Farewell Chile, Hola Bolivia!

Hi all

Before I go on, I want to wish my dad a happy birthday. He and my mother have just returned from a trip to Nepal and Tibet. My dad wanted to visit Everest Base Camp for his 60th, which they accomplished.
You can see where I get my travelling bug from, hey?
Love you lots guys!

Back to it.

Well we said goodbye to Chile last week, and did it in style. We paid 70,000 CLP each to Cordillera Tours for the trip of a life-time across the border into Bolivia, and passing through awe-inspiring Eduardo Avaroa Reserva Nacional de Fauna Andina, and finishing off with the world's biggest Salt Flat - the Salar de Uyuni.

I'll format this blog a bit differently. Loads of text, followed by all the pics. The pics just deserve to be on their own. They can speak for themselves.

The trip takes three days, and the only way to do it is via a tour company. We were picked up at 8am from our hostel (Hostel Iquisa) in a mini-van and, after picking up the rest of our party, we quickly ascended to 4200m, behind Volcan Licancabur to enter Bolivia (check the picture of their immigration office.. very basic). This was the first point that the surrealness of the area hit us. We saw sea gulls around the office. Yep. Sea gulls. I've no idea what they were doing at such an altitude, and also when the driest desert in the world is between them and the coast, but I guess that just shows how successful gulls in general are as a species.

Once that's done, you are allocated a 4WD (all Toyota Landcruisers, and LOTS of them as other companies also do the run) and spend the next six hours or so passing through the first section of the park. In total, there were eight of us on this tour with this particular company, and we were split into two groups of four. The French and Spanish couples (Julien, Melanie, Miguel and Sonja) in the first truck, and Fran, myself, Dave and Carla (both English) in the second jeep. We had wolf stickers on the side of ours, so we knew ours was the cooler jeep.
We had also been warned that the drivers were frequently drunk, stoned, or exhausted, and the jeeps were quite often in rough shape so we were quite nervous as to the composition of our driver and his fourbee! Luckily, we had okay fortune with both.
Our driver introduced himself at the beginning, and we quickly forgot his name. It was definitely something Quechan or Spanish or just foreign, and we didn't find out what it was until two days later when we asked the other driver in our convoy.
"Richard" was apparently his name. Didn't sound like Richard when he said it.

That first day we visited Laguna Verde (Green Lagoon), hot springs, geysers, and finished off at Laguna Colorada (Red Lagoon). At this point I'll interject and just state that it has been a dream of mine to visit Laguna Colorada for about 10 years, so getting to this point was a massive highlight for me. It's incredibly surreal to be in a desert-like landscape, not be roasting, and have the lakes covered in ice.
None of us eight attempted the hot springs, simply because we knew how painful it would be when we got out. Sure it might be warm in there, but hell, I'd probably still have the goose-bumps from getting out if we'd tried it.

At our "hotel" for the night, we met a great little kid named Oscar, who was five, and had the most infectious laugh ever. No matter what you did, he would find funny and would launch into a fit of giggles. Fran has some face-warping software on her phone, and she took a picture of him, and then showed him how he'd look with all sorts of weird features, which he absolutely loved.
Lunch and dinner that day was incredible. Our host (the first glimpse of a "Bolivian" woman - bowler hat, long skirt, woolen jersey etc) cooked us very tasty meals and we prepared for bed on very full stomachs.
Some of us had headaches from the altitude, but no one had any serious problems.

That night, we were all dreading, as we'd heard that the accomodation was BASIC and the temperature regularly dropped to minus 15 degrees.
I layered up in:
-Thermal top and long johns
-singlet
-long-sleeve top
-fleece
-another fleece
-sleeping bag liner
-sleeping bag!
-four thick blankets.
And I was still cold.
I don't think it actually got down to minus 15. It was about minus 5 or minus 10 or thereabouts. Still farking cold!!

Early the next morning after breakfast, we visited Laguna Colorada itself. It's amazing colour is due to blooms of algae and red sediment (most likely iron deposits), which then attract large flocks of flamingoes. It's very weird seeing such tropical looking birds at 4278m amsl!
We spent about half an hour there, walking along the shore, taking lots and lots and lots of pictures, before driving to our next stop El Arbol de Piedra (The Stone Tree). A very strange rock that sits in the middle of the Desierto Siloli, it was formed by wind and water aeons ago; it's very Dali-esque. The remainder of the afternoon sees you visiting the Three Lakes: Chearcota, Hedionda, and Cañapa, and also driving past Volcán Ollagüe. Another very active volcano at 5868m asml. This stretch of the Andes is known as the Central Volcanic Zone, so this should give you an idea of how many volcanoes are about the area.

On the way to our accomodation that night, and very luckily, on a flat stretch of road, the back left rim snapped off, and the tyre pushed it's way half-way off the wheel. This caused the 4WD to start fishtailing, which got progressively worse after each swerve. We were also mere feet away from a ditch, going at pace, so if we hit it, we would've rolled and rolled and rolled. Seat belts are non-existant down here by the way.
Luckily Richard controlled the vehicle superbly, and we managed to get back on the road after about 15 minutes repair work (where we found out the spare we'd been carrying was completely the wrong size, meaning we drove with different size tyres).

That night, we stayed at a "Salt Hotel", about an hours drive from the money-shot of the trip - the Salar de Uyuni. The only place that offered hot showers, which we all took greedily. ALthough the air in the hotel was bitterly cold. If you were an inch away from the stream of hot water, you froze. The air also dries your skin out something fierce! So come prepared if you're in the area.

The following day was the big one. The Salar de Uyuni. The largest Salt Flat on planet earth, at a massive 10.5k square kilometers . Nothing prepares you for the sheer size, the sheer FLATness of this once huge lake. Whatever picture you see will never do it justice. The scale is mind-boggling. When we drove to an "island" in the centre of the flat, the size of distant mountains just did not change after about half an hour at pace. Whereas other stops on the trip elicited loads of "oohs and ahhs", we were all in awed silence for the Salar.

Quick fact here - the Salar de Uyuni is obviously a remnant of a massive lake. BUT that lake is itselft a remnant of an enormous lake that stretched from the Salar all the way to Lake Titicaca (in essense, covering the entire altiplano). It's name was Lake Ballivián. When this giant of a lake dried, it left two smaller (but still huge) lakes: Titicaca and Minchin. Titicaca is still around, but Minchin dried up, leaving two current lakes (Lago Poopó and Lago Uru Uru) and also leaving behind the Salar.

Of course, we had to stop and take pictures of us doing silly poses and jumps as is so common on the flats. This is where the compact cameras rule. The depth of field required for such shots just isn't possible on an SLR, especially a full frame one like the 5D. The 40D fared better, but not by much. So be warned photogs who come here. Bring a G10 or something similar as backup!

We then visited Isla Incahuasi, which is covered in cactus and offers superb 360 degree views of the flats. Here we had our lunch and I opted to walk out into the salt flats and eat on my own. It´s pretty surreal to be sat in the middle of nothing, with a china plate eating your lunch at 3660m amsl.

From there we made our way to see the illegal salt hotel, and we took more crazy pictures.
We saw people mining the salt here too. At this altitude, it´s damn hard work. We asked one guy how long he worked for per day and he said just two hours. Then his mate told us to go away. Fair enough!

So we finished off in Uyuni, and said goodbye to our friends. We´d heard some pretty negative things about Uyuni (that there´s not much going for it), but we were pretty surprised. It´s a nice town, and if you want to relax after the trip, it´s a good place for it. But it gets COLD at night! God damn.

On our second night in Uyuni, we two hired a driver to go back to the Flats to watch a sunset. And dear God, I´m glad we did! If the Salar on it´s own is incredible, seeing it reflecting the colours of the sky at sunset is like nothing else I´ve ever experienced. Easily one of the BEST moments of the entire trip, if not THE best.

From there we made our way to Potosi - the world´s highest city, at 4060m amsl. We´ve found a gem of a hostel here as well, that has hot showers, awesome pressure, private ensuite, a TV with cable and a comfy bed! Just as well, as Fran has been quite sick the past few days, so this is a perfect place for her to recover.

Anyway, I´ll finish here. Not too much detail I don´t think (compared to other posts!) as Bolivian internet is a bit slow (which is understandable) - I´ve been uploading pics for the past 4 days!.

I hope everyone is well, and those in the UK enjoying the start of a good summer.

Much love
Adam

And before I forget, remember more pics are in my Smugmug galleries

Immigration into Bolivia! Basic

Laguna Verde

Altiplano desert

That´s our jeep there. Forgot where this was, but the scenery was brilliant

Natural geysers

Little Oscar with his wonderful smile

The deepest part of Laguna Colorada is 80cm, meaning lots of nice reflections

Laguna Colorada

Take off! Flamingo at Laguna Colorada. I took a lot of shots of these birds. Aching for the 500 f/4!

More Flamingoes

The stone tree. Really surreal!

Laguna Chearcota

Red Fox

Laguna Hedionda

Forgot which lake this one.. I think it´s Laguna Hedionda

Self portrait

Busted car

Me and Dave contemplate what to do to our busted car. It´s probably the alternater

Driving onto the Salt Flats!

Air Time!

An overland truck drives past

The view from Isla Incahuasi

Same view

Reflections

Fine dining on the salt flats

Cactus on Isla Incahuasi

Ninjaaaaaiii

Just as the sun went down

Our jeep at sunset

Sunset over the Salar de Uyuni. Can't wait to play with these in PS

Catching our bus to Potosi from Uyuni

Halfway point between Uyuni and Potosi. A very small percentage of Bolivian roads are paved

Farewell Argentina

As you can see, the title of my blog has changed somewhat. I guess it was time to be a little honest and cut through the pretentiousness of the previous title. I´m not really a photog, and at times I feel like I´m just snapping bulk standard shots with a nice camera. So until I earn the "photographer" title, this will be the new name.

Since my last update, we´ve been to San Pedro de Atacama, back to Argentina an visited Salta, Cachi, Cafayate, and Tilcara. A lot to cover, so expect this to be the biggest post yet, with LOTS of pics.

The journey so far:


View South America in a larger map

From the beginning. From La Serena, we caught our first ever "Cama Premium" service to San Pedro de Atacama. The seats on these buses recline a full 90 degrees, making for a damn fine sleep! It cost us just 7,000 pesos more than normal Cama (about 8GBP), and included dinner and breakfast.

We arrived in San Pedro de Atacama at around 10am, and walked the small distance to our hostel. San Pedro is not a big town. It´s more of a large village. Adobe houses front dirt streets, and the town has a lovely central square. However, it´s probably the most touristy place we´ve been, and it´s chocker-block full of backpackers. The whole facade of the town is a front, as it has geared itself to be a "postcard" South American village. In fact, the dirt streets are sealed to give it an authentic rustic feel. Tour operators line each street and it is also EXPENSIVE. Our hostel, nice as it was, cost 30,000 pesos per night (about 35 GBP). Cheaper places exist, but they are hard to find.
Saying all that, it´s still a very nice town, and it´s an awesome bas to check out local sights. Situated at 2,400m amsl (above mean sea level), it can also cause light headaches and fatigue. Not proper altitude sickness but the symptoms can start at this altitude. It is nestled in an enormous valley between the Andes-proper to the east, and the Cordillera de Domeyko to the west.

No idea what he was doing, but he was cute as heck

Volcan Licancabur seen from the Town Square

The church in San Pedro. Currently under reconstruction

We did one tour in our time in San Pedro, and that was the "Valle de Luna" tour. It starts off with a drive around the region, with an explanation of local geology, which I found interesting. It includes some mini-hikes, and an exhilarating and breathless (literally - you´re at altitude and lose your breath a lot easier) run down a giant sand dune. The tour caps off with a visit to Valle de Luna (Valley of the Moon) to watch an incredible sunset. The colour change in this area over the period of sunset is sublime and has to be seen to be believed.
Also, we bumped in Simon and Cath in San Pedro (Simon being the lively English bloke I mentioned we met in Santiago - he of the Israeli Space Lizards fame), and did the tour with them. We went for a drink afterwards in a real local bar. They were getting ready to do the San Pedro - Uyuni trip the next morning (more on this trip later) and I probably ordered one jug of beer too many. Sorry guys! If you´re reading this, it was great to catch up with you again, and hopefully we´ll bump into each other up north somewhere.

Trying to conquer my fear of precipices!

Volcan Licancabur towers over the basin

We are about to run down this massive dune

Running down the dune!

Shooting into the sun sometimes pays off

Sunset over the Valle de Lunar

Anyway, we decided to postpone other trips in the region as we were going to make one last visit to Argentina, then return to San Pedro to cross into Bolivia. The three day trip to Uyuni in Bolivia is supposedly one of the highlights of any South American adventure.

So we caught a cockroach-infested bus back to Argentina (one fell on my head as I was chilling out listening to music) and saw some of the most beautiful scenery yet.

These were taken through a dirty bus window, so excuse any IQ issues



The bus passes through an altitude of 4,200m amsl and you can definitely feel the effects. Luckily, our symptoms were wild (harder to breath, slight headaches), but one poor woman on our bus really struggled the whole way. The bus trip took a total of 12 and a bit hours, and crosses the Andes, skirts the southern edge of the Altiplano, and crossed more of the Andes and then descends to Salta. The descent was torturous, as the road suddenly becomes about 90 minutes of hairpins. If you get slightly carsick, the novelty wears off pretty damned fast.

This represented about 10% of the amount of hairpins down this mountain. Not too pleasant an experience

We arrived in Salta at about 9pm, and caught a taxi to our hostel. And the hostel was rubbish. There was no curfew, and even though our room was upstairs, the sound of drunken idiots watching TV at full blast made its way into our room. At 3:00am, it mercifully died down.
So early the next morning, we checked out and moved to a very nice hostel down the road (Hostal de Cerro). It was run by an Argie family and only had locals staying there. Very nice.
Oh, and just to backtrack, because this is important, after we arrived in Salta, we went for dinner at a local restaurant where I had the BEST STEAK of the entire trip. Sweet Jesus it was good. If you´re in the area, I´ll give you directions to the restaurant. It´s etched permanently in my brain. I reckon I could find that place in the dark by smell alone.

The next day we spend looking around Salta, and we were pleasantly surprised. Expecting just another city, it is pretty laid back, and has a viewpoint with a beautiful lookout over the city, accessed by Cable Car. The city centre is charming with another beautiful square. One of the coolest things about Salta (and indeed, the entire region up here as I´m discovering) is the amount of fruit trees (mainly oranges) that line the road. You can pick the fruit off and eat if you so desire. Imagine that along any other city side-walk.

One of Salta´s few beautiful churches

earning an honest quid

sunset over the square

A row of orange trees!

Salta from the cerro lookout

In the afternoon of the following day, we caught a bus to Cachi - about 150km outside of Salta through incredible mountain and canyon filled scenery. The bus was very basic and was filled with locals rather than tourists and gringos. It stopped halfway at a cafeteria in the middle of nowhere where we had the tastiest empanadas yet. Nothing has come close. Anyway, we arrived in Cachi at around 5pm and found a hostel next to the bus station. Cachi is another beautiful village, but with not a lot to do. But we stayed two nights because it was so relaxing. Lately I´ve been feeling a little rushed and it was nice to kick back in this little bit of heaven that is completely isolated from everywhere.

Another elaborate cemetary. Very common down here.

The church in Cachi

Sunset over Cachi

One of the roads leading into Cachi. Fran and I hiked up to this point

Another cute little kid

From Cachi, we then went back to Salta to catch a connecting bus down to Cafayate. The connection was at 7:30pm which meant we had a few hours to kill. So we left the safety of the bus terminal and were hit by what felt like Mike Tyson wearing gloves of ice. Where previously our time in Salta was pleasantly warm, now it felt like 5 degrees with a wind that made a mockery out of anything "windproof". BUT I did manage to find a camera store that had more gear than anywhere else in South America so far! It had D300s! Non-photographer friends will roll their eyes at this point, but some Jessops stores in London don´t stock these cameras. So that was 15 minutes of heaven strolling through the store.

Back to it. We caught our bus to Cafayate, with the aim of being there for two nights only. We were there for four. There is so much to do in the area, and it´s another very chilled out place. We were met at the bus station by people advertising their hotels/hostels as is pretty common at bus stations here. Usually we politely tell them we have a reservation somewhere (when we do!) and we had indeed already pre-booked at a place called Rusty-K. Anyway, for some reason I gave one guy a chance to sell his hostel, and it turns out he was an owner of Rusty-K come to meet us and take us to the hostel. I´ve no idea how he knew we´d be there. So he put us in a cab (which he paid for) and followed us to the hostel on his scooter. As soon as we arrived, we were given wine and joined in a BBQ, then sat around the common area chatting to other travellers. We then hit a bar that, from 10pm to midnight shows movies for free on a projector, after which the bar kicks in proper.

The next day we went on a tour organised through our hostel to a place known as Garganta del Diablo (literally - Throat of the Devil). It was just Fran, myself and our guide Ismael, who spoke no English and we still speak no Spanish! However, the trip was SUPERB and was worth every penny. Ismael spoke plainly and clearly and I found I could understand a fair bit (which I figured out was due to the tour being an explanation of ecology, geology and fauna where the Spanish terms are based on latin origins. Since I love science and have a general knowledge of a few subjects, I was able to pick up quite a bit since the English words are similar).
Anyway, it kicked off at the start of an area known as Quebrada las Conchas where we walked through incredible wind and water swept rock formations. We saw a fox and a few condors here as well too! Just beautiful. It was a sign that the day was going to be good.
The area was, millennia ago, a massive lake (hence the name - "concha" means shell) but the lake drained out and mountains formed on it´s eastern flank, rising to 3,000m amsl. Huge, but babies compared to the Andes on the other side, which hit 6,000m without sweat. The area is hugely mineral-rich, evident in some of the most colourful rocks I´ve ever seen. Red for iron, white for clay (more evidence of the mezoic-era lake), green for copper, brown for sulphur, and blue for something that I forget now! Thankfully NO mining is allowed in the area, meaning the park stays pristine.

Fran buying vegies for our dinner

Cafayate

Just chillin, readin the news!

That´s Fran in the foreground there

Ismael and Fran

Another church! This time in Cafayate

After I took this shot, the little boy shook his head, telling me "don´t do that again"

You turn up to one of these places, choose your steak, and then get well fed. Two MASSIVE pieces (a foot long each) plus drinks for two people? 30 pesos. About 6 GBP

Cafayate´s wine region

The rock formations themselves are out of this world. The forces that created them are huge, powerful, and beyond our small minds to appreciate. Over time, in some of the spires, wind and water have made holes in which birds next during season. Also, we learned that the cactus of the region grown at a hare´s pace of 2-3cm per year. I suddenly had a profound appreciation for the 9-10m giants that are scattered about. Ancient. The world is truly an amazing place.
We came across stone cairns which Ismael explained were tributes to Pachamana (Mother Earth). Also, we saw first hand evidence of the ancient lake:

Sulphuric rocks

Crazy rocks

More crazy rocks

Me, Ismael and Fran

Huge upheaval evident in the slanted rocks

Under-exposed, but this guy was selling stuff by the side of the road, and we had to stop

High tide in January and February sees this "rio" flood

Ancient fossils

And more

The rocks in these pictures were well hidden and Ismael had to dig through piles of seemingly random rocks to get to them. This is due purely to theft, he explained, as people like to take these types of rocks for themselves. Pretty sad.

Back to Pachamama quickly. If you´re ever in South America and notice loads and loads of road-side "shrines" everywhere, with their kennel-like appearance, and coke bottles inside, we found out what they are. Apparently they are offerings to local spirits and to Pachamama made by local farmers and land owners to appease their deities and to ensure good harvest.
One guy in Puerto Natales reckoned they were just roadside markers for victims of accidents. That might sound correct, but when you´re in the middle of Patagonia, with nothing in site for hundreds of miles, and you see lots of these shrines, that explanation falls a little flat.

We also found out that puma are common in the mountains; our guide having seen them several times (at night only). We drove to a few more interesting spots, one of which afforded us a view of the river as it snakes it´s way from canyon to valleys.
View as the "Rio" snakes it´s way through the valley

God rays shine over the valley

The penultimate stop was at a place called the Anfiteatro (you can translate that one!) where a natural canyon formed by a waterfall now gives beautiful acoustics. A few people were there playing music which sounded so incredibly pure. We discovered that a music festival is held here every July, so if you´re in the area at this time, go visit! Be warned though, it is COLD.

The final stop was at Garganta del Diablo, which is another canyon carved into the cliffs. Take a look at the following pics. See if you can figure out if the camera was pointed up or down.

Optical Illusion 01

Optical Illusion 02

The Anfiteatro... that little speck at the bottom is me

Music players at the Anfiteatro

That night, we met a Dutch/Norwegian couple who had hired a car from Salta. They kindly invited us with them the next day to visit the ruins at Quilmes. The guy, Evo, started well by driving the wrong way down a one-way road. It then took him longer than acceptable to get out of the small town! Mr Lawler had to step up and direct us out.

Quilmes is located about 50km from Cafayate, and is set against a large hill, and evidence of fortifications on it´s flanks tells a story of its past. At first glance, the ruins are rather ordinary, with no explanation as to the meaning of any of the buildings or sites. Over the course of a few hours there though, they definitely grows on you. Climbing to one of the fortifications gives you a good overview of the settlement. It is very extensive, and at one point, housed 5,000 people. The area has been occupied for approximately 2,800 but the fortress was really built around 800 AD. During the time, the Quilmes people resisted the mighty Incas, and were finally overcome by the Spanish after 130 years of resistance. The Spanish decided to evict everyone from the city, and marched everyone on foot to a reserve outside of Buenos Aires: a journey of over 1,000km in which many hundreds of people died.
During their time, the locals harvested maize, fruits, and other vegetables, and exchanged these items for meat that nomadic hunters of the area caught.
All in all, a great day and I learned a lot about these fascinating people.

The ruins at Quilmes

Evo tries macro

The next day, our penultimate day, was due to be a trip to the local wineries on bicycles (again!) as Cafayate is a larger region for wine production than Mendoza (at least in terms of growing space). Unfortunately the wineries were all closed (being Sunday) and our bikes were rather poor. Fran´s brakes barely worked. So we walked around instead.

At 4am the next morning, we woke to catch our bus back to Salta to get to Tilcara, which is further north. One of the hostel owners, Walter saw us and offered us a lift to the station. "Oh do you have a car" we asked. "Yes, but I have no license" came the reply. So we packed our bags in the trunk "leave it open" he says "it´s only a short journey" and drove to the station, trunk open. From there we caught a bus to Salta, and waited two hours for our bus to Tilcara.

It was only a short journey to Tilcara, but a world away from a big city. Population circa 5,000, it´s very laid back and the faces of the locals start to take on that of the Altiplano natives: sun dried, weather beaten, leather skinned faces with serious stares. At least, they are serious until you say hello or give them a smile. Then it´s like you´re a long lost child.
Situated at 2,400m amsl, I was expecting to be a little breathless, but I coped well. Fran though, on the second day when we walked to a local waterfall, lost her breath quite quickly. A shot of ventolin fixed her up!

Tilcara is based at a halfway point between the highlands (southern Altiplano) and the lower regions of Salta and surrounds. In pre-Hispanic times, there was a large community based here, and they prospered well due to their location, facilitating trade and travel between the two regions. The ruins of this community are just on the outskirts of town, which we went to visit.

More churches!

Now in concert!

Market stall

Walking back from a local lake, this is the view of the fields surrounding Tilcara

And Tilcara

Too rusitc for me NOT to take a picture

Cacti. And lots of em

The ruins at Pucara

more ruins

and more

and more

and more

More cool rock formations

On our final day, we went to visit a waterfall which was about 2 hours hike away. Expecting something a bit tepid (this being pretty arid country), I was pleasantly surprised:

Exif around 1/3 second. Hand-held too!

Same goes

Same goes

We then caught a bus to San Salvador de Jujuy (ask Fran to pronounce that one.. ha), for just one night as our connection to San Pedro was the next day. It looks to be a gem of a city though, so if you`re in the region, swing by!

So here we are. Back in San Pedro, about to book a trip to Bolivia.
I`d better get off now, I`ve been on here far too long!

But before I do, remember more pics are on my Smugmug galleries. If you want better quality images than the jpegs on this blog, run a "slideshow" from Smugmug. The pics are much bigger there.

I hope everyone is doing well. Lots of love.
Adam