The Red Planet

Salar De Uyuni

So... I have really got behind on my blog.  I’ve been pretty busy since the last one.  So here is a quick recap of my past adventures.  The first weekend of May, I took a trip to Uyuni to tour the Salt flats and the surrounding landscape of southern Bolivia.  It would turn out to be one of the rarest and most beautiful landscapes I had ever seen in my life.  But first I had to make it there which was a bit questionable at first.  At first my bus was delayed over an hour leaving the terminal of La Paz.  Once we left the terminal we began settling in for the long 14 hour journey to Uyuni.  Our bus was making its way through the rush hour traffic of El Alto when the unthinkable happened.  Would you believe that are bus shut off in the middle of an intersection as we were turning onto another street.  It caused a huge traffic jam of honking minibuses.  The police who were in the intersection began yelling at the driver of our bus.  The driver tried and tried to get the bus started to no avail.  The driver then came up and asked us if we could help push the bus out of the intersection.  I was thinking, “Push this huge thing? He must be crazy!”  Well I shucked off my sleeping bag and began putting my shoes on to give it a go.  All of a sudden, as soon as I got my shoes on, the bus cranked up and began to work.  The driver threw it in gear and pulled out of the center of the intersection leaving all the angry police and minibus drivers behind.  Soon after, I laid back in my seat and dozed off to sleep. 

Looking for the Roadrunner and Coyote

 I woke up the next morning as the sun was rising over the rocky mountain formations sticking up out of a sandy desert wasteland.  I kept staring out the window thinking that I was going to see the coyote chasing the roadrunner through the desert.  There was nothing to see except for random llamas, cactus, and shrub bushes scattered around everywhere.  After a few more hours of riding through the desert, the bus was finally pulling into the city of Uyuni.  I had about an hour to find the tour office and breakfast before it was time to head out to the Salar (Salt Flats) on the tour.  The weather was pretty chilly but not unbearable.  As in every city in Bolivia, finding a house or building with only an address is not that easy.  Eventually, after some searching, I had found the hostel/tour agency where my jeep was supposed to pick me up.  I put my bag in the office and went and sat down in the cafeteria to order some breakfast.  As always I met a few random people from different parts of the world and we talked about our adventures.

Finally, the jeep arrived and I loaded my bag on top then hopped in where I met the people with whom I would be spending the next three days.  There was an older guy from Germany, a guy from Holland whose girlfriend was from Spain and 2 girls from Sucre here in Bolivia.  We made our greetings as our driver “Teo” took us towards our first stop on the tour.  We made our first stop at the Train Graveyard just outside of the city.  It was pretty interesting to see so many steam engines and carts leftover from the silver mining days of the past.  We explored the old engines climbing in, around, and over them.  We snapped some photos and talked a bit getting to know each other a little more.  Next we loaded back into the jeep and went off into the Salar.  Teo was flying through the salt flats heading deeper and deeper into the white desert of salt.  After we had made it a way into the flats and saw the pyramids of salt, we made a stop to take some interesting photos where you can manipulate the size of things in the salt flats.  Teo told us that the salt flats were actually floating on a body of water.  My mind was blown! How was that possible?  He then showed us holes in the salt flats that were full of water that had no end.  The guy from Holland stepped on a weak spot of the salt and went up to his knee into the salty brine underneath.  Teo then showed us how to retrieve large salt crystals from underneath the surface by sticking your arm down into the water and breaking off the crystals from the underside.  The water was frigid but I managed to retrieve a few crystals.

 

Me in the Train Graveyard

Dakar Statue on the Salar

Me holding my friends from Sucre

After another hour of riding deeper into the Salar, we ended up at the first and only hotel ever built on the Salar.  The hotel was built out of bricks of salt that were quarried from the Salar.  While Teo was preparing lunch, we went around taking some more interesting photos and exploring the white wasteland.  Eventually, Teo was done preparing lunch and we sat down behind the jeep and had baked chicken, rice, and sautéed vegetables.  It was a bit cold but very scrumptious.  After lunching and snapping some more photos, we jumped in the jeep and started the long ride to Isla de la pescado.  It is an island in the middle of the Salar.  The island is covered with huge cacti.  I have never seen anything like it in my life.  On the island, you make your way through the cacti forest and up to the top of the island where there is an amazing view of the Salar on all sides.  The island once served as a refuge for Incans as they made their way across the Salar in search of unconquered lands.  In the middle of the island is a cave that the Incans may have benefited from for shelter.  During the rainy season, travel to the island is almost impossible because the Salar becomes covered with a thin sheet of water that can become dangerous.  So we spent a while on the island exploring and searching for the best photos possible.  Getting drained from all the walking and climbing as well as the scorching sun, we made our way back to the jeep.  Next we began to make our way out of the salt flats towards the small town where we would be staying the night. 

 

Recieving presents from a giant snowman

Cacti on the Island of the fish

Another Cactus

Starring off into the distance

Before the sun set we made it to our hostel.  It was pretty amazing because EVERYTHING was made from salt.  The tables and even the seats were stacks of nicely carved salt bricks.  Believe or not, but the floor was even covered with a thick layer of ground salt. We got our rooms and began preparing for the night as a lady began preparing dinner.  I was in the room with the German of course so it made me feel more at home which was good.  After getting my sleeping bag and what not unpacked, I went outside to see the sunset.  All I can say is WOW.  The sunsets over the deserts and Salar are amazing and full of color.  After the sun had set, we went back into the hostel because it was extremely cold outside.  I sat at the table with the people from my group and we sat around talking about all kinds of things while we waited for our dinner to be prepared.  It seems like I always eat a lot better when I am on a trip.  When the food finally arrived we were starving.  We had a nice and hot vegetable soup followed by chicken and french fries.  After dinner we sat around drinking tea and chatting until we decided it was time for bed.  Man was it cold!!  I jumped into my sleeping bag and waited for it to get warm before I finally drifted off to sleep.

 

Dinner Table of Salt. Notice the salty floor

Sunset from the Hostel

                The next morning, I woke up in time to see the sun rising.  It was about 15⁰ Fahrenheit that morning and the slight breeze didn’t aid in keeping warm.  After packing our bags, we sat back around the table to drink coffee and eat some bread with butter and jelly for breakfast.  We then loaded up the jeep and began to make our way towards the Chilean border.  Thank goodness our jeep had heat.  It was so nice and cozy that I began to doze a bit along the way.  After an hour or two, we neared a volcano that is half ways in Bolivia and half ways in Chile.  From there we continued south hugging the border on the way to our next stop.  We took a break at some ancient lava flows to explore and take some photos.  It is always very interesting to see how all the lava makes very interesting formations as it hardens and then dirt around it erodes away.  We got back in the jeep and continued south.  Another couple of hours and we arrived in the lake district of southern Bolivia.  As we neared the lake we could see that there were wild flamingos scattered here and there.  I had never seen a flamingo close up before and only in the Zoo.  We jumped out of the jeep and made our way to the water’s edge to take some photos.  After the rainy season passes the lakes begin to get lower and as it gets colder, they begin to freeze over.  So after the rain stops it is kind of the off season to see the lakes and the colors.  When the lakes freeze over it is a little more difficult to notice the colors of the water. 

 

Volcano on the Border of Chile and Bolivia

Lava Flows

My first Wild Flamingos

I like this picture

                Once we left the first lake we made our way to the second lake of the tour.  Like the first lake it was frozen over with scattered flamingos here and there.  There was a heavy smell of sulfur in the air from the sulfur mines and the sulfur in the lake.  You could slightly see the greenish color of the lake but it was nothing like the color in the rainy season.  We then made our way to the third lake where we would eat lunch.  Walking around the lake I honestly felt like we had landed on another planet.  It looked as if we were on Mars.  As we were venturing around I believe I found evidence of the Mars rover and also believe I saw the same scenery as one of the pictures from NASA’s website.  We sat around a roughly built table of fragmented stones and had our cold lunch that consisted of chicken, noodles, and cooked vegetables.  We ate our fill and then continued south on our journey.  Along the way, the scenery changed into an orangey sandy desert with sand dunes.  It kept blowing my mind at how the landscape continued to change dramatically as we continued on our trip.  We stopped in the middle of the desert to take photos of the seven colored mountain on the border of Chile.  The wind was so strong and frigid.  We quickly made our way back into the jeep to get warm again.  About another hour of riding we arrived at a place where many large rocks were jutting up out of the desert.  It is the home of the Árbol de Piedra (Rock Tree).  It is a very famous rock that has the appearance of a tree.  We took some photos of it and then meandered around the other rocks taking photos.  I really enjoyed exploring and climbing up onto the large rocks.

 

Mars Landscape

Lunch by the lake

In the desert

Arbol de Piedra

Chilling up on a rock

                Our final stop for the day was in a small town on the edge of Laguna Colorada (Colored Lake).  The lake has a reddish tint to it form the sulfur that is in the lake and the organisms that feed on it.  Again we explored around the lake and took some photos of flamingos as we waited for dinner to be prepared.  Our hostel had a bit of age on it but was sufficient.  We also had a very small stove for heat but it really didn’t put off much heat.  We ate dinner and then made plans for the following day.  We decided that in order to make it to the southern tip of Bolivia to see the Laguna Verde (Green Lake) that we had to wake up at 4:30 in the morning.  So we got ready for bed and turned in for a freezing cold night. 

 

Laguna Colorada

Sunset

                The following morning we woke up, ate breakfast, and packed our bags so we could leave.  After thawing out the jeep we loaded our things and continued our way south following the border.  It was 9 or 10 degrees Fahrenheit that morning but the stars were so clear.  We rode for 2 hours down one of the bumpiest roads I have ever been on in my life.  It was like riding on a jackhammer for 2 hours.  But finally, as the sun was trying to rise and warm everything up, we arrived at our first destination.  We were at the geothermal steam vents heated by the nearby volcanoes.  They may have put off some heat but it wasn’t enough to thaw out my hands.  We didn’t stay long because it was so cold that we were in a rush to get back into the jeep.  We then continued to Laguna Verde which is nestled in the very southern corner of Bolivia.  The lake is shadowed by a volcano that sits part in Bolivia and the other part in Chile.  Off in the distance you could also see the mountains from Argentina.  I sat there starring at Chile and Argentina, pondering about my trip that I will have in a month and a half from now.  Well again it was extremely cold so we scurried back into the jeep and made our way back north to our final stop of the morning which would be my favorite stop.  Once there, we changed into our bathing suits and took a dip in the thermal hot springs.  Oh the waters were so nice, especially since the weather above was so cold.  I was in heaven!  I did not want to leave the waters.  But after 30 minutes of soaking we had to get out and continue on our return trip to Uyuni because we had a lot of ground to cover and there are no paved roads.

 

Me trying to warm up by a Thermal Steam Vent

Laguna Verde and Volcano in the most southern part of Bolivia

Finally after a long draining drive and only one stop at another rock formation, we arrived in Uyuni.  Exhausted and hungry, we said our goodbyes to each other.  Since me and the two girls had to wait for our buses, we went and walked around the city a bit.  We finally found a good place to eat.  It was a great way to end our amazing trip.  After our dinner we said farewell and I jumped on my bus and settled in for a long ride home.  I was hoping to get a good night’s sleep but it wasn’t easy.  The whole night the driver was playing some interesting music and had the heater on full blast.  Everyone on the bus was so miserable from the heat.  I was extremely happy to finally arrive at the bus terminal and get off the bus, and to also know that I was back home.  I love to travel and see new things but it is always a great feeling to be home... 

Me holding up a boulder while someone finds me a stick to prop it up.....