I got up this morning at
I got in to
It had been a great trip, a once-in-a-lifetime experience. It was totally worth it. I can see why Ben is doing what he’s doing.
I don’t know if it was a life-changing experience, but it definitely gave me some things to think about.
Maybe I’ll go back someday, maybe I won’t. Either way I’ve at least got the memories of these 2 weeks of ‘Ben and Ben in4:33am – We ate last night in an all-natural restaurant next to our hostel. I had soup and a “green dream” sandwich. We talked about the trip. After that we came back here and watched the end of “The Matrix” before falling asleep.
I’m up now and packed to go. We’re going to catch a taxi to the airport.
We got to the taxi a little after five and found out my plane was delayed. We had to wait in line to check in for over an hour, then wait in another line to pay an airport fee. We got some breakfast at Burger King. It was tough to say goodbye. We were both sad the trip was ending. It had been a good time. Ranz had to get back to the bus terminal, though, to catch an
7:53am – I’m sitting in
*I learned the movie was called August Rush.
Back on US soil! I got my bags and went through customs, then checked in for my next flight (I had to get my boarding pass for
I got in to
Around four in the morning the bus arrived in
6:59am – We are on the bus (flota) from Uyuni. We stopped in
We got in to
We couldn’t check in right away, so we left our bags and went and got some breakfast and took care of some errands (like getting money). The breakfast place was delicious. I had some quinua-filled pancakes which were so good. The place even played some American music (Guns ‘N Roses’ Sweet Child O’Mine).
Once we got in our room, we used the bathroom and took hot showers (first time since last Saturday night*). We’re now heading out to grab lunch and buy souvenirs.
*Many of the hostels we stayed in on the tour had showers, but like lots of touristy things in
We did our shopping and I got all the things I wanted. I bought some new headphones, but when I got back to the room I realized they were the wrong size adapter for the iPod.
We just got back to our hostel and are going to go grab my bag from the bus terminal.
We walked back to near the bus terminal where the deliver post packages. After checking at a couple different desks under both of our names, we finally located the package and signed for it. Yippee! I wouldn’t have to leave anything behind.
We then walked back towards our hostel, but detoured through a bunch of street vendors and night activities that were going on. There was a lot of hustle and bustle as it was Friday night.
Although we had planned on having a “fancy” last meal, neither of us were really hungry because of our big pizza lunch and oversized ice cream (which we ended up giving what we couldn’t finish to a boy standing outside the ice cream shop), so we just went to a little café next to our hostel.
We talked about the trip and had some good conversation, but we were both pretty exhausted and went back to the hotel room and crashed.It was ridiculously cold during the night. I had put on long johns, and a pair of pants, and I had like 3 shirts on plus a sweatshirt. I also had my hat and coat on and was under my 3-blankets. We were all still freezing. I will again point out that none of the buildings in
We got up early and drove to some
When we got to the
Getting out was the hard part. It was so cold, and we didn’t have towels to dry off. I used some of my clothes to dry off. Our guide had made us some coffee while we were in the springs, and holding the warm cup felt great.
Today we got up at
We just ate breakfast and are getting ready to head out.
We had lunch in a town called Mallcu (Villa Mar). Lunch took longer than we hoped. We were running a little behind schedule. We wanted to get back to Uyuni by
After lunch, it was almost straight driving back to Uyuni. I was in the front in charge of the music. At one point I played a game where the first person to guess the song was the winner. That was pretty fun.
On the road back to Uyuni, we passed some llama crossing signs. There were actually some llamas crossing at one point.
We did stop at a couple rock formations, but just to jump out, take some photos, and jump back into the jeep. We also had to drive through at least three little streams, one of which had to be almost two feet deep. Luckily the jeep did not get stuck.
Our last stop before Uyuni was a little town called
On the outskirts of Uyuni, we did stop to look at a “train cemetery.” It was basically a bunch of old trains used for mining that had rusted out and been left here. It reminded me of the book Mike Mulligan and his Steam Shovel.
When we got back to town a little after
Ranz, Katie, and Naya had found bus tickets that left at
In the interest of time, we decided to just get some food off some street vendors. Ranz was worried about my stomach, but we chanced it. We got these things called Anticucho, which were like kebobs with different types of meat, a hot dog, and a potato wedge all covered in some tasty sauce. They were delicious. I had two. Ranz and Kilo probably went through six apiece.
While we were eating, I called Mia. She told me she had some bad news, that Fifi had died on Tuesday. I couldn’t believe it. There wasn’t much I could say or do, though.
We all went to the bathroom and went back to our bus stop to pile onto the bus. The plan was for Kilo, Katie, Naya, and
I called Mia and she told me Fifi died.
This bus ride four of us were up front and two of our seats were at the back of the bus. Ranz and I were in the first two seats on the right side of the bus with Katie and Naya behind us. Kilo and
With these luxuries, it was easy to doze off and catch some sleep.
We stopped around7:42am – We got up around 6:30, had egg sandwiches and coffee and are now loading up the car. Day three of our Salar tour. I’m still healthy with solid bowel movements.
A lot of the morning was spent driving. We saw other tour groups jeeps again. A lot of the tours do a circle, but some go one way and others go the reverse way. We saw a lot of European tourists and a lot of Israeli tourists. We left the actual salt flats at this point, and it was now just dirt that we were driving on. We were south of the salt flats.
11:40am – We have been driving around to different volcanoes and lagoons this morning. There are tons of mountains and volcanoes to see. The lagoons have borax in them.
We’ve stopped now for lunch near a volcano. I’ve been riding in the backseat with Ranz. The ride is pretty dusty and the bumps make me have to pee a lot. It’s so peaceful and quiet wherever we stop.
In the afternoon we stopped at these rock formations that were supposed to look like trees, so they called it a petrified forest. We climbed up the rocks, which was probably a little unsafe, especially because when we got to the top it was really windy. No one got hurt, though.
The whole time we were on our tour our guide had this headwarmer thing over his face. We didn’t know why he did it, if it was just to keep the dust out of his face, or if it was a class thing. In the city, the shoe shiners wear these types of cloths over their faces because they don’t want to show their face, almost like they are embarrassed by their work.
We drove to the entrance to this national park, where a worker had to open a gate for us (and of course we had to pay a toll). Inside the national park, there are a bunch of lagoons, many of which are homes to flamingos.
The first lagoon we stopped at was red. Apparently this was because of the microorganisms that live in the water. We had to walk down a pretty steep hill to get right up to the edge of the lake.
Ranz and I raced back up the hill to our jeep. This was one of many times we thought it would be fun to race. At the high altitudes, you get out of breath quickly. I won, but Ranz was always wearing sandals when we raced, so I don’t think it was completely fair. We got to our hostel for that night pretty early in the afternoon. It was more like a big complex of hostels.
3:37pm – We did a lot more driving and saw a “petrified” rock forest, red lagoon and are in a national park. We’re at our hostel now and are chilling on our beds.
We were all in one room for this hostel. The room was a long room with 7 beds. Back in Uyuni when the company owner was describing the trip, he told us where we would stay and how many blankets were provided each night. I thought this was interesting, but tonight was a 3-blanket hostel, and they would prove necessary.
With nothing else to do, all of us except Ranz decided to take a little walk around the complex. We were in the middle of nowhere, really, and there wasn’t much to walk to or see except mountains in the distance. It was really windy and bitterly cold, so we pretty much just circled the complex and called it quits. While we were walking I chewed some coca leaves, which made me spit green and numbed my tongue.
In our exploration, we did find a small supply shop which sold alcohol. We bought some beer and wine for later that night.
When we got back to our room, Ranz was out in the common area smoking a pipe. We all sat down at the table and he passed the pipe around. We played the movie game, and went to some unexplored territory of actors/movies with which Ranz and I had little familiarity. It was a good time.
I asked the group to tell me about their Peace Corp experiences and they told some good stories. I then started asking for specific times, such as “Tell me a story at your Peace Corps site that involves an animal.”
Kilo told a story about his horse running away from some bees.
Naya told a story about how her kids showed her the trash they were throwing away (because she had taught them with puppets about how it is important to throw trash away).
We eventually moved into our room and continued talking there. Ranz and I told a bunch of funny stories of pranks from college. Other people told their stories, too. We passed a lot of time talking.
AfterI set my alarm to go off around
We ate breakfast, then drove part way up the volcano. We then got out and hiked up the mountain a bit.
9:36am – We are up near the volcano. We hiked up after leaving around
Ranz had pretty much organized the trip and was acting like the leader and the spokesperson to the guide. Kilo and Katie were talking with our guide, and they told him that Ranz was our leader and that we would have to check with him before making decisions. After that we started calling Ranz “jefe.”
11:35am – We hung out on the rocks and sang songs. Then we hiked to the mummy cave. We drove back to the hostel Maya where we are waiting for lunch.
The weird thing about seeing the mummy cave was that it was completely open. I could have touched the mummy had I wanted. There were no efforts taken to preserve them or keep people from messing them up. In the
After lunch we packed up the jeep and drove. Our next stop was the cactus island.
(Us on the cactus island)
My reflection time thought:
I told our engagement story to everyone before dinner and everyone got all excited.
We ate soup for dinner and spaghetti. Some local kids played music (poorly) and we gave them bread and cookies, which they scarfed down.
I didn’t sleep much on the bus, partly because of the bumpiness, partly because it got super cold. We got to Uyuni around
6:42am – The bus arrived in Uyuni around
We found a lady who agreed to open her restaurant/hostel for us and we ordered some breakfast.
Another observation: Bolivians don’t take good care of their teeth. While I have seen at least one dentist’s office, I imagine most rural folks don’t go to one. A lot of them have gold fillings, or gold teeth.
8:30am – We ate an egg sandwich and coffee at a restaurant that a lady opened for us. We are now checking out tour companies.
Ranz had made arrangements with a tour group over the phone a few days before we had arrived; however, on our walk to find our tour group, another guy persuaded us to come and check out his tour company, so we decided to give him a chance. He talked us through the route he would take us (in English) and explained how it was better than the other companies. It did seem like a good deal, but Ranz wanted to go at least price compare with the other company. We split up with Ranz going to check out the other company and some of us staying at the new company.
After a little debate we decided the new company seemed like a better deal, so we told the guy we would do it, but that we wanted to check out one of his jeeps before we left. He told us to take care of paying while he went and got a jeep. He disappeared and we worked with this assistant lady to each pay separately, but she didn’t have change for some of us, so she left to go and get change. The office was now deserted except for us. No workers to be found. Those of us who needed change waited while the others went to get some food.
It got to be a half hour, then 45 minutes, then almost an hour and neither worker had returned. The guy had originally told us we would be leaving at
(the six of us waiting for our tour jeep. From left to right:
Ranz was starting to be convinced that we had been ripped off, and I was feeling like something shady was going on, too, but finally the guy showed up with a jeep.
Ranz started to give it an inspection to make sure it looked all right. Just basics, like did it have a spare tire, was there anything noticeably wrong with it like a muffler falling off, etc. He asked the guy to pop the hood and he looked at the engine. Everything seemed in order, but when Ranz reached to check the oil dipstick the driver got really upset and started yelling at him, saying things like (and I’m relaying this secondhand as this was in Spanish) “You are insulting me! You disrespect me! You come here and you treat me poorly! This is not how you treat me!”
Ranz tried to say that he meant no harm, he just wanted to make sure the car was okay, but the driver would have none of it and drove off angrily.
Then the tour company guy said he would find us a new driver but asked us not to check the truck out next time. We were a little upset by all this, Ranz especially.
Eventually another jeep was found, the driver seemed cool, everything was in order, the jeep was loaded with supplies and our bags, and we were all set to go. We got squared away (for the most part) with getting our change and we were finally off a little after
We headed out from Uyuni in our jeep. We agreed that we would change seating positions every half day. Our first stop was on the edge of town where a lot of the salt is mined and packaged. A guy explained how they prepare the salt for the consumer market. It is piled out on the salt flats, then they bring it in to the “factory” where they heat it from beneath in this oven thing to dry the water out of it. Then they iodize it and bag it. He then wanted money for having explained the process.
We stopped a little bit out onto the salt flats and took some pictures, but our guide told us there would be a better spot with less people later.
We stopped at this “rest stop” in the middle of the flats and our guide made us lunch: llama meat, tomatoes, cucumbers, and Coca Cola. The running meal-time joke during the tour was, “Does anyone have any salt?”
While we were eating lunch, we noticed the car that Ranz had tried to check the oil on. It was broken down and the guy was working on it. We then felt a lot better about not taking that car.
After lunch we headed north towards the northern edge of the salt flats. This is supposedly an area that most of the other tours don’t cover. We stopped and took a bunch of perspective shots.
Back in the jeep we drove towards the base of a volcano on the northern edge of the flats. The jeep had an input for an mp3 player, so we were listening to songs the whole time. We got really into it and were singing along with a lot of them. It was a good time.
When we finally arrived at our hostel, we put our stuff in our rooms and snacked on some cookies. There wasn’t much time until we set out to go watch the sunset. We drove back out onto the flats a little bit, watched the sunset, and were ready to head back because of the wind and cold.
Back at the hostel, we sat in our room and started drinking some wine. An Australian couple who were shaken up by what they perceived as a dangerous hike joined us in our room.
Eventually our dinner was served, and we went back out into the common room to eat it. It was an awkward dinner because the Australian couple was fighting at another table with an English couple they were traveling with. It was hard to pretend we weren’t listening or aware of what was going on.
We headed back to our rooms. The guys’ room was the hangout. We drank more wine and sang along to more songs on the iPods.
