Salar de Uyuni and the Far Southwest

On Saturday, Ben, Simon, and I set out for the Salar de Uyuni. We hopped on a four hour bus to Oruro, and after a lengthy connection, another eight hour bus to Uyuni, eventually arriving at four in the morning. We spent a good ten minutes on the bus after everyone had unloaded trying to find my water bottle, which had rolled away during the very bouncy ride sometime in the night. Though we never found it (sorry Cate and Liz, we no longer having matching bicycle waterbottles), the busdriver eventually said we could stay on the bus till seven in the morning, giving us a place to sleep until daylight--very much appreciated.

As we stumbled off the bus, a very astute salesperson asked if we wanted to go on his tour. After some comparison and discussion, we decided to go with the first guy, as he had teeth and seemed honest. We teamed up with three other people for our three day expedition: one Australian couple and one woman from Israel. All spoke English and were very nice!



The Salar was immense and beautiful. Because it is the rainy season, the salt flats are covered in anywhere from three feet to a couple centimeters of water, giving the expanse a mirror-like quality. Islands in the Salar showed up as blobs in the sky, as everything was reflected over the horizon.We spent a lot of time trying to take perspective photos that didn't work out so well, but we do have one nice one of us jumping.



We spent that night south of the Salar, in a small village called Villa Alota. At one point, we realized that our three bottles of wine were not going to be enough, so the six of us walked down the desolate street, feeling like a street gang in search of trouble. We managed to buy out a store, leading to a very fun night of candlelit cards and a spontaneous dance party in the dining room of the hostel.

The next day we hopped back into the 4x4 and drove south through high desert surrounded by snowy volcanoes. 2000 year old volcanic eruptions left behind fascinating rock formations. Lakes spotted the landscape, each with very high mineral contents, or "contamination," as our guide Pedro repeated--though the minerals were natural. The minerals caused each lake to be a different color--red, turquiose, white. Each lake was filled with flamingoes, and bordered by llamas and vicunas.


Volcanic rock was very fun to climb! Unfortunately, our altitude meant I didn't enjoy it as much. I climbed a freestanding boulder at one point that was only about 50 feet tall, and more of a scramble than a climb, while our driver Pedro fixed a flat tire. Every move was about 30 times more difficult at 14,000 feet. It was kinda scary, realizing I couldn't rely on myself quite as much as I had thought.


Flamingos in one of the lakes, with a volcano in the background.


This lake was "contaminated" with sulfur. Apparently, if you smoke with sulfur in the air, you become a dried out llama baby.


Vicunas are wild relatives of llamas and alpacas. Apparently their fur is so prized, it was reserved for the Incan emperor himself. Their population is very low, but has seen a rebound in recent years.

By the end of the day, we made it to the Reserva de Fauna Andina and to the famous Laguna Colorado. This lake is a brilliant shade of red because of a particular algae it supports. Someone told me that the algae is the reason the flamingos are pink, but I'm not sure I believe that.


Only the very border of the lake is green--everywhere else is a vast moonscape of volcanos and black rocks.




Llama sex is pretty boring itself, but becomes more interesting when there are more than two participants.

This evening there were no bottles of wine--that day, we had gotten up to almost 16,000 feet, and I was feeling the sun and the less-than-ideal hygiene conditions. I think everyone was pretty subdued. The next morning we woke up at four to enjoy some geysers that are best seen at sunrise. Unfortunately, it was cloudy and we didn't see the sun, and it was very eerie seeing bubbling mud pits and billowing steam in the half-light.

At 7 am we encountered the highlight of the day: very pleasant hot springs. Instead of mud, the bottom was formed with the volcanic rock and sand. The temperature was perfect and the only thing that could have convinced me to leave were the pancakes we ate for breakfast.



We continued driving south until we got to the border with Chile, where we dropped off two of our group. The rest of the day we drove back to where we started our trip in Uyuni. I felt worse for the wear but very happy that the trip was quite so beautiful. We bordered a bus at 9pm to Oruro, and caught a 4am connection to Cochabamba, arriving back home at 9:30am. Quite a lot of traveling!