On the road again

Yes, after two weeks in one place, we are finally going somewhere. And so far, the pace has been very hectic. Hard to adjust after being so lazy for so long.

Day 0

Met the people for our tour from La Paz to Rio. There are 15 plus the leader, eleven of whom are continuing a tour they started in Quito. The four joining here in La Paz, including us, have all done the Peru trip so we all basically have had the same experience in South America to this point. One other Canadian, with the majority of the rest from Australia and England. Big age range from 23 to 68. We all had a get-together dinner at Mongo´s (a La Paz night club).

Day 1

This morning, we left the hotel about 11:15 AM in taxis to the bus depot where we caught a noon bus to Oruro city. This was not a bad bus, first going up to El Alto and then travelling for about 4 hours on the high altiplano all the way to Oruro. In Oruro, we simply took taxis to the train station where we waited for the 7:00 PM train to Uyuni, arriving there at about 2:30 AM the next morning. Supper on the train was adequate. Long day(night?).

We have no idea of what the land we passed through looked like as it was pitch dark for the entire trip.

-

Day 2

Early start, after a short sleep, for our two-day tour to the salt flats (Salar de Uyuni) via 3 Toyota Land Cruisers.

The first stop was at a train cemetery. This is where they have sort of parked a bunch of old locomotives till they have the money to restore them or they rust away, whichever comes first.

These are 2nd generation trains for Bolivia. Pre-dating these were some smaller trains that are probably most famous for being the target of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid in the early 1900s. The current trains (like the one we took to get to Uyani) are somwhat more modern designs, at least for South America. What we found most striking is the small guage of the tracks here in South America.

We drove onto the salt flats and learned about how they refine the salt as a sort of cottage industry here, then had lunch at an old salt hotel (Llama barbeque). This hotel is no longer actually used as a hotel as it is a little worse for ware.

The salt flats are amazing. These are the largest in the world, the 2nd largest being the one in Utah, which is about 1/2 the size. Being from Canada, it has the appearance of a huge frozen-over lake with a layer of snow on top - tempting to drill a hole and do some ice fishing. But when you walk on it, it is not slippery and has the consistency of, you guessed it, salt.

Some explanation of the salt flat... This is the lowest point of the Bolivian Altiplano (3700 Meters) and also the driest area in South America. The salt is the residue from a remnant of the ocean that was lifted by volcanic activity and them gradually evaporated. The depth of the salt varies from a few meters at the edges to over 120 Meters at the center. Under a very thin dry top layer, the salt is surprisingly moist - in some places there is water at the surface and it can be treacherous to drive on. The salt flat is still growing larger each year, with the run-off from the surrounding mountains bringing silt that breaks down into more salt.

This is the place where everyone goes wild over taking stupid pictures as you can get all kinds of special effects because of the lack of perspective when everything is white. We discovered that we have very little imagination when it comes to clever photography.

By the end of the day, we had driven to the edge of the salt where we checked into a salt hotel to spend the night. We took advantage of an option here to visit some recently discovered caves about a 1/2 hour away. These caves are quite unique because instead of the usual limestone formations, evething is frozen coral and algae, as this was all at the bottom of a sea before it dried up, leaving only the salt behind.

We stayed by the caves, climbing to the top of a hill of course, to see the sunset before returning to the hotel of supper. Early night at the hotel as there is no power after 9:30 PM. The hotel was quite basic but better than we had anticipated, probably much nicer, and more permanent, than the equivalent ice hotels in Canada and elsewhere.

Day 3

Left the salt hotel for the continuation of the tour of the salt flats.

The best part was the visit to ¨Fish Island¨. This is the top of an ancient underwater volcano that became a coral reef before the sea evaporated, leaving what appears to be an island in the middle of the salt flats.

Huge 1000 year old catcus grow in abundance here, where the surface is petrified coral, and provide for a very unique landscape. We spent several hours here, climbing to the top of the island and having lunch at the shore.

After lunch we drove to the far side of the salt flats where you can see flamigos in the shallow water at the edge of the pure white salt, with a field of llamas grazing behind them and the slopes of a volcano for a backdrop. We are forever amazed at the variety of landscapes these countries can present to us.

After pausing for yet more clever pictures, it was back to Uyuni for the night.

Uyuni is a place that has very little to offer. In many ways it is the same drought-stricken dusty town that it probably was at the time Butch and Sundance met their end at the hands of the Bolivian army, supposedly a short distance from here.

Day 4

This morning, we took the public bus to Potosi, the highest place, at 4070 Meters, that we will have spent a night since the Lores Trek. The bus was old and dusty and the dirt road is very bumpy and dusty and there is no toilet of course. A gruelling 6 hour ride over some spectacular mountains and we arrived in Potosi in time for a supper at the local theatre.

Day 5

Today we had the option of doing a tour of a local mine. Somehow what was described to us did not appeal and did not sound too politically correct. So we, and I think everyone else, opted to not do the tour.

Instead, we had a free day in Potosi. Slept in, eat, wander around town, update the website, etc.

Tomorrow we are off to Sucre, the capital of Bolivia.