Recovering from another overnight bus in a hotel in La Paz. We caught another semi-cama with the Trans Turistico Omar bus company. It was decent enough and I was able to sleep. The only problems were that we were constantly stopping to let people off and on (I swear sometimes it was at a random restaurant or street corner) and there weren't enough seats (there was a man sleeping in the aisle at one point). Yet, nothing was stolen and we made it in less than 12 hrs. A+ bus ride.
So where have I been for the last week?
Here's where I've been.
Unlike a lot of travelers, we decided to start our tour from the city of Tupiza. It tends to be a little more expensive and, unlike leaving from the city of Uyuni, you have to do a 3-day trip or more (it's farther away) but it was a fantastic decision.
For the last few months we've been warned that we should expect our tour jeep driver to be drunk throughout the trip. For example, we've heard stories of people having to drive because their drivers were to drunk. Thankfully (for us), alcoholic drivers seem to come out of Uyuni and not Tupiza. Not only was our driver not drunk, but the tours out of Tupiza have less people per jeep,fewer cars following the same path, and (in my opinion) better cars. On our first (and only day) in Tupiza we spent the day talking to different tour agencies to find out prices, type of jeep, accommodation, etc. We ended up booking 5 days with Tupiza Tours. Not many people book that many days but we all knew each other (4 people in a jeep and we already knew we could tolerate each other) and we wanted to hike a volcano.
Our first day was really fun and definitely different. We met out driver and cook (that's right, we had a cook and she was amazing). They didn't speak any English and were really nice. We found out that they've been partners for tours for 2 years and the driver (finally) won her over to date 6 months ago. Adorable. As I understand minimal Spanish, and Simon speaks fluent Spanish, Simon acted as translator for most of the trip.
A lot of time during the 5 days was spent driving from Tupiza to Solar de Uyuni to Uyuni. Although the views were incredible, there's not much to say about a lot of the hours spent in the car. We talked, sang, danced in our seats and slept (a lot).
But the other stuff!
Day 1: Saw the Sillar mountain range, walked around ruins from an old Spanish settlement (learned that they had African slaves that they had brought to work in the town but they kept dying because they couldn't adjust to the altitude), stopped in a small village to eat lunch (and hung out with a baby llama), drove by Ulturunca volcano, saw llamas with more llamas with a side of llamas, saw Ostriches and Vicuñas (look like a cross between llama and deer), and had our jeep break down. The jeep breakdown was hilarious and fun. We rocked out to music, tested how altitude affects breathing by running sprints, and just hung out in nature for an hour and a half. Good times were had by all.
Day 2: So many lagoons. Lagoon Hedionda Sur, a bunch of other pretty lagoons, relaxing in a hot spring, Laguna verde, lunch at Laguna Blanca (white due to minerals) with Licancabur Volcano in the backdrop, jumping pictures in the Dali Desert (so named because it reminded the explorers who named it of Dali's paintings),geysers, and Laguna Colorada (the pink lagoon! It was pink!)
Lagoon Colorada. Someone else made that swirl. My camera makes the water look orange.
Day 3: We convinced our driver to start the day 30 minutes early so we could be the first car at every site. Arbol de Piedra (a rock formation that looks like a tree), 5 more pretty lagoons with lots of flamingos, lunch at Valle de Rocas (gorgeous rock formations that made you feel as though you were on another planet), drive through Salar de Chiquana (smaller and only 35% salt) and last but certainly not least, stay at a hotel made completely out of salt. The hotel was at the edge of the Salar de Uyuni. Spent the evening planning out what kind of pictures we wanted at the salt flats.
Beautiful landscape from the drive. Can you believe I took this from a moving car?
Day 4: the big day. The day we were truly looking forward too. Woke up at 4:30 and drove out to the salt flats for the sunrise. From there we drove to Isla de Pescado (fish island...but has nothing to do with fish?), an island in the middle of salt covered with giant cacti. Then, finally, picture and rolling around in the salt time. We took tons of pictures and spent 4 hours enjoying the view. We had more time than average because we were doing our extra day. The rest of the day was spent chilling in a tiny town at the edge of the salt flats. We did laundry, journaled, and relaxed before going to bed at a crazy early hour.
Backpackers never stop backpacking.
Day 5: woke up before the sunrise and got a ride to the base of the volcano. From there we hiked with our 57 year old bolivian guide (who outpaced us the entire time) for 5 hours to the way top of the volcano. I'm not kidding or exaggerating when I say that the hike was completely vertical at times and I was on my knees and hands struggling to climb. Not only was it vertical for large portions of time but I was slowly getting altitude sickness as we ascended. Thank god for coca leaves and lots of breaks. The hike down was just as crazy but took half the time. Before jumping in the car and heading to Uyuni, we saw a cave full of mummies. The mummies were just sitting around the cave and it felt eerie and intrusive to be there. It was amazing but pretty odd to be so close to mummies. We ended our tour with a quick stop at a train graveyard.
It was an amazing experience. The salt flats are unbelievable and don't feel real. I also learned the hard way that rolling around in salt ruins your clothes (worth it).
NEXT POST: La Paz and cycling the death road
No comments:
Post a Comment