on the 3-day jeep tour. As usual, we waited an hour or so for them to get organized, etc. During the wait, we got to know our travel companions for the next 3 days; Stefan and Simone, a lovely Swiss couple, Mateas from Lyon, France (who reminded me much of my friend Eric Philips in Paris) and Gwil from Vancouver. We were very lucky, as everyone was interesting, considerate, and generally fun. We were all in the same position, having quit our jobs for longer-term travel - and our 3 days in the landcruiser passed quickly and remarkably painlessly. We'd really had great luck-of-the-draw, as your fellow passengers on
a trip like this could make-or-break the experience.The first day's long, hot drive included a visit to the train cemetery, with 20 or so rusting old steam engines and freight cars. From there, we were on to the salt "museum", mainly a tourist-trinket outlet with some interesting sculptures, furniture and entire buildings built in salt from the salar.
Then on to the salar itself, which is thousands and thousands of square miles of flat, white (well, gray from the tourist traffic) salt - from the time when the pacific ocean reached into these high altitudes. We visited a hotel made completely of salt, and then much further on, lunched at "Isla Pescado" - "Fish Island" - a small hillock of huge cacti in the middle of the great white nowhere. We munched on llama steaks and then were taught a course in salt-flat photography by Gwil: shots using the hars
h light and never-ending horizon to create plays on perspective - good for a few hours fun before piling back in the landcruiser to continue for several more hours, and one flat tire, to our resting place for the night in San Pedro de Quemes - a small desert village. We dined and play cards together until the lights went out...Next day we were up at 6am, and after showers and breakfast, off at 7. We passed an active volcano, fields of razor-sharp lava and huge rock formations. We'd left the salt flats at this point and were passing through the driest desert in the world...very, very slowy! After lunch by a salt pond full of pink flami
ngos, we visited the "world famous" large stone tree, and another bizarre rock formation full of small, long-tailed rabbit-like creatures called vizcachas - a good spot to rock climb and stretch the legs. We finished off the day with a visit to laguna colorada - a bright red lagoon with many bright-pink flamingos. Finally we arrived at our spot for the night - a way station full of 20 or so groups just like ours, each piled into separate dorm rooms. We drank beer and wine and continued our card games until lights out.Next morning up at 4am (argh!) and off to the geysers for some pre-daw
n, freezing cold steam walking. This was the coldest we'd been in all our 10 months of travel, but the landscape was so spooky-cool, it was worth it - bubbling mud craters, sulferous steam jets - all in the eerie, early-morning light. Until we could no longer feel our toes...Luckily our next stop was a thermal hot spring where we hopped in the water and regained feeling in our appendages after 20 minutes or so. We had a quick breakfast there before heading on to laguna azul - "blue lagoon" which was less impressive than the red lagoon the day before. (better in the afternoon, they say!) After that, we arrived at the Chilean border. After passing through bolivian immigration we boarded a nice, clean bus and crossed into Chile, where we were immediately met by smooth, paved roads - hooray!
Talor: Though throughout our three days of desert travel, we saw some crazy cool, amazing terrain, after awhile, it became one big blur as we went from sight to sight, climbing in the car, climbing out of the car, in-and-out, in-and-out. The highlight for me was definitely getting to know our travel mates, a diverse international group from very different backgrounds that played nice and shared well. We had great fun swapping stories and exchanging travel tips. And when it was time for us to say good-bye and go our separate ways, I thought to myself, "Hope we'll stay in touch..." Thanks guys for a really great time!
To see more photos of our tour...
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| Salar De Uyuni Tour, Bolivia |
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