Highlights:
The WHOLE THING: I felt like I was on a different planet.
Lowlights:
Jeep: spending four days in a jeep is not the most comfortable thing, but we were privileged to have only 4 travellers as opposed to other companies which cram in 5 to 6 people per jeep.
People:
Veronica: Quebec an, Jonathon’s girlfriend, very chilled, laid back, very animated, loved singing.
Jonathon: Quebecan, veronica’s boyfriend, had a bit of a stutter, very cool guy.
Carmelo: our guide, friendly, helpful, always chuckling to himself.
Maura: our cook, excellent cook, friendly, motherly.
Eda: Danish girl, blonde hair, very friendly, met her at the Salt Hotel,
Tigra: Bolivian kid, he was the son of a lady who worked in the Salt Hotel, he cried when we were leaving for Laguna Colarado so we took him along. He was very cute but very naughty, trying to jump on us when we tried taking pictures (almost making us fall into the lake) and throwing himself on the floor to roll around.
Places:
DAY1
Quebrada de Palala: a giant mountain range with a reddish colour caused by sand erosion.
Sillar: giant columns of clay formed by erosion
San Antonio de Lípez Ruinas: an abandoned city, apparently the locals claimed to have heard ghost sounds and were scared away by these haunting experiences.
DAY2
Laguna Hedionda Sur
Aquas Calientes: the water in is this natural hot spring pool was extremely hot (I would estimate at least over 30 degrees Celsius). We chilled out in the pool for at least an hour. The view from the pool was spectacular. We almost dropped Collin’s camera in the pool but I managed to save it from falling in.
Laguna Verde: a lake coloured green by the presence of lead, copper and other metals. Apparently it was supposed to be a much brighter green than it was on the day we saw it, but it was still beautiful nevertheless.
Laguna Blanca: a white lake
Volcano Licancabur
Desierto de Dali: a dessert with large rocks that resemble Dali’s landscapes used in many of his paintings.
Geisers Sol de Manana: a collection of bubbling sulphur pools and geysers.
Laguna Colorada: a lake coloured red due the presence of the algae in it.
DAY3
Arbol de Piedra: a stone tree that has been carved from the wind
Laguna Honda
Laguna Charcota
Laguna Hedionda: a lagoon full of flamingos
Laguna Canapa
Salar de Chiguana & train tracks: a smaller salt flat with train tracks running through them.
DAY4
Salar de Uyuni: the salt flats which expand for more than 200km. It was incredible being in a place that all you could see was salt for miles on end. I couldn’t even see anything in the horizon. We took some crazy photos here (or as Carmelo called them fotos locos) using various props we brought along (dinosaurs, teenage mutant ninja turtle, talc bottle, shoes). Carmelo, also, had some crazy ideas, and he took the most amazing photos of us in various poses.
Isla del Pescado: it is an “island” in the salt flats that’s name originates from its fish-like reflection in the wet season. The island contains a huge amount of large cacti. Some more than 1000 years old and double my height.
Hotel de Sal: a hotel where everything from the walls to the furniture are made entirely of salt.
Salt-Mining Area: an area where salt is dug from the ground an made into piles weighing a ton each, it is left to dry in the sun before transported to a refinery.
Activity:
Collin loved stealing the breakfast condensed milk from the other group’s table so we could use it for our coffee and pancakes
The Americans Joke: there was another group of American tourists that were travelling in the other jeep, yet we felt that they were keeping them away from us because one of the groups made less or more. So we always made jokes that we were getting into a proximity breach whenever they were close by.
Hike up the Cactus Hill near the Salt Hotel: Collin, Jonathon and I hiked up the hill and took some very amusing pictures with the enormous cacti.
Foods:
Tupiza tours provided excellent meals, compliments of Mauara our cook. We received 3 full meals everyday and little snacks (lollipops, biscuits, yogurts, chocolates) in between meals to keep our energy stores up. She made some excellent meals along the way which included lasagne, tuna fish cakes, hearty vegetable soups, pancakes, etc.
Drinks:
We drank a bottle of rum and 2 bottles of red wine at the Salt Hotel. We all got very drunk (in that terribly cold weather it definitely helped) and had a lot of fun but Jonathon suffered severely the next day with a hangover.
Music:
We listened to traditional Bolivian music most of the way, however Carmelo did switch it up to some English oldies towards the end of the trip which we all enjoyed.
