Jeep at Half the Price

9am (8th May) Sunday Morning and we start a 4 day jeep tour of Salar de Uyuni (the world´s largest salt flat at 12,000 sq km and sits at a lofty 3653m) and many other attractions in the south west of Bolivia. We are to share the jeep with 4 other gringos and the driver and cook. Our compadres for the trip are Sue and Sharon (two friends from Cambridge Uni who come from Manchester and Cornwall), Keith from Plymouth (who we briefly met in Pucon at The Monkey Puzzle Hostel) and Januk from North of Paris.

The jeep was a bit tight for the 8 of us and after about an hour in the back seat my knee was playing up and I had too move into the central seats. Almost as soon as we left Tupiza we started to climb and before long we where almost up to 4000m. We stopped soon afterwards to take some photos of the the mountains Quebrada del Palala and some cacti which were over 3000 years old. Our next stop was for lunch and to have a very close look at about a thirty llamas which where wandering next to the road grazing. The Llamas where all wearing small pom pom things behind their ears, I think this was used for identification rather than any weird Bolivian cheerleading ritual. The Llamas didn´t seem to bother with us when we got close, but one did spit at Sue and Sharon. We where then treated to our first taste of the food from our own private cook Damasia, her food was a great improvement on the rubbish that was served up to us in Tupiza. Over the four days the food was always good and we also got to try some intresting things and Damasia was always very cheery. Our driver Alberto was fine at driving the Jeep but his choice of music on the first day left a lot to be desired, after a short burst of the usual south american nonsense we where then subjected to about two hours of Japanae folk music. Sharon tried to cover the speakers with her legs and fleece to dull the high pitched torture that is probably used in Guantanamo Bay to break the inmates.

We stopped off at a small town called San Pablo De Lipez where a few inquisitive kids came out to see the gringos and to get their photos taken, as with most kids these days they instantly wanted to see the reuslts in the back of the digital cameras. The town was at 4200m and it seemed like a really grim and cold palce to live, as with all the small towns and villages we passed there was a gravel football pitch which doesn´t look as if it ever saw grass.

This was also when both Joanne and myself had a problem with the Altitude (People have often said I had an attitide problem back home, but I´m not sure if their spelling was quite right because I haven´t been one much for heights). First I noticed the headaches and dizzy feeling (Yeah I can hear you sniggering at the back saying how would I know the difference). After getting our rucksacks off the top of the jeep I had to sit down for 10 minutes where I felt really drunk as if I had just drunk about 10 pints of Stella, the most annoying thing was that I hadn´t had a drink in the past few days never mind a decent pint of Stella.

Januk from then on would regularly supply me with coca leaves to chew, I´m not sure if this helped with the Altitude sickenss but it made the trip go a bit smoother. The cook also made us flasks of mate each day, another supposedly antidote to altitude sickness.

Our place of rest for the first night was a bleak stone building with 6 beds, no heating, one electric bulb and a small room for having dinner in the village of San Antonio De Lipez. Januk disappeared for a while before coming back to tell us that he was star gazing and that he hadn´t seen this many stars since the time he went to the Oscars (I think that is what he said but my understanding of his English wasn´t too great). So the rest of us headed out (Joanne picked up a blanket) and true enough the sky was covered in stars and it was difficult to recognise any of the usual constellations, but you could clearly see the Milky Way and numerous shooting stars. Back in the room it was absolutely freezing but they did supply us with about 1000 blankets so it wasn´t too bad.

Next morning was an early rise (6 am) where we saw several lakes before we got stuck crossing a river bed. For a few minutes or so it looked like the guys would have had to get out and push the jeep out of knee deep icy water....but fortunately Sue and Sharon threw themselves to the other side of the vehicle which allowed the jeep to free itself.

We also passed an eerie deserted gold mining town which the locals believed to have been cursed. The story goes "The mine was ran by a mean guy (aka the devil). There were very few women in the town and each had to marry 7 men. Any daughters were exchanged with other villages for bricks and mortar. Complaints were made to the Priest in Potosi about the owner's behaviour and the situation of women. A priest came but was cursed by accepting a gold gift from the owner. Another priest came and told the owner to take a bible to the top of the mountain and wait for sunrise. The owner fell asleep and when he woke up the bible had turned to stone. Shortly after this people started falling ill and dying and people started to leave the village which made the mine go out of business. From then on the any gold from the mine was supposedly cursed and brought bad luck on the owner."

Our lunch time stop was at some thermals where we had a dip in the shallow pool. We stopped off at a lake which produced soda crystals for washing which looked like snow washing up on the beach. This was close to the Dalí desert which took it´s name from the Spanish surrealist painter due to the weird rock formations scattered about the desert. Next stop was the sulphur smelling geysers at Sol De Mañana at 5000m where steam was pouring out of holes in the earth and pools of mud were spurting.

That night we had another stay in a cold hostel with no heating but once again we where saved by the abundance of heavy blankets. Januk and Sue taught us some card games and we played until the room got too cold, Januk also practiced his Scottish pronunciations by mimicking Joanne´s stick and twist while we had a few games of pontoon.

After another early rise it wasn´t long before we saw thousands of pink flamingos bathe in the reflective ligh of Lake Colorada. When one twitchy flamingo flew off it usually started a domino effect until all the birds around it had followed the first to where it had landed, this seemed to happen quite regular. We stayed here for about half an hour and Joanne must have taken about 200 photos. Our next stop was to the National Park where we saw some more bizzare rock formations and one in particular that looks like a giant broccoli (Arbol De Piedra) that you see all the time in posters, postcards and books in Bolivia. We then stopped for a bit when Alfredo the diver spotted some vizcachas (small rabbit/rodent type things related to chinchillas), after peeling some cucumbers Alfredo tried to entice them down and soon we were feeding quite a few.

At lunch we stopped next to more flamingos but they were soon driven away when a few jeeps of other tourists started playing really loud music after they had taken their photos. This left our group slighlty peeved to say the least, but the less we say about this is probably for the best before we go down a long path I don´t really want too.

We then drove past the salt plains as the sun was starting to set and this looked amazing before arriving at our Salt Hotel. Yes, that is right our hotel was made out of Salt Bricks including the bed and bedside table. We all thought that it would be white....but in fact the bricks were a light grey colour. Sue testified that it was defiinitely made of salt as she had licked the wall in her room.

Here we were able to have a hot shower (the first shower for us since starting the tour) and boy was that good. We then ate dinner and had our first drink since starting the tour which consisted of one can of beer each....well it was a wild night. We played cards this time Joanne taught everyone how to play Scabby Queen (I lost in the first game) and Sharon taught us another card game. We were asked by an Israeli guy to sing Happy Birthday in Hebrew for his friend....he wrote down the words but unfortunately the tune wasn't to 'Happy Birthday' as we know it but at least they gave us some of their sweets and biscuits.

The next big dilema was whether or not to get up to see the sunrise....at a 4.30 am start we all decided that it would be worthwhile. Despite me trying to rally everyone up for an all nighter and no sleep - around 10pm we headed to bed.

Yes we did get out of our kip early and had to pack our bags via a reading light (thanks Brenda) and candle as our bouth our torch batteries ran out at the same time the night before. After breakfast we drove out to see the sun rise across the Salt Plains of Uyuni. It was amazing and when we got out to take pictures it was freezing and the salt looked like a huge snow field topped with ice.

We then drove to the Isla Del Pescado an island in the centre of the salt plain which had thousands of cacti growing on it. We arrived at 7.30 and had a couple of hours to explore so we wandered up to the top of the island where we sat in complete silence soaking up the magical and surreal view. The salt plains went on as far as the eye could see into the horizon and sometimes looked like a lake or a desert as the sun hit the ground at different times. We sat there for quite a while before heading down for our second breakfast (our cook was worried that we werent being fed enough!). We ate fried sweet bread and drank 'Api' a local drink made from maize, lemon and cinnamon which was delicious and really warmed us up.

After this we went towards Uyuni and stopped off to be shown by Alfredo holes in the plains with water which were made by underground gases finding their way out. We saw some salt crystals which had perfect square and rectangular formations. We ate our lunch and said out thanks to Alfredo and Damasia before being dropped off in Uyuni to book our bus to La Paz.

Uyuni only had one main attraction which was the train graveyard....so five of us in a taxi and out we went. Whole trains were left on the tracks to rust. It had an eerie feel to it and we all couldn't resist climbing our way up onto the wrecked trains.

Headed back for a pizza which was fabulous before getting on the luxury bus to La Paz (well it was a luxury to have called it a bus). Fortunately Joanne managed to get a sleeping bag out (unfortunately we should have got both of them out). My stomach gurguled for the whole of the rocking, freezing, uncomofortable trip to La Paz. The windows kept opening by themselves (despite the driver taping the windows up with sellotape) due to the lack of suspension and the lack of surface on the roads! Luckily we arrived in La Paz safe and sound but totally freezing at 7am.