Salar de Uyuni Tour

The bordertown of Bolivia is ingrained in my memory. Its stark contrast to the European-ess of Buenos Aires and even Salta left me a little unsure of myself. Colourful, it was the first time I had been somewhere and felt obviously like a european. The skin of the people is darker, their indigenous faces warm and weathered. Women wore many layers of skirts, their hair in long plaits down their backs and bowler hats. On their backs, the bright pinks, blues and yellows of the material they use for everything - carrying their wares and their children. The noise of street sellers, old cars and honking horns filled the air. And of course, the smell of urine was everywhere. I had to pay to use the public toilet and I was more than a little nervous to be left alone with the bags as Derek went off to use it too. Our bus was about 60 years old and we were the only white people on it. Some people making the two hour trip to Tupiza had to stand almost the entire way. Hold on tight because there aren't any toilet stops either - unless you get held up by roadworks and then you have to risk whether or not you get off the bus because if you aren't back on, it will leave without you.
A guy we had met in Buenos Aires was at the bus station and was heading our way. Being friendly we told him which hotel we were to stay at and that we were going to do the tour with that company too. After our extraordinarily long bus ride to Tupiza and some rather dodgy map reading skills, we found our hostel and organised the trip for the next day. Accompanying us would be the BA tourist and two Czechs - Katerina y Daniel). The BA tourist clearly wasn't acclimatised having only come from Salta, and since he was already having a bad time in Bolivia (having travelers toilet issues and having had his bag stolen at the Villazon bus station - at least he got it back!) he wasn't really in the mood for a Salt Flats Tour. By the time we reached our first destination - at 4200m above sea level - he was suffering partly from altitude sickness and partly from a bad reaction to being in Bolivia. Long story short, we woke at 4.30am for our early morning start and he was still refusing to take any coca or even try to continue with the tour. Our driver drove him all the way back to Tupiza, leaving us with only BA Tourist's promises to pay for extra food or petrol. When the driver returned to us that night, it turns out Mr Bastard Tourist had done a runner as soon as he had reached Tupiza. Our driver also doubted the extent of his altitude sickness too. Well, good riddance to bad luck.










We had had a wonderful day getting to know the local children. These two in particular were fascinated initially with Derek - a China man!wow! - and secondly with the travel guitar. They thought it was hilarious that I couldn't understand anything and just kept saying, "no entiendo". They charged Derek for taking photos, driving a tough bargain of 1 peso each for two photos. And still she refused to take her hat off.










The Salt Flats Tour from Tupiza is usually four days and follows the Chile/Bolivia border up to the Salar de Uyuni. On Day Two, our driver drove us extra fast so that we could get to the Aguas Callientes in time to allow us an hour soaking in the 4400m above sea level natural hot springs. We drove through Dali's Desert (as in Salvador), which is strewn with large pieces of rock, left over from some volcanic explosion. The volcano ranges have swirls of pinks, reds, whites and browns, making the mountains look like they are made out of Neapolitan ice cream. Where there was the most swirls, that was where the Devil was meant to reside.










Laguna Verde is not, I think, done total justice in this picture. After all the warm tones we had been traveling through, the green certainly made an impact. It is caused by the high traces of different minerals, including arsenic, in the water.





Back through Dali's desert and we were making our way to Laguna Colorada - the red lake. We reached this early on in the evening and because the boys wanted to photograph it with the sun going down, we opted to walk back across the rocky plain to the hostel. It didn't look far. Turned out to be somewhere between 6 - 8 km away. A long cold, bordering on dark walk back but completely worth it for this shot of the moon rise over the mountain.
At Laguna Colorada, there were plenty of flamingos to keep Derek happy. One animal I didn't expect to come across 4000m asl was flamingos, in their hundreds, happily feeding in this shallow lake.
The next morning we encountered a hungry little fox that had a sore paw. We fed him some pancakes before he moved onto the next jeep behind us. Earlier in the trip we had also come across mountain rabbits - giant sized rabbits with really long tails. Hilarious!
Day Three took us to a lake with thousands of flamingos. These creatures don't act scared of you, and just when you think you're getting close enough for a good photo, they calmly walk away leaving you wishing you had a stronger zoom lens. Stupid tourists like some we encountered, think its great to yell at the flamingos and clap their hands so that the flamingos fly away. They aren't circus sideshows, and should be respected. Stupid tourists.
We stopped at the Sol de Manana, which is a geyser basin with boiling mud and sufurous fumaroles. Having been to Rotorua, the fact that this was almost 5000m above sea level put it in a completely different ball park.


Derek encouraged our driver to take us to the San Juan cemetery, which is between 1000 - 2000 years old, depending on who you talk to. The people buried their dead in tombs and some of the skeletons are still there today for you to see. They were buried in the foetus position, mostly facing towards the sun. There was even a childrens tomb. There is something so fascinating about learning about a culture from a cemetery, but somehow a little unethical to be poking your head into people's resting places. The best part was when the local lady opened up the artifacts little hut and we got to go in and touch the ancient artifacts - which included ancient hoes, pottery, material, hair, silver and of course the child's leather shoe. Derek wondered whether or not we should hold the plaits of hair up to the skull and put a drinking flask next to it. We decided this viking pose might be pushing the tasteful boundary just a little ...








At the Salar, we took the tour of a cave near to our salt hotel. This cave was formed when the Salar had either been a sea or been part of the sea (our spanish still needs working on). The Salar is part of a prehistoric salt lake called Lago Minchin, which covered most of southwest Bolivia. The sea carved out this cave and these strange stalactites and walls were formed by the sea foam and sea salt. It looked like webbing, but was hard to the touch.




The Salar de Uyuni is the world's largest salt flat, sitting at 3653m above sea level and blanketing 12,000sq km. It's depth varies between 1m to 8m, depending on the amount of layers and who you talk to. There are holes in the salt which are filled with water - called the Eyes of the Salar. Its the perfect place for perception photographs - as any tourist will tell you.
Up at dawn to watch the sun rise was completely worth the lack of sleep. The sun chased the darkness away, turning the salt from black, to grey, to blinding white. There are several islands on the Salar and we stopped at Isla de los Pecadores, with giant cactus (apparently also 1000 years old) and a view of the never ending whiteness and tyre tracks.




























We ended our tour in Uyuni, having lunch at the Train Cemetery - which is pretty much a huge bunch of rusting trains. We said goodbye to our newly made Czech friends and after much deliberation, caught the bus to La Paz (there's political unstableness so you have to watch for roadblocks).
It was the worst busride of my life. Leaving at 8pm,we had the seats right at the back. Because it was dark and the roads in Bolivia need more than tender loving care, the first 5 hours felt and sounded like we were riding an aeroplane through the centre of the earth. Nothing could describe it more perfectly. There was little sleep going on despite the 'semicama' promise of the seats, and at 1am we hit paved road. Finally! I thought, I can attempt to get some sleep!
But alas, the driver needed to be kept awake and so he put music on. Terrible Bolivian pop music at a level that meant we all could hear it. I guess he was awake -thats one good thing.
At 3.30pm we were forced to change buses in Oruro, paying 1.50bs for 'use of the terminal' (that simply means we walked the 5m from one side to another). But at least on this bus, finally, I got some sleep.

Photos of Uruguay

Finally I have pictures of Uruguay. There are more but I have to steal them off Derek. They'll be on Flickr.


Graffiti in Montevideo.
Colonia
Colonia- Derek and our pal Hop-a-long

Punta Del Diablo
Punta Del Diablo restaurant.
Pampita outside the restaurant.


Derek with said restaurants dog Pampita.
Sand dune jumping. Take number 17.
Sand dune jumping again.

24 hours to Salta

Salta is a pretty city. It has a gondola up to the top of one hill - complete with Jesus on a cross - that gives views of the entire city. Except it was hazy when we were there. Seeing as tourist companies wanted to charge $140 Us for El Tren de las Nubes (a day trip i might add), we hired a car for just under 1000pesos. Take that, tourist companies. The drive to San Antonio is practically the same route as the train, 80% of it anyway. And you get to walk on the Viaduct instead of just sitting on it in a train. But that comes later.

Under recommendation, we drove to Cachi first, listening to our four cds (2 80's collection and 2 tarantino collection). We stopped for sandwiches at the lookout which is the height of Mount Cook - a literally dizzying thought. After 'looking out' and eating sandwiches with our mouths (it's the only way to eat sandwiches [FCC]), we continued on our way with the effects of altitude sickness starting to make an appearance. My 16 year no-vomiting streak was broken at Cachi, taking all afternoon to relieve itself from me. Thankfully I made it out of the tent in time. I spent most of our Cachi time inside the tent. Jane unfortunately spent too much time in the sun, during the 2 hour period where her and Derek tried to find some ruins. As she tried panadol, water and sleeping with a cloth over her head, she missed out on of the most stunning drives I've ever done. Out of respect for the sickie, Derek and I kept our 'ohhs' and 'ahhs' and 'look at thats' in silent mode. That way, Jane didn't really know just how amazing the drive she was missing out on was. Initially we wound our way through plains before breaking into these rock formations that simply jutted out of the earth at awkward angles like giant slabs of pancakes. The colours were lit up by the late afternoon sun, gleaming reds, oranges,shale grey and,of course, brown. Or perhaps more dulux cafe latte.
We stayed in San Carlos so that we could visit La Bogedita the next morning. A tiny family run bodega just north of Cafayate, they make a select few wines which are very very sweet. They still use traditional methods for pressing the grapes (thats your feet and old wooden presses).
Cafayate is a pretty little town that has the typical packs of dogs roaming the square for food and trouble. It also has donkies that occasionally stop in to munch on the square's grass, only to be chased out of town by the territorial dogs. We visited four bodegas over the course of two days, one above 2000m, one cerca de 1700m and an organic winery. We did the obligatory 'Montana' bodega of the region but there wasnt much to rave about there. Most of the wines (including the organic wines) cost between 15 pesos y 25 pesos. Thats about $6 - $11 NZ. Needless to say, we helped the local economy quite a bit.



We visited Quilmes, which is an ancient Indian site that was taken over by the Spainiards. The Quilmes indians were either killed or sent to BuenosAires. A sprawling metropolis, the part we could roam had been rebuilt. And it was only 15% of the total empire. White quartz was used to put designs on certain walls - snakes for fertility and llamas because llamas are the cutest animals in the world (don't quote me on that reason). Jane and i hung out in the shade of this beast of a cacti, before meeting out first llama close up. Pretty exciting. From Quilmes, a huge standstorm blew up, making driving home exciting. It meant we left Cafayate a day later than expected though.
At our campsite, we met a lovely man from Romanian called Albie. Thankfully, I was the only way on Flight of the Conchords overload and had to disguise my laugh in my glass of wine. Of course this was topped off when we met his Albanian girfriend. They weren't racist but there were definately no jellybean tears.


The drive back to Salta takes you through a series of great rock formations and canyons. Jane discovered her rock climbing skills, beating Derek up to the top of several rock formations.
In El Anfiteatro, there was a band playing. I danced around to their music, enjoying the freedom of spinning arms out stretched. The lead guitarist declared his love for me once the song had finished, in rather a loud voice as I was on the other side of the 'room'. He didn't take his eyes off of me for the rest of our time there, leaving Jane plenty of scope to stare at the young hot guitarist also present in the band. She took a sudden interest in looking at Derek's photos after that.
Garganta Del Diablo is another huge rock formation that seems to swallow you whole as you walk/climb further into it. You aren't allowed to get close enough to see the actual Devil's throat though - a hole in the rock at the back of the slope.
The rest of the drive to Salta was less spectacular scenery wise but more entertaining Chevrolet of Love wise. Jane showed us her car dancing skills, winning the International Car Dancing Champanionships, and then proceeded to lose all dignity trying to learn how to say 'HAI'! It was more "Land a-hoy".












Camping Swiss Alpine Chalet style, we stayed the night just out of Salta. Early the next morning we followed the Tren de las Nubes up to San Antonio. At 3900m, we were all feeling the effects of the altitude, some more than others. We took a local guide to the Viaduct and climbed up to the 4200m top to walk across it. It took us around 15 minutes to walk up the 64m track. Oh yeah and it was bloody freezing that night.
The drive to Salinas Grandes had us rather worried about our car's suspension. But the Chevrolet of Love held out. Completely white and mindbogglingly flat,the salar is a prehistoric lake that dried up. There is still water throughout the layers of salt but sometimes its up to 8 metres deep. Impressive, but forgettable once you've seen the Salar de Uyuni.
Our aim was to make it to Humahuaca by nightfall and this was easily achieved because the signposts would drop 20km in distance in a space of 100m. We still can't figure that one out.
The road was windy and steep, dropping 2000m. We drove past the Hill of seven colours, but a lot of the hillsides were a mix of greys, reds and yellows. There are a lot of rock formations similar to the Pinnacles in Cape Palliser, NZ, but on a much grander scale.
Upon reaching Humahuaca,we had the most ridiculous incident of the trip which was running into an old university friend of mine whom I hadn't been in contact with for about 2 years, in a campsite that was meant to be closed. Jane and Derek stared in disbelief as my friend and I hugged and leapt about. Ridiculous.
Our final day was spent taking a trip to Iruya, a pretty little town pretty much in the middle of nowhere. The bus ride there had Jane hanging on, praying and refusing to look out the window. Granted we were coming down some hairpin corners that disappeared beneath the front of the bus as we went around them. It was a Sunday so most townpeoples were at church, meaning finding food was rather difficult. We caught the early bus back so we could leave for Salta earlier. And we would have gotten there in relatively good time if the State Highway 9 hadn't turned into a windy one lane road. Amazing scenery, but we had to navigate hairpin corners while being on the lookout for cars and stock- donkies, horses and cows with complete disregard to a large thing with lights bearing down on them.
Our road trip over, we regrettably had to give our Chevrolet of Love back. With the words to Amadeus, Shout and Heaven is a Place on Earth still ringing through our minds, we faced the fact that in only one more day, Jane would be leaving us.
So after the licuardos a tennis final (with three rather vocal supporters in the restaurant) and a rousing game of Canasta, we took a trip to the Salta museum. It is here that they are housing the three bodies of the 500 year old children they found at the top of Mount Llullaillaco. On display are most of the artifacts that were found with them, and one of the children. Discreetly placed behind a screen, you don't have to view the child if you don't want. But who would pass up a chance to see an Inca mummy? We got to see the boy (they change the child once every six months) and I was overwhelmed by the preservation of this child, his clothing, the feather adorning his head, everything. He has his knees pulled up and his face on his knees so you cant view his face. But the sheer incredibility that this person is 500 years old, means you can't draw your gaze from him. If you ever are in Salta, you have to go to this muesuem. It is done tastefully, with recognition of the controversy that surrounded the bringing down of the children off the mountain, and the displaying of them. Everything about their sacrifice is fascinating.

And so the Adventures of the Terrible Three came to an end as Jane bravely boarded an overnight bus bound for Buenos Aires. of course she had to go back to the Lime House to return that book you stole ... right Jane?

Iguazu Falls

An 18 hour bus ride complete with wine, dinner and breakfast, led the Terrible Three to Iguazu, a sleepy little town that looks and feels exactly like a small Queensland town. So much so, that this was remarked on several times by one member of the group. The heat was stifling, forcing two group members to take the plunge into the hostel's pool.

Iguazu is definitely an entire day trip, meaning the early bus needed to be taken in the hope to fit all the walks in. Starting off in the jungle, one particular group member was more than a little concerned she would encounter a puma. Kindly, the other group members didn't tell her pumas are more nocturnal than not. They let her be on her guard all day even though the chances of meeting a puma during the day in the forest is little to none.





However several unusual animals were spotted, including a toucan and monkeys. Not as in the band, but the animal. Seven to eight monkeys following each other along the path, making ridiculous jumps from tree to tree and never dropping. The other animals were and looking like a giant oversized rat. Perhaps its Master Splinter from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.









The waterfall at the end of the jungle walk, called for two group members to shower underneath it. The rocks were incredibly slippery, causing our Neil Young obsessed fan to return to the waterfall by method of sliding over the rocks. She claims she planned it. It wasn't until a little later on, when she leapt over a "huge crevasse" to make it back to safety, that her jeans (not rock climbing material) gave out. This left her with air conditioned jeans for the rest of her time in South America.






The Adventurous Three took a boat ride into the spray of the falls, crossing briefly from the tango waters to the salsa waters of Brazil. Unless you were wearing sunglasses, being drenched under a powerful waterfall means nothing except getting soaking wet and feeling like you were having a rather extreme cold shower. No chance of pictures either although you can, of course, buy the DVD of your ride for approximately a million dollars.




The legend is that there was a young warrior who fell in love with a beautiful princess. They ran off together down the river. A particular god was so enraged at this that he caused the ground to fall away beneath them. She fell to her death, becoming a rock at the bottom of the falls (which is pretty hard to see), and he remained a tree at the top, to forever look down upon her and their broken love. Heart renching. The stuff legends are ....
Anyway, the sheer volume of water that goes over the falls is unbelievable. The boardwalk out to Garganta Del Diablo takes you over calm waters with fish swimming lazily by. Within metres of the falls, the water picks up speed and thunders down around an 82m drop.









Each member of the group marveled at the fact that nobody knows what the bottom of the falls looks like. The Chinaman remarked that there could be a full orchestra down there and nobody would know. Thats right. The possibility of that must be pretty high, chino.