Day One – Into the wild blue yonder
We begin our final voyage in the unusual planetscape of Bolivia with the familiarity of a night bus. This time with the bus company Emperador, I’m not sure how emperor’s like to travel but this bus resembles a sauna on wheels. Despite the night air of Sucre being a toasty 27 degrees, the radiators are on full blast all the way to Uyuni. Unbelievably, the local sat in front of me closes the small window, cutting off any chance of fresh cold air for the next 8 hours. To add insult to injury, the local and his family sleep under wool blankets, while Alex and I swelter and sweat throughout the night.
Having barely slept a wink, we arrive in Uyuni bus station at 5am. Collecting our luggage from the steamed up bus, we head to a local cafe to have breakfast and wait for our tour to start. Thanks to Zita who we met in Toro Toro, we’ve prebooked our tour based on her recommendation. From the bus station, we meet a fellow Brit called Lauren who helps lift our mood and chats with us over breakfast. There isn’t much to do in Uyuni town itself so we wander around and buy some supplies for the next few days, while the prices are still cheap in town. By this point, Gatorade is the first item on the shopping list, especially as Alex has an upset tummy from our last day in Sucre.
Around 10.30 there’s a bit of Bolivian chaos but eventually we’re in our group of 4 plus an English speaking guide and driver called Walter. A sweet and humble Bolivian who will guide us through hundreds of kilometers of salt flats and desert over the next three days. Also in our group are Benedict and Julia, a lovely couple from Munich. A short jeep ride from town is our first stop, the train cemetery. Around a dozen dusty locomotive engines and rusting carriages are scattered across the sand. A local wanted to create a train museum here but he sadly passed before fulfilling his dream. Still, the area is crawling with tourists and it’s a mesmerizing sight to behold.
Some unexpected guests visit the cemetery..
Back in the huge Toyota Land Cruiser and we’re off to the salt flats proper. We make a short stop at a local town where some buildings are built with bricks made out of salt! Walter gives us a quick tour of the local salt factory where salt is harvested, dried and cleansed before being packaged and sold within Bolivia. As Bolivia is a land locked country, thanks to Chile stealing its ocean access, this is the only place Bolivia can extract salt. We browse the local merchandise feeling a bit sad we won’t be able to buy many souvenirs on this trip.
Driving further into the Salar we witness the dry, sandy earth slowly start to turn white and almost crystal like. “This is just the beginning” Walter teases as we stop for lunch in a large structure made out of salt next to where the Dakar rally started in 2013. We find our table and chairs are made out of… you guessed it, salt!
Lunch is a large buffet consisting of giant slabs of beef, locally grown quinoa, avocados, tomatoes and steamed veg. Over lunch we get to know Ben and Julia. Though they are both from Munich, Ben currently lives in Amsterdam working for Rivian, an electric car company based in the USA, currently expanding to Europe and the Middle East. Julia lives in Dublin and works for a HR company, they’re planning to both live in Amsterdam some time next year. Alex and I feel blessed to have met such friendly, interesting and fun people in every group we’ve been in so far. Powered by 2L of coke and large chunks of watermelon for desert, we’re reenergized and ready to go.
Walter drives us deeper into the heart of the salt flats and we’re surrounded by large lines of crystals creating hexagonal shapes surface. Contrasted with the bright blue of the sky, it’s once again unlike anything I’ve seen before. We pull up with nothing to see for miles around except the odd volcano breaking the horizon. It’s time for some fun photos and Walter expertly guides us through the best poses and angles.
The penultimate stop of the day is Isla Incahuasi where we’re free to roam and take pictures for around an hour, while Walter waits with the jeep. This island in the middle of the flats is essentially a giant rock populated with hundreds of cacti and a few small birds. Some of the cacti are over 5 meters tall and only grow 1cm per year… so they have been here for quite some time.
Alex is besotted with the local birds and desperately tries to get a good picture of one as they flit around the island. Meanwhile I’m staring up at the bright moon, wondering whether I still want to go up there one day having seen such incredible sights down here on Earth.
Even all the way out here they have electricity and flushing, modern toilets, when you’ve had food poisoning you realize how important these things are that we usually take for granted back home!
We drive another 45 minutes across the crunching salt tiles, I’m fighting to stay awake and take it all in, remembering these vistas are rare and precious, despite how exhausted I am.
The final stop of the day is to watch the sun set and illuminate the sky all colors of the rainbow. Walter surprises us by setting up a table and bringing us snacks, biscuits, muffins and a bottle of Bolivian red wine!
We take some more epic photos and climb back into the warmth of the jeep as the air has taken a sudden chill and the wind whips up around us.
Our hostel for the night is surprisingly modern and clean. Sure it’s basic but we have a private double room with an ensuite bathroom, a hot shower and constant electricity. It may not sound like much but the accomodation would have been much more rudimentary a few years ago, as Alex was witness to on her previous visit here.
Still full from the huge lunch and sunset snacks again it’s time to eat! Dinner is bowls of quinoa soup followed by a giant bowl of pique macho. Despite our best efforts, we barely make a dent in these monster portions and retire to bed ahead of another busy day tomorrow.
1 Comment
Superb! Sounds like you had a great guide. You did very well with those perspective photos too. Did he bring the godzilla? Excellent touch. That and the last one were my favourite! Great fun! I’ve just started reading Marching Powder so keep the book recommendations coming.