DAY 136
It's a ritual, we start our stay in a new place by the mandatory tour shopping. They have way too many agencies in Uyuni and we read lots of horror stories about these tours. It seems to be the equivalent of the Russian roulette. We're tempted to do the tour in reverse but the only offer we get for that comes from someone who approached us in the street. When we decide to check out that person's office, it happens to be in a insalubrious building that's not even supposed to host offices... Not a good omen so we decided to go for a safer plan.
DAY 137
Here we go for the 3 day salar de Uyuni expedition! The group is composed of 2 French girls, a Brazilian couple and us. The first stop is at the train cemetery. 100+ year old trains and cars are rusting away, legacy of a time when Uyuni had a train factory. It's also a playground for adults. We can climb, go inside, take silly pictures, etc... Very cool.
Back on the road, we enter the salar. It's an immensity of white as far as the eye can see. The mountains in the distance seem to be floating, a very cool optical illusion. The stop at the village of Colchani is supposed to be educational but the whole village is selling souvenirs. And we buy one ;) The first since we started traveling! We end up finding the educational part and we're given a small explanation on how they process the salt. To dry it they use wood... It reminds me of a documentary I saw about villages in Africa using the same technique with dreadful resuls for the environment (deforestation obviously). Experts came to show them how to do it with simple black canvas sheets and the help of the sun; easy, efficient and ecological. Surely the same could be done here.
For lunch, we stop at the salt hotel. It's actually just a make belief hotel and only runs as a bar-restaurant. It's pretty cool though to have a building entirely of salt. We're now in the heart of the salar and it really is amazing. The views are endless with straight road disappearing in the horizons and the patterns in the salt (hexagons). Every guide travels with figurines of dinosaurs and Godzillas so we can take the mandatory silly pictures of us being chased by them or fighting them, etc... Since everything is white, the size and distance of objects are difficult to tell, giving room for creativity :D
The salar was once a lake before it dried up and the island of Incahuasi was a special place for the Inca (religious pilgrimage). The island itself is much more ancient, it's coral made which is crazy at 4000m in the middle of a salt desert... Geology rules! The view from the top is breathtaking. We are in the middle of a sea of white salt. On our way out of the salar, we stop to watch the sunset but it's only ok. We were expecting something much more spectacular.
DAY 138
We slept well in our salt hotel. The only downside really is you can't touch the walls as they crumble and threaten to fill your luggage with salt :/ We take off at 8am and drive through a salt plain again bordered by volcanoes. The "salar de Chihuana" is being formed by water from Uyuni that brings salt each year during the wet season. We're on time to watch the freight train pass and flatten some Bolivian coins for fun ;) Next up is Ollague, a semi-active volcano. We could see water vapor during our bus ride from Calama and the view is not really better from here. What's interesting is not the mirador but the lava field with blocks eaten by erosion. And the weird green fungus called yareta that seems to be the only thing able to grow here.
Finally we get to our first laguna. It's called cañapa and has the mandatory flamingos! 100 of them are chilling in the water. It's such an elegant animal, and very photogenic ;) Lunch break is at the next Laguna. And this one has even more of them and they are much closer! Like the previous one, it has plenty of borax around it. After lunch we keep on laguna hopping through alpine desert with gorgeous landscape. When it's not the vegetation that provides the colors it's the mountains themselves. In a canyon we're ambushed by a couple of viscacha (kind of rabbit). We tell them we have no food and they eventually let us go but not before having their picture taken.
The Siloli desert is another natural wonder. It's at 4750m and is surrounded by gorgeous mountains. They look painted with lots of difference color with the desert itself Martian red. We expect to see Mark Whatney and his rover any moment ;) In there is also the stone tree. It's a creation of the strong wind that we can experience. Soft rock is being carved into various shapes, the tree is the posterboy but there are also faces and other abstract shapes.
From far away, it's clear that the Laguna colorada is something special. First it's huge then it's red, especially when it's windy which is the case today. It's due to algae. And icing on the cake, the area hosts up to 3 millions flamencos. We can only see it from a distance but it's actually better to fully embrace the size of it.
We sleep at 4400m tonight in a refuge. We share a big dorm for the whole car. It's another opportunity for us to use our fellow travelers as Guinea pigs for a game of Lobo in latitude. We increase the stakes this time with 4 people learning the game and having to play in Spanish but they hold their own pretty well ;)
DAY 139
We had a decent night considering how cold it was in the dorm. We were expecting it though and had lots of layers on. Waking up at 4am is never fun though. I'm up first and I go out to check out the sky. The moon has set and the clouds are few, leaving the Milky Way visible with the naked eye. At last we have a glimpse of the desert night sky ;) The first order of business is to drive to the geyser field. On the Bolivian side they are much more violent than in Chile, very impressive!
The field in Chile is much bigger though. Just like in Chile after the Geyser, the thermal bath. It's smaller but warmer and we spend more time chilling. Sadly we have to get out and get on with our busy program of the day. First stop, Salvatore Dali's desert. It's a weird story. Dali painted a desert eerily similar to this one without having been there ever...
What most people do, and what we should have done from San Pedro de Atacama, is combine the tour and the transfer to/from San Pedro. In our case the pass was closed so it would not have been possible but we just didn't think about it. We head to the border to drop off the Brazilians with quick stops on the way for more lagunas. Laguna verde is turquoise (maybe they should rename it) and Laguna blanca is white (name is well chosen here). Then the last stop before The border is the impressive volcano Licancabur. We got to see it very well from the other side of the border, it's as impressive here with the added bonus of having a Laguna at its feet. Next to it yet another gorgeous mountain; Reds and yellows and a touch of white sprinkles at the summit. After dropping off Paulo y Julia at the Chilean border, we start the long ride back to Uyuni. It's not dull though, the views keep being spectacular, the multicolored mountains especially.
As we loose altitude, the wildlife gets denser. Lots of lamas herds with young ones born not even a few weeks ago. We surprise a bunch of suris (ostriches-like animal even smaller than the ñandu) as they flee running uphill. The landscape is also changing of course. After 2 days and a half of desert, we're now traveling through green mountains and valleys. For lunch, we stop in the middle of a lama herd. Overall it's a cute creature... with dreadlocks. They look stupid when they run though. The front legs being shorter, it looks like their are falling all the time, not elegant. They don't let us come too close which is fine, we don't want them to spit on us ;) To keep us entertained, we stop at yet another place where nature is slowly sculpting lava rocks. What do you see?
In San Cristobal we have a surreal encounter. Crossing the square we come face to face with a lama. It's trying to eat the little grass that's left on the lawn and does not mind us at all. Finally back in Uyuni, we have dinner with Aurore and Anaëlle before their night bus to Sucre (they came from La Paz on a night bus too... Warriors!)