Bolivia jeep tour

Day 1

We started off in Tupiza around half 8.  I had tried to manipulate the group I’d be with to at least have a few English speaking people, as it would be 4 people (plus a driver) in a Toyota Land Cruiser for 8+ hours a day.  I ended up with a French couple (limited English) and 2 Israeli girls (pretty good English), and an English guide.  But to my surprise, I'd already met the Israeli girls on my bus ride to Salta, Alla and Shelly, so that was a cool coincidence.  The other jeep was filled with Israeli’s, so I’d get a heavy dose of Hebrew on the trip.

We quickly left civilization, paved roads turning to dirt off-roads, and we got to see some amazing scenery, like large red spiky cliffs and huge mountains among other things.  The views really were beautiful, but a few things were worrisome to start the trip.  One of the other jeeps in our group kept stopping with engine trouble, all the guides would all gather around the popped hood with questioning looks.  When I asked our guide Milton ‘what’s wrong,’ his answer ‘nothing’ was an obvious lie.  The guides were all also mechanics, so at least if it broke down it might be fixable.

Lots of lamas on the tour

About halfway through the day it started to really rain, and then hail.  It was pretty cool looking with the scenery around us, expect that our windshield wipers didn’t work.  I was sitting shotgun at the time and could barely see.  It was a great relief to get out of the jeep after that many hours just sitting, and take a walk.  We got many breaks during the drive, but still a majority of our time is sitting.

When we got to San Antonio village, our home for the night, I was eager to get out of the cars and stretch my legs.  I walked around town, which to call it a town in generous, population of 260, I think I saw 2 motor bikes in the whole town, they have electricity, but tv (are you kidding) and internet (pretty sure they’re never heard of something so ridiculous). 

Village on San Antonio

Then I choose a spot up at the top of the hill that I thought would be perfect for a little reading, but my stamina turns out to be just terrible at 13,500ft.  After not even 100 feet, I was getting a severe headache and breathing far too heavily for what how far i'd just walked, I needed to stop on a mossy flat rock part way up the hill.

I got back to our little place or residence just in time for my first experience with coca tea, as well as much needed cookies and crackers.  Then I really had a chance to chill and talk with the whole group, i was surprised to learn that Israel has their weekend on Friday and Saturday (which makes sense with Saturday being their holy day – equivalent to our Sunday, but still something I thought I know before now).

Dinner was nice and filling, and we were surprised with a show after, some of the local kids playing instruments and singing. 

We went to bed early that first night, as we’d be leaving at 5am the next morning, yikes.

Out by 9pm.

Day 2

Four in the morning wasn’t as early as I thought it was would feel, but it was still damn early.  Bag packed breakfast (just hard bread and more coca tea) and then onto the ride.

Early on it was very dark and cold outside, and so I didn’t both to look at anything other than the back of my eye lids.  Our first stop was old San Antonio, an ancient town of apparently 1,000, in which most of the previous inhabitants died due to disease.  It is rumored to have ghosts, but sadly we didn’t see any, so consider that myth debunked.

Several of the really cool things we passed:

Group photo at Laguna Morejon

I don't have a photo of the hot springs just before lunch, be we also hit those up.

Laguna Verde - Green due to the minerals

Geysers at 15,000ft

Laguna Colorado - Red due to algae

Tons of flamingos on Laguna Colorado

Some of the road conditions are pretty crazy, just driving right through rivers, large patches of mud, nothing seems to phase the guides. 

Day 3

Rock formations above 15,000ft - note the high peaks in the background

The caravan from one of the many lagunes

I’ve climbed Mt. Whitney at just under 14,500ft, and at the top you honestly don’t feel great.  I used to think that was a high mountain.  Today, we were checking out some rock formations that were created due to the insanely high winds that continue to cause erosion, eventually the rocks won’t exist.  When we got out of the cars for the first time today, we were above 15,000ft on a flat plateau surrounded by snow capped mountains  towering above us, it was unreal.  Of course the guides were completely unphased, playing soccer and running around like it was nothing.  I played for a second before nearly collapsing from exhaustion. 

We continued the day by checking out a series of lagunes, but I’ll be honest, most were sweet looking, but they were also my 13^th, 14^th, and 15^th lakes of the trip, so I was sorta getting over stopping just to look at more agua.  Then we continued driving through our last bit of true off-road, because reaching the real road (still dirt, but hard packed and flat), and the valle de rocas (valley of the rocks).

Valle de Rocas - The Condor of Bolivia

We drove on much fast now, continuing on to the cemetery of the trains, basically a glorified landfill with some 45 year old trains that are now out of service.  After, we arrived at Uyuni, a total shithole of a town with all dirt roads and rundown buildings.  I didn’t want to spend a minute longer in this place than needed.

One interested thing about Bolivia is a surprisingly high number of dentists.  Like Tupiza had at least 5 places, and in Uyuni we saw 2 just walking to the downtown.  However, based on the quality of the locals teeth, they seem to be neglecting to use such prominent facilities.

It was also April Fools day today, and we tried to convince Milton, when giving the outline for the next day’s activities after dinner, to tell the rest of the group that the salt flats were closed the next day and we’d have to cut the trip short.  Trying to explain to him why we pull pranks on each other on April 1^st was like explaining to a child that Santa Claus doesn’t exist, it just clearly wasn’t sinking in, and hence no fools were performed :(. 

I ended the night playing a few card games that were favorites of the Israelis: Yanif, Cambio, and Taki.  The first two are a bit tough to explain in writing, but the third (Taki) is like Uno only with a few different rules.   After being taught the rules and then playing I ended up winning (NBD) to the surprise of the entire table of Israelis.

Day 4

Salar de Uyuni at sunrise

Today is the last day of the jeep tour and we were again up early to drive to the Salar de Uyuni (the largest salt flat in the world) for sunrise.  Wearing my clothes designed for the beach, it was incredibly cold and I could barely feel my face and feet by the time the sun actually got up.  I needed some time to recover, and a nice breakfast inside a building made entirely out of salt, walls, chairs, everything, did the trick.

Then we drove actually onto the salt flat and had 2 hours for picture, which at first I thought was way too long, but we kicked around the soccer ball, and then spent time thinking up cool perspective pictures to take, like one person holding another in their hand, or pushing a ball, or whatever.  It was pretty fun.

As we were leaving we passed by a village whose whole economy is based on salt.  We saw people actually digging, like with shovels, the salt into trucks.  2.2lbs of salt = 50 Bolivian cents, which equates to about $70 for a ton of salt.

We drove the last few miles back to Uyuni, rounding it out to an even 600 miles for the trip.  A pretty solid four days all said and done.