Uyuni, Bolivia, South America

I’ve had a bit of a weird day today. I woke up at 6am after getting about 15 minutes sleep per hour all through the night. I’m not sure it matters how comfortable the bus is, I just don’t think I can get a good night’s sleep on a bus. We weren’t too far from Uyuni, so I just started checking out the Lonely Planet to see what tour companies they recommended for a desert tour. The number one recommended company was Red Planet, and I met a girl on the bus who was going to their office, so I walked down there with her. Unfortunately, they were fully booked for today. I couldn’t find the office for the number two place, they are probably no longer in business, so when a woman on the street asked if I was looking for a tour, I said yes.

Huracan travel is not a company I have heard anything about, so I don’t know if that’s good or bad. The first question I asked was who else would be in my group. I just know that for a three day trip, I don’t want to be the only english speaking person in the group. That’s no fun for me. She said that there were two australians and three canadians in my group, so we would all be english speaking. She even said they canadians could speak Spanish, so they could help translate if I needed it. It sounded perfect.

She said the price was 750 Bolivianos for me to end the three day trip in San Pedro de Atacama, Chile, but for 50 more I could have a single room for the first night. This idea really appealed to me because I got such a bad night’s sleep on the bus, so I was happy to pay it. I organized everything, and went out to get some breakfast before the trip started at 11am.

I came back to the office and met two Austrian girls who were going on the same tour, but just not in my group. At about 11am, they came and got me so we could go pick up the rest of the people for my group. Instead of two Aussies and three Canadians, we picked up five Israelis. I have absolutely nothing against Israelis, and the five in my van are very friendly, but they don’t speak English very well (compared to Aussies and Canadians), and they tend to stick to their own groups instead of branching out. It’s been a pretty quiet day for me today.

We first drove a couple miles out of town to the train graveyard. This is where a bunch of trains that used to be used to bring the salt from Bolivia to Chile were used. These trains came from France and the UK and were not well equipped to deal with the salt in the area, and it obviously caused a lot of problems. This is where the trains have remained for decades now. Any information I got about this and any other sites was from a little guide book that our driver, Hugo, had. He speaks no English, and speaks way too fast for me to understand most of his Spanish. The Israelis have a couple of people who speak Spanish really well, so they translate to each other, but I’m left not knowing what’s going on.

We drove back through town and then started heading out into the salt flats. We stopped where we could see a bunch of piles of salt that workers have raked up so that the salt can dry out and it is then easier to transport. I took a few pictures and admired the difference of this landscape compared to anywhere I’ve ever been. The Israelis decided to jump on the piles and get pictures of them standing on top of them. Not sure the workers would have appreciated this, but it wasn’t really my place to say anything.

We continued further into the flats and it became apparent just how big this place is. It’s not hard to believe this is the highest salt flat in the world at this elevation. We came to a salt hotel that was just smack dab in the middle of the flats, and this was our lunch place. There was a huge monument built of salt that says “Dakar”, but I have no idea what it is for. I’m sure Hugo explained it, just not to me. We had a pretty bland lunch out of the back of the Toyota Landcruiser, that consisted of a slab of cold beef, some rice, and a couple of vegetables. Not a great lunch, but it filled me up for about the next two hours.

After lunch we headed further out into the salt flats where the ground was whiter, and we stopped to take the typical perspective photos. This is also where I learned that my group had absolutely no concept of time. Hugo said we were stopping for 15-20 minutes. After an hour and a half, we finally left. I took a few photos with Tigger, who I’ve been carrying around the world with me since the start of my trip, and some of the other people in the group helped me out. And it turns out it’s not a group of five israelis they put me with, but a group of eleven! There’s another car that the other six are in, and they are following us to all the same spots. The people in that car are a bit more talkative and nicer to me, so it’s kind of a shame that I’m not in there car, but whatever.

They finally finished taking their pictures and we left for an island in the middle of the salt flats. This one was called Isla Incahuasi and it’s covered in cacti. It was actually really cool to see. I paid the entry and walked up to the top to get a great view of the salt flats surrounding it. This really is a beautiful place on earth. From there we only had one more stop before getting to the hostel.

We drove out to the edge of the salt flats and watched the sunset. It was pretty spectacular to see the colors that were cast over the opposite horizon and the Tunupa volcano in the distance. We spent about 45 minutes here, and then headed over to our hostel for the night, Hotel de Sal Marith En.

This is one of the worst hostels I’ve ever stayed in. Not for the aesthetics, but mainly for the attitude of the owner. She “greeted” us with a horrible mean look on her face. When she found out that I had been OFFERED a single room for the night and I paid 50 Bolivianos extra for it, she got really pissed off and started shouting at Hugo. Luckily he handled it and I do have a room for myself. When the woman offered it to me this morning I was really excited considering I got very little sleep on the bus last night, so I’m glad it worked out.

I then realized that this is the first hostel I have EVER stayed in that doesn’t have any charging points in any of the rooms. There are five out in the dining room area, so all fifty people staying the hostel are fighting over them. It’s the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever seen. We then wanted to take a hot shower and had to pay 10 Bolivianos for it. That was fine, until we realized that they have four showers and they were only willing to put hot water on in one of them. So we had a line of about six people waiting to take a hot shower, and then the woman started accusing us of not paying, when we already had. It was not the nicest experience I’ve had. I did get a shower though, so it wasn’t all bad.

We had another fairly basic dinner prepared by Hugo that consisted of soup, chicken and plantains, and nothing for dessert. This tour is really pointing out just how awesome the jungle trek was with Lorenzo Expeditions. I’ve had a really nice day when I think back at all of the amazing landscapes I’ve seen, but absolutely nothing on this tour has impressed me. Hopefully tomorrow will be a different story when we head out into the desert.