Chimu Adventures travelers – Ben and Josie Benoit – embark on a fantastic journey around South America and the world. Below is a continuation of their adventures in the salt flats down to Chile:
On arrival, we breakfasted at a little hotel and freshened up before our salt flats tour set off at 10.30am. We were greeted by our guide (Jaime), our driver (Alberto) and our cook (Lydia) and set off in our Toyota Land Cruiser (Bolivian people nickname them donkeys). Our first stop on day 1 is the train cemetery, 3km out of Uyuni. It is a collection of abandoned steam trains, mostly British, and quite a sight in the middle of the desert. From the train cemetery, we drove for another 25km to a town on the edge of the salt flats called Colchani, one of few towns around the salt flat with permission to mine and trade salt on the open market. Mining has to be conducted manually using axes and spades and we saw first-hand how the salt is then dried, grinded and bagged. The factory we visited (by factory = two small rooms!) produces 1000kgs per day for 1 Boliviana per kg (~20p). We carted one bag around with us as far as the Chilean border but then abandoned it over worries of mistaken white powder.
From Colchani we started our tour of the salt flats. It is huge (80km sq.), it sparkles against the light blue sky and looks truly amazing. En route across the plains we visit a salt museum and wind up at ‘Fish Island’, a huge, cactus-strewn rock (made from coral), which affords spectacular views across the plains. We munch up our first meal
Salt Flats in Bolivia
from Lydia, scale the island and take a 2km trot across the plains. Further across the plains by car, Jaime and Alberto pick an ideal spot to take the requisite comedy pictures that we’d decided to avoid (since everybody else has posted millions on facebook). We settled on 3 or 4, taken with the gang – see below. That evening, we bed down in a really humble village called San Juan, eat some more fabulous home-cooked food from Lydia and reflect on one of the best days of our trip so far.
We’re expecting days 2 and 3 to be a bit of an anticlimax – after all, we’ve seen the salt plains now – but we were wrong. First, we head to an ancient cemetery containing human remains from pre-Inca times, buried in rocks – slightly spooky, but fairly fascinating. From San Juan we drive across some testing terrain up into the volcanic mountains of southern Bolivia. Our route is via a number of lagoons that house thousands of pink flamingos and the backdrop to more breathtaking scenery. The first lagoon we come across has a sulphur stench powerful enough to put you off your lunch but Lydia serves up some great “albondigas” (meatballs) and “Keeynwa” (quinoa) and we tuck in by the lagoon side. Our little group is bonding well at this point and we challenge the boys to a game of cards later that evening.
The last stop of the day is at a red lagoon close to the Chilean border. The Bolivian authorities attempted to have the body of water recognised as a “modern wonder of the world” but lost out to the Iguazu waterfalls. Nevertheless, it’s pretty spectacular and definetly should have its place in a highlights of South America tour. Jaime and Alberto teach us a gin-rummie-esque card game that evening, which ends up as a Bolivia vs. Inglaterra match. They are incredible cheats but we win 4-3. We also spend time talking to Jaime about Bolivia and its struggles to recognise 37 different languages, manage regionalised phone networks and gas / electricity distribution (no national grid!) and the various points of view on the first indigenous president and his quest to nationalise resources. We bed down early (8pm), knowing that this is going to be a very cold night ahead, at 4,200 m.a.s.l. Josie buried herself in super warm sleeping bag and several blankets and subsequently work up at 2am absolutely boiling…
Day 3 of our tour is another great experience. We start the morning with live volcanic geysers, squirting grey froth into the cold air. Next, we visit a lagoon lower down the valley, where we swam in hot springs. We finish the tour at a beautiful green lake and huge volcano (5,900 m.a.s.l), which also provides the back drop to our destination in San Pedro De Atacama. We just have enough time over lunch for the Bolivian boys to even up our ongoing card game and we bid them farewell at the border.
thermal lake Bolivia
So our final thoughts on Bolivia are definitely tempered by the great people we met in the salt plains and the fantastic things we’ve seen in the south. Its landscape is hugely contrasting and beautiful.
And on to Chile…
We’re picked up at the border by a Chilean surf dude driving a modern Mercedes people carrier and the relief when we see a tarmac road is palpable – the modern world for the first time in 4 weeks. Our first full day (the next day) includes a hike up to the local pre-Inca mirador ruins in blistering heat, followed by an afternoon of cooling off and an early evening of sand boarding. After several hours of trampling up steep sandy dunes, candle-waxing our sub-standard boards and wobbling down the bank to the inevitable sand-in-mouth wipe-out, we admit defeat. It was a fun experience but we won’t be swapping snow and skis for sand and boards anytime soon.
From the relatively conservative confines of our hostel we move on to the wonderful Awasi hotel at 9am on the Sunday morning. We have packed in a 4-expedition 2-day Atacama desert tour we are really keen to get going. The Awasi (which means ‘welcome to my home’ in native language) is a truly wonderful place, relaxing and beautiful with great food (3-course meals), wine and service.
On day 1, we opted for some energetic biking in the valley of death – an opportunity to retrace our sand-boarding route and take some pictures of the incredible dunes. Our guide turned out to be a semi-professional rider and left us for dust (literally), but did stop at one point to produce some first-class fruit skewer refreshments. After a champagne lunch and snooze by the pool, we set off on a canyon hike, amongst rugged mountains clad with cacti. That evening, we settled down to another superb, first class meal of scallop and salmon ceviche and rack of lamb. We’d signed up for pm star gazing, which departed at 11pm, and with visions of an hour’s snuggling in luxurious camping materials followed by mulled wine and quick departure, we set off eagerly. It was not to be. We arrive at a telescope-littered mansion belonging to the most self-indulgent French man and his long-suffering wife. After an hour playing with the telescopes (quite good fun, see some interesting things), we stand for 2 HOURS under the stars (no comfortable blankets) to listen to his drivel. We glean about 5 interesting facts but most of his waffle is dedicated to obvious statements (the earth is round), how you navigate Google to find a map of the stars and how you should woo someone whilst star gazing. What a waste of time. We return at 2am, tired and cold.
The next day we’re invigorated by a lovely breakfast and then meet our new guide for the day, who takes us on a 40K round-trip bike ride to a salt lake where we float for 30 minutes before receiving seriously royal treatment on our exit – robes, hosing down, drinks, fresh fruit, chairs and foot rests. In the afternoon we chill out and catch up on sleep before our sunset hike across the Valley de la Luna (Moon valley). This is truly spectacular – crater-like terrain surrounded by sweeping dunes. Our guide and driver leave us to enjoy a romantic sunset alone before whisking us back to the hotel, where they’ve set up a private dinner in the tented area by the pool.
Overall it was a great tour and we loved our time on our Atacama desert tour. Next is on to Argentina!
