4x4ing on the Andes
My friends and I had for a while planned a trip back to the country in which we were raised, Bolivia. First on our list was the immense Uyuni Salt Lake. We were all in the city of Cochabamba where we were support to depart from, well I had gone out the night before and slept in a little longer, I didn’t noticed that I had over 10 missed calls and when I called my friends, they were 2 hours into the bus trip to the next city of Oruro, where we would take the train to reach the town of Uyuni. At that point I grabbed all my belongings and rushed to the Bus station, I was fortunate to reach them in Oruro, we met at a Pizza joint, not bad at all. We bought some beverages for the train ride and hopped on what would become the oldest train I’ve been on. The train was pretty good……….we inhaled enough dust to choke an elephant, jeje. The ride itself was pleasant because of the company and the couple beers we had along the way.
Eight hours later… we had reached our destination. It was 3 in the morning and we were scrambling to find a hostel that would open its doors to us. We found one, rested for a couple hours and headed to the main square to book a 3 day tour of the Salt Lake, Colored Lagoons, Geysers and Deserts. After bargaining for a while, we found an agency that lowered it’s price by $150, which was pretty well considering starting prices were $600 for the SUV. We ended up paying $75 each which included the food, the places were we would sleep, and the gasoline for the vehicle.
Our first stop was the train cemetery, many locomotives and wagons in bad shape yet cool to take pictures there. Minutes later we headed to the main attraction, El Salar de Uyuni (Uyuni Salt Lake), we stopped at the edge to buy some souvenirs and there we encountered a Baby Vicuña, it was funny so see tourists trying to take pictures close to it, it would immediately spit at them, hehe. After purchasing souvenirs we drove into the Salt Lake and stopped at what used to be the only hotel made almost entirely out of salt, it stopped functioning due to contamination of the salt lake, so now there are more being built on the outskirts. We took some pictures in the hotel and then we pulled up at Incahuasi in our Land Cruiser.
At Incahuasi, the island covered in cacti, our guides gave us a while to do the little hike to the top of the island, while they prepared our lunch. There we had to pay a small fee of Bs. 10, equivalent to 1 euro, which covered hiking the trail, and using the WC on the island. We hiked up to the top, where we had a great 360° view of the salt flats all around, and where we took some nice group photos. We had lunch, took perspective photos on the salt flats and then headed to our first night stop. The town of San Juan Bautista.
The next morning we drove by the “Laguna Hedionda” (Stinky Lagoon) named this because of the high amount of Sulfur found there, then we drove through the Salvador Dali desert located in the department of Potosi in Bolivia where one could appreciate various rock formations. We then stopped for lunch around a table and chairs setting, but in reality they were all rocks, and kept driving on to the Siloli desert where one can see the “Arbol de Piedra” (Rock Tree) along with many other rock formations. The last stop of the day was the “Reserva Nacional Eduardo Avaroa” in southwestern Potosi, bordering the country of Chile, there we were able to appreciate many different types of fauna and flora as well as the “Laguna Colorada” (Red Lagoon). There we made our last night stop and early the next day to see the sun rise we headed to Sud Lipez, Potosi where one can see the geysers and the volcanic activity.
After the sunrise we headed to some hot springs in the middle of the Andes, the sights were breathtaking. There we were also within walking distance form the Licancabur volcano, right on the border of Bolivia and Chile, and at its base you could appreciate the “Laguna Verde” (Green Lagoon)
. This was the last stop on the list, after being checked, we drove back up to Uyuni to catch the train back to Oruro where we encountered strikes, so we had to wait until the situation improved to catch a bus back to Cochabamba.
I really didn’t know how powerful those Toyota Land Cruiser SUVs where until this trip, especially after seeing then handling those terrains and climb the Andes. It’s only when you’re bumping along Bolivian roads with every second pothole sending you two feet out of your seat like a deranged jack-in-the-box that you come to conclude what a brilliant invention asphalt is. And just how necessary a road maintenance actually is.
What an Adventure!
