Bolivia Baby!

Bolivia Baby!

Leaving Chile.

The queue at the Bolivian border.

An early start on the bus to the border of Chile and Bolivia, but I was excited! I was moving onto a new and exciting country, ready for 3 days on the Uyuni Salt Flats. There were 3 of us, myself and two Danish girls who I'd met in San Pedro - the other 3 of our group were out there somewhere, ready to spend the next few days in a 4x4 with us. The border crossing, as per usual, took god damn ages. The Chileans are never in a rush in this regard it seems - it's like they don't want anyone to leave! Having crossed from Argentina and Chile and back so many times, I started using my Chilean ID Card to save stamp space in my passport, and up until now this hadn't caused a problem - the Argentines are laid back and relaxed with just about anything. The same cannot be said about the Bolivians however. I didn't get a stamp for Bolivia, and I was quite upset as I love my stamps - I had to enter the country as a Chilean National. There will be problems leaving Bolivia I just knew it, but for now, I was in and that was all that mattered. I'm in Bolivia baby!

Just beautiful - desert, mountains, salt and wildlife are abundant here in Uyuni.

The sweeping beauty of Uyuni.

The daily feed for the little guy.

I had been warned about the altitude up here, and leaving San Pedro for the border of Bolivia you could feel it already. Up and up we drove, and when we got out to have breakfast and get in our Landcruiser, I could feel short of breath already. I was a little worried, but laughed it off light-headedly - maybe due to the lack of oxygen. Breakfast was cake and coffee, but I also decided to have some coca tea - that and always chew my leaves that I had with me. Already I could feel the effects of the 4000-odd metres - slight headache, short of breath and a tightness in my legs not dissimilar to the feeling you get after sitting on a long-haul flight in cattle class. Nothing you can do really, other than take all the precautions you can, and just keep drinking water - even though the toilets here in the National Park cost 5 Bolivianos ($1), and I have a real problem with paying to pee - it's against my humans rights to be honest. The desert was happy to receive my life-giving gift. Time and again. The entry into the park cost 150 Bolivianos ($30), which is fair as long as the money goes to conversing it (and maybe a little to the terribly smelly toilets with no flushing water), and our driver drove us in heading to the first stop along the way. Juan, or Juanito as I called him to his back, was a short and quiet Bolivian bloke who has been doing these tours for 17 years. He didn't say much, and everything bit of information I could glean from him was a victory. The cars they take in here are owned by the drivers, and most of them are Toyotas - they are tough cars, but even so, they only last 4 years on average, due to salt erosion. Uyuni is the biggest salt flat in the world, measuring up at 10,000 km2. You need a guide here - you could just drive for a day and still feel in the same spot and unsure of where to go next. Juanito knows what he's doing!

Beauty in the middle of nowhere.

I have complete confidence in the drivers!

Sunset over Uyuni.

The first day was basically lagoons. I like lagoons as much as the next person, but there was 'Laguna Blanco' and 'Laguna Verde' which I didn't see that much difference to be honest. Between the two lagoons we stopped in the road, as the jeep in front of us had spotted a little fox on the road. We stopped too, got some photos in from the window, and Juanito fed him too. I later found out that the little guy waits there everyday, ready to be fed and photographed - set up photo shoot, but still fun! We did a quick drive-by of the 'Piedras del Dali,' the Dali Rocks, but we didn't get that close. Behind us a storm seemed to be moving in, and I was a little worried - sand storm, rain, thunder and we're out in the open with no roads. Juan wasn't worried, so neither was I. The clouds set a lovely background for photos though, just had to be careful of the sand being blown about.

Danes of Arabia.

That storm in moving in.

Enjoying the thermal baths.

We stopped for about 30 minutes at our next destination, the thermal baths. Let me get something out in the open - natural baths are great - they're hot and natural - but I have had my fair share of them, and personally I prefer a hot bath at home, bit of music, bubbles, a drop of red and not sharing it with 20 other dirty backpackers with GoPros and selfies sticks. I wandered around and took pics, but didn't get in this time. Also, Juan refused to get my back off the roof-rack, so no swimmers for me. Damn you Juan. We moved off before the rest of the groups and got to the Geysers before the crowd. These ones were much larger than in San Pedro, and also far smellier! The most rotten egg smell in the world... doubled. The steam was hot too, and the colours were cool. More selfies then we moved on. This trip was great so far, loads to see that you couldn't see anywhere else - I mean the pure beauty of it was mind-blowing - but we were on a tour and Juan wanted his dinner. We didn't stop at the last lagoon, "la Laguna Colorada," or the "Coloured Lagoon," as the clouds had moved in and the view would be better in the morning we were assured. We got to the hotel early, and didn't have much to do. I walked around the town a bit before dinner and not much else. I must explain that I use the words 'hotel' and 'town' very loosely in this instance - the 'town' was deserted apart from 3 shops, the 'hotel' didnt have electricity until 7pm at night when they turned on the generators, and there was also no showers (at all) and no toilet paper. This isn't a great situation if you have just arrived in Bolivia - the food tends to make toilets with flushing water and paper a necessity. Luckily for me my iron belly takes 3 - 4 days to be affected in a new country, but after this grace period I could be in trouble. We had dinner and bunked down in our beds - stiff mattresses and tiny pillows on a stone base, in a windowless room. Good night indeed.

My first (and definitely not last) Andean Flamingo in Uyuni.

A sleeping flamingo.

A llama having breakfast.

The next day was actually as perfect as you get weather-wise! Unfortunately for some people they had got sick yesterday evening and were feeling even worse this morning. Our stop for the night was at 4900m, and the altitude has made people nauseas, dizzy and weak, and a few were even vomiting. Luckily for me I was fine, and so were my two Danish girls - the 3 Chileans in our truck however were feeling it. We continued on early anyway, heading straight over to the lagoon and were instantly impressed. There were huge flocks of flamingoes on the water that were just walking around and feeding, as well as some llama wandering around on the banks of the lagoon. Neither animal liked you getting too close, but it was very beautiful, with the volcano in the background and the rising sun. We didn;t have long to appreciate it however as it was time to move on to the next place. I had got my flamingoes though! We drove on, staring out the window at the view we were being offered - desert and lagoons of all colours, with the snow-capped Andes in the background. We stopped for a while at the Arbol de Pieda (Stone Tree), which is a bizarre outcropping of rock that does really resemble a tree. We climbed over the bigger stones in the area, people getting their 'meditating' shots in, or doing funny things like holding the 'tree' up like it was the Torre de Pisa. I ducked off for some peace and quiet and some shots with no silly poses - and a sneaky free bathroom break.

The "Stone Tree," minus the tourists.

After, we drove past plenty of lakes, but one worth mentioning in particular was the Hedionda lagoon where the flamingoes weren't scared of people at all - it must be like the fox we saw on Day 1, so used to people taken here they kind of expect it. I was able to walk right down to the shore and get really close snaps of these strange birds. I noticed the way they feed, and later confirmed it with our guide - they don't eat as such, more suck in the water in their upside-down beaks, filtering the water for microscopic organisms. Lunch was served on the lagoon (it wasn't flamingo), and we stopped off at an active volcano that was smoking away before getting to our last stop for the day - our Salt Hotel. This was only the end of Day 2, still one more day to go - the very much looked forward to and famous Salt Flats.

Flamingoes in (near) flight.