Author: Both

Photos: Rach (unless specified)

Now this is what we call real adventuring! First up: 3 breathtaking and memorable days spent crossing the salt flats and desert sands towards Chile. Starting with a 9am climb into our 4×4….

Day 1

We checked out of the hotel and bundled our group (we had invited Niamh, Shane and Elly – the pootling in La Paz group – to be with us as a 5) into our 4 x 4 with all our belongings and a keen sense of excitement. Our driver was Francis (Francisco) who was driving in spot no 2 of the 4 cars, which we learned later (or summised to be more precise) was because he was training – he looked the spitting image of the guy leading the pack, who we think was his dad.

First stop was a little place selling souvenirs – Flor told us it was our last chance to buy Bolivian clothing etc, as after this it was nothing but desert as we headed for Chile. Great opportunity to pick up a postcard of the Salt flats to add to my burgeoning collection! The weather was favourable for the morning, with rain predicted for later that day so we broke with the itinerary and headed straight to the salt flats.

My oh my what a sight. As we cruised through what seemed like a lake of shallow water (around 1ft), the reflection of the few surrounding mountains bounced into the eternal blue expanse of water, the crystal white salt glistening below.

These are the largest salt flats in the world at a total of 4,086 square miles. We learned that the Salar de Uyuni formed as a result of transformations between several prehistoric lakes. Covered by a few metres of salt crust with an incredible flatness – it varies by no more than 1 metre across the entire terrain – it also conceals one of the largest lithium reserves in the world (c. 50-70% of all known lithium!)

As we progressed further and further into this amazing mirrored pool, flanked only by the horizon, we came into shallower water and we passed the Bolivian monument marking the place of the Dakar rally. We were here!

What an amazing spectacle, and certainly one of the most beautiful, spellbinding places we’ve ever seen.

We hopped out of the 4×4, shoes off, into 5cm of lukewarm water. The salt was quite jagged underfoot, so we edged fairly slowly towards a mount containing many flags of the world. We were disappointed to see there was no GB flag (as far as we could tell) but Rach found the Welsh flag, and Niamh and Shane the Irish flag, so we were sort of represented!

We then moved on to find a good spot to take some reflection and perspective photos, as the salt flats are famous for. Given we were there in rainy season we were lucky enough to be able to do both to a certain extent, providing the wind kept at bay! We paddled around for a while looking for a great spot, first to take a jump shot of the entire group of 18 (thanks Flor!), which after several attempts was almost perfect except for Shane’s slightly off sense of timing! We then played around taking a few reflection photos, using the boys as anchors for our cartwheel!

And then tried some funny perspective shots using our mascot duck (who hasn’t made much of an appearance on our blog sadly as we keep forgetting to photograph him with us, ah well!), along with a toy dinosaur and wine bottle. Great fun!

The scenery really was breathtaking though and we made time to put the camera away and just drink it in. At its calmest the sky merged with the shallow water and erased the horizon, so much so that the distant 4x4s appeared to be flying. Magic!

After a quick stop for lunch we headed out of Uyuni towards the outer edge of the Bolivia where it meets the Chilean border to begin our desert crossing (see route below)

We stopped briefly at a ‘train cemetary’, which was just that! Here the tracks had stopped and clearly Thomas and friends had fallen on hard times. Tens, if not hundreds of trains lay rusting away here, mere skeletons of their former selves.

It seems that after Chile took the only access to the sea that Bolivia had in 1879, there was no need for trains to transport silver and other minerals to the western coast. The line simply ended and the trains were left after their last journey. We explored the graveyard for a while, clambering over the great steam engines. Ged had never seen an elephants’ graveyard but he thought of them as he looked down from an engineer’s window. It was like the trains knew they were coming here to finally rest amongst their friends and it was nothing to do with the decision makers in the rail companies.

Before long it was time to leave this spooky but cool place and head accross the flat expanse before us to the hills in the distance.

Onward we went, passing between mountain ranges on circumspect roads of hard desert (an occasional jolt every now and again lifted whoever was right in the back out of their seat!), spotting vicuñas, who seem much better camouflaged here than in Peru, chatting away and playing games like 20 questions and the alphabet game.

As the evening began to draw in we realised we weren’t going to make it to our accommodation before nightfall, so excitingly we’d see sunset before be driving the last portion in the dark. What a beautiful sunset it was!

Soon after the promised unsettled weather began to encroach and we were treated to the most spectacular lightning storm, with fork and sheet lightning striking down from the clouds in the distance at incredible speed and power – think lots of ‘woahs’ and such being exclaimed in the car for the best part of an hour and a half! Rach attempted to video the storm out of the window but much to the amusement of Niamh, Shane, Elly & Ged it seemed to temporarily stop every time she hit the record button!

We finally arrived in the dark around 8pm to our community lodge, a G-Adventures funded set-up of salt-brick huts with straw roofs, and were treated to a good 3 course meal of soup, chicken and mousse for afters.

We got a surprisingly hot shower to wash off the salt (our clothes were encrusted with the stuff!) and then the storm hit! Our lights shorted out, and rain began spilling in from underneath the window pane! Not helped was the fact that the front door didn’t shut properly (the people who built these huts clearly didn’t fully understand how to plane wood, or indeed that without sealant you get leaks!) but it was rustic and built traditionally so all part of the experience. We grabbed our bags from the doorway and took everything off the floor and onto a spare bed, waterproof covers to boot, as the roof started leaking in several places. The weather outside was violent – pea sized hail battering the window and as much rain as we’d seen in the Amazon. The thunder was close and we put our scarfes and jumpers on under the covers and hoped that it would abate. Luckily it did – when we woke neither us nor our stuff was wet. Hurray!

Day 2

The next day was more bouncing around in a 4×4 and thoroughly enjoying it. The landscape was ever changing and always stunning, with the backdrop of the Andes mountains never really disappearing from view.

We drove near to active volcanoes, to lakes that were “stinky” and lakes that were red, all the while taking in the desert views. The stinky lake was so called because of the sulphur from the active volcanoes in the area and the red lake was that colour because of all the algae. Bizarre and brilliant.

We saw lots of wildlife, with the star guest being pink flamingoes that waded in vast numbers. Once again Rach was thankful for her camera zoom!

We also caught a glimpse of two running rheas (ostrich-like birds), but sadly didn’t manage to get a picture. One of our last stops was the ‘stone tree’ – a beautifully sand-eroded tree-shapes stone in the middle of the desert, backed by the Andes. Nature can be quite the architect!

The day was one of the best we’d had on the whole trip in terms of views and landscape. It was a shame it had to end. As the sky grew darker we saw a little town in the distance. No lights were on. We drove through the town and saw no one until we pulled up outside of what looked like a warehouse or a sports hall. Inside little rooms had been built around the outside of a central space with a long table in it. This was our accommodation. This ghost hotel was such a strange place to end the day and most of us were in bed before the 9:30pm lights out time. We still have no idea what this town was called!

Day 3

On our final day in Bolivia we continued off road, cruising across the desert sands up and down dunes, snow capped volcanoes in the front and rear view mirrors.

We were up and out early at 7.30am to ensure we had enough time for our visit to the thermal springs en route to the border crossing, scheduled for about 1pm. But our plans got derailed when we suddenly lost cars no 3 and 4. Our driver turned around and we headed back – car 3 had got stuck in a ditch! With a bit of a winch out from car 4 we were going again, but the ditch had done some damage as the car ground to a halt at the top of a dune. Bent axel! From there the wheel was off and lots of whacking and hammering ensued for the next 90 mins while the drivers tried to fix it. Apparently it’s not uncommon given what the cars have to go through, driving at speed over such a distance on this tricky terrain.

Luckily it was repairable with a bit of elbow grease and we could move on again, but it did mean we had less time in the thermal springs than we would have done originally. Honestly though we were just glad to have still made it there! It must have been the nicest view from a warm bath anyone could have dreamt up – a vibrant aquamarine lake encircled by snow-capped mountains and bright blue skies. It didn’t really feel like anywhere on this planet!

After half an hour relaxing in the hot water we made tracks to the border with Chile.

The crossing into Chile was relatively straightforward. We stopped by a hut, seemingly in the middle of nowhere, that turned out to be a Bolivian immigration office.

Our passports were stamped and we carried our bags to a thankfully airconditioned bus on the other side. This then drove us to what looked like a massive garage about half a mile away.

We all piled off the bus, got our passports stamped, had our bags patted, declared we had no fruit, and we were on our way. We expected to be a lot longer and our guide said that sometimes they can take hours. We must have caught the inspection team on a good day.

The road to San Pedro de Atacama was silky smooth in comparison to the desert we had been bouncing around in and we hurtled along as the guide explained the mountains near to us. In short, if you’re looking at a mountain in Chile, you are probably looking at a volcano. There are 141 active volcanoes in Chile, and between 800-1000 when you include dormant volcanoes. It was a bit sobering to hear about the mega volcano or Caldera – Yellowstone is the biggest in the world at 90km, but the one here in Chile is 65km making it the second biggest. Our guide told us how an eruption could result in the earth changing its axis and being pushed out of orbit, with volcano covering the whole atmosphere for months. Nothing short of a mass extinction event caused by another, express, ice age. Welcome to Chile!

Not long after, we arrived in San Pedro de Atacama, a lovely little town but strange in that apart from tourists there doesn’t seem to be any reason for it to exist. We couldn’t find any industry apart from tour operators, restaurants, hotels, and markets. It is a tiny place smack in the middle of the desert. None of the white washed buildings are higher than one storey apart from a church, a police station, and the city offices, and they’re all in the main square. Perhaps it was once a trading point near the border, but there is little evidence of that now.

After a wash and a change of clothes we headed to a bar with the rest of the group for a quick tea before bed. The first challenge was thinking in the new currency; 847 pesos to the pound instead of the 8ish BOB to the pound!! Two meals and two beers at Lola’s came to about 20,000 Chilean pesos, so although not the cheapest meal, it was good to have proper food again. The next challenge was that the bar turned into a karaoke bar at 9pm….. No early night then! Ged was on a girls night out and before long the new spice girls were on stage followed by the cast of the Greatest Showman. Ged escaped the microphone but it was a good laugh had by all and much needed after three days sat in a car.

Day 4 – San Pedro de Atacama

The next day waranted a lie in and a real shower. Heaven. Once revived we joined a tour to one of the main things to see near San Pedro: the Valley of the Moon (not to be confused with Moon Valley in La Paz) and the Death or Mars Valley. The Valley of the Moon, a vast, beautiful, and empty place is about 20 minutes’ drive from the town centre. This is a salt landscape trapped between two mountain ranges. The guide we had talked nonsense about his own personal theory on how it was formed and how life on Earth started, but this did not detract from the astonishing beauty of the place.

Next we saw Death or Mars Valley. The confusion in the name coming from a Belgian 19th century explorer either calling it “muerte” (death) or “marte” (mars) valley as either nothing can live there or it looks like Mars. As the explorer couldn’t have known what the surface of Mars looked like, and it is the driest place on Earth, we favour the Death Valley name. In any case it was eerily beautiful. So peaceful, like no human had ever been there before (except for the path of course!)

Too soon we had to head back to the bus and into town. Rach marched us to a pizzeria and we had the best (and perhaps only) true pizza we had had in South America to celebrate ‘escaping’ Death Valley.

At night the stars come alive in San Pedro and observatory and star gazing tours are popular. However, we managed to pick a full moon night for this so no tours for us. Instead we a got a good kip ready for the long bus ride the next day to Salta. Perhaps we can visit again and see what everyone was talking about with the night sky.

Day 5 – San Pedro to Salta

We left our short flirtation with Chile in San Pedro after 2 nights, ready for another stamp in the passport – this time Argentina! We’ll be back to Chile in around 10 days when we travel across Argentina to Santiago. Around 3hrs into the bus journey we reached the border, and alike the Chilean land border we were off the bus to present our passport first, then back to the bus to collect our bags, but this time for a full machine scan rather than a tardy pat down. Bit more sophisticated here! On we went, to reach Salta around dinner time.

Salta felt like a humungous city. It isn’t, but it felt like it. We hadn’t seen this amount of people in one place since La Paz. Yet, it felt so much better than La Paz. There were street vendors and traffic but it all felt welcoming somehow. The main square is gorgeous with lots of little bars and cafes, museums, and fountains. Altogether a good place to hang out. There are also lots of shops with names we recognised, which may be why we felt more at home there.

Salta was about relaxing and eating for us. The first night there Ged wasted no time in ordering a steak (blue) and a glass of Malbec wine. This was not Ged’s first foray into Argentina and he knew what he wanted.

Day 6 – Salta

The next day Rachael lounged by the hotel pool and Ged explored the city a little more. The cathedral and churches are all in soft pastel colours, the streets are lined with trees, and there were street performers: dancing Gouchos with their twirling handkerfchiefs. It would have been good to spend more time in Salta, but alas there was no chance on this whirlwind trip.

In the afternoon of our only full day in Salta we chose to go for an Argentinian BBQ. About an hour from the city was a ranch and we were delighted to see a full table laid out with a pile of meat ready for the grill. We spent the next few hours drinking unlimited Malbec in the sun, gorging on different types of sausage and cuts of steak. Even the bean salads, homemade sauces, and potatoes were excellent. At times like that it is hard to think we are meant to be travelling and not merely on holiday.

To walk off the BBQ we headed towards the city’s cable cars to catch the sunset. Unfortunately they shut at 6pm as it was a town holiday (20th of February) so no sunset for us. The view of the city is meant to be worth it though if you’re ever in Salta.

As the day went on we became increasingly aware that our new group of friends would soon be breaking up. Only Buenos Aires remained for us. We joined the others, had a few drinks, and another steak (steak number five in 27 hours for Ged!!!). It was a chilled out night and we think everyone was feeling the end was near for our merry band. Before the end of the night Ged ordered a drink Argentina is famous for: Fernet Branca and Coke. All tried it but Ged had to finish it. It is an aquired taste to say the least…..

The next day we packed and wondered what Buenos Aires would bring us. There was barely time for a traditional preflight beer at the airport and before long we were boarding, ready for the final part of our group adventure.