uyuni (part 1)

We got up at 5:00 and took yet another very long bus ride, to Bolivia. The bus this time is pretty rudimentary, and the road is quite bad, we get pretty shaken up. Sleeping is not really possible for me. We drive to Ollagüe, the last town on the Chilean side of the border, where we have to get out and wait around for customs for about an hour. It is quite cold, we are high up. There are volcanoes all around us, and a lake with flamingos. It was too dark for me to get a good picture of them though.

Bus switch in no-man’s-land.

Then on to Avaroa, the first town on the Bolivian border. Right away we discover that Bolivians aren’t as friendly as Chileans…the border control dudes were rude and demanding.

It is light by  now and the scenery in the altiplano is spectacular. However, it is freezing and the bus doesn’t have heating or a bathroom. The Bolivian buses aren’t nearly as comfy as the Chilean ones. This is our first taste of Bolivian buses, but unfortunately, not the last.

 High in the Andes, the altiplano.

We continued on to Uyuni (population ~10,000, elevation ~3600 m), and also immediately see that Bolivia is completely and utterly different from Chile. Not just the buildings, general look of the place, and dirt streets, but also the people look completely different.

The women wear bowler hats, layered skirts, woolen knee socks, sandals, and shawls or blankets wrapped around their shoulders. They carry things in colorful blankets on their backs. Some of the women are laden like pack mules….and I don’t see the men carrying anything.

After the bus ride, we realize that we should seriously consider getting canvas bags for our backpacks…they are completely covered in dust. Not for the last time, either. We are met at the bus station by a woman who says she got a call from our friend Freddy at the Calama bus station. (We had a long conversation with Freddy about busses, schedules, prices, tours, etc.) She is from a tour agency and wants to give us a tour of the Salar. But all I want to do is go to a hostel and sleep off the migraine from the jolting bus ride. We end up declining and later going with a different company.

We were lucky, it happened to be market day when we arrived so there a bunch of stands on the main drag. We bought textiles that all the women here use to carry stuff around in, and also, in preparation for going to the salt flat the next day,

cheap sunglasses!

Bolivia is much poorer than Chile, and definitely a “developing country”, which means it’s very cheap for tourists. For example, our tour company is family-run out of their home: at the back of the storefront is a curtain, behind which is luggage storage and their sleeping area. The reception area with the desk and some couches is their living room. Every time we enter, the family is huddled around the gas heater, watching tv. The tour, which took a full day, cost less than 20 Euros, and included lunch.

part two about the Salar coming up laterzz....