San Pedro to Uyuni Bolivia
3 days over the Andes and to altitudes of 4200m above sea level was ahead of us. Given the last few days with us adjusting to the altitude we’re quietly confident, however Elena seems to have caught a cold believed to be from being under the air conditioning on our 25 hour bus trip from Santiago 3 days prior.
We’re up and mostly packed and downing the few snacks we had organised for breakfast as the transfer bus pulls up outside. So now in a blinding hurry we rush around getting the last of our gear stowed away and signing out. It was all so fast we didn’t get to say goodbye to Pamela our Spanish only speaking host who tried so hard to explain everything she could to us.
We expected to see Denise and Sabrina on the bus but no, another German guy explained the he was at the hotel that they checked into and Denise was now very ill and they’ve had to change their plans once again. This altitude sickness is serious suff and if do don’t acclimatise you won’t be going anywhere. Altitude sickness at it’s most serious can cause your body to shut down and you’ll go into a coma and there is a potential you could die, so we’re taking each day carefully not to over do anything that will leave us too short of breath.
So theres a motley crew of six of us and we soon get acquainted, there’s a New Zealand couple Geff and Rhonda, The German guy Sven and our Dutch counterpart Franz.
The driver of the bus can’t speak English and with a lot of gesturing and hand waving we’re on the bus bound for customs for processing, the customs building is literally around the corner from our hostel, where we’re all piled off again to get stamped out of Chile. We’re now all in no mans land, technically we’ve left Chile but we’re still in San Pedro. It’s now a drive up the mountain. Literally up, there’s no gradual climb on this road, we’re soon taken from 2400m above sea level to over 4000m. Our ears are popping as the bus turns off the main highway and over a dusty road into the mountains. It’s a short drive and we reach the Bolivian border. It’s a small building set against the backdrop of stunning mountains. It’s here we swap our bus for a 4wd and a Bolivian driver (Nelson).
As our bags are set atop the Toyota and covered with a plastic tarp we file into the customs building and complete the immigration process before having a quick breakfast of bread, cake and coffee. We climb into the Toyota and set off into the mountains. I hope Nelson knows where he’s going as there are no roads, it’s just wheel tracks in a vast landscape that just keeps stretching out in front of us.
This vast landscape will play host to us for the next three days. Our final destination is Uyuni on the other side of the Bolivian Salt flats.
Nelson first drives us to a massive lagoon, in Spanish Laguna Blanco is a white lake that’s high in borax. There is no sign of life in the lake as the borax is highly corrosive. Next time you’re thinking of cleaning products take a look at the ingredients. Borax is a common component for household cleaners.
In this region there are as many lagoons as there are mountains and after a while I found myself forgetting the names of each one and just admiring the sheer beauty of the place. We’ve discovered that sometimes it’s just better to be in the moment rather than capturing it on camera and trying to remember the names of places is a similar philosophy. But it’s hard not to point the camera in every direction as our friend Franz was doing. We all lost count of the number of Flamingo pictures he was taking. The catch cry was soon “Where is Franz?” As he was notably always the last back to the 4wd.
The lagoons gave way to sparse rocky landscapes that look like another world stitched into ours and sandwiched between towering mountains. This place takes your breath away in every direction.
Finding a hot geothermal pool next to yet another massive lagoon we pull up and are allowed to take a dip. We opt out as I’ve left my board shorts back in Australia and haven’t had the luxury of time to find anything in Santiago or San Pedro prior to getting here. Elena has a brand new bikini, but because of the sulphur content she doesn’t want to get it ruined. Adding to this decision is that the winds are bitterly cool. But that doesn’t stop Sven from stripping down and climbing in. The water is a constant 27 degrees and Sven didn’t want to return to the changing rooms in much of a hurry.
Now was the highest part of our climb. 4800m above sea level to a geyser field of boiling mud, steam and the pungent smell of sulphur. Growing up around this type of activity I know the smell and also the danger of getting to close. To my amazement I watch an idiot standing almost on top of the steam spewing from the ground so he can take a selfie. One slip or worse, one burst of activity from the geyser and it’ll be all over for him. There’s no hospital for 100’s of miles from here.
My head is splitting as I finally reach my limits, the altitude is finally not agreeing with me. I’m hot, out of breath and feeling like someone’s taken spoons to dig my eyes out. Thankfully we’re now descending toward a pink lagoon.
In the distance I spy a small settlement, I’m hoping it’s our hotel and thankfully it’s it. Nelson swings the Toyota toward the settlement for afternoon tea and we unload our belongings from the luggage racks. This break couldn’t have come at a better time as I’m spent. Elena’s nose is dry although the flu is setting in thanks to the air conditioning from the bus trip from Santiago.
Nelson offers to take is to the Pink lagoon after we’ve unloaded and had something to eat. We’re all sharing one room tonight and there are no showers. Lucky for us though, there are a couple of toilets to service the twenty guests in the four rooms. Being the nice guy I let the others select their beds first and I’m relegated to the bed in the far corner.
The pink lagoon is one of the most spectacular sights along this journey and is adorned with 100’s of wild Flamingos. Nelson let’s us know that in this area there are 3 types of Flamingos and the easiest way to tell them apart is by the colourings on their legs.
The night sets in and Franz and I dare to step outside into the plummeting temperature to gaze at the clear night sky. With no light pollution the stars out here are brighter than anywhere I’ve been on earth. It’s a surreal moment and one that is hard to capture with the camera.
By dawn the following morning I’ve had a bad night, I couldn’t sleep and found it hard to catch my breath, my headache is now pounding and I feel sick. Elena finds an altitude tablet and we hope that it kicks in as you’re supposed to take them 24 hours earlier.
Elena’s nose is now blocked and she struggling with the dryness each time she blows it. It’s looking red and raw. Breakfast is a relief and I’m finding that after eating I’m feeling a little better. Geoff, Frans and Sven help Nelson load the Toyota as I’m still feeling a little lethargic after breakfast.
This mornings destination is to some strange rock formations created by winds and sand. It’s an strange landscape, but what’s more strange is the cost of 1 boliviano to use the toilet. Most tourists refuse to pay and donning a piece of toilet paper just hide behind one of the many large rocks and just do their business.
Nelson finds us a small canyon with a small flowing creek that’s surfaced from an underground stream. Where there’s water there’s usually life and it’s not long before we pull up to take pictures of a small rabbit like creature, viscacha. They’re not concerned about our presence and just sit there like models as we snap away taking pictures.
With lagoons we’re finding that they come in all sizes and in all colours, the next was light green and left a green moss like substance on the cracked mud banks along the shoreline. It’s a real contrast of extremes. On one hand you have a lake with water and yet a few feet away the ground is so dry it’s cracking.
The desert is harsh, and finding a small fox out here on the edge of nowhere you start to appreciate the delicate thread between life and death. The fox follows the Toyota for a mile in the hope that we might drop something tasty, Nelson explains that we don’t feed them and in this way balance is restored with nature.
Wifi? Did I see a sign for Wifi? Way out here a small block of restaurants and a toilet, once again you have to pay to use it. And sadly the Wifi is for paying customers who use the restaurant. For us it’s a simple lunch prepared by Nelson on a table next to the car park. No one is complaining and as much as I’d like to connect to the outside world I’m really enjoying the fact that what ever is happening globally it’s not affecting us here in this place right now.
The landscape can change quickly here, one minute your looking at a lagoon then we’re lifted up onto a plateau of what looks like a Martian lunar surface. The plant life is different, it may look like soft grasses, but it’s stiff and full of spikes. There are green mosses that ooze a resign that stick your fingers together like playing with PVA glue and smells like a woodworkers garden shed. The whole place is a lava flow from the distant volcano that’s still giving off smoke and steam in the distance.
Boggy marshes are not something you’d envisage when you’re talking about the desert but as Nelson steered us toward our next stop that’s what the ground under the Toyota resembled. We were now entering what I’d really come to see, we were on the very edge of the Bolivian salt flats.
Who would have thought that there would be a train line across the salt flats. This line is used to haul salt from the mines to Chile and it’s guarded by a military outpost. We just had to snap a few pictures, but not of the outpost. I don’t want another invitation inside a building to explain my photos like I did in Russia.
Tonight we have hot showers, but we have to be quick as other groups of tourists will be arriving soon and the hot water is limited. I opt to go last and allow others to jump through the shower quickly. Bad move on my part. 4 of us get warm showers and unlucky for me. It’s a brisk quick splash of icy cold water on a promise to myself of better things to come once we reach La Paz.
Our hotel is made of salt bricks and even the floor is powdered salt, which sounds quaint, but putting anything on the floor now gets salt sticking to it. To be honest it’s a bloody pain in the arse.
It’s now day three and the decision last night to leave early impacts terribly on Elena, her cold is now real bad. Geoff set his alarm for 3am instead of 4am. As her body struggles with the flu and altitude she’s reached breaking point and is bawling her eyes out saying she just wants to go home, today’s going to be a real test as we’re not staying in Uyuni when we get there, we’re jumping onto a night bus to La Paz (a 15 hour ride)
The Salt Hotel is cold for Elena and sleeping on a mattress that felt like every spring was out to get me I wasn’t faring much better but I need to be strong for Elena now as this environment is really testing her.
Nelson searches out the tyre tracks in the darkness as he finds his bearings and races against time to get us onto the Salt Flats before sunrise. For us it’s going to be a little more spectacular due to the fact that it’s been a full moon last night and with the moon set on one side of the Toyota and the sun coming up on the other we’re in for a treat this morning.
Nelson races on trying to get us a perfect vantage point, I don’t get it, we’re on a lake made of salt, it’s flat, how on earth do you get a better vantage point? But trusting in Nelson is what we do. We pull up, cameras at the ready. We’ve already been snapping the moon and now that the sun is rising the moon seen to be getting brighter and brighter.
Everywhere you look now is a postcard moment, all these pictures cannot capture the pure essence of this place, you just have to see it to believe it. We’re now all so thankful of Sven’s persuasion to come to the flats before dawn. This really is a highlight that will stay with us for many years to come.
There ahead in the distance is an island, from where we are it looks like there’s people standing on a rock. Out here distance and perspective change, those aren’t people on a rock they’re massive cactus trees. The whole island is covered with cactus trees. Who could imagine that in this place life could still thrive.
The Bolivian Salt Flats cover an area of 12,000 square kilometres and is larger in size than 70 countries around the world.
It’s a steep one hour climb over the island as Nelson prepares breakfast. Elena’s struggling to keep up as the flu, altitude and the dryness that is the salt flats play havoc with her immune system. With breakfast over it now time to have a little artistic flare on the flats and Nelson drives us to a remote spot for our photography skills to be put through their paces.
It’s not long before we stop for lunch on the edge of the flats in a small market town, it’s surprisingly hot, the wind has picked up and once again the fine dust is getting to Elena. It’s about now she just wanted to get off the desert.
But there was to be one more little stop before entering Uyuni. We were to visit the train graveyard. These trains were used to haul silver nitrate and copper from the mines over 100 years ago and due to the dryness of the air are going to take years to decompose out here. They make for great pictures and tell of a not so distant past.
As the train graveyard is on the suburban edge to Uyuni it’s only a matter of minutes before we reach World White Travel’s office and the end of our journey.
We dump our packs and ask to collect them later as our bus doesn’t depart for La Paz until 8pm.
It’s now time for a quick beer, pizza and a fond farewell to some great travelling companions over the last 3 days.
There are places in the world that just take your breath away, this place will do that on so many levels. I’m glad we came, it was an effort and it was worth the struggles that we’ve had. Would I do it again? No, it’s too hard on the sinus’s for me and I’m sure Elena would agree.
But the pictures, oh the pictures….. Treasures for a lifetime.
As we settled onto our 15 hour bus to La Paz sleep soon overtook us. Just one movie then lay the seat back…..
