We arrived in Sucre the
capital of Bolivia on the 15th November.
It is reminiscent of
Arequipa with white washed walls, beautiful churches, chocolate shops, not very
touristy and a manageable size – (bit of a contrast from La Paz!) It has a lovely
climate most of the year round which is actually why they chose it as the
capital!
The Main Square
is enormous and full of detail- gardens, statues and fountains…It has squares
within the square!
Casa de la Libertad is
where we absorbed a spattering more of Bolivian history. We saw the original
document of Bolivia’s Declaration of Independence from 1825. There have been many
presidents; 20% of which have been killed! One only made it 3 days before being
assassinated… Their flag has changed 3 times and they have added one for the Indigenous
which looks similar to that of the Gay pride flag.
We went up to Recoleta,
a sweet area high up on the corner of the city. We enjoyed yummy drinks sitting
on deck chairs looking out over Sucre before visiting the Museo de la Recoleta
– an attractive monastery with beautiful courtyard gardens.
We visited the Cretaceous Park- the world’s largest paleontological site.
We had a private
tour of the massive limestone cliff where there are 5055 individual dinosaur
tracks of at least 8 species, many are continuous tracks. Pretty cool!
We were humming the theme tune to Jurassic park the whole way round! Dying to watch it again now!
My dinosaur impression...
There were some awesome life size replicas of dinosaurs; one of
which being the largest in the world.
Our first taste of a
proper ‘Bolivian bus’ was from Sucre to Tupiza (further south). Yet another
night bus – but this time it was cold, with cramped seats and a blown speaker
above our heads booming out Andean pipe music! Ugh! We arrived in Tupiza before
4.30am…ouch
Here we took advantage
of the cheapness of this country (before leaving for expensive Chile soon) and
stayed in a nice ‘hotel’ with a pool!
We plucked up the
courage to endeavour on a 5 hour horse ride, exploring the beautiful red rock
and canyon land like a proper cowboy and cowgirl. Domino and Panchito were our
trusty steeds.
I cantered for the first time in my life…it took a while to get the rhythm with the horse - it was a lot of heavy crazy uncontrollable bouncing hard up and down on the saddle initially! Aarghhh… but it was just brilliant when I found the pace with Panchito. However perhaps too little too late because we still couldn’t sit down comfortably for nearly a week; the toilet was by far the best seat!
It was just the two of us with a guide, an awesome way to see
the countryside!!
I cantered for the first time in my life…it took a while to get the rhythm with the horse - it was a lot of heavy crazy uncontrollable bouncing hard up and down on the saddle initially! Aarghhh… but it was just brilliant when I found the pace with Panchito. However perhaps too little too late because we still couldn’t sit down comfortably for nearly a week; the toilet was by far the best seat!
Kyle feeding our 1 apple to the horses - they needed it more than we did
When going round a few
tour operators doing research for various tours, a familiar face poked her head
round the corner – Becca. Becca and Jon are newlyweds and we have been
following each other through the whole of Bolivia! We agreed to officially
travel together on a 4 day tour to the Salar de Uyuni. Also joining us was
Robert; a lovely Dutch guy that Becca and Jon had met a few days previous. We
spent a whole afternoon the 5 of us discussing which company to go with…5 big
beers later, we booked to go on Wednesday 20th. We had a nice dinner
together getting to know each other more at ‘Tu Pizza’ – original name! We
discovered that Kyle, Robert and Jon were all born within 2 weeks of each
other!
The Salt Flats tour
Day 1 of our tour we
met at 8am outside our jeep. Our driver;
Edison (we called him Eddy) was also our
guide and his wife was our cook.
It was a long day of driving, taking in some
spectacular scenery.
Not a bad place to have a wee!
It was in this area
that Butch Cassidy and the Sundance kid met their makers in the mining village
of San Vicente in 1908; this was only significant to me as I was the only one
to have seen the film! Another film to add to the download list!
We saw mineral rich
red mountains, vast skies, volcanoes, lagoons and wildlife.
The tiniest flowers we've ever seen!
All houses made of mud...standard
We spotted a condor
and Kyle asked if he could get out the car quickly and get a closer picture.
Without thinking he ran off into the distance. He didn’t consider the fact we
were at altitude (4800m to be specific!) until he stopped running with camera
at the ready… but NOT steady. Breathing in heavily and taking in loads of freezing
cold air into his lungs he nearly collapsed. Admittedly it was absolutely
hilarious for the rest of us to watch from the jeep!
All for THIS photo!
We also saw a cute little chinchilla
Ostriches .... Can you spot them?!
Beautiful vicunas
And lots of llamas
Apparently llamas are
considered the cleanest animal in the Camelid family because they only use one
place as a toilet. We saw several large black spots full of droppings. Clever...
it really does make sense as grass they eat isn’t covered in poo!
Becca and Jon taught
us a good way to tell the difference between a Llama and an Alpaca.
Kyle is an alpaca and I'm a llama
We saw 2 main Altiplano
plants; Yareta - a green pillow shaped plant
And Paja Brava – really
spikey tufts of grass
We passed through a
ghost town ruins of San Antonio
which looked like a small Machu Picchu!
The girls
The boys
We got to our basic
hostel around 7pm. I say basic: first of many with no electricity apart from a
few hours in the evening from a small geni. We set up camp in our dorm –
something that we must get used to as we are headed to more expensive countries
where we can no longer afford private rooms…
That night the stars
looked absolutely incredible – there was no light pollution whatsoever. It was
a shame that it was absolutely freezing outside and I couldn’t last more than a
few minutes. Kyle, however did a little better and spent a good 25 minutes out
there with Robert playing with their cameras, returning to our room completely
frozen.
Day 2
Wake up was 6.30am and
it was another jam
packed day; in and out of the jeep
We drove through the
Desierto de Dali- the place where Salvador Dali drew his inspiration for his
paintings! Mummy Brown you would have loved it!! Awesome to see the surreal
coloured mountains and other worldly rock formations of the petrified lava
sticking out of the sand like the ruins of a lost city and imagining melting
clocks and grotesque faces.
We saw lots of lagoons –
all really different with crazy vivid colours
Laguna verde 4350m:
Although incredibly
beautiful, this lake is toxic containing chemicals such as arsenic! It lies at the
foot of a stereotypical looking volcano which is 50% Bolivian and 50% Chilean –
right on the border. It was here that NASA tested the Mars Rover on the summit since
they needed an environment on Earth as close as possible to Martian conditions;
low air pressure, high winds, extreme temperatures, rocky terrain. Also from
here some 15 minutes away is the Argentine border.
Before lunch we had a dip in the hot springs. Amazing view!!
Then it was onto the
Sol de Manana Geysers (just below 5000m). I discovered that I still have a guilty
pleasure in that I love the smell of the sulphur! Bubbling mud, geysers chucking
out LOADS of steam; the biggest one has a temperature of 220·C! A bit different to somewhere like
Yellowstone national park in Wyoming where we went in 2008 – wooden walkways,
signs, fences – safety…. Here there was nothing - you could jump into one of
the deep holes of steam if you wanted to… we had heard that some tourists have
actually died by braving it a little too close to the edge! We wandered,
carefully, around and in between the steaming holes and started to feel the soles
of our feet getting very hot!
After leaving our
‘mochillas’ at the next hostel (and Jon unfortunately as he wasn’t well) we
went to the Lagunda Colorada to view its red waters and large flamingo
population. At 4378m it is huge – the largest lake here and yet the depth is only
50cm!
We saw flamingos in pretty much all the freezing cold and elevated lakes. The tiny pigment particles from the algae that they consume are trapped in their plumage, giving them their pink and red colours!
It gets its colour from microscopic algae that is constantly churned and
swept up by the high winds
We saw flamingos in pretty much all the freezing cold and elevated lakes. The tiny pigment particles from the algae that they consume are trapped in their plumage, giving them their pink and red colours!
Day 3
We rose at 6am and it
was a bad night of broken sleep.
We were so cold in the concrete room, buried
under our blankets
and layers of clothes and tucked into our silk liners; I
kept my woolly hat and scarf on.
Our first stop was to visit the Arbol de Piedra (Stone Tree) and
other cool shaped rocks - ‘Petrified lava-foam’
The rocks are sculpted by the constant bombardment of sediments carried
by the strong and violent winds acting over vast periods of time
We saw more stunning lakes and mountains:
We had lunch in an
ancient lava flow and in sight of a semi active
volcano releasing small amounts
of smoke.
The unfortunate thing about this area (and others too) was that you could tell loads of tourists had been to the loo all over the place – toilet paper and other things all around. Really not nice and such a shame… talking of rubbish unfortunately this is the case throughout quite a lot of Bolivia! They just don’t have the infrastructure to deal with the vast quantities of rubbish that the country produce and no one seems to care. They have a huge amount of space in the country and the people are happy to use parts of it as a rubbish tip.
We often saw mini (and some not so mini) tornados!
We crossed the Salar
de Chiguana which has a max salt thickness of 3cm and is traversed by the
railway line leading from Uyuni to Chile.
We stopped through a
village and had a Coca Beer and a Quinoa Beer. They were good! These
ingredients are just used so much…!
We were first of the
tour groups to arrive in a salt hotel, bordering the famous Salar de Uyuni –
the climax of our tour! The hotel was pretty incredible; as it sounds – its all
made out of salt!
Day 4
It was a 4.30am start
for sunrise, driving out onto the salt flats in the dark and stopping somewhere
in the middle to watch the sun come up on the horizon. It came up quick and
revealed the vast salt plains around us as far as the eye could see!
This salt flat is the largest in the world; measuring an immense 12,500km squared at an altitude of 3650m. It formed millions of years ago and over the course of millions of years as the Andean mountains raised, lifting the sea with it, eventually evaporating leaving many layers of salt and various sediments.
We headed to an
island; Isla Incahuasi where there are more than 6000 cacti!
What is incredible about this island is the fact that it is made up of pure coral that is millions of years old. Remember the whole lot used to be that far under the sea! We walked up to the top of it to gasp at the view- we’ve never seen anything like it!
What is incredible about this island is the fact that it is made up of pure coral that is millions of years old. Remember the whole lot used to be that far under the sea! We walked up to the top of it to gasp at the view- we’ve never seen anything like it!
Finally breakfast
where we ate at the bottom of the island and had cake and cereal – much better
to the usual stale bread and marmalade!
Then it was play time! Eddy drove us
out onto the salt flats where the 5 of us got creative…
After 10 minutes of
being there we were peeling off the layers –
it really hotted up reaching maybe
30 degrees!
We spent a good hour or so – could have stayed all day – it was fantastic.
This is where we began our second dance film project, I won’t go
into
too much detail about it, you’ll have to wait and see!
Just ouch… dancing
bare foot on crystallised salt!
When leaving the salar
we passed small mountains of salt that are piled up; the top part of the salt
dries as the water is drawn down making it less heavy to transport.
Finally getting to
Uyuni- which surprisingly is a real shit hole! We went southwest to a train
cemetery. A collection of antique steam locomotives and transport cars from the
early Bolivian railroad days. Quite cool but yet again, shame about the rubbish
everywhere.
