Destination #10: Crossing (and surviving) Bolivia (Part I)

The problem with going off-road is that once you are off it, it is difficult to get back on. It was only last week that we played our first wildcard in order to include "Sandboarding in the Death Valley in Chili" at the expense of the "2010 Shanghai World Expo", but now we are already forced to play our 2nd wildcard to include our biggest adventure to date: Escaping angry dynamite-throwing miners in Bolivia. 


Ok it all started out a bit more mellow than that and we were luckier than some of our fellow travellers but it was a great escape nevertheless. We are still undecided as to which destination we are going to sacrifice for our new destination #10: "Crossing (and surviving) Bolivia", but we will let you all know shortly. So here comes Bolivia in two parts, first the mellow (although bloody cold) part, secondly the more adventurous part. 

Saturday 7 August - Wednesday 11 August: Desert crossing into Bolivia 

At the Chilean-Bolivian border we traded in our mini-bus for a bunch of 4x4 Toyota Landcruisers. While we made our way into Bolivia through the stunning landscapes of deserts, mountains, active volcanoes, salt flats and geysers we almost felt like we were participating in Paris-Dakar. As the Bolivians are not too keen on Chileans, none of the roads in South Bolivia are asphalted, apparently among others to discourage Chileans to enter the country. This does mean that our 4x4s are not so much a luxury but also a necessity. 

Our first overnight stop was at a glorified shed at 4,500m above sea level. And boy it was cold here. Besides our 3 drivers, we had also hired 2 Bolivian ladies to cook for the 17 of us. They did a fantastic job (Llama burger anyone?), but nothing can keep the cold away at that altitude. At night it got "up" to minus 10, so we slept fully dressed with 5 layers, gloves and a woolen hat on in our sleeping bags. At this altitude the air is so cold that the men's dorm - where Marcel, Olivier, Nuno, Ben and I slept - resembled more a Darth Vader practice ground than anything else.  

The amazing thing about this part of Bolivia is that, despite it getting freezing cold at night, the piercing sun makes it incredibly hot during the day. So we went from five layers of clothing at night to shorts and t-shirts during the day. 

Our 2nd overnight stop was in the Salt Hotel (read hotel, think shed), at the edge of the salt flats. The whole "hotel" was made completely of salt and had a hot shower, for which we had to battle a bunch of Frenchies. Fortunately, it was less cold here than during our previous night and we played the card game "shithead" until the electricity went out at 22:00. 

From the Salt Hotel we drove across the salt flats (or Salar de Uyuni). I have to admit it is a fantastic experience, particularly given the contrast of piercing blue skies and blinding white salt on the flat lakebed. These salt flats now cover a total area of over 12,000 square km and are one of Bolivia's main salt mining centres and the largest salt flat in the World (distant number 2 being Salt Lake City). 

We had a go at shooting some funny pictures here (as there is no horizon, you can play around a bit with relative size of objects), but mostly failed miserably. 

At the end of our 3rd day we hit the isolated salt mining town of Uyuni. With 12,000 inhabitants, and at 3,600m above sea level this sizeable town for Bolivian standards, resembles one of those Wild West towns out of Clint Eastwood's spaghetti westerns. Most of the residents here are either public sector workers or salt miners. After visiting Uyuni's main attraction the Train Cemetery, we checked ourselves into the Samay Wasi Uyuni Hotel, and let there be no mistake after 2 days on the salt flats this is Uyuni's equivalent of the Grand Hyatt. In the evening I did manage to win a pizza eating contest from fellow traveler Marcel in the Minuteman Pizza restaurant (run by a lost American from Boston) before moving on to the Extreme Fun Bar (you can't make this stuff up). They clearly got their pricing right because most shots and cocktails were just 15 pesos (or just over 1 pound). Recommendation of the day: the "Coca Leaf is Not Cocaine" shot, which includes licor de coca, modre coca, Aquardiente de coca and Granadina. 

Next blog: Part II: The great escape to La Paz