I arrived this morning back in La Paz at 7:00 am after an overnight bus from the dusty, remote town of Uyuni. It was there that I departed for my tour of the Uyuni Salt Flats and beyond. During the bus ride south on my way to Uyuni, an American woman got her bag stolen off the bus. I felt really bad for her. Her mistake was that she put her bag in the overhead container. When we stopped briefly in a random village for a bathroom break, we all exited the bus and she left her bag unattended. Another passagener swiped it.
Petty theft is rampant here. It´s mostly crimes of opportunity. I met a guy in Quito, Ecuador a couple of months ago who had his camera stolen and went to the second hand market to buy a new one. Imagine his suprise when his very own camera was there (memory card and all). He bought it again. I would have opened a can of whoop ass.
My salt flat tour consisted of 5 other tourists, plus our driver, Phille. My travel companions were really cool, everyone had a nice time together. There was a couple from Switzerland, two nice girls from Denmark and a cool guy from Holland. We drove across the vast salt flats for hours. It was blinding, but very, very cool to see. Lunch was at on an island set in the middle of the flats. We hiked around ancient coral and cool cactuses before sitting down to some lunch that our driver prepared. He was a better driver than cook.
There were probably 15 other 4X4s full of tourists doing the same tour. In fact, I ran into some friends I met back in January on Little Corn Island in Nicaragua. It´s so fun when that happens. The day after I left the island, the told me they got mugged coming back from dinner, walking through the jungle. Looks like I left just in time...
Our hotel the first evening was constructed entirely of blocks of salt. It was trippy. The floor was salt gravel, like what the plows back home spread to melt the snow. There was a gorgeous full moon that evening. It was incredible over the salt flats. There was a tiny village nearby. I and the guy from Holland went in search of some cervesas. Although we didn´t find any cold ones, I got to see a chopped off llama head. Then as I turned the corner, the llama wool, which I tried to convince myself it was just sheered wool, not the skin and wool. Not so fast, Missy. As I entered the store, there on the floor, was the llama carcus. It was then that I dry heaved before beating it out of there.
The next morning we departed shortly after sunrise. We drove for hours and hours through the desert high plains. We were far enough south that we could see some snow capped mountains of Chile. We stopped at some more salt lakes, where oddly enough pink flamingos live happily. Our second night was in even a more basic accomodation of crappy beds and little heat. We still had a nice time.
We left before sunrise the next morning and stopped first at some geisers. In the darkness we saw and heard the raging steam before carrying onto a natural thermal pool. Everyone soaked in the bath, except me. I couldn´t face getting out, all wet, and into the frigid air. After driving again through more and more desert and seeing llamas and alpacas roaming (they are so cool to see). We actually saw some wild ostreges too. I´m sorry about my shitty spelling.
Anyway when we arrived back in Uyuni, before some of us caught the overnight bus to La Paz we went to a pizza place I had been to, before starting the salt flat tour. It´s owned by a guy from Amherst, Mass. He went to UMASS where he met his Bolivian wife. I had read about the restaurant last year while researching my trip. I was glad to be able to find it. We chatted a while about life back home. That was neat.
Tomorrow morning I´m booked on a bus heading northwest, back towards Peru. I will get off in the town of Copacabana, on the shores of Lake Titicaca
http://www.peru-explorer.com/titicaca.htm. Lake Titicaca sits on the Peruvian, Bolivian border. There are some islands on the lake that I plan on seeing. I hope to stay the night on one in particular, the Isla del Sol. Apparently there are also some floating islands, made entirely of reeds that some indigenous people live on. Should be interesting.
That´s all for now folks. I ran into some other friends I´d spent a week or so traveling with, so I´ll see them tonight for a bit. After the Lago Titicaca, I´ll be venturing back, across the border into Peru where I´ll make my way to Cusco and Machu Picchu. Then...home sweet home!
Ciao for now! Love to everyone. Well...everyone who writes me, that is. You know who you are!
