning would be 4:45am. We were in bed by 8:00pm on a mattress made
of hay and under a heap of thick wool blanks that felt like they weighed 15
pounds.
Day 2
Over 10 hours, we
covered 300 kilometers. We started out in the morning while it was still dark
and got to a silver ghost mining town right as the sun was rising. This tiny
town used to have 27 churches because people would change partners frequently and
get married every few days.
After a long drive
through arid boring land, we entered a national park and arrived at Kollpa
Laguna where we swam in the natural hot springs with a stunning view.
After lunch we drove
to Laguna Verde, where the water is naturally colored by the high concentration
of arsenic and magnesium. The mountain in the background is so close to the conditions on Mars that NASA uses it as training grounds.
The next stop was in
a geothermic area called Sol de Manana or “Sun of Tomorrow”, where we were free
to roam around the geysers and bubbling mud.
This was the highest either of us have ever been – 5,000 meters or 16,404 feet. To give you some perspective, the highest mountain we’ve ever hiked in Colorado was 14,440 feet. Milton and the Land Cruiser did all the work to get us there, but we were out of breath even walking around or bending down to take a picture.
We ended the day with
Laguna Colorda, where algae make the water red and there are islands of ice and
borax. 20,000 flamingos call this lagoon home, and Steve even spotted an egg on
the shore.
We ended the night at
our little village trading music with Milton.
Day 3
We “slept in” until
6:00am and our first stop was Deserti de Siloli to play around on rock
formations that have been shaped by the strong winds in this area. The most
famous rock is Arbol de Piedra or “Stone
Tree”, which is predicted to topple within the next 500 years.
Much of the morning
was spent driving through the desert to visit more lagoons. There were several
times when it felt like we were in a real life car commercial. Then it was onto
Valley of the Rocks.
In the afternoon we
drove past fields of bright red, yellow, and green quinoa farms. We ended the day at
Uyuni’s Train Graveyard.
Day 4
Another early
morning, but it was worth it for the grand finale. We arrived at the Salar de
Uyuni in time for sunrise.
The Salar sits at approximately 11,480 feet above
sea level and is the world’s largest salt flat covering 12,000 square
kilometers. The salt is 33 feet thick and feels like crunchy snow when you walk
on it.
At the entrance of
the Salar, there are square plots of salt that families own and mine.
This area is mined not only for salt but also for lithium. In fact, this is the world’s largest concentration of lithium. As the demand for lithium in batteries continues to grow, we wonder (and worry) about how the increased income will affect this area.
This area is mined not only for salt but also for lithium. In fact, this is the world’s largest concentration of lithium. As the demand for lithium in batteries continues to grow, we wonder (and worry) about how the increased income will affect this area.
After sunrise we had breakfast at a hotel made entirely of salt bricks…even the tables and chairs. Then it was off to play in the white stuff.
One of my favorite posts so far. I love the pictures! The one of the Flamingo egg with all those different colors is amazing. And now I really want to play around with our camera and do the fun things you did in the last pictures. Looks like a blast you guys!
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