Well, this will be a short entry as I am on a limited time scale with this god damned public internet. I´m a bit behind in my writing - I am currently in Puno, Peru. Let me take you back a few days for another tale from the travellers beard.
After some crazy days in La Paz, Steve, Moss and I boarded a bus to Uyuni in the south-west of Bolivia. The bus ride was *interesting*. Bolivia´s infrastructure, in particular their roads, is not exactly western standard. As a result, I now have a new appreciation of bitchimen. The road to Uyuni was OK until we passed through the town of Orouro. From then on in, it was insanely bumpy, and nearly impossible to sleep without the aid of copious amounts of alcohol or sleeping pills (two things I did not have).
Lucky the tour group were kind enough to put on the Rock´s newest masterpeice The Game Plan - possibly the greatest movie ever.
Anyway, we got to Uyani unscathed at about 8am in the morning. We hooked up with two extremely cool individuals, Danielle (from Texas) and Wally (from Canada) who had also stayed at Loki hostel in La Paz, and we went in search of tour operators for the Salar de Uyani, the largest salt plain on this planet. Luis, a local tour operator with gold teeth and a good command of english, suckered us in, and we booked a three day tour of the salt flats and bolivian highlands within minutes of getting off the bus. By 11am, we were off!
There are many many things I could write about the salt flats - it is a magnificent thing to see. To sum up the best about my three days in the south west of bolivia, I best use an UNORDERED LIST!
- Getting my knees destroyed by sitting in the very back of a crowded jeep. Those who sat in the very back got to be part of the A TEAM, while those in the middle of the jeep, the B TEAM. The B TEAM always got more leg room, but less respect (”You know what I´m saying, beeetches?” - Wally)
- The salt plain….miles and miles of salt.
- Water sitting idle on the salt, causing the horizon to disappear so it looked like you were driving through the sky.
- Danielle´s silly jokes (”What does Snoop Dog use on his laundry? Bleeeeeeache!”)
- Smashing bottles of wine at high altitude.
- COCA. It saved my life, and my knees.
- The absolutely amazing scenery.
- Awesome food prepared by our cook, who constantly laughed at our gringo ways.
- Flamingoes!!! Vicunas!! Llamas!! Foxes!!
- Red lakes, green lakes, blue lakes, volcanoes, geysers, sulphur, steam coming out of mountains, rock trees.
- The highlight of the whole three days was on our last day, bathing in hot springs high in the mountains underneath the gaze of a volcano which straddled the Bolivia/Chile border.
- Some great company !!!
Some photos from my time on the Salar are publicly available here - click me!
Anyway, I could continue writing this entry forever. I choose to stop now. Take care all.
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