I decided to do a tour of Salar de Uyuni starting in La Paz, thinking that things were less likely to go wrong if it was all being arranged for me. BOY was I wrong! In the last 5 days everything that could have gone wrong has gone wrong. Before I get started on that though, you should know that after the pickpocketing the weekend before, and a small incident involving mustard, and a dodgy looking bloke (I was too dopy too notice the mustard, so I was quite safe, hee hee) I was already getting quite paranoid.
So the day I´m due to leave for Uyuni, I think I have all morning to get packed up, check out, get my photos developed... quite relaxed.. amused by the amount of people dressed up at zebras for no apparent reason in San Francisco square.. and the fact that the grumpy hostel staff keeps coming in wanting to speak to someone German, (we think). As I had just finished packing up, the lady from the travel agency comes in and I realise that it wasn´t someone German they wanted to, but someone Dutch that wanted to speak to me, aha mystery solved!
Turns out that there are roadblocks, so we have to leave ASAP, so mad panic to pick up photos, and get to the travel agency, who pack us into a taxi to get to the bus, which is leaving just as we turn up.... everybody runs, the bus stops to let us on and we all breathe a sigh of relief.
After driving around the roadblock, through desert, a dried up river bed over which the bridge was broken and having stones thrown at us, we arrive safely in Ororo. I met a lawyer called Carol during this saga who speaks fab Spanish and is veggie too! So we go and find the most bizarre vegetarian restaurant I have ever been to, where they have vegetarian versions of meat dishes and vegetables I´ve never heard of before, which is presented in a most bizarre fashion. When we went to order some teas, the translation was e.g. I killed a coca, which was amusing, and Carol gave him the correct translation.
Next we were sat quite happily in the train station, and found the rest of our Uyuni group, when these queues started forming, and we´re thinking hmm.. is this for luggage, should we queue? Turns out the rail workers haven´t been paid so they´re on strike and everyone is queuing for their money back. So we decided rather than queue we would be better to get ourselves to the bus station, as we´d rather miss out on the train money than the tour money. No probs, get ourselves booked onto a bus and sit down to wait for it.
I think to myself, hmm this could be cold, get myself a blanket, people go to the toilet... at one point, the 2 Poles and myself are in charge of luggage... a little bolivian guy (one assumes) comes in from the right and pretends to trip over the bags, its obvious that he is pretending and yet we´re all being really thick and watching him explaining the problem with the bags being in the way and how anyone could come and trip over them (clearly not, no reason to even be walking that way!) Suddenly I looked up and saw another running off with a familiar looking bag...so much shouting and running later, bag is back safe as he dropped it when he was spotted and a Pole ran after him. Phew! If I wasn´t paranoid before, I was now! We later found out that some people off another tour had had their bag stolen here as well from right under their noses, even without an imaginative little scam.
From then the bus trip went smoothly, although as we arrived a lot later than if we had got the train we didn´t go to the hotel we were supposed to just dozed in the travel agency until the restaurants opened for breakfast. As we got ourselves organised, and people went off to buy chocolate, gloves, check their email, there was always a few people in the room. At some point, some cheeky beggar came in and swiped a bag containing passports, plane tickets, cameras, and other such useful things. So a good start all round....
When we eventually left, the first thing that happened (after we had been chased with the first aid kit) was that we got stuck in the salt right at the edge of the salt lake. Much confidence inspired in driver...hmmm...The salar was beautiful, and we stopped for lunch on the fish island, which doesn´t look like a fish but has lots of very purposeful looking cactii on it. Despite the agency having made such a fuss about it, the cook claimed not to know there were 2 vegetarians in the group. Not amused. I went to the most expensive toilet in boliva (I expect) in the Salt Hotel, which wasn´t as impressive as I thought it would be.
Later, as it was getting dark, and we had just left the salt lakes behind we found a jeep with a broken gear box. Us being the nice people that we are agreed for our driver to take them to their hotel (a grand word) which was closer than ours while we waited in their jeep in the freezing cold. (They had a broken window too!)
When we got to the place we were staying, I somehow managed to get to the shower first, although I took so long to faff about that the hot water had gone out by the time I turned the shower on, much to the amusement of the man of the house. Everybody else seemed to work it out ok, I was just pleased to be clean.
After dinner we went to a “disco” where they turned the generator on especially for us and we had a couple of beers while our driver told us about his friend who was a clown in Spain and lives in a basement. He said he could never come back to Bolivia because he only knows how to make kids laugh, and in Bolivia you have to know how to do everything!
We also noticed that he was changing a tyre beforehand, so we´re thinking, how many spare tyres do we have for this jeep? And whats wrong with that one? So the next day, we´re driving along and all off a sudden, POW, we don´t just have a flat tyre, the whole tyre has come off the wheel. We only have one jack, we need two. We have no spare tyre. Hmm. A jeep comes up behind, so we negotiate their spare, and a jack, one breaks, so its down to rocks and stones to lift the car up. The other jeep has by now driven off, and now our car doesn´t even start! Oh how hilarious. So the next jeep comes along helps us get started.
I´ve got slightly out of sequence. Shortly after leaving in the morning (after much blank looks under the bonnet), we´re asking the driver (who has been looking blankly at the petrol tank for a while and stuffing it with plastic bags), why we´re being poisoned with petrol fumes. So its more blank looks, tightening up the plastic bag, fuel cap design, and more under the bonnet looks, then off we go “no problemo!!” We´re still smelling this smell, and the engine has conked out again, when we all get out and we´re seeing a drip underneath, we´re thinking aahh a leak... so more blank looks, and then the car gets started again, turned around and we´re taking “a more direct route”. Now we´re stuck in sand, and trying to turn around to go another road and everybody is out pushing with a face full of sand for a good half hour.
Despite the technical problems, we saw some breathtaking scenery with all different coloured lakes and mountains and flamingoes and vicunas and llamas. And we arrived at the refuge on the coloured lake last but not least, and the main accomodation was full but there was some more basic rooms around the corner. This was very very very cold, and at this point I discovered that the sleeping bag I had hired, was way too short, obviously designed for Bolivians! So my legs were warm enough, but every jumper and blanket I owned was not enough for the top.
But I survived, and our quarter to 5 start was in fact a relief to get out of bed and get moving. After another jeep had helped us to start, and the tank/tyres had been fixed with duct tape the night before, and part of the car which ought to have been outside appeared to be inside, we then saw geysers (where we weren´t allowed to stay long as the battery hadn´t charged enough to keep the engine running) and hot springs in which some brave people stripped off to get in and even had breakfast in the bath! However, our cooker had fallen off the jeep in the morning and now we discovered broken, but they must have borrowed another groups to make us tea.
At every stop, and sometimes unscheduled, the head was under the bonnet, the jeep was up on a jack, being refilled with petrol or/and gas...to the point where it ceased to be funny. We left half the group at the Chilean border including both the Spanish speakers, and all the men, leaving us 3 girlies very nervous indeed. The same problems continued over the next 2 days but there was always “no problemo”, you can´t fault the driver/guide he fixed every problem, and remained optimistic the whole way.
We had lunch next to some dead llamas in a very cold and uninteresting spot, not as stated on the itinerary, and our exhaust pipe fell off. As we had no men left to push start the car, we had a push start bumper to bumper from another jeep. I had lost my lipsyll earlier in the day, and was quite astounded to see our cook (who rarely talked or smiled the whole trip) with her little mirror using it right in front of me! I expect I dropped it and she picked it up not knowing who´s it was, but I was really needing it at the time so I was most unamused.
So much happened, that I have probably missed a lot out, but if you have managed to read all the way to the end, you must have got the picture. Not a trip to be forgotten in a hurry, not just for the problems, but for the scenery as well.
I am now in Cochabamba where it is miserable weather, and my hostel has open air courtyards so i can´t go to the toilet without getting wet, but hopefully it will dry up soon. I came all the way here on my own, despite my resolve to go back to La Paz if noone else was coming. I nearly didn´t get here as the bus stopped at Ororo and about 3 people told me it wasn´t Ororo, until some lady came and took them off to another bus to go to La Paz at which point I double checked. Don´t know where I would have ended up!
Hope all is well at home, and you are still awake reading this!
Kirstyxxx
PS TIPS if going to Salar de Uyuni... before you leave, check the condition of the vehicle, check that there is 2 spare tyres and that 2 jeeps will travel together. This advice has been heard before, but not by me!
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