Into Bolivia and the South-western Circuit (25 - 29 April 2008)
The walk over the bridge from the Argentina border town, La Quiaca to the Bolivian border town, Villazon was like jumping into Alice in Wonderland’s hole. Suddenly everything changed - the streets were filthy, there was an odour of urine and other awful smells hanging in the air, everything was covered in dust and the people looked like they take a bath about once a month. I smiled and said to Eon: “I already like Bolivia…”
The border crossing was painless - thank goodness that we arranged the Bolivian visas from Argentina. We walked to the ‘bus station’, bought two tickets to Tupiza and proceeded to the bumpiest bus ride on this trip so far. My memory took me back to about a week before on the luxurious semi-cama bus we took in Argentina… this neighbouring country is like a whole different world! The bus´ windows were stuck and could not open, there was dust everywhere and even though you buy a dedicated seat, there were about 20 people who had a double booking and who had to stand through the whole journey. We had seats right at the back of the bus which emphasized the bumpy road and made any attempt to sleep impossible. The two hour bus took three hours to reach Tupiza, seeing that we had a flat tyre (our first breakdown in 506 hours on the road). But we finally arrived in Tupiza with Maaike and Gerben waiting at the bus station. I was so happy to see them that I hastily squeezed my way to the front of the bus to meet them. And in all the excitement I unknowingly left my inflatable pillow on the bus…
We stayed in the Mitru Anexo hotel - nothing much to write home about, but it was a comfy bed and hot shower for the night. While we were still in Argentina, waiting for our Bolivian visas, Maaike and Gerben proceeded to Bolivia and booked a South-western Circuit tour for the four of us. This tour is supposedly the highlight of anyone’s visit to Bolivia.
The morning of April 26 (geluk met Pa se verjaarsdag!) we met our driver/guide, Elarion and our cook, Ferminia and then our luggage was wrapped and stored on the roof of the Land Cruiser together with petrol, water and food supplies. The Toyota Land Cruiser is the only car that can survive the harsh terrain of the South-western Circuit.
Day one was a seven hour day, with the itinerary mostly covering interesting rock formations and lots and lots of dust. Day two was more exciting as we entered deeper into the park. We spent some time in the Los Lipez hot springs, saw bubbling geysers, the Dali valley and lakes in psychedelic colours. After lunch, the driver offered us some of his coca leaves. Coca leaves is a legal substance in Bolivia and it has been used by the indigenous people for years. One can understand why the rest of the world opposes Bolivia growing it, seeing that cocaine is made from coca leaves. But the raw product is harmless and it helps to combat the effects of altitude sickness. Even though we had some of the bitter tasting leaves, it was still difficult sleeping at an altitude of nearly 5000 meters, not to mention the temperature of minus 15 degrees!
Day three kicked of with a beautiful sunrise over the flamingo filled Lake Colorado. From here we head off into the park with some more lakes and freezing temperatures. We finally had a semi-hot shower on the last night and then slept in a hostel with furniture made of salt. The last day was the absolute highlight - we got up two hours before sunrise, drove to the Salar de Uyuni and watched the sunrise over the salt flats from the Isla Incahuasi (Island of the fish). We spent the rest of the morning taking funny photos on the salty playground and then ended the tour in Uyuni.
We were very lucky with the tour agency we used. Tupiza Tours turned out to be a fantastic choice - our driver/guide was excellent and our cook was such a sweet lady, we even had flap jacks for breakfast one morning. All and all, the tour was great.
Uyuni…. a little town amidst a whole lot of dust! I caught a bit of a cold in the freezing temperatures and high altitudes. So as soon as we checked into our hostel, I jumped into be and slept the whole day through while Eon sifted through our millions and millions of photos taken over the last four days.
There was absolutely nothing to see or do in Uyuni, so the next morning we took a bus to Sucre in the warmer part of Bolivia. So far Bolivia is all about high altitudes, beautiful scenery and dust!
Click on the image below to view the gallery for the South-western Circuit & Salar de Uyuni:
