The Salt Flats and Beyond

Uyuni was fabulous! However the bus down was foul...11 hours. It was cramped, cold, and incredibly bumpy. The bathroom had a nasty wash of brownish foul water sloshing around on the ground...I stayed as far away from it as possible. Imagine 11 hours of trying to sleep in a dark cold bus, but every time you near the point of sleeping, another rattle of bumpy dirt road shakes you awake...Needless to say, i spent the night in a stupor of half-sleeping discomfort. For the next one, I promise myself I´ll get a valium...or seven. Or at least get really drunk first and just pass out.

The only good thing about the trip was that I overheard two girls talking about how excited they were about carnival. I walked up to them and had a ´oh my god im going to be there too´ moment for a quick minute. After we got out of the bus around 7am, I went up to them and we decided to form a tour group. Luckily there were two more of them, which made six total with me and my dad, the perfect tour group size. We walked around past several Bolivians pushing pamphlets of their tour comanies on us, and found a good one who would take us on the three day two night journey all-inclusive for about 70 US. We agreed and set off.

Words cant really do justice to this incredible place. There are miles upon miles of flat salt deposits, covered by an inch or two of water. The effect is magical, the clouds mirrored in the ground, and we looked like we were flying rather than driving. I call it Jesus-Jeep.

Isla de Pescada, island of fish, is named so because apparently it looks like afish from a distance. PErsonally, I didnt see it, but the place was probably the most incredible place I saw on the whole trip. It was a random island jutting out of the vast expanse of nothingness of the salt flats. Cacti peppered the island, and the reflection off of the water on the flats created mirror images. The entire island was coral turned stone, which meant that the hundreds of square miles were at some point at least a hundred feet deep submerged with water. I can only imagine...

There is a salt hotel, made of bricks of salt. It was incredible, and also apparently illegal. I gues they bribe the right people, like those who operate route 36, the coke bar in La Paz. _They have a salt museum with salt llamas and salt people. They sell funny things made out of salt, miniature salt llamas and boxes and cool crystals.

At the end of the day, we stayed at a salt hotel outside of the flats, a legal one. Our guide, Pedro, was so helpful and cooked us great meals.

Day two we woke a dawn and my dad and I saw the sunrise. We set off for the lagoons. No longer in the flats, this day we drove through endless expanses of desert, Dali´s desert. I picture the crazy elephants and melting clocks everywhere. I can see the resemblence. The rocks are fabulous, craggy and formed by eons of wind and desolation. The lagoons are incredible, housing thousands of flamingos, whose pinkness looks so out of place in this land where nothing survives. The weather is actually quite hot, contrary to what everyone has said.

The third day we travelled to geysers at the break of dawn. We waded through the foggy exhaust, foul and toxic gas. It bubbles up from some sort of primordial sludge which boils at 90 degrees Centegrade. Occasionally the mud will fly up if a particularly ambitious bubble pops. We take cool pictures...and are all reminded of Mordor. I imagine this sludge is what they make the orcs out of...

The next stop was amazing hot springs, at the edge of a lagoon. As we were driving to them, we saw the lagoon, steaming in the morning light. Flamingos, impervious to the steam and warm water, stick their beaks into the ground searching for breakfast. Borax and calcium top the lagoons in parts, looking like the salt flats again stretching across the top of the lakes.

I see some kid who flew into La Paz with me from Lima. I say whats up.

Next, we travel to yet another lagoon, Laguna Colorodo. This is the biggest one yet, and apparently ten thousand flamingos live in this lagoon alone. It is vast beyond words, with pink dots lining the middle of the waters.

Our guide points to a volcano. He says there is a lagoon in the top of the volcano, with inca ruins. There, apparenty, they took the most beautiful Inca virgin and sacrificed her. Ouch...
It is a separate trip, although I really want to go, it sound samazing.

From there, it was a looong journey home. An 8 hour drive, with seven of us in a 4wd. We made it fun though...until our jeep broke down on a hill. Luckily, Pedro was the shit, and he made it to a little town after some repairs, where he further fixed the jeep. We made it the four hours from there just fine.

Pictures soon, I promise they will be amazing...