Well I'm all done with Bolivia and honestly thank goodness. It was so cold there, at night especially, and even though I wore all my layers I was still cold!
Unfortunately Bolivia ended on a bit of a sour note. Our three day, two night Salt Flats tour was kind of a bust. Don't get me wrong there were definitely some great points, but some not so great as well.
Lets start at the beginning with the overnight bus trip to Uyuni from La Paz. All and all a good bus, but unfortunetly I just couldnt manage to sleep on it which kind of sucked becuase our salt flats tour started a few hours after our arrival in Uyuni. That wasn't so bad though, I managed through the tiredness.
Once in Uyuni we went to the tourist office to get the details for our tour. This part sucked. We were informed that the tour we payed for would not be happening becuase of some closed roads due to snow. We would be missig out on some of our second day of the tour and all of the third, plus we would have to pay an extra 200 Bolivianos and go to Chili through a different border. They said they have a plan B tour for the rest of the second day, but the third day would now have to be spent travelling to the other border we had to use to get into Chili. So that whole thing kind of bummed me out becuase the third day was going to be the best with a trip to the geysers and hot springs. But its the weather and there is nothing we could have done so no big deal.
The first day of the tour consisted of starting out at the Train Cemetery where we got to see some of the first locamotives used in Bolivia. It was a pretty neat little starting point and I got some cool pictures.
We continued on our tour by visiting the salt flats and the place the salt is processed. We learned about how the salt is put in a pile out on the salt flat and left to dry for ten days, then its transported to where it will be processed and given another ten days to dry. After that it has to be broken up in to small crystals, additives are added and then its packaged. When we were out on the salt flats it was so white and flat and it went on forever. It was hard to see out there even with my sunglasses becuase of how the sun reflected on the salt. we continued on in the flats until there was a nice flat spot with nothing and no one around and there we got to take some cool pictures with messed up perception. Some people in our group brought a toy dinosaur so that was pretty fun to take pictures with.
Our next stop was an island in the middle of the salt flats that had a whole bunch of huge cacti. We climbed to the top and got some great pictures of the salt flats and all the very tall cacti. This island was cool because it was made up of some interesting rock formations and petrified coral. A little different then the usual rocks we've been seeing.
A cool point of day one was lunch. We got llama steaks as the main so of course I've got to try it and it was very tasty. I liked it a lot. For dessert we were given this amazing apple crumble that was just the perfect way to finish of the lunch.
Our accommodations for that night were pretty neat becuase the hostel was made of salt bricks. It was different for sure. Night one was pretty funny actually because the whole tour group was sitting around the table waiting for supper. And we were waiting and waiting so finally someone went to the kitchen to see what was happening and see if they maybe needed help. So we found out it was just one lady attempting to cook for all 11 of us all by herself only getting her ingredients for supper at the same time as we arrived. So we all buckled down and helped her out. We were chopping and peeling potatoes and carrots, shelling peas and doing anything else she needed done. It turned out to be a fun time with everyone in the kitchen and we made the best of it. And our food turned out pretty good as a bonus, but by that time I was really hungry.
The best part of the tour was definitely the people. Our group was awesome and becuase the tour wasn't so great as it was we all made it our own so that it was better.
Day two started out with a visit to the Chiguana Desert, which is south of the salt flats and surrounded by volcanoes. We saw a semi-active volcano, it had steam coming out of the top. After that desert visit we went to two different lagoons to see 3 breeds of flamingos. They were a soft pink colour and I never would have guessed that they live in such a cold environment. We ate a picinic lunch while we waited for one guy in our group, one driver and the guide to go back to our previous location half an hour away becuase the guy forgot his camera bag with his wallet in it. Unfortunately it was gone when they got there. After our lunch we continued on to the Desert of Siloli which at 4550m is the highest and driest dessert in the world.
Our second last stop was the black lagoon where we saw black ducks and some wild chinchillas. One guy in our group decided to walk on the ice on the edge of the lagoon while we were there and fell in. Haha, his shoes and the bottom of his pants were wet for the rest of the day. Our last attraction on day two was a condor rock formation. Which is literally a rock that has been eroded to look like a flying condor.
Once we got to our night to hostel we got all settled in and we were waiting for supper when we thought it would be awesome to have a bonfire. We were cold anyways and it seemed like a great way to spend the evening. And we were right, we had a nice time keeping warm and visiting.
One of the best parts of South America is the night sky. It is so very beautiful. I thought the night sky in Sask on the farm was nice, but this tops it by far. It's very beautiful and you can see sooo many stars.
On our last day the group split up into the half going to Chile and the other half going back to Uyuni. For those of us going to Chile we made a breif stop at some cool rock formations to take some cool pictures before we took off to the Chilean border. We were almost late because our driver took his time getting there and once we got there it took forever to organize everything to get on the bus. Once we were on the bus, it was probably the worst one we've been on so that wasn't too great. However we made it to our transfer point and made the switch to a different bus which we also almost missed. But luckily we just made it on and we got to San Pedro de Atacama.
So that was the crazy salt flats tour that was kind of sucky until we made it our own. Luckily our group had a lot of great people in it so it made the trip good.
I also learned on this tour that Bolivia has 67% of the world's lithium reserves, they just haven't figured out how to harvest it yet.
I think here is a good place to add a couple things I learned on the La Paz city tour that I forgot to put in my last blog.
On the tour we got to try empanadas which are a snack that you can only get mid morning. It's a dough outside that I think is fried and its filled with meat and potatoes and hard boiled egg and other stuff and it was very tasty. I was also informed that Burger King and other similar restaurants are considered a luxury and its almost considered fancy. People don't like the amount of food you get for what you pay, it too expensive. They are used to very large portions for cheaper. So for example, McDonald's didn't survive in La Paz because of its high prices for the amount of food you get. One more thing, not food related haha. There are show shiner boys all over La Paz, and even though we've seen then in other places too, they are different in La Paz. In La Paz they have their faces covered. This is becuase the La Paz society makes them feel ashamed of their job so they don't want their identy know. This is quite different then the other places we've been where the shoe whiner boys arent ashamed of their job and don't hide their face.
Well this is a pretty long post, but its my last Bolivia post so I had to fit lots in. The next country is Chile and its a little warmer then Bolivia thank goodness.
My next post will be all of Chile so be prepared haha. Bye bye for now.