I suppose there are worse things than being stuck in San Pedro de Atacama. The sun is shining, the food and coffee is quite good and it feels familiar, almost like a mini Santa Fe, New Mexico. But when you have four days to kill and not much to do it feels slightly annoying to be stuck in a tiny town when en route to Argentina. Oh well...
Trishy and I arrived in northern Chile midday Sunday and thought we would have a day to relax and soak up the sun after three freezing days in the Bolivian desert. However when we tried to buy bus tickets for Salta on Tuesday we found ourselves out of luck---Tuesday was sold out, we would have to wait until the next bus on Friday. So we are now officially on holiday. We are sleeping in late (or trying to), eating out, drinking wine, taking slow walks through town and lounging in hammocks. Now that sounds like a holiday, doesn't it?
I am quite happy to be out of Bolivia since I spent most of the time sick with fever, freezing and then, well...you know about the experience in La Paz. However it's not to say the entire time in Bolivia was horrible. After leaving La Paz we spent two cold days in Oruro where we were able to buy new cameras. We jumped on a train for a 7 hour dusty, chilly ride to Uyuni. Uyuni is a little itsy bitsy town that tourists go to as a starting point to arrange tours into the salt flats. Luckily we didn't have to spend more than 2 nights in the extremely cold Uyuni before joining a 3-day jeep journey through Salar de Uyuni.
Salar de Uyuni is the world's largest salt flat at over 4,000 square miles. In the southwest corner of Bolivia the land stretches to north Chile. The minerals in the salar make up the most amazing colors; mountains and volcanoes made of red, yellow, green, blue, white, etc. There are a few islands on the salt flats, the most impressive being Isla de Pescado (yes, it is in the shape of a fish) comprised of thousands of cacti. Quite a sight to see nothing but salt flats and then a sea of cactus. The salt flats also have rocks protruding from the flat landscape forming the most interesting shapes. At times it felt like we had just stepped into a Salvador Dali painting. The six of us tried to take photos to show the lack of perspective on the extremely white, salt flats but we didn't have the patience to get the shots just right. However I think a few turned out okay. One picture appears as if Trishy is standing in the palm of my hand and another shows Trishy holding our jeep in her hand. I'm quite happy to have a camera again to be able to take advantage of moments like that.
In addition to the incredible landscape we saw numerous animals living in the dry, harsh cold of the salar. Throughout the three days we came upon flamingos, vicuñas, foxes, rare rabbits, and other birds. I'm amazed that animals can live in the barren salt flats at below freezing temperatures. I barely held up for three days in the salt flats. Plus, I've never seen flamingos in the wild before so I was excited to stand in the wind and watch them drink from the red pools of Laguna Colorado.
Three of us departed the salt flats on the third day to say farewell to the moon-like landscape and return to civilization. Ahhh, Chile...running hot water, real coffee and warm temperatures! As soon as we crossed the border we were on a paved highway and driving down 1,500 meters to San Pedro. We stripped off the extra layers when we got into town and practically danced in the sun. After losing the feeling in my hands and feet for three straight days I was incredibly relieved to feel the heat. None of us were sure how cold it got while we were out in the salt flats but we know it was below freezing since bottles of water in the jeep were solid ice in the morning. Brrr...Just thinking about it now brings a chill back to my hands.
Tomorrow we have a nine hour bus ride to Salta. I don't look forward to the ride but I can't wait to get to Argentina. We have just over three weeks left now to make our way through northern Argentina to Buenos Aires. We plan to horseback ride in the north, drink wine in the central region and then end with a few days in the European atmosphere of Buenos Aires. Anyone have recommendations for Buenos Aires? We are hoping to spend about a week there so send over the suggestions if you have any.
I'm off to have a café cortado now. Ciao!
