Off-roading in the Dust and Salt of Bolivia

This was something we had all been eagerly awaiting! Our tour company Cordillera picked us up along with several other tourists including Kelly and Ana Paula from Brazil, Jonas (GoGoJonas) from Brazil and an elderly Australian couple. The first part was a drive in a large van to the Bolivian border where our 4x4s were waiting.

Getting to the border involved a climb of over 1500m

Bolivian Customs - 4000m up in the desert in the middle of nowhere

After passing through customs and enjoying a light breakfast we packed our bags onto the roof of the Toyota Land Cruiser and met our driver, a 19 year old Bolivian called Jose. Our car was a bit on the old side with no seatbelts and pretty much every attachable object such as window winders MIA. Nevertheless, the engine started up fine and we were soon driving off into the Bolivian Andes. We were scheduled to make a large vertical climb that day and thus were advised to start chewing on the locally sourced coca leaves as they would help alleviate any forms of altitude sickness. They didn't taste particularly nice but better that than a headaches and vomiting.

Stuffing loads of coca leaves into our mouths in preparation

Loading up our 4x4

Jeopardy with a mouthfull of coca leaves. She will probably kill me for posting this but I couldn't resist!

Our group consisted of a convoy of 3 vehicles for safety reasons. In our car we had Riverdance, Helena (AKA, "Antsy Pantsy" due to her incredible restlessness), Marie (AKA, "Jeopardy" due to the sheer amount of random questions she asked!), Daniel (AKA, "Mountain Momma" - he was from West Virginia so we took it from the Country Road song), Jonas (AKA, GoGoJONAS - the girls made this one up and I have no idea why) and me (AKA, "Chico Capoeira").

Team GOGO

Jeopardy and Antsy making the "B" for Bolivia

Altitude makes people do strange things

At this point we were over 3500 metres above sea level and felt distinctly out of breath! Our first stop was at the National Park Office and Laguna Blanco (White Lagoon) where we spotted our first Pink Flamingos. Jose stopped the car so we could walk along the banks. A short drive on was Laguna Verde (Green Lagoon). This was also a salt lake that had an impressive green hue. Most of the Lagunas were so calm that they formed an almost perfect mirror of the sky above.

Laguna Blanco where we saw our first flamingos

Laguna Verde (Green Lagoon)

I made a rock pile (in front of me)

Whagwan Blud

After wandering about, building rock totems and taking a ton of pictures we got back into the car to continue. We moved onto some thermal springs where a few tour groups had been dropped off. The water was stiflingly hot and the pool very crowded so we didn't linger long. Luckily this spring didn't have the same sulfurous stink as we had experienced the previous night!

Hot springs!

Next stop was at some thermal geysers. The stench of Sulfur was nauseatingly strong and we could see the gas bubbling out of the semi-molten mud. The hiss of steam was ever present and some of the pools had interesting colours. We were told to be careful as rumor had it that people had fallen into the geysers before. At this point the bizarrest thing happened... in the 30 deg heat it started to hail! We had to rush back to the car to avoid getting pelted too much. This was also the highest elevation we reached, 4100m above sea level.

The thermal geysers. Lots of stinky, hissing, bubbling mud

A bubbling red pool

Our final stop for the day was at a hostel in the middle of the desert near Laguna Colorada. After a short siesta we went down to view the Laguna which is under consideration to be named a natural wonder of the world. The laguna itself is a stunning shade of red due to algae accumulation. This provides a food source for a large population of flamingos and even some resident llamas feed off the grass on the banks.

Laguna Colorada (the fuzzy white bit in the middle is a flock of flamingos flying over)

The Llamas seemed to survive on eating the green algae goo and grass on the banks. Not exactly appetising

Me stalking some Llamas

After taking in the scene for an hour we were treated to a dinner at the hostal. Some of the staff's children tried to entertain us with singing and poetry which was cute and well intentioned but not particularly spectacular. We rounded off the evening playing the card game Arsehole which I had abysmal luck with! By now some people were starting to feel the effects of the altitude. Dave, the Aussie, had been having bad headaches and had even thrown up a few times. GoGoJONAS also was having problems with headaches and it wasn´t long before I felt uncomfortable too. The staff recommended chewing on coca leaves which helped a lot although it meant I had to deal with an unappetizing taste in my mouth.

Our first night's accomodation - no frills

The guys caught in a moment of apprehension and consideration whilst playing Arsehole

The staff's children who did a spot of singing for us

Day 2 started off early at 9am. I hadn't had much sleep thanks to incessant headaches but I could feel I was beginning to adjust by this stage. After having a quick breakfast and tea and stuffing a bunch of coca leaves in my mouth to help with the headaches, we blazed off into the desert. We had covered 70km the day before and now we had to travel 270km. First stop was at the desert of Salvador Dali, a pretty unremarkable place so we decided to spice it up with a group picture. The terrain was dry and desolate. The desert itself had no real sand dunes but rather a loose rocky surface which seemed just as inhospitable.

A kickass picture!

Moving swiftly onward we stopped at an area with some very unique rock formations, including the famous "Stone Tree" which were all created at the time of the uprising of the Andes. We hung around here for quite a while, clambering up the outcrops and doing silly poses. By now everybody had gotten over their altitude sickness but that didn't stop us from from chewing our favorite leaves to stop it from coming back.

The Stone Tree

Riverdance again!

The rest of the day we stopped off at several more Lagunas all having some flamingos. After about the fifth one we got a bit bored. We had lunch next to a laguna at a place bizarrely called a Toilet Eco-Lodge where you couldn't go to the loo except at their tiny toilet which you had to pay a hefty amount for... I decided to abstain rather than face this extortionate tourist tax! We also got to a nice viewpoint of an active volcano where we could see it smoulder out black smoke. Overall not quite as exciting as the previous day but we had high expectations for the salt flats that were about to come.

Laguna "I Don't Care Anymore"

I think this is the Laguna where the Toilet Eco-lodge is located on the far right

Andean Flamingoes

We had come from the bottom left and were now almost at the Salt flat

Jeopardy in violation of just about every rule at the Toilet Eco-lodge!

Volcano Iruputuncu in the background. If you look carefully you can see a column of black smoke on the left slope

Our final stop was at a "Salt Hotel". The walls and floor of this hotel were entirely composed of salt (confirmed by a simple, unhygienic taste test) and was quite an interesting novelty! We were treated to a barbeque (I think we were eating Llama meat....) and a musical performance by some of the local children (very very bad!). We had been warned that due to the excessive rain that had been falling over the last few days that the salt flats may be impassable which was obviously terrible news for us. We held fingers crossed that all would turn out well. By now my headaches had eased so I managed to get a good rest in.

El Hotel de Sal

Day 3 started off hot and sunny and we were informed that the route to the salt flats was clear... after doing a few impromptu jigs of happiness we piled into the car. The route now was pretty much straight to the flats and onto Uyuni for 3pm.

We were greeted by some Llama herders in the morning as they took their flock to pasture

A Quinoa plantation - a nutritious grain (we had some back in El Chalten!)

The Salar de Uyuni (Uyuni Salt Flats) is the world's largest salt flat at 10,582 km2 (4,085 square miles). Driving through it provides quite a surreal experience. White stretches out as far as you can see and when the sky is clear and there is a thin film of water on top, it acts as a mirror where you lose all sense of perspective and distance. We had all been brainstorming picture ideas so at our first stop we rapidly scuttled around into the pre-designed formations. (WARNING: THERE ARE A LOT OF PICTURES AS WE GOT A BIT CARRIED AWAY)

Entering the Salar de Uyuni

Setting up for a picture

Not quite yet

Bingo!

Flipping out some moves

Salt Flat Riverfishing

GoGoJONAS with some dancing pixies on his shoulders

We also stopped at an island in the middle of the flats that was covered in giant Cacti. This place was named "Fish Island" due to its shape. After hiking all over the island, taking in the panoramic views and hugging some Cacti we had a spot of lunch as well as taking even more pictures. It was an intense feeling to stare out over this vast expanse of white and you got sucked into your thoughts at times.

Fish Island

Salt encrusted picnic tables (check out the icicles!)

Cactus-hugging

Click the play button to see a panoramic view from Fish Island

Irish pride in front of a salt hotel

Riverdance making a run for it

Another 3 hours of trekking across the flats, taking hundreds of pictures and stopping off at another salt hotel (the original one) and a salt mine we eventually reached Uyuni. After checking out a local "Train Cemetery" left over from the Spanish occupation (The towns of Uyuni and Potosi were linked due to the silver mining industry) we were dropped at the agency HQ.

Rusty trains

By now just about every item of clothing we had was covered in salt so we checked into our hostel and dumped all our clothes at a laundromat. Uyuni itself is an unremarkable desert town. Like San Pedro de Atacama, it is a dustbowl although it seemed to be far less tourist oriented. The local people there were dressed in the traditional Andean manner which was quite interesting. Typical dress amongst the women is a large ground hugging skirt with a colourful embroidered shirt and a type of bowler hat. They also tend to be very short which meant all the giant Gringos stuck out like sore thumbs!

The town centre where a "Raising of the Flag" ceremony was taking place

Daniel, Kelly, Ana Paula and Jonas left us here as they needed to fast track to La Paz due to time constraints. We decided to spend one day in Uyuni, getting stuff organised before moving onto Sucre (one of the oldest cities in Bolivia). We visited the Extreme Fun Pub and joined some other travellers for a bit of a singalong. Later, we ate at a Mexican restaurant recommended by Lonely Planet. The food was good but Jeopardy (Marie) didn´t agree with it so much and was stuck in bed with an upset stomach. As we had all already paid for our bus tickets to Sucre we were faced with the tough choice of leaving poor Jeopardy behind to recover until she could join us later.

A traveller's singalong at the "Extreme Fun Pub"

Riverdance sampling the local Pacena Cerveca

Waking up early again, we boarded the bus to Sucre.