Off road adventuring! San Pedro to Uyini, Bolivia

Up early, bags packed eager to get going on our three day 4x4 tour which will take us from San Pedro in Chile to Uuni in Bolivia. First we head off in a mini van which will take us to the Bolivian border higth up in the Andes, our crew Me Jo, Hannah and Sinna from Germany and Yme from Holland and Allain from Autralia. Straight away we realise that we will all get along fine with the USB cable connected to the stereo and a bit of Alt-J blasting out Matador.

We reach the border, after passing active and inactive volcanos in the background, after having seen the desert I thought the scenery couldnt get any better, but a simple journey to the Bolivian border proved otherwise. Having had vigorous border checks in Argentina and Chile we were amused to see a simple stone hut as the border check.

The view on the way to the border with volcano Ucancabur in the background

Bolivian flag

Alain and Yme

Sinna and Hannah

The border hut

At 4000m high the altitude was getting us all in different ways, it´s strange but straight away the lack of oxygen has an effect, for me i felt sick in the stomach and light headed. The remedy coca tea and leaves. At this altitude, every single bolivian has a bloated cheek, either right or left filled with shed loads of coca leaves, which they add to by de stalking the leaf and adding to the mulch in their mouths constantly. It´s meant to give energy and relieve the sickness feeling.

We find our jeep, a Toyota land cruiser, 1994 (i´ve been assured that these are the best off roaders and most reliable in the world, favoured by malitia, rebels, dictators and my uncle derek who is a mechanic) and our guide Sebastian who does not speak a word of English, luckily Yme did which helped a lot througout the tour.

Our jeep being packed up by Sebastian

Packed into the car we head off, and within an hour we see the most stunning scenery, surrounded by mountains and lagoons we fly across the rubble jumbling from side to side and up and down. Sebastian had told us that he had been doing this for ten years which reassured us but still there was an almost rehearsed and sinchronised sealt belt putting on action by the six of us.

Our first stop, Laguna Verde, pictures say it better than words but still being there better than pictures...

Back in the car and on the way and we get higher and higher, altitude of around 4400m, probablty the highest we have all been with. More lagoons, each as impressive as the last until we hit a lagoon where a hot spring has been turned into a a pool with a temperature of around 35 degrees.

Probably the best place to relax for an hour.....

Chilling in the hot springs

Back in the car, Sebastian has hijacked the stereo playing some Bolivian mash up music, next stop some hot geysers. Boiling water and mud with steam coming out of the ground. The sulphur giving of a reminiscent smell of Jason from Florida!!!

Next stop our hostel - a shack in the middle of nowhere located next to a lagoon giving off a red shine with lots of flamigos taking it easy in the water. But i was obviously too tires to take any pics....

Cute little local kid at the place we stayed the first night.

After my nap we eat dinner, and went out to sit by the lagoon to see the stars. I´ve never been much  of a star gazer, but i guess living in England and it being cloudy all the time there is not much to see. Here though, with the high altitude and clear sky, the stars and milky ways, along with shooting stars can bee seen as if looking through a telescope, amazing really, shame i couldnt take any pictures!

Next day we´re back in the Jeep and more to see and spectacular scenere.....

On our way to Uyuni, we stop off at a random grave yard of trains used to transport minerals from mines being excavated back in the early 1900, British built I am told, and I´m not surprised they are in the state they with the way the trains are in England, perhaps if the Swiss had introduced trains to the Bolivians they would still be working.

But none the less a good opportunity for some cool photos....

A night Uyini, a strange place and our first glimpse of a Bolivian town. The people look so different here, all the women wear bowler hats and wear skirts that make their asses look really fat. Everyone is chewing coca leaves and the main food here is chicken grilled in home made rotiseries.

After a night in our hostel we are up at 4am to go to the salt flats to see the sun rise, the largest in the world. Sebastian, having probably done this a million times decides to trun off the lights and drive in complete drakness for around 5 minutes on the salt flats. Still in darkness we park up and step out onto the salt, which has the crunch of iced snow and the grip of sand paper! Really weird.

It´s difficult to imagine the sheer scale of the place, but as the sun started to rise it was pretty unbelievable...

Plus, on the flats, due to the flat salt and no background you can take really cool pics like this...

                                                           Some more pics of the salt flats

That´s pretty much it, 3 days of stunning scenery, amazing days and great people...

From Uyuni we next headed to Potosi, the highest city in the world.... more to follow soon.

San Pedro Attacama

From Santiago we arrived in San Pedro which is in Chile and close to the Bolivian border. So far our travels in Chili and Argentina have been pretty European so it was a nice change to reach San Pedro. San Pedro is a small Chilean town in th middle of the desert, the town actually looks like a set from a spaghetti western film. Its streets are full of travellers though as this usually the gateway from people entering, leaving Bolivia via the Salt Flats.

On our first day we had a look around and a man with a flyer stopped and talked to Michael is very fast spanish. Michael then explained he was English, to which this guys reply was "Oh, you have a very Chilean face!" which it probably the catch phrase for the whole trip. Considering Michael has a complection to match the aryan race this comment was hilariouse!

We booked a sandboarding trip that afternoon, the trip also included seeing the sun set in Death Valley. The sandboarding tutor told us that the name had orginated when the first person to see this place, I think he was German,  and thought he was on mars. The Spanish word for Mars is marte, which in time changed to the Spanish word for death, muerte, which was very similar. As he pulled up to the sandunes he was like, welcome my office, lucky devil!

So never did sanboarding before but it was so good!!! Its like skiing and surfing on powder so our tutor said and you dont need any experience. Ofcouse everytime you went down, you had to carry your snowboard back up, which was bloody hard work I tell you. Me and Michael had about 10 goes each, it was brill!!! After that we went to this canyon to watch the sun set, it was a stunning sight, kinda what I expect the grand canyon to look like. We did some funny jumping photos here, which everyone else copied, trend setters or what! haha.

The next day we met two German girls who we decided to so the Salt Flats tour with. We managed to bargain the tour price down so it was smiles all around. Except for later that day Michael mistaken the girls for some completely different people which was hilarious, but nearly got us to a bad start as they were a bit insulted by that. Luckily it was completely forgotten by the next day and we met our other two people for the tour (you need six people). One guys from Holland and the other from Australia who happened to be half Filipino too, from Cebu which is near where my mums from, small world. So yeah we were lucky as everyone was sound and we had a really good time. More about the tour in our next blog.

Poems on the road

With the long bus rides I have occupied my time by writing poems. Poems to reflect our journey so far, heres a few to read.

Mosquitos

Ouch there goes another bite 

Stinging attacks taken by flight.

Quick someone get the DET 

I can hear the fucker near my feet.

Buzz,buzz, buzz that awful sound

Buzz,buzz, buzz I look around.

Armed with only just my broom

I scan my eyes across the room.

..but no where can this mozzy be seen

just the sharp hum of its hunting scream.

Buzz,buzz, buzz that awful sound

Buzz,buzz, buzz you slap it down.

Now eerie silence fills the room.

My opponent is squashed underneath my broom.

Peace at last, there is no sound...

Buzz, buzz, buzz another one has come around.

Argentinian Fix

Ham and cheese, ham and cheese, what a lovely mix

Not until you have had the Argentinian Fix.

Everyday, three times a day

Jamon and Queso as they would say.

There is no need to second guess what we are having

Ham and cheese were no longer laughing.

Ham and cheese with potatoes

Ham and cheese with bread

Ham and cheese in the morning

Ham and cheese before bed.

Ham and cheese, ham and cheese 

I think its making me ill.

Ham and cheese, ham and cheese

I think I have had my fill.

Attacama Desert

The sun beating down, not a cloud in sight

A mound of mountains form the skyline.

Sand dunes scattered standing the test of time

Gawping humans, watching benign.

A single bird soars the vast open air

not a shade to catch the suns torturious glare.

A stretch of emptyness, a wilderness land

Rolling beautiful sea of sand.

A chillian breeze ruffles the grains

Making them dance along the terrain.

Whistling through these lonely planes

Untouched, unscathed, its beauty remains.

Santiago Chile

Just a quick post as we only stayed here two days. Really nice city, completely different feel to Buenos Aires, and our first real stop in Chile.

A lot cheaper here than Argentina and also even hotter. The city is huge and is best see by many of the parks located at the top of hills.

We also went on our second day to the highest park which on arrival to the bottom of it, all eager to save some money and walk up, we decided to catch a taxi after being told it would take us 3 hours to walk!!

A day relaxing at the pool was exactly what we needed, out of paranaoia that my camera would get stolen pool side I left it at the hostel. All I can say it is the nicest pool I have ever been to with spectacular views of the snow capped Andies on one side and the other building as far as the eye can see.

Another overnight bus to San Pedro de Atacama, a desert located just south of the Bolivian border, we both were really excited to see our first desert a d also something a little more adventurous than ham and cheese and Malbec.