The overland trip across the Salar de Uyuni in Bolivia was an otherworldly experience! I have been meaning to tell you about it for weeks, so here it is. My memory is a little hazy as it has been a while since the trip, not to mention the fact that it began on new years morning. After a night of celebrating with the locals, dancing in the streets, dodging fireworks (while dancing!) and raising my glass to an endless number of toasts, stumbling "home" in the new daylight, I embarked on this journey with about an hour and a half of quality sleep.
The Salar is a salt flat, this particular one happens to be the largest in the world. It sits at 3653 meters (almost 11,000 feet) above sea level and blankets 12,000 square kilometers! It was part of a prehistoric salt lake, Lago Minchín, which covered most of southwest Bolivia. When it dried up it left a couple of salt pans, including the Salar de Uyuni and Salar de Coipasa. It is a blinding white desert that extends farther than the eyes can see (your eyes need to be covered with sunglasses or you can´t see anything!). There are only a few pictures of the salt plains on the photo link as I was feeling a bit under the weather that day. You can get the idea though, lots of white everywhere you turn! On day one we stopped at the Isla de los Pescadores, a very cool island covered with giant cactus (or is it cacti?). Also a visit to one of the salt hotels, yes, a structure made entirly of cinder-block sized salt chunks! Really wild, if it wasn´t so hot I would have thought it was an ice palace.
Day Two. We had passed through the salar at the end of a very long day one and stayed in a small encampment in the middle of the southwestern, Bolivian desert. With the white behind us our Land Cruiser jetted across this vast, remote corner of Bolivia. The surreal landscape is nearly treeless punctuated by gentle hills and volcanoes with an almost psychadelic mix of colors wallpapering their flanks. It was beautiful! I hadn´t expected to see anything like what I was experiencing. I had initially intended to skip northern Chile knowing that the Atacama Desert covered much of it and really, how exciting could the desert be? Pleasantly suprised to say the least! It is one of the most beautiful places I have ever been, hands down! The colors are subtle and bold at the same time, natures' colors are far more spectacular than anything man could ever hope to create. Once again, a very long day driving through the desert but very enjoyable too. I have been fortunate to end up with good groups on the tours I have chosen. I had a younger American couple from Kentucky, a Frenchman and a South African guy with his Aussie girlfriend for company over the course of these three days in the vehicle. We all got along really well and had good conversation which made the experience that much more enjoyable.
Day Three. Another stellar day! We had stayed at an old military camp the previous night, crude accomodation but it mattered very little because we were up at 4:30 a.m. and out in the sub- zero temperatures to see the geyser basin just before sunrise. At almost 15,000 feet above sea level (hence the cold temps.) the geyser basin with it's sulfurous fumaroles and boiling mud pits were something to see! Check out these photos on the link, they are cool to see and you don´t have to smell the sulpher! Afterwords we continued south towards Chile and stopped at several very colorful lakes. Beautiful but poisonous, we could not swim as the colors, depending on the lake, were derived from Borax, Sulpher and Arsenic! Some of the lakes were not poisonous and supported interesting wildlife including many flamingos.
The second half of my day was spent crossing the border from Bolivia to Chile. This part of the day was not so stellar. Several hours at Chilean immigrations as they emptied the bus of people and gear to search everyone and everything. Borders have not been an issue until now. Once in Chile I realized that the culture here is very different than the northern part of the continent (and many things that are legal in Boivia are very illegal in Chile)! It's completly westernized, very modern, air conditioning and malls! I couldn't belive it, a mall, how strange after four months in countries with mud brick buildings and people going to the bathroom in the streets!
Well, if you ever find yourself in the desert in Bolivia, be sure to check out the Salar, it is beautiful beyond words and the Mad Max style of transport was mad fun! Peace, Jeff.
The Salar is a salt flat, this particular one happens to be the largest in the world. It sits at 3653 meters (almost 11,000 feet) above sea level and blankets 12,000 square kilometers! It was part of a prehistoric salt lake, Lago Minchín, which covered most of southwest Bolivia. When it dried up it left a couple of salt pans, including the Salar de Uyuni and Salar de Coipasa. It is a blinding white desert that extends farther than the eyes can see (your eyes need to be covered with sunglasses or you can´t see anything!). There are only a few pictures of the salt plains on the photo link as I was feeling a bit under the weather that day. You can get the idea though, lots of white everywhere you turn! On day one we stopped at the Isla de los Pescadores, a very cool island covered with giant cactus (or is it cacti?). Also a visit to one of the salt hotels, yes, a structure made entirly of cinder-block sized salt chunks! Really wild, if it wasn´t so hot I would have thought it was an ice palace.
Day Two. We had passed through the salar at the end of a very long day one and stayed in a small encampment in the middle of the southwestern, Bolivian desert. With the white behind us our Land Cruiser jetted across this vast, remote corner of Bolivia. The surreal landscape is nearly treeless punctuated by gentle hills and volcanoes with an almost psychadelic mix of colors wallpapering their flanks. It was beautiful! I hadn´t expected to see anything like what I was experiencing. I had initially intended to skip northern Chile knowing that the Atacama Desert covered much of it and really, how exciting could the desert be? Pleasantly suprised to say the least! It is one of the most beautiful places I have ever been, hands down! The colors are subtle and bold at the same time, natures' colors are far more spectacular than anything man could ever hope to create. Once again, a very long day driving through the desert but very enjoyable too. I have been fortunate to end up with good groups on the tours I have chosen. I had a younger American couple from Kentucky, a Frenchman and a South African guy with his Aussie girlfriend for company over the course of these three days in the vehicle. We all got along really well and had good conversation which made the experience that much more enjoyable.
Day Three. Another stellar day! We had stayed at an old military camp the previous night, crude accomodation but it mattered very little because we were up at 4:30 a.m. and out in the sub- zero temperatures to see the geyser basin just before sunrise. At almost 15,000 feet above sea level (hence the cold temps.) the geyser basin with it's sulfurous fumaroles and boiling mud pits were something to see! Check out these photos on the link, they are cool to see and you don´t have to smell the sulpher! Afterwords we continued south towards Chile and stopped at several very colorful lakes. Beautiful but poisonous, we could not swim as the colors, depending on the lake, were derived from Borax, Sulpher and Arsenic! Some of the lakes were not poisonous and supported interesting wildlife including many flamingos.
The second half of my day was spent crossing the border from Bolivia to Chile. This part of the day was not so stellar. Several hours at Chilean immigrations as they emptied the bus of people and gear to search everyone and everything. Borders have not been an issue until now. Once in Chile I realized that the culture here is very different than the northern part of the continent (and many things that are legal in Boivia are very illegal in Chile)! It's completly westernized, very modern, air conditioning and malls! I couldn't belive it, a mall, how strange after four months in countries with mud brick buildings and people going to the bathroom in the streets!
Well, if you ever find yourself in the desert in Bolivia, be sure to check out the Salar, it is beautiful beyond words and the Mad Max style of transport was mad fun! Peace, Jeff.
posted by Phlip | 10:22 AM
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