Bolivia The first 72 hours
This is the
account of our incredible journey across the border to Bolivia.
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| Adios Chile! |
Leaving Chile for the last time!
Up to now our journey has been entirely crisscrossing from Chile to Argentina and now finally we are moving on to a new episode in our journey.
Our journey
started at the immigration customs of Chile in San Pedro de Atacama, which is about 50 km
from the actual border. As we queued. All four of us, Eddy and Lauren had joined
us once again as hitchhikers, though as it would turn out they would prove to
be much more members of our team. As we waited for our turn in this desert post
we were surprised to see a snow plough returning from a mission! At the time we
had no idea why that could be.
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| A brace of usnicycles |
A further
surprise as we waited was two backpackers who turned up on unicycles!
Eventually
it was our turn and we set off. The first leg was to return the 50 odd km back
up the hill that I had commented on as we came down a couple of weeks before. It is pretty much straight
for that distance but as I had said before it was downhill all the way. This
time, perhaps not surprisingly it was uphill. The assent took us about an hour
and mostly in first gear. Pegasus performed magnificently, grumbling a bit
about the altitude and giving out a small amount of smoke. It never overheated
nor failed.
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As we left
the heat of the desert it became increasingly cold and as we got towards the
top we started to see fresh snow on the ground around us and as we got further
we had snowy mountains around us and the road had been freshly cleared by that
snowplough. |
At the top
we turned left along an unpaved road that led to The border to Bolivia. It was
a rustic affair with a couple of roughly built offices. It was cold bleak and
miles from anywhere. I couldn’t help wondering how popular this posting might
be in the Bolivian immigration service.
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| The frontier of Chile and Bolivia. (note the bits of junk balancing the barrier) |
The barrier
was bent and mended and the counterbalance was made of old motor parts tied on
with rope. Inside were two friendly and I have to say to my surprise, funny
immigration officers. They stamped our passports as they shared a joke at
something in Pings passport. And then they came and lifted the barrier and we
were in Bolivia. Further on was The Eduardo Alvaroa Andean National park. As we
paid our entrance fee. We were told there that The Customs post was 70km
further on.
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| Eddy and Lauren |
We stayed
for a very cold night in the van here,
with Eddy and Lauren in their tent.
In the
morning we helped them scrape the frost off their tent and they bought us breakfast. Then we went to tour the beautiful lakes of this
park. There is a Green lake and a White lake both of which are very lovely and
we drove around on the quite unstable sandy roads after this we continued along
these tracks it was little rough but quite an exhilarating drive with loads of
lovely scenery.
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Laguna Verde
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The path, however became increasingly difficult, and quite
testing for both the van and me. It varied
from soft sand, violent corrugated bedrock, this can be the most difficult
to cope with the vibrations can be so severe that it is difficult to control
the vehicle sometimes you need to go slower and sometimes going faster can make
it smoother. Always the corrugations will vibrate a hole in your soul!
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| Corrugated bedrock will just vibrate you to pieces |
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Sand turns to rocky tracks
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| Many, many new tracks, very confusing. |
A lot of the time the path was rocky and full of hazards and challenges very difficult but really exhilarating. Then there is a stretch where has become so rough that all the other drivers have passed by have tried to make their own track to such a degree that it is impossible to know which way to go or to choose an easier path. It was such a trial and it went on for hours
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The challenges increase
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Eddie guided us in a small detour to visit some geysers, and what a detour it was.
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| Dancing in the steam |
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| Driving through the steam |
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| Bubbling mud pool |
The term 'Lunar landscape' is used often in this part of the world. In this case it would be very much in keeping with the fantasy of an ,other world landscape. rough tracks up and over hills and down into dips, through powdery sand passing bubbling mud pools and jets of steam large an small boiling water all over a sizeable area. It was an outer space scene from The Adventures of TinTin! none of us would have missed this experience. All the time we were also enjoying such
spectacular Andean scenery.
We came to
The Laguna Colorado which has the added bonus of lots of bright Pink Flamingoes
We drove around the lake for a long way, about 10 km and when we were closest
to the flock we stopped to take photographs.
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| A whole flock of camera shy flamingos |
Scrambling down the bank we got a little closer always gasping for breath from the altitude. As we got a bit closer the whole flock moved a bit further away. And they did this as often as we got closer always maintaining the same distance. So it was impossible to get any pics of these tourist savvie birds!
So on we
went. It was a pretty tiring journey and we were ready to find a suitable place
to stop. I have to say that it is really hard to concentrate on the terrible
road and look out for a nice place to stop, and you also kind of get your teeth
gritted to keep going. Anyhow after a few more scares and adventures we saw a
place, it was already getting dusk and I was very tired. So we drove down to a
small lake and just stopped.
I remembered Ping saying, ’It might be better to
reverse in. I wasn’t listening. As I got out of the cab I noticed two things,.
The ground was soft and springy under my feet and the thin dry crust of mud had
broken up under the weight of the back wheels. This was not a good sign but we
set the van up and Lauren and Eddy set up their tent. A bit of supper and so to
bed.
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| Too tired to appreciate the beauty of the lake |
In the
morning I woke up thinking about the back wheels sinking into the soft mud. We
were parked on the shore with low bushes all around us. I decided not to tell
Ping of my concerns, instead sat through breakfast with all sorts of muddy
fantasies going through my head. When we were finally ready I briefed Eddy to
remove the choc from the back wheel and get out of the way fast. I engaged 4
wheel drive and lowest gear as Eddy
pulled out the choc, I moved slowly and unrelentingly out of the trough my
wheels were in and oh so gradually up the muddy bank. As I turned the wheel
hard Pegasus protested a bit but crawled on up the bank and onto dry land!
It really was a near thing.
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| Breakfast overlooking the lake |
Once settled I was able to fully appreciate just what
a beautiful spot we had picked. It was truly idyllic completely
still glassy surface the mountains beautifully reflected in the water
and the sun rising. That was when the Flamingos arrived and did not run away. Beat that if you can.
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| Visiting flamingos |
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| Dancing on the shore |
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| Korean Dancing |
Oh yeh, after a short time we passed a hotel on yet another lake which was well
stocked with tourist class. Flamingos waiting to be photographed and there was
a troop of Koreans ready to oblige. I found the Koreans as entertaining as the
birds to watch and photograph.
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Flamingos dancing
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B
y the way I think we may have had enough of flamingos As we had tea a bunch of them came out of the
water and walked towards us. My recollection is no one even reached for their
camera!
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| Olaf and Eddy have a nice chat while I work |
After we had left this place We ran into a Dutch couple Olaf and Merle parked by another lake, and we stopped for a chat. We spent a bit of time admiring each others van and over tea we broached the subject of the road!
We were fully expecting to offer information on how awful the road had
been in view of there being only another 30 or so km to go. Not so. Our Dutch chums explained that the worst was
in store for us. They explained that the last 10 km was by far the worst. They
had themselves become stuck for some hours in a mud pool and had to be rescued.
They told us that a family in a Land Rover had broken an axle. Apart from all
that it was pretty rough.
We parted
company from them and made our way very cautiously.
It wasn’t too bad
until, the last 10km. We took it very
cautiously and it was pretty arduous. We were very glad to have been warned of
the specific dangers. We found the mudpool and were able to find a way around
it. Eventually we emerged onto the main road. Amid considerable relief. I was
so glad it was over and we had not broken anything including my spirit.
We had a
further three hour drive to the city of Uyuni home to the largest salt lake in
the world.
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| The final flamingo |
I have to
say that the main road was pretty unpleasant but it had one quite disturbing
feature in particular. Now it may in
part be due to my being tired, but the road cut a swathe through some pretty
impressive rocky landscape. The problem was that there was so little in the way
of features on which to focus your attention and the whole landscape is all the
same colour. The effect that is caused is that when you bring your attention
back to the middle of the road it can make you feel briefly dizzy it is very
unpleasant and distracting.
The last
half of the journey was uneventful but a bit on the horrid side.
We arrived
in Uyuni around dusk and with the
significant help of Eddy, he speaks good Spanish and has been in the town
before, we found a nice place to stay. And so to
bed!
I want to continue this account as though it is one single journey as in effect it was.
We had
realised that while being brutalised by the rough drive in the National Park we
had failed to attend the customs. We knew we needed to put his right and fully
intended to rock up at the customs office in Uyuni. There was a problem
however. There is no customs office in Uyuni!
The lovely
lady who runs the Hostel where we are parked. Quickly got the number of the
nearest customs and phoned them up. She
was in turn referred to a border post about 250kms away. She phoned them and
the man put the fear of god in her as he explained that we have broken the law
, there are severe penalties, we must get to his office at the border urgently
and we should also avoid police checks on the way. It seems that the police can seize any vehicle that has not
been permitted to come into Bolivia.
Our hostel
lady told us very earnestly that we should leave at 4 am to arrive there as the
office opens at 8am This was so we can drive on roads that are free of police. We
were really freaked out by all this. We had already heard a horror story of
someone who had her camper seized and it took 4 weeks, lawyers and a huge fine
to get her van released. Wow!
We took
further advice from a great mechanic who had fixed a couple of things on the van before we drove anoher long distance. He seemed pretty clued in and spoke a bit of
English. He told us that there would be no police checks on that road. He
pointed out, rightly as it transpired, that we should be surprised if we met
another car let alone police.
So with
considerable apprehension we decided to go much earlier.
Now during
this time Eddy had been away all day and
we had agreed that they would go to Chile the next day by bus. We had said our
good byes. As we believed we would have gone and sorted everything out. And in
the mean time they would have taken their bus.
As it turned
out they returned having bought bus tickets for 5 am that morning. Eddy being
the star that he is, realised that ,
they would be going to the same border on the bus and also that I could
do with some help with the driving. Driving at
night is worth avoiding but a long distance in the small hours on that
difficult road would be especially so. They then
fixed it with the bus company that they would join the bus at the border at
8.00 am.
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| Early morning at the frontier |
So we set
off at midnight. And arrived at the border about 3 am a very unpleasant
security man appeared and growled at us quite a lot and then let us alone Eddy
and Lauren put up their tent and we all settled down for a couple of hours sleep.
We awoke at about 7am had a bite of breakfast. The bus arrived at 8.00 and all
occupants went to immigration including Eddy and Lauren. The customs office
opened and with great apprehension we went in to face the music. We had the
name of an officer. He was there, but evidently knew nothing of the matter. The
boss came out of his office and a brief conversation in Spanish took place. we fully expected maybe a fine , an 'unofficial' fine or at the very least some severe 'words of advice'. The
officer took all our details. A few minutes later he produced documents. Said
‘sign here, and here, a brief flurry of rubber stamping and then he seemed to
stand back to admire his own work!
All of a
sudden we realised that, that was that! We were both so surprised and relieved,
not to say rather stunned as we walked out of the office complete with our new
import permit. A few minutes later and Eddy and Lauren were ready to get on the
bus. So amid goodbyes we realised that this whole episode had fitted together
almost to completion.
Of course I
am not forgetting that they will be going back to see if they can get their van
back on the road so that they can continue their travels. I am sure they know
how much we wish them well. We really hope we will meet again some time soon.
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| Made in America over a hundred years ago |
Now going
back a little. I have not yet mentioned the scene that we woke up to.
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| Frontera Avoara what a great scene |
The border post is adjacent to a railway station in a huge open area in the middle of the desert. Surrounded by mountains. All this and a whole clutch of abandoned railway cars. I found the whole location so beautiful. So off I went to explore I had such a nice time.
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| Beautiful wood interiors even in it's abandoned state |
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| All aboard! |
Then we had
to choose our route back. We had little enthusiasm for going back the same way
as that route was tiresome and we had already travelled it.
A tour guide
arrived at that time and we asked his advice. He was very helpful He told us
that the first 50 km along the railway was really difficult but that then with his directions we could
find our way to a place where we could spend the night . In the morning he said
we could drive across the salt lake!
We followed
his directions and true to his word the first 50km were truly awful. Right up to when
we saw the remains of a car that had overturned and burnt out in the middle of
nowhere, at the side of the road.
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| Look ahead! |
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| OH SHIT ! |
As I drove past and was gawking a bit, I
discovered how it had come to grief, as
my front wheels fell into a deep gully! Quite a bump. It was a shock. We were
stuck but it was not too difficult and we got out without too much drama. Had we been travelling at any great speed the outcome could have been very different.
After this I
think we missed a turn and we discovered that we were a bit lost as we drove
down a narrow causeway about 5 kms long and ended up in a really rustic little
town. It was ‘siesta’ time. Or as the locals like to call it ‘lunch time’ so
there was not a soul about I guessed until 5 o clock.
I suddenly
realised that I was so tired that I could not go on. I flopped on the bed and fell
sound asleep for an hour. When I awoke we found that another tour guide had
pitched up in the town square. We went to ask directions.
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| The causeway |
One of his passengers
spoke good Spanish and was able to get directions from him . at the end of
which he told us he was going that way and we should follow him.
We did we went for about 55 kms along a network of causeways in the salt flats. We could have never have used this route on our own.
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| More salt causeways |
We arrived at a so called ‘Salt hostel’ where they were staying. They suggested we get a room there too. This place was built from salt blocks its floors were covered in salt crystals and all the furniture was made from salt blocks. We decided to stay. We were both completely spent. It had after all been a very long 24 hours so far.
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| Salt floor, salt walls, salt bed. I craved fish and chips all night! |
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| Google translate has a lot to answer for. |
The salt hostel had a large fields of llamas and they were rather friendly. Whilst we were having a photographic session with the llamas, a couple came up to us and told us that they had met us before in Namibia, and we had given them a lift to the town of Luderitz. They had been following our blog and knew we were in South America, but they had not expect to meet up with us. What a small world!
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| Julien and Relinde, old friends from Namibia |
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| No cause for a llama |
After we had
all settled in one of the tourists with
the guide was sent to us to say that the guide ,Hugo, wanted us to follow him
in the morning onto the salt. He was
worried that it might be dangerous for us and we would enjoy it more if we were
to drive behind him. I was really touched by this. He really did not have to
take us on in this way. We were very pleased and grateful, despite it being a 5
o clock start. We both
slept like stones on our salt bed, it did have a mattress!
At 5 the next morning we set off in convoy. We drove some distance in complete darkness. When he indicated and turned off onto another narrow causeway. I stuck to his back bumper like glue. As we bounced along this narrow path just staring at the open darkness on either side.
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Off into the unknown! |
Then , quite
suddenly he indicated left again and
simply turned off the causeway and into the water. Now the water that sits on
top of the salt is usually only a few inches deep but I cannot describe how I
felt as I mindlessly followed him in. As we went in I realised that I had not engaged 4 wheel drive and that if I
needed it I was going to hold them up as would stop , get out and engage the
hubsknee deep in water before continuing. This really bothered me. Off we sped across the salty
water still in pitch dark I had absolutely no idea what was in store. As we
drove he turned off his lights just to show us how dark it was , very funny!
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| Dawn on the salt flat |
After, I
would say, the best part of an hour driving at around 65 kmh, ( about 40
MPH) we stopped at an Island where
we were told we should have
breakfast and then climb up on a hill to watch the sunrise The island which has
a high hill covered in huge cacti is the ideal spot to observe the sunrise over
this extraordinary horizon.
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| Sunrise over the cacti |
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| moving across the salt |
We climbed up and watched the sun rise though Ping had to go back to the van as
she could not remember if she had left the kettle on. Dreadful worst case
fantasies of the locked van burning down in a place that is almost literally
the middle of nowhere. I am happy to say that she returned to report that it
was not lit. She was pretty annoyed but got over it in a short time. The
sunrise which should have been great was a bit of a disappointment due to heavy
cloud. But never mind.
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We had
breakfast along with our lovely new chums who were riding in the Land Criuser
with the
guide Hugo. It was really nice. |
With
breakfast done off we went, of course it was now light. We continued to follow
Hugo across a vast expanse of, well, nothing really! The salt is completely
flat and as far as the eye can see is
light grey until it meets the horizon with the sky pale blue.
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| Looking back as we drive |
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| Out to the horizon |
For some of the time the salt is quite dry
and then without warning is under shallow water. It really is a wonderful
experience. We did cross the salt pans in Botswana but that was different
again. Neither of us would have missed
it for the world.
About halfway we stopped so that Hugo's 4 passengers, all
young women and very lovely too. Two were from Belgium and the others Manuela
and Zara were Italian and spoke good
Spanish. We very much enjoyed all their company. They all wanted to do some
clever , funny stuff with digital photography using the blank backdrop of the
salt.
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| A lot of silliness |
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| with some very funny young women |
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More siliness
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It was really funny to watch them making all kinds of bizzare poses so
that they appeared to be riding tiny miniature Llamas or drinking from a huge
bottle of wine. We had a bit of a go at it but inot a success but we did enjoy
watching them perform so unselfconsciously.
As I looked
out off into the far distance I could see all around us were similar crews
doing much the same thing. It really did not matter.
We then splashed on across
the salt until we reached what is considered to be the original ‘Salt hotel’.
We were told that they had an exhibition of salty stuff and souvenir shop.
I assumed that this was just
a trap to get us spending money. Not so
Ping actually wanted to buy something but had to give up as there was no one
around to take her money it was very strange. This hotel is famous for being
one of the stages of the Dakar Rally.
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| The unattended Salt Hotel |
I think it is worth mentioning that
‘Dakar’ became pretty unpopular in Senegal, mostly because although it brings
substantial sums to the countries it visits
It is said that very little of drips down to the people who really have
to put up with the significant disruption it causes.
While in Chile we did see banners
protesting against Dakar. ‘Dakar go home ‘ was one such.
However in Bolivia one really gets
the impression that it is very poular and well supported by Bolivians and
especially those involved in tourism.
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| The Dakar Symbol is everuwhere |
There are
salt statues of the Dakar logo for you to pose by. MMMM I might have done. Also, you might recall that earlier in our journey we had met a group of Malaysian bikers and made friends with them.
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| I just knew that they would be there |
Well at the salt hotel is a very impressive large collection of flags among which Ping found a Malaysian flag that had been signed by the same group of Malaysian bikers that we had met a couple of weeks previous. it was a lot like meeting them again.
We continued
driving the last leg of our journey. Just before the end we followed Hugo into
much deeper water which was a real
blast. He then jumped into our van and showed me where to drive to get photos
of this deep water driving. Actually it was a good thing as I only noticed that
our number plate had been ripped off the first time around as it was bobbing
around on the water. Hugo and his lovely wife,
who travels as cook and I suspect administrator, were so kind and generous, making this journey
such an amazing adventure for us.
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| Into the deeper water |
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| I have seen that before somewhere! |
We followed
them to the very last stop which is huge souvenir market. Jam packed with
stalls, tourists and more Toyota Land Criusers than you can shake a stick at!
The Land cruiser is the car of choice for these guides as they are almost
indestructible and give a smooth ride even on the worst trails. There were so
many there lining the street it was quite a site.
When we
finally returned to Uyuni we went to get the van cleaned to get all the salt
off. It was completely covered in a crust of salt. You could almost
hear it eating into the metal work. For about 8 quid they pressure wash the
chassis, wash the outside of the van spray diesel over the chassis and grease all the places that the pressure
has forced out the grease. Then they clean the inside so nicely. We were
desperate to clean the van as it was covered in grey dust inside, really
horrible. We were so pleased as we went from dreadfully filthy ,to all nice and clean..
The next
stop was to return to our hostel and park the van for the night. We were both
tired to the point of collapse. This had been 36 hours jampacked with pleasure
, friendship, kindness , anxiety and adventure, all this , but very little
sleep.
Norma , the
lady who runs the hostel was delighted that we had made it back and as she
said, she was worried that we would be expelled from Bolivia. She was genuinely
pleased to see us in one piece.
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| Cleaning off, first the salt and then the dust inside the van. |
Now let me
tell you a bit about the town of Uyuni. It is a decent size town that is very
important for communication in Bolivia, The buses spread out around the
country. The quite modest Bolivian Railway is headquartered there. The town is
very proud indeed of its railway heritage.
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A feature of the town is that it would seem that at any time of night and day
there is a marching band playing. |
Every school
has one and they practice daily with ‘modest’ musical ability. It is rather
pleasant to just be around all the time.
One evening we were treated to a big
parade to celebrate the Bolivians and Chileans pushing the Spanish into the
sea. A couple of hundred years ago or so. All manner of marching bands were there including a couple of proper
military bands. I particularly liked the Airforce who had little blue lit airplanes mounted on
their music stands. I couldn’t help noticing that they were made from fizzy
drink bottles but very good effect for all that.it was a great parade.
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| The Air Force band complete with pop bottles |
A couple of
days after that I had to have a sleep in the van while waiting for Ping doing
shopping. As I slept, you couldn’t make it up a marching band came right past
the van. I was determined to not allow them to disturb me so I stayed put and
went back to sleep despite the beating of the bass drum etc etc.
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| Woken from slumber |
Two things before we leave the city of Uyuni.
