Salar de Uyuni... Are we on Mars?

Salar de Uyuni (Uyuni Salt Flats)

After officially arriving in La Paz, ten hours later than when I was supposed to, I immediately headed to the hostal that Carrie recommended to me-- The Adventure Brew Hostal. All I really knew about it was that it would be cheap, and after 8 P.M. I would get a (small) free beer. What I didn't know was how close it would be to the center of action AND how cold it would be inside the hostel. In Ecuador, there are no central heating systems and most places lack fireplaces. This makes sense because it is on the equator (hence the name)... but this is 1300 mi. / 2100 km. southeast, in the mountains, with snow and ice. I was not expecting almost every place to lack some source of heat. I quickly unpacked my stuff in my dormitorio, added a couple of layers of clothes, and set out on finding the best deals on tours for Salar de Uyuni. After walking around for a couple of hours from location to location, I found the best deal at Madidi Travel. They were so helpful and accommodating for setting up all aspects of my tour, including the bus trip to Uyuni.

NOTE: If you want to do a tour in the salt flats, you need to arrange your own travel to Uyuni. I didn't realize this ahead of time but thankfully Madidi did all of that for me. On the other hand, it would have been better if I arranged my bus on my own because... well, I'll explain that later.

In order to get there on time, you need to leave the night before your tour. I already paid for my night at the hostal so I had them save my bus seat for the following night, after the Pope's arrival. At this point, I still hadn't eaten since the night before so I stumbled into a small cafetería, where, for 15 bolivianos, I ate some chicarrón de pollo con mate y chuño. This refueled me to visit Mirador Killi Killi... stunning. It is crazy how handicap-accessible this city is! There are ramps everywhere-- Quito is not the place to be if you need a wheelchair. In the park, a group of people was filming a music video, and now I really understand the process. This isn't the one that was being filmed but I am sure the quality will be really similar to this one:

Living in Quito prepared me for a lot of South American travel. I can easily navigate a city with little organization in how the streets are planned, push past people to actually get somewhere, and cross busy traffic at any point in time and location. I got back to the hostal, practiced my spanish, drank my free craft beer, and went to bed. It was about time to get some real sleep finally.

Me, Elsa, and Marissa in the Cementaría de Trenes

The next day was Pope day. At 7 A.M., small crowds of people were already gathered and the roads were closed for the Pope... for 10 hours in advance of his arrival. Lawn chairs, living room couches, snack and souvenir vendors everywhere. I had to check out at 1 P.M. but my bus wasn't departing until 10 P.M. The hostal thankfully allowed me to checkout but stay there until I needed to leave. During my wait, I met two awesome people: Elsa and Marissa. Through the end of my time in Uyuni I would keep running into them, because they were doing a tour the same time I was but through a different company. I wish I would have gone with them on the tour because they are so nice and fun and interesting. The rest of the afternoon, we waited together for the Pope to drive past our hostal, as he was expected to come past around 5 P.M., and then we were going to go to the bus terminal together to go to Uyuni.

I saw the pope twice in one week, over two countries. No big deal.

Waiting for Papa Francisco went longer than expected. There were several times that a group of cars approach, people would cheer and chant, and then be completely faked out because the Pope wasn't coming yet. We waited outside on a balcony of the hostal until 7 P.M. before he came. It was strange because he was scheduled to depart to a lower altitude at 8 P.M.

The main terminal in La Paz

So, we headed to the terminal. It was advised to arrive half-an-hour before the departure of the buses, but this was never explained to me why. About 9:40 P.M., 20 minutes before my bus was leaving, I finally found the company I was traveling with and they were closed. I started walking around outside to see if I could find a bus from the company. As the time more closely approached the departure, my pace of searching increased. I mean, I was full on running around this terminal inside-and-out to find this damn bus! I asked the lady working at the office immediately next to "my company" where they are or what carril they would be at-- all she said was that the office was closed. I asked a policía where I could find the bus-- he mumbled a few words, pointed in a random direction, and walked off. I asked the information desk where I could find the bus-- they told me the bus was leaving at 10 P.M., I argued with them that I was aware of that but I couldn't find the bus and the office was closed. The information desk was the least helpful of them all. By this point it is 9:58 P.M. and I am freaking out that I spent all this money and I am not even going to make it. I was almost resolved to return to the hostal, go to the tour agency in the morning and demand a refund, and book a ticket back to Ecuador because....... how is it possible that the travel system in Bolivia is so impossible? I make one last attempt and start running around the front-outside of the terminal and this is where I find real help. It turns out the bus already left. Da fuk? What Latin American country has buses that leave early?! A taxista assures me he can help me find it, and I take a 70 boliviano cab ride up to El Alto, where he tracks the bus and flags them to pull over so I can get on. All I had was a voucher saying I paid for my asiento and no official way of knowing if I was even getting on the correct bus. I managed to fall asleep somehow, but not very well. Before I dozed off, I couldn't help but think I was running a less fun version of The Amazing Race, but alone.

Cementaría de Trenes. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid robbed one of the trains that has been retired to this playground for adults.

We arrived in the city of Uyuni around 8 A.M. It isn't much but I found it quite charming-- an old town with set-stone paved roads, statues and monuments, parks, a very active mercado. It was so cold, and the locals weren't shameful in being the first to say it. I walked a few blocks over from the terminal to my company, Quechua Connection. I the oldest person in my tour group... by about 4 years. The next oldest traveler was Natalia, a Polish girl who lives and studies in Germany but is completing her masters program for international social work in Peru. She was also the only other single traveler in my group. I looked at her and asked, "Do you want to be photo partners?" This was the start of a new friendship, as we would continue traveling together for a few days after our salt flat tour. Also represented in our group were:

• 1 Canadian;
• 2 US citizens (one said he was from Colombia, but he is really from Miami);
• 2 Danes;
• 2 Irish;
• 3 Brits;
• 1 Italian

Nightfall on the largest salt flat in the world. It created a rainbow on the horizon of the sunlight.

Perspective Shot.

Long story short, the three day tour was phenomenal and a dream realized. We played on rusted and retired trains, toured a "salt factory," biked on the largest salt flat in the world, hiked on Isla Incahausi, watched flamingoes in Lago Colorada, gazed at the stars, climbed up petrified lava flows AND on top of huge boulders that were projected 10 kilometers from a volcanic explosion , warmed up in thermal pools, and stood next to active geysers while watching the sunrise. One of the most interesting parts of the tour was right before dropping several people at the Chilean border, where they'd continue their travels in the Atacama desert. The most interesting location was Laguna Verde / Laguna Blanca, which lie in front of Vulcan Juriques. This area of land has been used by NASA to test the roving-robots that have gone to Mars. And it really does look like an unearthly place on our planet. 

Vulcan Juriques behind Laguna Blanca and Laguna Verde. This is a site of NASA simulations.

It was such an awesome experience, made some connections with people I had never met before, and persevered through challenges. Natalia and I, along with only two others in our group, returned directly to Uyuni. I should have studied any map of Bolivia because my ultimate goal was to return to La Paz and transfer to Copacabana / Lake Titicaca.

The one thing I continued hearing and knew I wanted to avoid was Potosí. Potosí is a very poor mining city in the center of all the major cities of the Andes region. However, this city was one of the richest in the world due to the amount of silver in the mines in their city. I kind of want to go there when I revisit Bolivia in the future. Anyway....One thing Carrie warned me about was that July tends to be the month with most strikes in Bolivia and I should plan extra days in my trip in case there is a strike. These strikes can get quite intense including blocking roads with rocks and boulders. This was the case of Potosí while I was there. But they didn't stop with rocks in the streets, from what I was told by many people. No, no, no. They also dug trenches in their streets. The shut down every business, store, tienda, and almost all of the mines in solidarity for the strike. They threw rocks at and slashed the tires of any vehicle attempting to leave the city. They prevented any travel on the ONE ROAD that everyone has to use to get anywhere. At this point, nobody I talked to knew why these strikes were happening, just that they began in the end of May... but it was Pope-Day when the blockades began.

When we bought bus tickets to Sucre, thinking it would be easy to spend a day there before going to La Paz, we thought we were being smart and avoiding Potosí.

Uyuni at night. 

Again, I should have studied any map of Bolivia before booking that bus ticket. My luck in traveling would not improve... stay tuned.

A large lagoon that is entirely made of borax.