We were booked on a 2 night 3 day tour of the Salt Flats, so we got up early, got ready, packed our bags, checked out of the hotel and made our way over to the tour agency to drop off our backpacks. Seeing as there were 6 people scheduled to go on the one jeep, along with a driver and a guide/chef, there wasn’t a lot of room for luggage and they’d asked us to put our 2 nights worth of clothes in to a small bag and leave the rest with them.
It was a little concerning that the door of the tour agency was closed but not locked (the padlock was hanging open) when we arrived. We let ourselves in and put our bags in the little room behind the flimsy net curtain. There were other people’s backpacks already inside, and I couldn’t help thinking how easy it would be for us to walk away with someone else’s worldly possessions. Similarly, how easy it would be for someone else to steal our backpacks from the agency while we were away. However with only half an hour to go before the tour was due to leave, we had to put all thoughts of stolen backpacks behind us and vamos to the nearest café for breakfast.
And another interesting breakfast it turned out to be. We ordered pancakes and after 15 minutes of waiting at the table outside, the waiter (who couldn’t have been more than 17 and judging by his enthusiasm, clearly Not in his dream job) unceremoniously dumped 2 plates on our table. The plates contained 2 perfectly round, perfectly cold pancakes which he’d clearly taken straight out of a packet and not even bothered to warm up. Lord knows what he’d been doing for the last 15 minutes. Anyway we sent them back and he microwaved them which made them slightly more edible.
Then we headed back to the tour agency to meet the rest of the group we’d be spending the next couple of days with. Fortunately they were a friendly bunch, consisting of a British couple and an Ozzie couple that already knew one another but didn’t make us feel like spare wheels to their quartet. It turned out there was also another group of 6 people that had signed up for the tour, and would be going in another jeep. Unfortunately three of them were an Intrepid group leader and 2 people on an Intrepid tour, which meant that they got the swanky new jeep with the English speaking guide, and we were relegated to the older jeep with the solo espanol speaking driver, and solo espanol speaking chef in the front. Needless to say this was a little disappointing since we’d been sold on the tour with this agency on the basis of their English speaking tour guide. As it turned out the guide did get out of the jeep and explain what we were seeing at each stop, so we only missed out on whatever information he would have been giving them along the way.
Then after a bit of last minute kerfuffle at the agency, where we found out that the previous guide had got the date for the return train tickets wrong (Tuesday night instead of the Monday night we wanted), and having to quickly dash around to cancel our matching hostel booking, they finally loaded our meagre luggage on to the top of the jeep under some tarpaulin, and we all clambered on to our trusty steed. Our driver turned around to establish how many of us hablo espanol, and quickly learnt that all 6 of us spoke little or no spanish, and that we’d been promised an English guide. But fortunately for him as he didn’t understand any English so our complaints fell on deaf ears, and we were quickly on our way to the first stop - the train cemetery which is not very far outside Uyuni.
The train cemetery is a pretty weird place. Basically its a string of old rusty trains in the middle of nowhere. However it does make for some interesting photos. After a quick photo session we set off again and within half an hour our jeep was stuck in some pretty deep mud. We were on the left handside of the train tracks and we could see all the other jeeps and buses whizzing by on the right handside of the tracks, while we were stuck. So we figured our driver had taken us down the wrong road. The boys got out and helped the driver to collect some large rocks that they placed next to the wheels and the driver tried to use the little jack to lift the car out, however that didn’t work. Eventually the other jeep, having dropped off its passengers at the salt mines (next stop on the tour), doubled back and brought a long wooden pole along with it. The guys actually tried to lift the chassis of the jeep out of the mud, using the wooden pole, however that didn’t work either. Eventually they ended up digging some mud out and placing more rocks behind the jeep and then reversing and that did the trick. It was a bit surprising that the jeep didn’t actually have any equipment on board, to deal with just such a situation as they do these tours every week! I would have expected at least a shovel for digging us out of the mud, but nope. Anyway, with that behind us we had lost about an hour and a half, so we had to skip the salt mines and go straight on to the main attraction - the salt flats.
The salt flats are an amazing sight and they stretch on for miles like a white sea horizon that you cant see the end of. And yes Suz you are right, it is the same place that messes with your perspective and allows you to take some pretty funky pictures e.g. A giant Kirsty stomping on a teeny weeny sized Steve he he he. We spent a bit of time playing with plastic dinosaurs and water bottles taking some more pictures, and then stopped for some lunch in the middle of nowhere. The food was actually pretty good, as we took our own cook along with us. After lunch we headed to Fish Island which was pretty otherworldly. Basically it’s an island in the middle of the salts flats, that is covered in these long tall cacti that are hundreds of years old. We walked up to the top of the island for some fantastic views of the jeep tracks running through the salt flats. Later on when the sun started to set we could clearly see the honeycomb shapes outlined on the salt flats due to the shadows, and that night we stayed in a salt hotel on the outskirts of the flats. The walls, tables, chairs, beds and bedside tables were all made out of salt bricks, that have been cut out of the salt flats. The other thing I should mention about the salt flats that is not immediately obvious, is that the salt (usually around 30 cm thick) is only a layer on top of the water. In some places there are holes in the salt and you can see the brine underneath. We had felt a little more comfortable driving over the top when we were under the impression that the ground was completely solid lol! We also found out that the salt is also incredibly rough/ hard, when we were lying down on the salt flats to take some of those funky pictures. For some reason I thought it would be softer, like a pile of salt, but it wasn’t at all.
The following day we woke up at 4am (I thought I was on holiday?!) to get an early start, as we had a very full day ahead. We were basically driving through the desert for a lot of the day (just like Atacama as we were close to Chile in the south of Bolivia), and we saw Laguna Colorada which is a pink lake and is full of flamingos. Basically the plankton in the water turn pink as a reaction to the sunlight, and the flamingos eat the plankton which turns their feathers pink. We also went to see Laguna Verge which is a green lake. The green colour is caused by the minerals in the water. Then we went to see the geysers, which was pretty impressive. Basically all these bubbling mud pits in the middle of nowhere, and then we stopped at some hot springs for a quick swim. The water was very warm and the views in the middle of the mountains were great. One of the our last stops was to see the stone tree which is literally a big rock that has been eroded in to the shape of a tree - very cool. That night we stayed in a very basic hotel in the middle of the desert, where all six of us bunked up one room and there were no showers. So it’s a good thing we stopped for that swim in the hot springs! To be fair it didn’t really matter that we were staying in a dorm as we were so exhausted after the long days driving and dinner that we went to bed pretty early and slept like logs.
On the last day we got up late (08h00 ha ha ha) and just had 2 stops before we headed back to Uyuni. I must admit by this point I was getting a bit tired of driving around the desert in the jeep (bit cramped with three girls on the back seat), as it was getting really warm inside the car. First we stopped to see some ancient paintings on the rocks (like bushman paintings) in red paint which were okay (we didn’t get much of an explanation other than ancient paintings) and then we stopped in a place with some very large rocks, that we could climb to the top of to see some awesome views of the desert.
By the time we got back to Uyuni we just about had time to grab some dinner and book our next hostel in the internet café, and then it was time to catch the night bus back to La Paz. The night bus along the dirt road was just as bad as I remembered it from the drive down to Uyuni - something out of the seventh circle of hell. However we did take some comfort from seeing that things could be worse. We got chatting to an Aussie guy in the internet café, and he ended up sitting across the isle from us on the night bus. He had the seat next to him free and the bus started to move at 20h00 (scheduled departure time) so he thought hed got lucky. However just then a local Peruvian woman with a baby on her back and 3 large bags came up the stairs and starting walking down the isle towards him. We tried very hard (unsuccessfully) to stifle the laughter as she took up the empty seat next to him, swung the baby around to her lap and starting breastfeeding him. Not to mention the fact that she left 2 of her big bags in the isle. We started to feel sorry for the poor Aussie, who know had zero space due to the woman and baby next to him. However about 10 minutes later the bus stopped and a man got on and walked down the isle, claiming that the local woman was in his seat (he had a ticket). The Aussie guy got up and said that the new guy could sit there with the local woman, and he would find another empty seat (he was keen to get away and who could blame him). So off the Aussie guy goes to the front of the bus looking for the empty seat, however there isn’t one. A couple of minutes later he comes back. It is clear that the local woman didn’t actually have a seat on the bus. However she says that she is not doing the whole 12 hour journey to La Paz, and the Aussie guy doesn’t want to ask her to get up now as shes got the baby on her lap etc, so he ends up sitting in the aisle on a blanket with one of the big bags at his back! This is on the bumpiest road ever. This went on for a couple of hours, until the local woman got off the bus. At which point the Aussie said the worst part was that the baby had been drooling on his head LOL. So I guess we should count our blessings that we at least had seats on that nightmare bus!
We had one night in La Paz in a very weird hostel (HI Onkel) were the staff didn’t speak a single word of English, and the shower issued an electric shock when you tried to turn the handle! We did manage to see a movie at the local cine (Resident Evil 4 - very forgettable), as it was showing in English. Then it was on to another night bus to Arequipa. We had thought that we would be able to do a day tour to see Colca Canyon however the woman in our hostel explained that it would take a 3am walk up and a 5.5 hour bus ride to get there (one way), so we declined and just spent the day around Arequipa itself instead. We were off to a slow start that day as the hostel was having problems with their water (bust pipe), so we had to wait until the water was switched back on again to get showered and head out.
We headed for the main square in Arequipa which is very pretty and surrounded by buildings all made out of the same white volcanic stone. We managed to find the English book swap in the guide, grabbed some lunch and then headed back to the hostel to arrange bus tickets and hostels for Nasca. We did head out for a dinner later on which was an interesting experience. On arrival the woman in the Arequipa hostel had given us a map of the area surrounding the hostel and circled a restaurant called La Italiana, about a 15 minute walk from the hostel ie closeby. However as it was late when we were going out for dinner and we didn’t have a lot of time before our night bus, we decided to hail a taxi. Now I should set the scene here, in that we have been warned by people and the guidebook that you can only take a certain type of taxi, as others have been known to drive tourists to some far flung destination and mug them... We had already read on the notice board at the hostel that the restaurant called La Italiana was on San Francisco street. So we hailed a taxi in the street and ask for La Italiana restaurant on San Francisco and the man nods and we get in.
After we’ve been driving for about 10 minutes, we look at each other and think that we have clearly already driven way too far, and then the guy takes us on to a highway, and at this point we are both thinking that we are going to get mugged. However the guy turns back off the highway again and heads in to town towards the main square. After some tense minutes he does indeed drop us off at a La Italiana on San Francisco, it is just not the same branch of the La Italiana resturant that was close to our hostel! With a sigh we paid the guy and got out of his taxi - I’ve never been so relieved to exit a taxi before in all my life lol!
Last night we took a Cruz del Sur night bus from Arequipa to Nasca, which arrived at 7am this morning. Luckily the hostel collected us from the bus station and had a room ready. So we checked in, asked the hostel owner to organise us a flight and then I crashed for a couple of hours. While I was sleeping Steve went out in to the garden and had a look over the back wall. There is a large black monkey in a small (1 sq metre) cage in the back garden of the next property, so Steve has emailed a couple of animal rescue places with the details, to see if they will come and collect it. Fingers crossed. The poor monkey looks very distressed in the little cage - very sad.
At 1pm a man came to collect us and take us to the airport to see the Nasca lines. Only the first stop we made was at a school to collect his 2 children. Then the second stop was to drop the children with a woman. Then the third stop was to pick up 2 other passengers lol. We were beginning to wonder if we were going to make the flight after all the unscheduled stops. Eventually we get to the airport and are lead to the small 5 seater Cessna plane. At this point I am wondering what I have gotten myself in for. I had heard stories about the turbulence and had already taken 1 dramamine to try and prevent the nauseau.
We had one pilot and one co pilot who’s job it was basically is to point and say ‘there, there!’ whenever we got close to a nasca line. There were twelve lines of interest that he pointed out to us. Basically the little plane would fly over, for example the monkey, on the right handside of the plane and then quickly turn around so that the left handside of the plane could see the same thing. The plane banking around quickly was horrendous and it was all I could do to hold on to my lunch! However I was very impressed with the monkey and the humming bird drawings in the sand. They were a bit fainter than I expected them to be, so it was difficult to take pictures, but we tried all the same. The plane ride, fortunately, was over pretty quickly and we were soon back on the ground heaving a sigh of relief and glugging down water. Despite the terrible naseau I am glad that we got to see the Nasca Lines. Its just a shame that no one can explain who / why they are there.
So that was all for today’s excitement. We have a night off to relax tonight and then we are catching another bus up to Lima tomorrow morning. This should have us arriving in Lima tomorrow night, just in time for our flight up to Guayaquil on Saturday morning. If all goes according to plan with the flight it will be a great success as we will have managed to whip around Bolivia and take in the Road of Death, Floating Islands, Isla del Sol, Uyuni and Nasca, all within a space of 2 weeks and return to Lima in time for our next flight!
We are looking forward to taking the foot off the gas a bit on the Galapagos Islands. Hopefully we will manage to find a discounted tour, as we are going in the low season (rough seas - Dramamine on standby he he he).
Love to all at home.
Kirst x
PS I have gotten used to the fact that I cant put any toilet paper down the loo in South America, however I am still struggling to come to terms with the fact that a hostel ‘breakfast’ consists of a white bread roll, some butter and some strawberry jam and no one has heard of an English Breakfast tea!
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