Uyuni is a hub for stopping or booking for salt flat tours. Our group and the second group I told you about all went to the same hostel as it was recommended to us by their guide. Me and four from the fantastic five group went out for dinner. After we ordered Jay and the two muskateers arrived in the same restaurant. Pants. It didn´t sway the mood though, we had such a good time. I felt so lucky to be on that table and not the other. The names of the group are Eleanor (the trainee nurse), and Johnny - both from Ireland, and Diana - UK and Liam - Irish. El and Johnny had been together since teenage years on and off and are finally together forever, we think. Diana and Liam met when volunteering abroad and have been a couple for a year and a half, visiting eachother once a month for a long weekend, they are so gonna be together forever, if you saw them you´d understand. All lovely open minded, interesting people. The fifth is Ben, who didn´t come out for food this night but we´d been bumping into eachother all over the place today (very small town) and all of us went to buy our bus tickets together. The bus station was not a station, it was a road where buses park and lots of ticket offices are stationed along the side.
We turned up in the morning for our bus to Potosi because we were all going in the same direction. There were two buses next to eachother, we thought the good big bus was ours but it wasn´t. Ours was the dodgy, broken and taped back together windowed old bus. Jay, Eddie and Terry laughed as they got on the good bus. We laughed that we were getting the experience of Bolivia that we wanted. Then I noted that the size of the wheels on their big bus were the same size as the ones on ours and wasn´t sure which was safer after all. Here comes the dangerous road on mountains edges. You´ll have to bear with me on this story.
Tuesday, 23 September 2008
Incredible
The views were spectacular on this route, we went to Laguna Amarilla, Laguna Celeste, Reserva Nacional de Fauna Andina Eduardo Avaroa, Laguna Colorado, Laguna Cañapa, Valles de Rocas, Alota, Avaroa, San Juan, Colchani, Solar de Uyuni, and finally to the Uyuni ghost trains that have been abandoned.
All I have to say is, do it. Explaining the views isn´t enough. I´ll explain the salt hotel though. Apparently our hotel had been picked up piece by peice and moved to it´s spot. It really was made of saltm I lick a wall. I bet hundreds of people have licked that wall before me but I needed to know.
On this tour we came across small towns in the middle of nowhere that rely on tourism. They are expecting our cars, I guess, a certain amount of times a day. Each store or outdoor market sells the same things. After going to a few, you buy something just because you can imagine that they don´t sell much at all. This may truelly mean that they sell a fair bit. They never hassle you to buy something.
There was a ghost town of crumbled ruins. The people who lived there felt that it was haunted so they all moved away. The guy whose name I just remembered, Terrence, really needed a number two. He couldn´t wait for ten minutes to get to the next inhabitated town so he found a quiet spot, shat, and covered it with rocks. Then told everyone. Charming.
Everything morning we needed to get up in the early hours of the morning, usually between 5am and 6am. The reason to get up early was to catch the sunrise or because we had a long day of driving ahead of us. This suited me, I woke up before the alarm every day anyway. So did Ben from the other group so we´d always look at eachother with groggy eyes and nodd - yep, we´re the first up again. I don´t know about him, but I always ended up napping in the car, which infuriated Jay a bit, I should have been talking. He says, if it wasn´t for me talking all the time what would you all do? When my eyes were shut I could still hear him. Luckily I was tired enough to ignore him and listen to my spanish music for practice. A couple of times Terry and Jay blew up and argued. Terry would also change personality when Jay was around and pretend not to like me, then be nice when he disappeared again. I wondered how old they really were. My tolerence of Jay had abandoned me with lack of sleep, so I just kept myself to myself and enjoyed any time I had with the other group. At least Eddie was ace, he wasn´t malicious in the slightest. If I do a group tour again, I´m going to do it with people unlike Jay.
In the buildings that we stayed electricity only came on at certain hours and there was a need for torches at night. We shared our table with the other group quite a lot, which made me happy. They taught me how to play a card game called shithead and they played poker with tea bags because they didn´t have chips. Lovely and creative.
On the tour I met a retired french lady who was traveling alone. She spent 7 months volunteering in Cusco teaching people how to knit, sew and weave so that they can make their own products to sell. She was ever so pleasant, I had to mention her.
All I have to say is, do it. Explaining the views isn´t enough. I´ll explain the salt hotel though. Apparently our hotel had been picked up piece by peice and moved to it´s spot. It really was made of saltm I lick a wall. I bet hundreds of people have licked that wall before me but I needed to know.
On this tour we came across small towns in the middle of nowhere that rely on tourism. They are expecting our cars, I guess, a certain amount of times a day. Each store or outdoor market sells the same things. After going to a few, you buy something just because you can imagine that they don´t sell much at all. This may truelly mean that they sell a fair bit. They never hassle you to buy something.
There was a ghost town of crumbled ruins. The people who lived there felt that it was haunted so they all moved away. The guy whose name I just remembered, Terrence, really needed a number two. He couldn´t wait for ten minutes to get to the next inhabitated town so he found a quiet spot, shat, and covered it with rocks. Then told everyone. Charming.
Everything morning we needed to get up in the early hours of the morning, usually between 5am and 6am. The reason to get up early was to catch the sunrise or because we had a long day of driving ahead of us. This suited me, I woke up before the alarm every day anyway. So did Ben from the other group so we´d always look at eachother with groggy eyes and nodd - yep, we´re the first up again. I don´t know about him, but I always ended up napping in the car, which infuriated Jay a bit, I should have been talking. He says, if it wasn´t for me talking all the time what would you all do? When my eyes were shut I could still hear him. Luckily I was tired enough to ignore him and listen to my spanish music for practice. A couple of times Terry and Jay blew up and argued. Terry would also change personality when Jay was around and pretend not to like me, then be nice when he disappeared again. I wondered how old they really were. My tolerence of Jay had abandoned me with lack of sleep, so I just kept myself to myself and enjoyed any time I had with the other group. At least Eddie was ace, he wasn´t malicious in the slightest. If I do a group tour again, I´m going to do it with people unlike Jay.
In the buildings that we stayed electricity only came on at certain hours and there was a need for torches at night. We shared our table with the other group quite a lot, which made me happy. They taught me how to play a card game called shithead and they played poker with tea bags because they didn´t have chips. Lovely and creative.
On the tour I met a retired french lady who was traveling alone. She spent 7 months volunteering in Cusco teaching people how to knit, sew and weave so that they can make their own products to sell. She was ever so pleasant, I had to mention her.
children! scarper!!
Each time we stayed at a destination (3 nights) we were with the group that we met at the tour office, who was also the group that I had the pleasure of sharing their 4x4 when Lucy had her accident. When in their car we stopped at the place where Lucy was to be left and we would pick up a new cook. The children that surrounded us could sense that I had chocolate in my bag... they gathered around us asking for sweets then innocently waiting for us to speak. A few of us tried talking to them, because I couldn´t talk I asked them to dance for me. Which one seven year old, celia, would only do if I did first. So, stupidly I did some turns and stepped from side to side, in front of all of these people that I had recently met. Luckily they smiled at us with encouragement. We carried on dancing to eachother and ending up twirling eachother, unsuccessfully when she tried to turn me, being half my height n all. I asked if I could take their picture, to which they were shy at first but then were really happy to be accidentally caught in a picture that I showed them. Half trusting a boy who wanted to take a picture for me, I ran along side him as he took pictures of the most shy girls. Then Celia wanted to take pictures but couldn´t understand the idea of not looking through a view finder and kept trying to look through the zoom and taking pictures of her face upsidedown. Some experiments later and she got it. Now there were less children so I dçfigured I had enough chocolate for just them. As soon as the chocolate came out it seemed like a war had borke out and more kids flew around the corner in a perfectly made war line to get to the fron. I broke off the smallest pieces of chocolate understanding how it could of felt for Jesus handing out fish. It really did go far. Aiming for the smallest kids first so they wouldn´t cry, I ended at the melted part of the chocolate and threw it into the crowd and they all scarpered towards it and followed the kid that grabbed it. Wow. In hindsight, I should never have taken out my chocolate. Ben, from the other group, wound me up that the crying kid in the distance was upset that he didn´t get any chocolate. I know this wasn´t true, I´d seen him fall over.
Living in the middle of nowhere seems to have given these children a trustworthy and unneedy attitude (other than for chocolate). Having not seen so much wealth or objects of desire they appear unscathed by modern living. They were beautiful. The parents all stood at the edge of the square watching but not doing any more. Just observing. I wander what they were thinking. I hope not, please stop taking advantage photographing my children. We tried to take very few photos so as not to upset anyone but you never know. Its better that the children took more photos than I did.
Living in the middle of nowhere seems to have given these children a trustworthy and unneedy attitude (other than for chocolate). Having not seen so much wealth or objects of desire they appear unscathed by modern living. They were beautiful. The parents all stood at the edge of the square watching but not doing any more. Just observing. I wander what they were thinking. I hope not, please stop taking advantage photographing my children. We tried to take very few photos so as not to upset anyone but you never know. Its better that the children took more photos than I did.
stuck in the mud
LLamas are spotting grazing in the distance so our guide drives us to them to stop for lunch. He is a sweet boy, probably about 16 years old. He has a loving relationship with our cook, Lucy, who is funny even though we can´t communicate. She seems to love her job dearly. Her food is ace. And quick.
5 hours away from Tupiza we get stuck in mud in very deep mud slodge. Even though we are in the desert the ground has plenty of water in it. At night it is so cold that ice forms over the sand mountains and in the afternoon we can still see ice melting in the glittering light. However pretty this is, it doesn´t help us now. We unload our bags and chuck them on some leaves far away from the churning wheels. Over the course of half an hour, four other tour 4x4s arrive at the scene and everyone examines the situation. That´s all of the tour guides, cooks and passengers, equating to about 30 people standing there staring and coming up with new solutions as to how we escape. The wheels are almost three quarters deep on the right hand side and almost on top on the left.
7 of us are practical and bring over leaves and stones, me being slightly less practical wearing flipflops and slipping into deep pools of watered mud. We aren´t going to be able to shower for four days - what was I thinking? Jay has an interesting idea when he spots a 14ft log in the distance. We should lever the car up. So, all of the guys and some girls lift this huge log up and carry it to the car ready for lift-off. Quite a funny sight, I took photos and let them do the hard work. After all, I had collected leaves and stones ...some were heavy. Finally, after several ideas being instigated it was time to start the engine. Everyone jumps to the front of the car, knowing that the car is going to backup with the tow lead of the other 4x4. As it moves backwards, for an unknown reason, Lucy steps over the log which has been left next to the wheel, to the behind side. The wheel caught the log and it span towards her, strongly pushed by the wheel and the cooks leg is caught and she is thrown under the log. One loud yelp and her pain is over. Everyone shouts to stop the car and runs over to help her. One of the guides carries her away from the scene while her ankle dangles freely. She is placed on a less muddy spot and after our v4x4 easily gets out of the mud - well it had to with the amount of ideas - our 4x4 takes her to the next village 20 minutes away. This is even though the hospital was in Tupiza 5 hours away.
Due to the need for my seat in the back to place Lucy and a uni student nurse, Eleanor, I jump into Eleanor´s spot in the other 4x4. Unlucky for her, Jay kept trying to tell her what to do. She hated him after that and told him to get the fuck away. Who could blame her. He said to me that he had put a wrist bandage on someone before, then he told someone else he had done it three times, then he told her he had done it lots of times so she should listen to him. Puuulease. As you can see, Jay was starting to grate. Still, as there was heat in the situation I wanted to give him more time to be a better person.
5 hours away from Tupiza we get stuck in mud in very deep mud slodge. Even though we are in the desert the ground has plenty of water in it. At night it is so cold that ice forms over the sand mountains and in the afternoon we can still see ice melting in the glittering light. However pretty this is, it doesn´t help us now. We unload our bags and chuck them on some leaves far away from the churning wheels. Over the course of half an hour, four other tour 4x4s arrive at the scene and everyone examines the situation. That´s all of the tour guides, cooks and passengers, equating to about 30 people standing there staring and coming up with new solutions as to how we escape. The wheels are almost three quarters deep on the right hand side and almost on top on the left.
7 of us are practical and bring over leaves and stones, me being slightly less practical wearing flipflops and slipping into deep pools of watered mud. We aren´t going to be able to shower for four days - what was I thinking? Jay has an interesting idea when he spots a 14ft log in the distance. We should lever the car up. So, all of the guys and some girls lift this huge log up and carry it to the car ready for lift-off. Quite a funny sight, I took photos and let them do the hard work. After all, I had collected leaves and stones ...some were heavy. Finally, after several ideas being instigated it was time to start the engine. Everyone jumps to the front of the car, knowing that the car is going to backup with the tow lead of the other 4x4. As it moves backwards, for an unknown reason, Lucy steps over the log which has been left next to the wheel, to the behind side. The wheel caught the log and it span towards her, strongly pushed by the wheel and the cooks leg is caught and she is thrown under the log. One loud yelp and her pain is over. Everyone shouts to stop the car and runs over to help her. One of the guides carries her away from the scene while her ankle dangles freely. She is placed on a less muddy spot and after our v4x4 easily gets out of the mud - well it had to with the amount of ideas - our 4x4 takes her to the next village 20 minutes away. This is even though the hospital was in Tupiza 5 hours away.
Due to the need for my seat in the back to place Lucy and a uni student nurse, Eleanor, I jump into Eleanor´s spot in the other 4x4. Unlucky for her, Jay kept trying to tell her what to do. She hated him after that and told him to get the fuck away. Who could blame her. He said to me that he had put a wrist bandage on someone before, then he told someone else he had done it three times, then he told her he had done it lots of times so she should listen to him. Puuulease. As you can see, Jay was starting to grate. Still, as there was heat in the situation I wanted to give him more time to be a better person.
small mud house town
In a tiny little town we wandered around aimlessly, not knowing why we were there because our spanish combined wasn´t too hot. Only 20 to 30 families lived here. There are no obvious convienences, five to ten woman walk around slowly and a few children also walk around. The men travel away to work and come back in the evening so there were none around. The women wear the traditional dress of many colourful layers and bowler hats ontop of their plaited hair. If a girl has one plait they are available, if they have two plaits they are married. The guys whipped out their super duper cameras and I whip out my tiny convenience and shoot pictures of these interesting people. They have such curious yet unsure faces and look at cameras in a completely unposed fashion, appearing to not really acknowledge the camera at all - perfect for good photography.
Walking back towards our van a mother looks at me with a tilted head and creased eyebrows, and says aren´t you cold. Having expected Quencha, not Spanish, I was doubly surprised. Wearing soley a tshirt and not a million layers had baffled her. I said I need a tan, to which she responded that she is dark enough already. This makes me sound like I can speak spanish, I really can´t, she spoke very slowly and clearly for me. We must have looked similar to two dogs discovering a bone. We both stared at eachother for a minute with clear curiousity in eachother. My head spins, this is a kodak moment! I ask her if she minds if i take a photo of her. She lets me, still appearing completely baffled and curious as to what planet I came from. Just as I took the photo she seemed to become quite proud that I had asked her noticing her friend behind looking a little jealous. She didn´t seem to know what she was looking at when I showed her the photo on the camera screen. Gracias, adios. Chao gringo. Gringo is foreigner, supposedly it is not meant in a nasty way but rather an affectionate way. In south america it is quite normal to call someone a name by what they look like ie whitey or thin one, or tall one. This is seen as affectionate - not quite the way it would be taken in England.
Walking back towards our van a mother looks at me with a tilted head and creased eyebrows, and says aren´t you cold. Having expected Quencha, not Spanish, I was doubly surprised. Wearing soley a tshirt and not a million layers had baffled her. I said I need a tan, to which she responded that she is dark enough already. This makes me sound like I can speak spanish, I really can´t, she spoke very slowly and clearly for me. We must have looked similar to two dogs discovering a bone. We both stared at eachother for a minute with clear curiousity in eachother. My head spins, this is a kodak moment! I ask her if she minds if i take a photo of her. She lets me, still appearing completely baffled and curious as to what planet I came from. Just as I took the photo she seemed to become quite proud that I had asked her noticing her friend behind looking a little jealous. She didn´t seem to know what she was looking at when I showed her the photo on the camera screen. Gracias, adios. Chao gringo. Gringo is foreigner, supposedly it is not meant in a nasty way but rather an affectionate way. In south america it is quite normal to call someone a name by what they look like ie whitey or thin one, or tall one. This is seen as affectionate - not quite the way it would be taken in England.
Trainers and children
My trainers really stink. I´ve had them for a couple of weeks, since being in Chile and wearing them on the horse has ripped a small hole in the front. They are getting close to death row. I had to leave them outside the window of my room and hope they air out enough before we go on the tour. Otherwise the others will have to deal with them in our shared accommodations.
In Argentina I had to accustom myself to slow service and a possibility of dying before food arrives. Therefore, became quite used to arriving to restaurants way before I was hungry. This however, didn´t prepare me for Bolivian service which is somewhat sporadic. In one place you can be waiting for two hours for food, in another, your food is slopped on your plate almost before you order it and you are barely asked if you want any, let alone showed a menu. This is not easy to prepare for. How hungry should I be when I go to a restaurant? Basically, don´t be hungry and just hope you get fed, and worry later if you are hungry again or stock up on snacks. In the lonely planet recommended restaurant we were served by a 15 year old and he cooked the food I think. The pizza was actually delicious but that might have been because I was so hungry.
The walk back from the horse ride had taken us passed a strange gold head statue - to be quite a popular object throughout Bolivia - I´m still to find out why. Then we came across a mass of table football tables and a bunch of kids fanatically playing on them while their proud mothers and older brothers and sisters watched. Amazingly, here we were ignored entirely unless we caught someones eye and smiled. A lady was selling home made ice cream at the side of the road, ofcourse I tried some. I thought I was getting coconut and was pleasantly suprised by banana flavour.
In Argentina I had to accustom myself to slow service and a possibility of dying before food arrives. Therefore, became quite used to arriving to restaurants way before I was hungry. This however, didn´t prepare me for Bolivian service which is somewhat sporadic. In one place you can be waiting for two hours for food, in another, your food is slopped on your plate almost before you order it and you are barely asked if you want any, let alone showed a menu. This is not easy to prepare for. How hungry should I be when I go to a restaurant? Basically, don´t be hungry and just hope you get fed, and worry later if you are hungry again or stock up on snacks. In the lonely planet recommended restaurant we were served by a 15 year old and he cooked the food I think. The pizza was actually delicious but that might have been because I was so hungry.
The walk back from the horse ride had taken us passed a strange gold head statue - to be quite a popular object throughout Bolivia - I´m still to find out why. Then we came across a mass of table football tables and a bunch of kids fanatically playing on them while their proud mothers and older brothers and sisters watched. Amazingly, here we were ignored entirely unless we caught someones eye and smiled. A lady was selling home made ice cream at the side of the road, ofcourse I tried some. I thought I was getting coconut and was pleasantly suprised by banana flavour.
Tupiza horses then get a tour
That day the four of us, Eddie, Jay and thingy-me-bob (temporarily forgotten his name) had time to do a horse riding tour for three hours. I´m the only person who knows how to jump on a horse and go. I wanted to stay out riding next to the devil´s doorway and the red rock formations that looked like daggers poking in to the floor but the boys all had sore parts that females avoid. Our guide looks like Forturo from Never Ending Story. His horse kept bouncing and kicking, playing up so much that we lost him a few times when he galloped off uncontrollably. Once the horse ran off without him so he needed to get on thingys horse with him. Our horses just kept on going as they knew the way. I tried to catch up with the escapey horse but my horse knows what it wants, and that´s not what I want. Another tour group passed us on their way back. The tour guide caught the horse and gave the lead to me. Great. For once, my horse decided to do as I say and go back the way we came - because it thought we were going home. Tour guide with his horse and ready for action, we go. Keen to speed up, me and our guide stayed behind so the other horses wouldn´t get excited and gallop with us. When their horses were a safe distance ahead.... Woo yeah! That was exciting, give me a taste and I want more, on our return walk I didn´t hestitate when my horse wanted to go faster, I just let it pick up pace. Unfortunately it meant the other boys horses felt like going too. The horror on their faces was a picture to remember, especially on Jay´s, he is so sure of himself but he can´t deal with a bit fear. It was Eddie´s first time on a horse but he went for it and turned out to be a natural.
Later on, while Jay blew out smoke from his cigarette and drank a beer, he told me a message from our guide. He liked me and wanted me to know. That was it. End of message. Interesting. Yeah, I think that could work... a young fifteen year old and me, a Bolivian in Bolivia, me in England, no ofcourse! We simply need to marry. I´ll suggest that next time we meet... if we see eachother again. Where does he live? Mustn´t be hard to find him in this small town.
Forgetting about the young Bolivian, I focus on where to go from here. At the tour company Jay argued with the sales person about saving a few pounds for a four day salt flat tour. What a waste of half an hour, and what a headache. The tour was such a great idea that I couldn´t refuse to go on it. A 4x4 would take us passed many lagoons, hot springs, volcanic waters, flamingoes and the salt flats, ending in Uyuni, my next destination. I knew I would have to put up with Jay but figured it was worth it because the other two guys were nice and occassionally funny. Outside the hotel tour shop we met five lovely people, all about to do the same tour. As Jay had argued so much the english tour guide had opted to being their guide, not ours. So we were going to have a spanish guide instead. The five lovely people were going to be at every destination that we stopped which was quite a relief to me. Also, the guide agreed to chat to me about the land when we see eachother on the tour. How nice is he!? How could Jay be so mean and rude to him?
Later on, while Jay blew out smoke from his cigarette and drank a beer, he told me a message from our guide. He liked me and wanted me to know. That was it. End of message. Interesting. Yeah, I think that could work... a young fifteen year old and me, a Bolivian in Bolivia, me in England, no ofcourse! We simply need to marry. I´ll suggest that next time we meet... if we see eachother again. Where does he live? Mustn´t be hard to find him in this small town.
Forgetting about the young Bolivian, I focus on where to go from here. At the tour company Jay argued with the sales person about saving a few pounds for a four day salt flat tour. What a waste of half an hour, and what a headache. The tour was such a great idea that I couldn´t refuse to go on it. A 4x4 would take us passed many lagoons, hot springs, volcanic waters, flamingoes and the salt flats, ending in Uyuni, my next destination. I knew I would have to put up with Jay but figured it was worth it because the other two guys were nice and occassionally funny. Outside the hotel tour shop we met five lovely people, all about to do the same tour. As Jay had argued so much the english tour guide had opted to being their guide, not ours. So we were going to have a spanish guide instead. The five lovely people were going to be at every destination that we stopped which was quite a relief to me. Also, the guide agreed to chat to me about the land when we see eachother on the tour. How nice is he!? How could Jay be so mean and rude to him?
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