Southern Bolivia - Salt, Desert, Lakes, Volcanos, Flamingos

The Uyuni Salt Flats are the largest in the world formed by prehistoric saltwater lakes; they are really spectacular and recently hyped for being the world's largest source of lithium. We did a 3 day jeep tour with a Dutch couple, a Scot & a Kiwi and enjoyed a lot of laughs while trying to stay warm. Aside from visiting the salt flats we also saw red and green mineral-rich lakes with flocks of flamingos, steaming geysers & hot springs, and drove through barren volcanic desertscapes with amazing rock formations.
Here's the story in photos:

Abandoned locomotives on a sunken track outside Uyuni

Outside of a primitive salt processing plant

Entering the Uyuni Salt Flats; salt piles ready to be loaded onto the trucks

Naturally occuring honeycomb patterns left by moisture as the salt dries

 

the famous 'perspective' photos - not as easy to perfect as we thought

sunset on the Solar

our group of cheesy, talented jumpers

the hotel on the first night was made entirely of salt - the tables, chairs, beds, walls...

Vicuna's, the prettiest of the lama family

wee!

hundreds of flamingos

"Ladies of the Desert" rock formations

sunrise ("Sol de Manana") view of the Geysers

mmm, the smell of sulfur...

7am dip in the hot springs - the air was way too cold to take off my 7 layers of clothing and get in, however

cruising through the Dali desert, close to the Chilean border

at Laguna Verde with Licancabur Volcano in the background

We finished our trip at the Chilean border and crossed into Chile where we spent one day/night drinking delicious wine and touring the dusty town of San Pedro de Atacama. Over the next few days we made our way via three long buses to Buenos Aires - what a great city! We spent four days eating the world's best steak, drinking wine and visiting the various city highlights before catching our flight to Cape Town :)

In the Jungle, the Mighty Jungle

We packed up our Belgians and loaded the four of us on a sketchy 19-seater plane to the Amazon jungle. We chose to do a 3 day "Pampas" tour which is basically a river tour where you sit in a boat all day and look for wildlife; taking the easy route after some of our recent trekking tours was enticing. This was the 'airport' we arrived to:

Our journey started in the town of Rurrenabaque, Bolivia from where we took a 3-hour jeep ride to the river; the rain a few days prior made this a messy drive and we had to get out and trudge through the mud at a few points (bare foot) while our jeep powered through.

The rain set in when we finally made it to the boat so we poncho'd up and kept our eyes peeled for wildlife as we made our way to the lodging. Here are a few of the sights during that first afternoon (don't ask me what any of them are called!):

 

 

 

Later that night we went alligator/caiman spotting with our flashlights in the pitch black; you know you've found one when you see two eerie orange dots peering at you in the distance. We got scary-close:

The next morning we went hunting for anacondas through a swamp by foot, while fending off the relentlessly irritating mosquitoes; unfortunately, we didn't see any anacondas but my face was successfully eaten alive and my right foot was water-logged due to a hole in my gumboot...

We saw a bunch more wildlife that afternoon then went fishing for piranhas, which we threw back of course (they're endangered in these parts). The sunset was beautiful on the river and we stopped at a little thatch hut on the shore for a sunset-beverage.

 

 

 

 

 

On the agenda for the third morning was swimming with pink dolphins. Pink Dolphins in a river in the Amazon? Yep. There was no way I was getting in the same water where we'd seen alligators, caimans and piranhas! Although apparently they steer clear of the dolphins so three of the guys apprehensively braved the murky water where the dolphins playfully swam with and around them.

 

We saw more wildlife and beautiful scenery as we made our way back to the dropoff point before another wild Jeep-ride back to town.

 

 

Our Jeep ride back to town was interesting - the drive was a maniac and was driving on a bent wheel frame at excessive speeds on a dirt road. At one point we stopped for about an hour while he tried to hammer it back into place and eventually used tie-wire to hold it on for the rest of the drive - Oh, and he also drove off leaving our guide, Jody, & I on the side of the road while we were 'using the bathroom'... here we are chasing after him, TP in hand!

Made it back to town, safe and not-so-sound - this is the tire we drove on for 3 hours...

Back in Rurrenabaque we celebrated Jody's 29th birthday with a good dinner and drinks with friends. We spent the next morning basking in the sun at a pool/restaraunt overlooking the town and the jungle before catching our flight back to La Paz. 

Lake Titicaca & a bit of Bolivia

We capped off a great time in Peru with a stop in Puno on the shores of Lake Titicaca. We visited a few of the floating islands which are made of layers of bundled reeds and loosely anchored in place. The "Uros" people were welcoming, even singing to us and showing us around their little islands.

 

 

 We were warmly welcomed to Bolivia (by llamas) and captured this classic family photo to commemorate the occasion, on the Bolivian side of Lake Titicaca.

In La Paz we reunited with the Belgians, Britt & Flo, for a little shopping, biking and solstice celebrating! Jody & Flo decided to conquer the "Death Road" by bike while Britt and I (cowardly) opted out to take advantage of the cheap artisan markets. Jody had a great day on the scenic 70km downhill ride and I did a little damage at the markets, evidence of which is now in a 4kg box hopefully en route to Ontario. We also visited San Pedro prison (made famous by the book "Marching Powder") but unfortunately the guards no longer accept bribes for prison tours, so we just peaked in the front doors to the courtyard before being asked to leave!

We were convinced to partake in the Aymara New Year / Winter Solstice - an all-night festivity at the Tiwanaku Ruins before the sunrise ceremony. Ten thousand people flocked to Tiwanaku in the -15C frigid night and the only way to stay warm, apparently, was by lighting the field next to the ruins on fire... this worked for a while but around 4:30am we gave in to the cold and headed for our warm beds back in La Paz.

 

From La Paz we flew to the Amazon which I'll blog about in a separate post, but on our drive back into the city after the tour we stopped to take in the view at around 3,800m in altitude. After La Paz we visited Sucre where we climbed up to another great city view and ate heaping bowls full of fresh fruit salad at the market. We went to Potosi next, one of the 'highest' cities in the world and also home to the Potosi mines - the movie "The Devil's Miner" offers a sad but eye-opening perspective of these dangerous mines.

View over La Paz

View over Sucre

 Next up, the Uyuni Salt Flats of Bolivia.