The past few days have been crazy as we entered Bolivia. On the way from Puno, we had to switch busses in Copacabana, take a ferry across Lake Titicaca, and then cross the border on foot. There were no ATMs at the border and they only accepted US dollars, so we had to take a taxi to the closest town to withdraw money. After everyone on the bus had passed through Bolivian customs (a small office with a tiny stamp machine) we filed back onto the bus and headed to La Paz.
La Paz was crazy, and we were dropped off in front of a fancy hotel. Once there, we all debated going to the Salar de Uyuni, the largest salt flats in the world. A couple we met on our trek to Machupicchu said that was the #1 thing they have seen in the 6 months they have been traveling. Check out their blog at whereoneartharelauraandstu.com. We thought of staying the night in La Paz then taking a night bus the following day so we would be able to rest up for the salt flats. Our plans were quickly changed when we found out all the exits from La Paz would be blocked by a a strike. We jumped on the soonest bus and headed to Salar de Uyuni.
The city of Uyuni is a quaint place. It seemed the city was meant to be a very large city, but never quite grew into its shoes. It seemed the town is largely supported by tourism. Everyone we have met so far has done a 3 day tour of it, but we only had 1 day. We were very satisfied with what we did though. We thought because we were only doing a 1 day tour that we would be the only ones in the car. Unfortunately we were wrong. We picked up 3 women: a mother and daughter from Patagonia, Chile, and a rasta-hippie Argentine woman who had been traveling for the past two years. As they started to pile into the car, Justin being the chivalrous man that he is quickly offered to take the front seat, thus allowing the three women to take the middle seat and leaving Porter, Dustin, and I with no leg room in the back seat.
The first stop was a train graveyard. It appeared that Uyuni was meant to be a large city, with a railway connecting several large cities and even countries. After paying our respects to the decaying heaps of metal, we drove a whopping 80 kilometers across the salt flats. The salt flats are huge. and they are pure white.
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| One of the rusted trains at the graveyard |
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| Our ride across the salt flats |
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| This pattern stretched across the entire salt flats. The lines are formed by water evaporating and escaping through the cracks in the salt |
The whole drive to the first stop, Justin was pestering the driver about flamingos. Justin was so anxious about being able to see them because the 1 day tour did not include seeing the large flock of flamingos. Thankfully our driver delivered. The first stop had 3 flamingos and Justin jumped out of the car like a school boy in a candy store to take pictures.
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| Who knew flamingos would be found in the Bolivian Salt Flats?! |
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| Check out this Flamingo and his majesty |
The driver left us for a few minutes as he went to pick something up. When we picked us back up, there was another passenger in the car. We were less than happy to have to squish 8 people in the tiny jeep.
The second stop on the tour was in the middle of nowhere. All we could see in every direction was white salt. Here, our tour guide told us a myth that pre-dated the Incan civilization explaining the origen of the salt flats. We also were able to take more pictures while our guide prepared lunch for us.
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| All that is pure salt. And for science, I tasted it. Yup, it was salt. |
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| Dustin trying to impress the women in our group. We don't think this won them over. He also nearly broke his sunglasses. |
After lunch, we saw an island that was covered in cacti. The entrance fee was B$ 30, so we all voted to relax at the bottom. The rest of the day was spent searching for holes in the salt flat to find crystalized salt. There is a lake underneath the salt flats, but no one knows how deep it is. It was amazing to see the crystalized salt. The whole tour was amazing. We were glad we decided to spend a day in Uyuni.
Stay tuned to see what other crazy adventures we stumble upon.
Very educational. I learned aLOT....is this the salt in my salt shaker?
ReplyDeletejk
You'll have jobs as journalists when you return:)