The South America Chronicles - Nueve

Well, the start of our Salt Flats tour didn´t go well. Turning up outside the office of our tour company we were a bit dismayed to see that the jeep we were told was a "new jeep" wasn´t new at all. Anna let the woman who sold us the tour have it and they tried to sell us the line that the newer jeeps weren´t as good as these models - whatever. Though, as it turned out, there were only a couple of other tour groups with newer jeeps, most had a similar version to ours, and in fact it was one of the newer jeeps that we kept on seeing have engine problems. However, things didn´t look much better when 100 metres down the road we found out that our guide didn´t have any English - even though this was the main selling point that led us to choose this tour. At that stage, that woman sure was lucky we weren´t returning to Uyuni at the end of the trip, as Anna was ready to dissect her piece by piece.

But as things turned out, we had a very good guide. We had a Belgium couple who were able to translate for us, so the non-English thing wasn´t too much of a problem. And he was a very good conservative driver, whereas others we met said their driver was far too aggressive and sometimes dangerous. This also meant that we were often driving by ourselves through the expansive landscape, which felt awesome, and we weren´t choking on other jeeps´dust all the way. Many times we saw the other tour jeeps (of which there were many) driving in big convoys and racing each other to the next stop - which I think would have taken something away from the experience. And best of all, our guide wasn´t a drunk....On the last morning, the other tour group that was staying in the same wing of the hostal as we were had to wake up their guide, as he had been up drinking until 3am in the morning (and drinking their beer)! We overheard him saying it was "no problema", but it was "problema" as apparently he nearly flipped the jeep not that far out on the morning´s drive. An Australian guy in the group ended up having to drive for the rest of the day. So all in all, we probably did OK, but we are a bit sick and tired of being lied to when organising these trips.

And the three days themselves were very good. The first day didn´t entail a lot of driving as we toured around the Salar de Uyuni (Salt Flats). This is a most bizarre landscape, the white salt being all you can see for miles around you. The salt itself is quite weird, sometimes feeling akin to ice when walking on it. You spend lunch at an "island" in the middle of the Salt Flats - a rocky outcrop with lots of giant cactus on it and some great views of the mountains that surround the Salt Flats in the far off distance. In fact, on the Salt Flats, distance becomes very distorted. What looks like just 5 minutes away is in fact a 30 minute drive. After lunch we had time to play with taking photos. Because of the whiteness of the salt, it removes all perspective when taking photos, and you can play with shots that look like you are standing on a beer can, snickers bar or someone´s hand. It isn´t easy to get right, but you can get some great pics.

That night we drove to the edge of the Salt Flats where we stayed in a Salt Hotel. Similar to the Ice Hotel concept, everything is made of salt bricks - the walls, chairs, tables and bed bases. Somewhat surprisingly, the salt bricks did a good job at insulation. Maybe this is the future for environemental-friendly housing - when you are done with your house, you can just hose it down or just add it to your dinner.

The next day was a big one in the jeep. We started at 6am and didn´t reach our destination for night until close to 5pm - though obviously with stops along the way. And just as well, as the knees and buttock sure felt the rough ride (nothing like the smoothness of driving on the Salt Flats the previous day). This day was spent driving through a plateau admist a volcanic landscape, continuously surrounded by mountains and volcanoes. The highlights were stopping at various Lagunas - high altitude lakes made home by numerous Flamingoes. The most dramatic being Laguna Colorado - a biarre mix of black, red and white. It is weird to think that a month ago we saw Flamigoes in the salt lagoons of the Galapagos, and now we see them again 4000 metres higher in the middle of the Andes. The landscape around was also quite stunning, the surrounding mountains so many different shades of reds, browns, greys, black and white - all set against a deep blue sky.

On the third and last day, we had an even earlier start at 5am to drive (with our sober guide) to a thermal area for a walk around the geysers, mud pools and steam as dawn approach - quite surreal. And after that we stopped off for breakfast next to a hot pool you could swim in. It was damn cold (the previous night I had sleep with three layers, in a sleeping bag, and two blankets), so no invitation was need for the swim. It wasn´t "hot hot" (probably about 35 degrees), but it was glorious all the same. In fact, it was so good, Anna and I repeatedly ignored the calls for breakfast, much to the chagrin of our guide. After we finally dragged ourselves out of the pool, we headed down to the final stop of the tour - Laguna Verde. Supposedly, the Laguna is meant to be a deep green colour, but today it had only a tinge of green, only the second time the guide has ever seen it like that. But it was still pretty stunning, with a huge volcano towering above it.

From here, we were dropped off at the Bolivia-Chile border while the rest of our group made the 7 hour return trip to Uyuni in the jeep (happy we weren´t having to do that). From here, we were transported down to San Pedro de Atacama and into a different world. We really enjoyed our time in Bolivia, but we were admittedly looking forward to the greater Westernisation that Chile and Argentina are meant to offer (as lame as that sounds). And we haven´t been disappointed - bread that isn´t 10 days old, balsamic vinegar, paved roads, reliable hot water, tap water that isn´t lethal, toilet paper you can throw into the dunny....

But you have to pay for it all - the prices have been quite a shock. When we rocked up to the first hotel we baulked at the US$50 per night cost - we paid as low as US$8 a night in Bolivia, even only paying US$20 a night in La Paz. But after a tour of some other places, we found out that US$50 was actually quite reasonable and returned to that first hotel. And the cost of everything else is similar here in Chile, being about 3-times the cost of things in Bolivia. But San Pedro is a very nice town, though there isn´t much to it other than what is here for the tourists. And the food here is so good, we are happy to know that we probably won´t have to face chicken and rice ever again.

And this afternoon we thought we were taking a tour to just see the sunset at Luna Valley, but it ended up being so much more. We were taken to some awesome viewpoints, again the scenery here is quite stunning. The shape and colour of the rock formations are truely something out of this world. And finally we picked the right tour, as we seemed to go to locations that other tours didn´t, and we also got to run down this huge sand dune while other tours took a boring route down the road at the bottom (there were plenty of jealous looks). The only downer on the tour was hearing about all the other cool things there are to do around San Pedro. But we have already bought out bus ticket to Salta in Argentina tomorrow - but as I have been saying, "you can´t do everything". And tomorrow the steak and red wine feast will begin, so expect plenty of stories on that front to make you jealous.