It ain't chilly in Chile!
Trip Start
Aug 05, 2006
1
14
21
Trip End
Jan 30, 2007
Sn Pedro de Atacama, Chile
Wednesday, December 6, 2006
The one thing that everybody's said not to miss on my way through Bolivia (other than the WWF style Cholita Wrestling in El Alto - yes it really does happen, but no I didn't get a chance to see it) was the Salt Flats (or Salar) of Uyuni. So Ellie and I headed out on the very uncomfortable 12 hour night bus to hit the salt lakes and see what all the fuss was about.
We arrived in Uyuni at stupid o'clock in the morning feeling a bit dazed, confused and completely disoriented. The plan was to get some sleep and potter about in Uyuni for a while before heading out the following day to take on the mammoth onslaught of tour operators, all claiming that their tour of the Salar was the most amazing, safe, included the most stuff, with free salt etc.... Unfortunately our plan didn't really work out in the way we'd hoped as we were pretty much ambushed by a hoard of screaming operators as soon as we stepped off the bus and practically dragged by the hair into a little office to have tea and "talk about the possibilities" with what turned out to be a very nice lady from 'Blue Line Services'.
After being convinced that the only day to go to the salar was the very same day that we'd arrived (dazed and confused), we finally signed our lives away and headed out on the trek a few hours, and a quick shower, later.
The drive to the salar itself was along a pretty uneventful 30 minute stretch of sand and dirt road surrounded by complete nothingness. I only really remember thinking that the Blue-Line-lady's promises of safety and security weren't really helped by the massive crack in the jeep windshield and the apparent hurry of our driver to get to the salar on tyres that were almost bald and that led to us kicking up a dust cloud behind us the size of a small country!
The impending danger was soon forgotten when we arrived at the Salar itself though, as the whole place was just magical. The sun glinted off the salt making it look like snow or an endless frozen lake which stretched as far as the eye could see. Our guide explained how the area had originally either been covered by an ancient sea (or Lake Titicaca, it's never been scientifically proven) that had evaporated and left the enormous flat salt beds that in places are up to 10m deep and that spread out to cover an area of 10 and a half thousand square kilometers (or an area roughly the size of Belgium).
Stops along the way included a tour of Fish Island with it's 1000 year old towering cacti, various lakes that turn beautiful and varied colours according to how strongly the wind was blowing and how much sediment and mineral deposit was mixed with the water, and the salt hotels from where we could watch the sun rise and set, turning the sky a whole host of brilliant and unimaginable colours. We saw strange rock formations that had been carved out by 60mph winds stood like pillars in the middle of the desert, bright pink flamingoes, two blown tyres on our jeep (so much for the Blue-Line-lady's assurances!), smoking fumeroles and geysers and naturally volcano-heated hot springs that we soaked in until we turned into prunes! All in all, the rumours were right. It was a fantastic place to be, and one which made my trip to the border both memorable and quite nostalgic as I felt sad to be leaving the country I'd called home for two months, behind.
On day three of the trek it was time for me to say a sad farewell to Ellie and get my little butt over to the little Oasis town of San Pedro de Atacama in the middle of the driest desert in the world. A title which the town very rightly deserves as it was certainly nothing but TOO hot there. The next two days saw me relaxing in a hammock in the courtyard of the little hacienda hostal I'd checked into, slapping on the factor 30 in order not to get fried to a crisp, in between various spurts of sightseeing energy and sampling the delicious (thankfully travel-bug-free) Chilean cuisine and delicious Chilean wine.
On Monday I took a tour to the Valley of the Dead with two Dutch girls I'd met on the Salar to do a spot of sandboarding, (which is incidentally now my new favourite sport, alongside horseriding, river tubing, climbing and downhill mountain biking!) under the light of the full moon. The valley was beautiful and although I managed to fall over very spectacularly and get sand in every unmentionable place possible, I did managed to make it to the floor of the valley, still standing and sliding just a little bit quickly, on more than two occasions!
The following day I decided that hiring a mountain bike and cycling a 45km round trip to the Valley of the Moon and up some stupidly steep hills on the way to Calama would be a really good idea. Hadn't ridden a bike since i did the WMDR so it was tough going, especially in the heat, but soldiered on and drank about 4 litres of water to keep me going before I pretty much collapsed at my hostel afterwards.
A brief stop in the very forgetable Antofagasta on the West coast of Chile saw me getting my camera fixed and killing some time in shopping malls that reminded me of Cribbs Causeway before my 18 hour bus ride to the capital of Santiago. Chile is very much more developed than Bolivia and everyone's very much more smartly dressed than anywhere I've been so far (which makes me feel a bit of a scruff now!) but it was a great place to people-watch and suss out the rapid speaking Chileans before moving further down the coast for more adventures.
The plan is to stay in Santiago for a few days and then head further South to the Lake District before crossing the border to Bariloche and heading up towards Mendoza for Christmas and Buenos Aires to hook up with Sonja for New Year. It's very strange seeing the run up to Christmas in the blazing heat. Doesn't do very much for drumming up any kind of festive spirit, so I'm hoping that you'll all be able to post me a few messages of peace and joy this Christmas time to keep me going and remind me what a good old English Christmas is really like!
Until next time, I'm sending lots of love and 32 degrees of sunshine!
K xxx
