After my first three days in La Paz spent acclimating to the altitude and getting a feel for how things worked in Bolivia, it was time to move on and see more of the country. I decided well before my arrival to see the Uyuni Salt Flats, the biggest salt lake in the World, and the SW corner of Bolivia, as I had seen amazing and bizarre pictures from there. I was not disappointed. Seemingly, everywhere you look in central La Paz, tour agencies advertise tours of the Salar de Uyuni and SW Bolivia, along with mountain climbs and mountain bike tours. What you will get for your $200.00 for a 3 day 2 night tour will always be the same, unless you really check closely, and pay more money. Which is this, a ride with five other tourists, a guide/driver, and a cook, for eight total, in a 10 to 25 year old Toyota Land Cruiser. Three long driving days spent jammed in the back and center seats was hard on my knees, but well worth it. There were three young Irish tourists, a German woman, and another American and I, along for the ride. First though, I had to hop a jammed local bus from La Paz to Oruro, in central Bolivia, then catch a train from there to Uyuni, the small city on the edge of the salt flat. The bus ride was crowded and long, as to be expected in Latin America. But the train ride was something else entirely. It was clean and modern, with comfortable reclining seats and good food; for the 12 hour ride to Uyuni, the fare was only $20.00!
Setting out from Uyuni in the Land Cruiser, we just took right off over the salt flat at 60 mph. As you can see, it looks like crusty spring “corn” snow, but the surface is as hard-packed as an asphalt road. In the tropical sun at this high altitude, eye protection is essential! It is the biggest salt flat/lake in the World, three times bigger than our Great Salt Lake, and at an elevation of 12,500 feet. There are several small volcanic islands sprinkled around the flat, and after about two hours driving, we came to the most famous, Incahuasi, the cactus-studded rocks. Looking very Arizona-like, with those large cacti, the only clue we had of the high altitude, besides the relatively cool 60 degree day, was the extra effort required to ascend several hundred feet to the top of the island.
What is also amazing about this area is the climate. Although it is still in the tropics, at 20 degrees south latitude, that is far enough from the Equator for decided seasonal differences in temperature to occur. This combined with the altitude produces a climate like no other on Earth. Average high and low temperatures in winter on the salt flats are 45-50, and 8-15, degrees Fahrenheit, respectively! And it can get as cold as -5 to -10F! Summer temperatures are comfortable, 60s by day, around 40 at night. Winter brings the dry season, so snowfall there is rare, the little moisture that comes in summer occurs when convection from the lower elevations to the north and west is forced over the region by the northeasterly trade winds. In the even higher elevations of southwest Bolivia, which we visited on our second and third days, temperatures are even colder, and conditions drier!
Strange and amazing scenes are to be found in SW Bolivia, especially in Eduardo Avaroa National Park, which we toured the second day. Our first night on the salt flat tour was spent in the little village of San Juan de Lipez, near the park, where the accommodations were less than rustic, bordering on extreme. Tiny beds in a tiny, crowded room up dangerous narrow stairs, with the only bathroom (clean though!) at the bottom and around the courtyard. But the food was good, our Bolivian cook provided us with three home-cooked authentic meals daily. I even had Vicuna (the smallest relative of the llama) steak for lunch our first day, which was similar to beef in taste and texture. While we were eating dinner in San Juan de Lipez, about 8 children from the town, between the ages of about 7 and 14 serenaded us with local music using the small flamenco guitar and pipe flutes. They were a little raw, but we appreciated it nonetheless, and of course gave them more than the expected tips. They were very nice kids, and it was great to see them performing for us like that. Before dinner we walked around town, and checked out their local livestock, llamas and alpacas. We also were encouraged to take a tour of mummified remains in a weird open-air rock graveyard. Said to be from the indigenous people there 800 years ago. I didn't take pictures, thinking it not appropriate. But there were about 20 little rock crypts, many of which did indeed have small mummies in them, mostly bones, some skin, clad in disintegrating wool clothing. For these views, we paid 5 Bolivianos (80 cents). Interesting, but strange.
The next day we took off early and headed in to the park. These are some of the things we saw.
The flamingoes in the picture on the top, left, were found in several lakes around the region. They live year-round there, eating algae, even though the lakes partially freeze every night. The strange rock, below this, was formed by eolian processes, i.e., by the strong prevailing winds in the region blowing sand, which eroded the softer rock. This rock was on a plain at 15,500 feet, and on our day, a strong northeast wind of 35-45 mph was blowing, and it was about 45 degrees. The red lake, upper left, is Laguna Colorado, our destination on day two. The amazing red color of the lake is from algae, and there were thousands of flamingoes on it, truly a strange site, the more so because the wind was even stronger, than up the road where the eolian rock was. All the salt flat tours spend the night at the Laguna Colorado camp, which is a collection of cabins with 8 beds, one cabin per land cruiser. The accommodations were just as rustic as the night before, but comfortable. As it got down to about 15F that night, and the cabins are unheated, we had all been warned to bring warm clothing and down sleeping bags, and were glad we did.
We were awoken early the morning of the third day, at 0430, that we could leave at 0500 so as to arrive at the geyser area of the park by sunrise, around 0600. This unusual steam geyser was only lukewarm to the touch! There were several others in the vicinity as well. After breakfast at a lodge there with a nice hot spring to soak in (it was still just 20F outside), we headed south and west toward the Chilean border, over a 16,500 foot pass. On the other side of that pass, we came to Laguna Verde, above right, the green lake. It has an otherworldy appearance, as you can see, and there were flamingoes in it. This lake lies at about 14,500 feet.
We made a brief foray to the Chilean border, to drop off one our riders, so she could catch a bus into that country. I ran briefly across the border, there being no guards, just so I can say I set foot in it. I have a strong attraction to that country, and it is next on my list to visit. Partially because I remember the terrible history there from the 1970s, on. When I was 9, in 4th grade, we all once a week, had to bring a newspaper article in and talk about it in front of the class. I'll never forget what mine was. It was a very small two paragraph story on the corner of the front page of the San Diego Union, "Coup in Chile", dated September 12, 1973. It just gave a brief description of the previous day's events there, which you can read about in my "Is it 9/11 already?" post. My Mom knew more of the story, since she was an activist in a very left-wing party then. But she didn't explain it all to me, I was only 9, and wouldn't fully have fully understood. I want to talk to people in Chile and see what their experiences were then, and see the changes that have occurred since, which are great. Their current "center-left" President, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michelle_Bachelet, actually lost her father in the 1973 coup, and she and her mother were tortured by the fascists. Our support of that coup marks one of the darkest events/actions in modern American history.
After our stop at the Chilean border, we made the long, 8 hour ride back to Uyuni, over more windy, narrow, mountain gravel/sand roads. By the time we got back to Uyuni, we were all sore of knees, tired, dusty, and parched, but still stunned by the amazing scenery, something none of us will ever forget.
Next up on the itinerary was a side trip over to Potosi, the old mining city, which at 14,000 feet, is listed in the guidebooks as the highest city in the World. With a population of 200,000, I didn’t doubt it. The bus ride from Uyuni to Potosi was a classic Bolivian journey, 9 hours over a mix of paved and dirt road winding up and down passes as high as 16,000 feet, with two stops in small villages, to give us a chance to stretch our legs, get a snack, and most important, find a restroom. Potosi is dominated by Cerro Rico, an innocuous looking 16,500 foot “hill”. But this hill has a terrible and amazing history. Out of it came untold billions of dollars in silver, which financed the Spanish empire from 1550 until Bolivia’s independence in 1821. It is estimated that 500,000 to one million indigenous people died in the mines during those years, when they were forced by the Spaniards to work in them. Thousands of miners continue to work the shafts in Cerro Rico, though it is not an easy living.
Before reaching the mine, we had to suit up in protective gear, and buy some supplies to give to the miners, dynamite (anyone in Potosi can just buy it in a store!), snacks, and a bag of coca leaves. The mine entrance, as you can see, is fairly small, and after disbursing our gifts to the miners, we headed in. We walked for almost a kilometer in, it was cool, and damp, with standing water in many areas. Strange stalactites of salts and minerals were hanging off the ceilings as well, some of the reddish ones we saw were composed of sulfuric acid! Sometimes the shafts were only 4-5 feet high, so this is definitely not something for the claustrophobic. It gave me a good idea of what those miners have to go through every day, and our guide said most of them can only end up working in there for 10-15 years, before health problems force them to find other work.
I left Potosi that night, the only bus back to La Paz is a 10 hour overnight trip. This went fairly well, I was able to sleep most of the way, and got back to La Paz in good shape. Because the next day, the centerpiece of my entire trip was to begin.
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