I have just been on a three day 4X4 tour of the salt flats and desert in southern Bolivia. It was so very beautiful and impressive I want to share lots of photos so will do a separate blog entry for each day. It has probably been the most physically impressive part of this trip for me. Better than Machu Picchu, Patagonia and Iguazu Falls.
I arrived in the small desert town of Uyuni at 06:15 on a bitter, bitter cold morning following an overnight bus from La Paz. Upon arrival I enjoyed some bone-thawing sweet coffee and fried dough with balaclava-wearing, but very funny locals from the only kiosk open at such an ungodly hour. Then I went searching for the cheapest tour I could find leaving that morning. The blistering cold and overnight bus fatigue made the search a quick one and I quickly signed up with an agency and paid just over seventy dollars for the all inclusive three day trip before utilizing their sofa to rest up before the bumpy journey ahead.
Luckily I struck lucky with the tour. I’ve heard many bad reports about bad drivers, guides, food, etc, but I was transferred to another group tour as there weren’t enough people with the agency I booked (normal practice), which was more expensive (but I didn’t have to pay any more).
Our driver; Gregario and cook; Dora, were a lovely married couple and took really great care of us. My group of six gringos was made up of a cool German couple and three half mad girls from the States an New Zealand and of course myself. And also being half mad, or at least one third, myself, we all got along just great and the craic was ninety right from the start.
Our first day was spent driving around the salt flats. A truly unreal sight to take it, more like a hallucination or mirage than anything (as you can see from the photos). We stopped briefly at a very small processing plant to learn about how they process and sell the salt. It isn’t a particularly difficult process, but with salt being so cheap and transport costs too high to export anywhere, there’s isn’t a lot of money in it for the locals.
Enroute we stopped and Dora took to the salt ground with a chisel and made a hole that looked just like something you would do ice-fishing in through. Here we could see that the salt layer was just twenty or thirty centimeters thick and then gave way to salty water which is also filled with minerals and produces amazing natural crystals.
After taking some photos we stopped for lunch on Incahuasi. Which looked like an island in the sea of salt, but is actually the top of an old volcano. Here cacti grow like movie set in an old western and we enjoyed a hearty lunch of alapca meat, spuds (that means potatoes for you non-Irish) and salad.
Then we cruised over the snowy/slushy-looking salt for another couple of hours or two, Gregario showing his seventeen years driving experience, and making our Land Cruiser seem as comfortable as a BMW.
On our first evening we stayed at a salt hotel. There is one big famous hotel built on the actual salt lake which is illegal, environmentally damaging, but very popular nonetheless. Thankfully we didn’t stay here, but in a small, bungalo-style hotel in a small village (more like a hamlet) just off the salt lakes. The entire structure was made of ice blocks. From the walls, to tables and chairs, bedframes and the floor was of big chunky salt grains. Don’t get me wrong, this was not a beautiful, finely sculpted building like the ice hotels of Scandanavia, but rather a coarsely put together habitation using the cheapest local material available. But a great, candle-lit (for light, not romance) evening in a special place.
I arrived in the small desert town of Uyuni at 06:15 on a bitter, bitter cold morning following an overnight bus from La Paz. Upon arrival I enjoyed some bone-thawing sweet coffee and fried dough with balaclava-wearing, but very funny locals from the only kiosk open at such an ungodly hour. Then I went searching for the cheapest tour I could find leaving that morning. The blistering cold and overnight bus fatigue made the search a quick one and I quickly signed up with an agency and paid just over seventy dollars for the all inclusive three day trip before utilizing their sofa to rest up before the bumpy journey ahead.
Luckily I struck lucky with the tour. I’ve heard many bad reports about bad drivers, guides, food, etc, but I was transferred to another group tour as there weren’t enough people with the agency I booked (normal practice), which was more expensive (but I didn’t have to pay any more).
Our driver; Gregario and cook; Dora, were a lovely married couple and took really great care of us. My group of six gringos was made up of a cool German couple and three half mad girls from the States an New Zealand and of course myself. And also being half mad, or at least one third, myself, we all got along just great and the craic was ninety right from the start.
Our first day was spent driving around the salt flats. A truly unreal sight to take it, more like a hallucination or mirage than anything (as you can see from the photos). We stopped briefly at a very small processing plant to learn about how they process and sell the salt. It isn’t a particularly difficult process, but with salt being so cheap and transport costs too high to export anywhere, there’s isn’t a lot of money in it for the locals.Enroute we stopped and Dora took to the salt ground with a chisel and made a hole that looked just like something you would do ice-fishing in through. Here we could see that the salt layer was just twenty or thirty centimeters thick and then gave way to salty water which is also filled with minerals and produces amazing natural crystals.
After taking some photos we stopped for lunch on Incahuasi. Which looked like an island in the sea of salt, but is actually the top of an old volcano. Here cacti grow like movie set in an old western and we enjoyed a hearty lunch of alapca meat, spuds (that means potatoes for you non-Irish) and salad.
Then we cruised over the snowy/slushy-looking salt for another couple of hours or two, Gregario showing his seventeen years driving experience, and making our Land Cruiser seem as comfortable as a BMW.
On our first evening we stayed at a salt hotel. There is one big famous hotel built on the actual salt lake which is illegal, environmentally damaging, but very popular nonetheless. Thankfully we didn’t stay here, but in a small, bungalo-style hotel in a small village (more like a hamlet) just off the salt lakes. The entire structure was made of ice blocks. From the walls, to tables and chairs, bedframes and the floor was of big chunky salt grains. Don’t get me wrong, this was not a beautiful, finely sculpted building like the ice hotels of Scandanavia, but rather a coarsely put together habitation using the cheapest local material available. But a great, candle-lit (for light, not romance) evening in a special place.
1 comment:
Hey Mark!
How are you?
How is your Spanish?
I watched "salt flats" on TV last weekend! and I was talking your trip with Nobu.
It was impressive for me so I really envy your this tour.
I hope you have fun trip.
Take care.
Ryuta.
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