Uyuni - A Geologist´s Paradise!
On December 10th, Jeremy and I began a 3-day/2-night tour near Uyuni, Bolivia. It had amazing scenery, as you will see in the many photos below.
We went as a group of six tourists, plus our guide/driver (25-year-old Dionny) and our cook (17-year-old Emiliana). In addition to Jeremy and I, the tourists included Canadians Allison and Chelsey from Vancouver, Frenchman Bruno from Toulouse, and Argentinian Martin from Buenos Aires. We had a good group that managed to stay positive, even when things got rough on the way back to Uyuni.
Train Cemetery
Our first stop was a train cemetery just outside Uyuni. This place has housed old trains since the 1950s. Jeremy and I had some fun posing for these pictures.
Salt Processing Plant
The Salt Processing Plant gave us some insight into how salt is taken from the Salt Flats (see the next set of photos for the Salt Flats), processed and packaged for sale in Bolivia. It was a rather simple process that we saw, and to be honest, it didn´t make me want to salt my food here in Bolivia, but it was interesting nonetheless.
Salar de Uyuni
These Salt Flats are the main tourist attraction in Bolivia at the moment. Yes, all the white stuff that you see in these photos is salt. It looked so much like a frozen lake that, despite the warm temperatures, Jeremy and I had trouble remembering it was salt!
Isla de Pescado
This is an "island" in the middle of the Salt Flats that looks like a fish from a few kilometers away. The cactuses in the picture give some indication of the climate there despite the frozen-lake-like background (that of course, is really salt).
Hotel de Sal
For our first night, we stayed in a hotel made of salt bricks. Actually, everything was salt, the beds, the nightstands, the tables and chairs, and even the clock! The next food-themed hotel Jeremy and I want to visit is a chocolate hotel. If anyone knows of one, let us know! :)
When we arrived at the hotel, Jeremy and I took a walk around the area and found some grazing llamas. As we continued walking we found many empty fences made of rocks for the llamas to rest in when they aren´t grazing. We took a seat to admire the llamas from afar and to watch them as they were herded into one of the fences. What we didn´t expect was that the llamas would be herded in our direction! We just sat, took pictures, and let them pass us by... It was a very cool experience.
Overlook of Volcan Ollague
The rocks in these pictures are all lava!
Laguna Canapa
Our first glimpse of pink flamingos came from Laguna Canapa. We were surprised to see that they weren´t pink all over (just mostly on their wings), that they didn´t rest on one foot, and that they had black under feathers. But what pretty animals!
Laguna Hedionda
We saw more flamingos are Laguna Hedionda. Despite its name (for those of you who understand Spanish), the laguna didn´t smell bad at all. In fact, the first laguna smelled much worse!
Lava Rock Formations
This was a rest spot for us to stretch our legs from a somewhat-cramped jeep ride. Jeremy and I took the opportunity for a quick hike here and snapped a few photos.
Arbol de Piedra
Arbol de Piedra means "Rock Tree". This is a completely natural formation.
Laguna Colorada
Check out the natural colors on this lake! The colors are made by the micro-organisms that live in the lake. Supposedly, the more windy the weather, the more colorful the lake. It was fairly windy the day we were there. The white is not salt, but natural borax. We stayed near this lake for our second night of the tour.
Michina Geysers
On the third morning, we woke at 4:00am to arrive at these geysers in time for the sunrise. Some one else compared the geysers and landscape as looking like we were on the moon!
Termas
At the Termas, the altitude and time of day made the weather freezing. Happily we were able to warm up with a quick dip in these hot springs.
Laguna Verde
Our last laguna stop on the tour, this one´s tourquoise hues are just as vibrant as those in these pictures. No special effects needed!
Salvador Dali´s Inspiration
Artist Salvador Dali is said to have been inspired by this specific Bolivian landscape.
On the Way Back
What would a trip in Bolivia be without a tranportation adventure story? As we were headed back to Uyuni, we ended up having 4 flat tires within an 8 hour time period!
The first was in the middle of absolutely nowhere. We happened to be the last in a ´caravan´of jeeps leaving the salt flats for the day and were in danger of being stranded for the night. Because of rust, we couldn´t get the spare tire off from underneath the jeep. While our guide and Martin, were trying desperately to take the flat tire apart so it could be patched, Jeremy and Bruno were determined to get the spare off. They came up with a plan to take the spare tire off along with the part of the jeep undercarriage it was attached to. Unfortunately, they didn´t have the right-sized wrench so it was slow going. Eventually, the other guys got the flat tire apart and got it patched, aired and ready to go. The whole ordeal took about 2 hours.
We got the second flat tire not more than half an hour later. It was the same tire as the first! The patch must not have taken. This time, a jeep came along, which was very lucky for us and we were able to get the correct wrench to detach the part of the undercarriage holding the spare tire. This made it easier to work on freeing the spare tire. We used the last of our drinking water to lubricate the mechanism holding the spare tire and eventually got it free! We quickly got it on and headed off. At this point, we were already supposed to be back at Uyuni and thought we´d be there soon, but we still had many more hours to go.
The third flat tire happened on a different tire. Our driver went off to some nearby houses and found a guy willing to sell us a tire tube. We got to work taking this flat tire apart with the help of this guy. Just as we had gotten it apart, the jeep battery died. I swear that it lasted no more than thirty minutes with only the flashers going. We needed the jeep to be running to fill up the tire tube. If we could´ve pushed the jeep enough to jump start it that would´ve worked, but there was no way we were going to be able to push it with a flat tire. It was a Catch 22 situation. It had already gotten dark and the temperature was dropping rapidly as was our patience. The driver tried again to find someone with a pump, but came back frustrated. We were running out of ideas. The driver even considered airing the tire up with the propane gas we had used for cooking. Thank goodness we didn´t get to that point! We managed to stop a couple of vehicles who unfortunately had neither an air pump or jumper cables. That is not to say that they didn´t try. A couple of guys tried using wires no thicker than the ones we used in science class as kids, but it was no use. Had they really had success using wires that thin to jump start a car battery? It was creative, I´ll give them that.
Finally, just as we had pretty much lost hope, another jeep came by. It ended up being people who worked for our tour agency. They had come looking for us because they were worried about us being so late! We were very happy to see them. They managed replace our flat with their spare tire, then we headed off to Uyuni. But wait there´s more...
The tire that had just been used to replace our flat blew not more than 10 minutes later. It was unbelievable, not that the first three flats weren´t, but it really was unbelievable! They got the tire apart and were about to inflate the tire tube we had bought a couple of hours before, but it turned out to be the wrong size. At this point Jeremy returned to sit inside the other jeep where the other group members were already warm and cozy. We don´t know how they got that tire repaired. Maybe they managed with the smaller-sized tire tube, but somehow they did it.
We finally arrived in Uyuni six hours late. Jeremy and I had missed our train out of Uyuni that had left a couple hours before. The tour agency drove all of us around town looking for rooms for the night. We ended up staying the night and catching a bus to Tupiza the next morning.
You´ll notice that we only have pictures of the first 2 flat tires. After that, it was dark and the novelty had worn off...
Now, we´re in Tupiza. More on that soon!
posted by Sarah and Jeremy @ 4:43 PM
1 comments
1 Comments:
Hey you guys - Wow! This is amazing! I'm so glad that I finally got the spelling right on your blog address. I kept spelling it with two Ls and couldn't figure out why it would never work. I guess I have some catching up to do! Your adventures look fantabulous, so keep on writing, and I'll be up here jealously reading all about it! love, Ilana :)
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