After finishing up in San Pedro de Atacama, it was time to cross the border, and go up another couple of thousand metres into the world's highest country; Bolivia.
Ears: Ruby Troupe
We spent 3 days living at over 4000m and a good chunk of that was over 5000m, they reckon that any altitude over 2400m can lead to altitude sickness. So to prevent it they recommend only going up 300m per day. We went from 2500m in Atacama straight to 5000m in 3 hours, two days in hospital in Potosi was the end result for Hannah.
The border patrol between Chile and Bolivia.
The last thing you want to do at 4300m is push start a car.
Heerey, Nick, Myself and Hannah in some hot springs - check the Flamingo in the background.
There he is
Red Lake is this lake's name.
Full of Flamingos too.
The Salar de Uyuni, the Salt Flats are 50,000km2 of perfectly flat salt plains, with a few "islands" of land every now and then it actually gives the impression of being at sea, a really salty one..
Everyone tries to pull off some of these photos, not too sure why it became popular here, as you can pretty much do it anywhere in the world. Go down to the local footy ground and it can be done. After having a few attempts at it, we gave up.
On the Salt Flats, had to do it.
Nailed it.
Turns out the most impressive photo to do on the Salar is the following.
Nick and the Salar
The Dakar Rally goes through here now.
Would stop at a lot of places and they would try to make you buy stuff. Generally we were more interested in little dudes like this.
Went to the Train Cemetery just outside Uyuni for a look around, a train buff would love it.
Train Cemetery
Getting it done.
Witches Market in La Paz
After leaving the Salar, we ended up in Potosi, the worlds highest town at over 4000m. There are no photo's here as this is where Hannah took time out to suck in some tanked oxygen and I actually came down with a bout of bad Empanada, AKA Bolivia Belly, Heerey also had a needle in the bum for his issues too. After a few days however we soon found ourselves in La Paz, another "highest city in the world" this time a major one or something.
One of the things that stick out most for tourists in La Paz and the surrounding areas are the Cholita's.
Cholitas and a pidgeon.
The Cholita's are the indigenous women of the area, they dress in traditional clothes, and have that Bowler always perched precariously on their head. What most people don't realise is the Bowler Hat actually came from the Euro's in the 1920's. The story goes that when the English came over in the 20's to take advantage of Bolivia's rich minerals (silver, salt, anything), they brought over a heap of hats, that ended up being too small for them. So they ingeniously gave it to the local ladies saying it was all the rage in Europe. The ladies have basically worn them ever since, still thinking they are Europes #1 accessory for the season.
The way they wear it is also important, the smaller it is the better, as it is harder to keep on the head - hence meaning they are more proper when they walk around. If the hat is flat on the head they are married, if it is tilted to one side they are looking for love.
La Paz
San Pedro Prison - made famous from the book, Marching Powder.
One of the days in La Paz involved mountain biking down the Death Road, (real name Yungas Road), the ride starts at a height of just over 5000m and descends down to 1200m over 68km. It was a pretty cruisy ride, generally not needing to pedal for kilometres at a time. Some dodgy moments with the local trucks were the order of the day.
After biking down Death Road, we ended up at this animal sanctuary. This is the guy who started it, he is basically the father of about 70 primates now.
La Paz
If the Cholita's are a bit weird to see for you then Cholita Wrestling is out of this world! Basically it is like going to a real basic WWF or WWF (whatever they call it) Bout. Except it is done by the Cholita women and a few others. They get the tourists and locals involved too which made it quite entertaining.
The locals love it too.
The guys were actually some gringos in the crowd and got pulled up into the ring.
Saw Cholita Wrestling - one of the weirdest things you can ever see.
Theatre of Cholitas Dreams
We left Bolivia about a month ago now, the reason it has taken this long to post this is simply because we have been too busy seeing some amazing things and pretty incredible places. Time heals old wounds they say, and all in all looking back at Bolivia it was a pretty unique and incredible place. But it was a lot of hard work and discomfort for us.
Here is a video I have made from the trip so far (excluding the European jaunt). It starts in March from the Puerto Escondido, Mexico section and goes through Buenos Aires and Patagonia, Chile and the Atacama Desert, Bolivia and the Death Road in La Paz as well as the Amazon Jungle, Cusco and Machu Picchu in Peru.
Hope you enjoy nearly as much as I liked making it!
JW
Since the last post four weeks ago, we have been travelling through Chile, Bolivia and Peru. We decided to do it on a tour, mainly because of the limited time we had. Here is the first of the rundowns - Chile.
Ears: The Salvadors
After leaving Santiago on a 10hour bus trip north we found ourselves in La Serena, it is pretty much a shithole and there is no real reason to go here other than to break up the trip going north.
Our time in La Serena also coincided with Colo-Colo winning the Chilean Primera Clausura. being a team that is heavily supported here, there were groups of fans all over town celebrating the win. One group played there drums in the middle of the street in front of us whilst we were having lunch, the riot squad soon turned up and dealt with them.
An hour east however, is the Valle del Elqui, also known as the Valley of the Stars, one of the best places in the world for astronomy. Somehow we timed our visit to this valley with the Lunar Eclipse that happened in April. Or in other words, the absolute worst time to go somewhere for stargazing.
Our trip through Chile quickly became a Dog Appreciation trip.
And sometimes Cat Appreciation.
The Pisco Capal Brewery - Pisco is a pretty famous drink in South America, so we took a few hours to check out one of the breweries. With our very own Spanish speaking guide - for a group of non-spanish speakers!
Valle Del Elqui
A photo I took while "Stargazing" with a moon the size of the sun.
After leaving La Serena, it was a 17hour bus journey north and inland a little to San Pedro de Atacama. At 2410m above sea level it pips Australia's Mt. Kosciusko by almost 200m and was our last point of refuge before going into the oxygen-thief-like conditions of Bolivia. As the name suggests, San Pedro is in the Atacama desert, the world's driest desert where the last time it rained here was when Captain James Cook was still in nappies. This was one of the things I was looking forward to most on this tour and I don't think I was too disappointed.
Taking time out, pre-dawn at 4300m above sea level.
An hours drive from San Pedro is a huge Geyser Field, in fact the Altiplano desert is to geysers, what a teenagers face is to pimples. However the El Tatio is one of the better known ones and at 4300m is quite a shock to the body, especially at below freezing temperatures at 5am.
Looks like a close encounter
Our magic school bus.
Vicuna's - like llama's but smaller.
There is a hot spring at the geysers that you can swim in, it was quite nice, however getting in and out in single digit temps was not ideal. Here is Nick leaving after his dip.
Trekking through some caves in the Valle de la Luna (Valley of the Moon)
San Pedro is also right next-door to Valle de la Luna (Valley of the Moon), and Valle de la Muerte (Death Valley). These places are spectacular - except for the gringo's . As you can see from the photos.
See the bus in the bottom right?
Tour Group L-R: Nick, Heerey, Me, Hannah, Alberto, Donna, Jacqui, Dan and Lorraine.
Chilled out at Coyote Rock for Sunset.
Sunset over the Atacama Desert - Chile.
San Pedro was definitely a highlight, along with all the natural stuff, we also did a pretty boozy cooking class one afternoon. A lot of fun even if we don't remember the recipes!
