Salar de Uyuni and around

When we got to the bus terminal in Potosi, we knew the trip to Uyuni would be fantastic upon hearing a woman about a meter tall screeching out UYYUUUNIII!!!!. Her shrill call stuck with us for the remainder of our trip, and we would spontaneously shout it out to each other. As it turns out, Uyuni was a fantastic 4 day adventure with some surreal landscapes, geology and morphology, and the flora and fauna were all new to us (except the llamas!). After the night bus into the city, we crashed into our beds in the hostel, and were ready to go first thing when the alarm went off.

Day 1:

We arrived on time at the Andes Salt Expedition office only to find that it was still closed. Worried that we may have chosen the wrong tour company, our fears were assuaged when the troupe of employees arrived in a convoy of Toyota Land Cruisers (honestly, we think Uyuni has the absolute highest per-capita amount of these vehicles in the world…. Every other car is one of the 4-wheeling beasts). After meeting Lorenzo, our guide, we loaded up the car, piled in, and plugged the tunes. We immediately took a liking to Lorenzo for his driving and dancing skillz, easy laugh, and broad knowledge of the surroundings. We actually saved some money by getting a Spanish speaking guide, which turned out to be a great choice, and a fantastic way to practice our Spanish.

Our first stop was the train graveyard, which was a collection of British steam trains that fell out of use and are now rusting into the sands outside of the city. It was interesting climbing through all of the different rusted train skeletons. After this stop we loaded up with food and headed out to the salt flat. We all gawked at the endless white flat landscape that stretched farther than our eyes could strain. We arrived at a salt processing area, where salt was piled into mounds with shovels and hoes and left to drain. Once it is dry that press it into bricks and send it away. They also had bags of salt to buy and use for every single meal (things are quite over-salted here!). After this we saw the Ojos del Salar, which are pools of bubbling sulfur and other minerals that are pushed to the surface from a volcano that was over 12km away! After Kristin named the different minerals present, we hopped back into the Cruiser and headed to a Salt hotel (the entire building is made from salt bricks cut from the Salar!). Here we enjoyed an awesome meal of fried llama steaks, quinoa, and a fresh salad, yumm! We also took some of the typical perspective shots that many tourists love to do out on the flats.

Kristin riding in Ivan's Giant Shoe!!

Ivan squishing Kristin

Ivan, Kristin, Amy, Laura and Mark

Ivan taking a hit on the Salar

Salt blocks being cut from the Salar, used from construction aka: salt hotel

Kristin dropping an Ivan Bomb!!! PUUUU

Banana Boat hired us for the day for their next ad

After stuffing ourselves, we crossed the Salar to a tiny town at the base of the volcano Tunupa (our second SPOT was at the top of this volcano crater). Here we relaxed, played dice and cards, got chased by a very needy baby llama, enjoyed a great dinner (more fried llama!), and had some fun learning British Pub-Master rules and etiquette.

Day 2

We got up at 5 am before the sun peeked over the Salar, ate a quick breakfast, and piled into the Cruiser for a bumpy ride up to the volcano crater. The sunrise was absolutely breathtaking (unfortunately our pictures couldn’t capture the magic) and we enjoyed the sage scrub and interesting lichens that covered the mountainsides. We walked the last kilometer up the steep road (very difficult at 5200 meters!!), and were in awe as we crested the edge of the crater and looked at the array of reds, yellows, oranges, browns, and whites that were layered and folded inside the crater. The orangey sun-glow accentuated these colors even more (you can even see these colors from our SPOT satellite!).

A beautiful sunrise

Beautiful natives

Before we could descend back down the mountain, we got our first flat… Ivan had fun pulling off the wheel with Lorenzo, with the car teetering on the very rocky steep road. Nothing those two manly men couldn’t handle though! After replacing the wheel, we descended the rocky slope for a much anticipated lunch of fried pollo, potatoes, and steamed vegetables. Soon after lunch, we headed back onto the Salar to visit some flamingos, llamas, a museum, and a silly rock garden. We were anxious to get to fish island, which has the oldest cactus species in the world! The desert heat was really intense, and the island was shimmering when we drove up to it. It was surreal walking around a small island hillscape covered in cactus and was surrounded by a sea of white. After walking the island, we were happy to grab a cold Pasceña beer and take some more perspective shots on the salt flat. Driving over the salt flat, we crossed to another hotel made of salt. On the way we got our second flat, which Ivan, Mark, and Lorenzo efficiently fixed within 5 min (faster than a Bolivian NASCAR pit-stop). That night we enjoyed sitting around the table for 2 hours with stomachs gurgling like crazy. The soup and Pique Macho were inhaled! That night it got near 0 degree Celsius, but our sleeping bags were up to the challenge.

Day 3:

The day started off with another flat ten minutes into our journey. Exasperated with the tube-tires, we had to flag down another vehicle to lend us their spare so we could make it to San Juan (only 15min away…). Here, we good naturedly watched Bolivian efficiency, or men hacking at tires with pic-axes to remove the tire from the rim… Worried we would only last another ten minutes, we took bets as to how long the new set of tubes would last. Fortunately, we were all wrong since we didn’t get another flat for the remainder of the trip. This day we covered a lot of distance and saw a great deal. We saw five different Laguna’s with rare flamingos, llamas, and the shy vicuñas around them. Our favorite lagoon was the famed Laguna Colorada, which definitely lived up to its redness (we did our third SPOT check-in here). The redness of the lagoon was from the excess boron accumulated from a nearby source (It was currently being excavated and mined to another town) . When we stepped out of the Cruiser to witness this beautiful lagoon, the chilly wind nearly knocked us over (Hint: Kristin was able to proudly execute Michael Jackson’s famous lean). Later that evening we met 3 students from Oregon working on their PHD’s in geology and volcanism. Kristin thought this was very fascinating, however we did not get a chance to thoroughly chat due to their need to get to bed early. Bummer!!!

Vicunas

The famous MJ lean, no contraption needed...that's how good KK is

A true rare flamingo siting

Another great site we witnessed was the ACTIVE volcano, which was standing half in Bolivia and half in Chile. It was extremely thrilling to see steam and other volatile gases fuming from the summit of the volcano. From our vantage point, we stood on rounded volcanic rock formations called Ramaditas. We were also lucky enough to catch some surf while out on the rocks….hehe

The active volcano, the active side only in Chile

Surfs Up

Next, we crossed the desolate dessert plains, which were very cold and windy. We stopped at a famous rock formation called Arbol de Piedra, famous because it was once a giant rock that was thrown from an erupting volcano and through the years has been eroded and shaped by wind and sand fragments. Pretty incredible since the nearest volcano was over 7km away!!!

This last night we stopped at a nearby pueblo and were told the temperature would get around -20 degrees Celsius. YIKES!!! We truly put our sleeping bags to the test here. Luckily for us, we survived and had no complaints!!! We awoke at the early hour of 4 am to begin our drive to the geysers. These geysers were all natural and the steam reached temperatures of over 1000 degrees Celsius!! We continued our drive as the sun rose to see the mountains that the famous Salvador Dalhi (the famous explorer and painter) found. A stunning, large mountain range that combined and swirled natural colors into the morphology of the mountains. Maybe he used this mountain range as an inspiration for a painting?!!

After a bit of driving we came upon the beautiful thermal springs and rest stop for breakfast. We enjoyed a true Bolivian treat for breakfast, pancakes, yogurt, granola, and tea/coffee. YUM! Afterwards, we were encouraged to enjoy a dip in the extremely hot, natural, thermal springs. However, it became more of a human soup and the cold wind didn’t seem too inviting, so we decided to skip and explore the area. Once Lorenzo returned from the human soup “or thermal spring full of tourist chicas!” we continued down the road to the most southern tip of Bolivia to drop off our British friends as they departed into San Pedro, Chile.

As Lorenzo, Ivan and Kristin enjoyed the very long drive back to Uyuni, we talked about all sorts of different issues, culture comparisons and the surrounding terrain. We enjoyed another delicious lunch and witnessed some incredible rock formations. After the long, dusty, dirty, drive we were ready for some hot showers!! We said our good-byes to Lorenzo and parted our ways…

The Front Seat Perspective

Salar de Uyuni

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We are now in Salta, Argentina. Excited to taste some fresh beef and wash it down with some good vino!!!Last night we had an absolute blast with Danny, the young and vibrant owner of our cozy hostal. At 10:30 he asked us if we wanted to go on a short 'walk.' This turned into an amazing 3 hour excursion, where we were shown the night life of the city. We were treated in an amazing restaurant where the beer was cold, the live folkloric music was fantastic, and the dancers were very talented. Danny of course got the dancers attention and they dragged us up onstage to dance a number. Fortunately they were very patient and didn't expect to much from us! The singer also kept shouting out 'California!' as we 4 dancers spun circles in front of him. After the incredible fun in the restaurant, Danny insisted we have some Argentinian "munchie food," which was a milanesa sandwich. We all shared this hamburger-like treat in the park and talked about differences between Bolivia and Argentina, as well as life in California versus Salta. We slept in till 11:45 this morning, so I guess we've fallen into the Argentinian lifestyle fairly effortlessly!