Bolivian Jeep Trip

Sorry I couldnt get the formatting right on this blog but I'll publish it anyway! When people ask me about my trip I mention a few highlights: Patagonia, Bariloche, Mendoza and the Bolivian jeep trip! The Bolivian jeep trip consisted of a four day jeep tour from San Pedro, Chile to the salt flats of Uyuni, Bolivia. Four days in a dusty jeep on a dustier road with eight people crammed into an old broke down jeep may strike some as unappealing! In reality with the amazing scenery and the "dream team" (as we self labeled ourselves) it couldn't have been more fun or memorable.

The trip started with a border crossing into Bolivia at 4200 meters above sea level. From there we loaded up and got settled into our new homes for the next four days, the jeep! Our jeep consisted of: Sebastiaan (Holland), Gaal (Israel), Christiaan (South Africa), Guillaume (France), Nail (France), Ludovic (France), me (Canada!!) and our driver (a local from Uyuni) Flavio. We drove a short while and stopped at the grey and green lagoons which were nice. Next up we stopped at another set of geysers at 5000 meters above sea level. You had to walk so slowly or you would get super short of breath. After that we stopped a natural thermal hot spring heated by the geysers. The air is so thin here but the scenery incredible with volcanoes in the background. At about six pm we arrived at a little village and had some supper. The food left something to be desired but the company was great with 16 others on the jeep trip with us. A huge card game of "99" broke out and it was hilarious as we tried to play in Spanish. The locals sang for us and since we were pretty tired, most of us were in bed by 9pm. This was also because there was no electricity, no hot water to shower and no heat (and it was freezing)! Sharing a dorm room with six guys could be a disaster but with only one snorer it wasn't too bad :)!

The second day we got up early and had the typical South American breakfast of white bread, jam and instant coffee. We drove to these really cool rock formations that reminded me of Moab, Utah or Drumheller, Alberta. The wind had carved the rock sandstone into these really neat shapes. After some rock climbing we continued on to a lagoon filled with flamingos. It was really neat to see flamingos in a natural setting as well as to watch Gaal try to herd the local Llamas which were grazing around the lagoon! We then stopped at a ghost town which had a really neat cemetery. After a long day of driving (9am-6pm) we finally arrived at the edge of the Solar de Uyuni. The hostel here was really nice and a warm shower was much appreciated after a long dusty jeep ride.

Sebastiaan convinced me to get up at 5am to watch the sunrise :). I hate getting up in the morning but it was nice to see the sunrise over the Salt flats. The salts flats called Salar de Uyuni are 10,582 km² (4,085 square miles) and are 3,650 meters above sea level. There is an estimated 10 billion tons of salt here and you cant see the end of it its so huge. It is such a bizarre and beautiful landscape with a lot of fun photo opportunities! We spent at least an hour making up fun poses with the help of our drivers. Im not sure if you can see but I have most of the group in my hand in the one picture. In the middle of the salt flat is this island of cacti. Some of these cacti are 70 meters high and are really pretty with the salt flats surrounding them. It took most of the day to drive through the salt flats and when we left we headed into the small town of Uyuni to conclude the tour for most of the group. We had a fun few hours in Uyuni to get a bite to eat and explore the market here. Its held once a week so we were lucky to see it. The locals here wear the traditional Spanish hats, long skirts with wool socks up to their knees, babies tied on their backs and cheeks puffed out and full of cocoa leaves. There were definitely no other tourists in this small town and it was a great experience. The french guys and I headed back down south and everyone else took a bus to LaPaz. It was sad to leave Sebastiaan after travelling together for three weeks!! He was such a fun friend to travel with and I hope to see him in Holland someday. After getting a small taste of Bolivia I would have loved to keep on going and explore this country but my flight home was fast approaching so I had to go back to San Pedro to get to Buenos Aires in time.

We headed to a small village south of Uyuni and got there about midnight. The next day we had to wake up at 3 am to meet the bus at the border to get back to San Pedro. It was soooo cold out at 3am, minus 10 which in Canada isn't so bad but without warm clothes feels like -20 (and there's definitely no heaters in the jeep)! After changing a tire in the dark, the sun finally came up at 6am and warmed us up! We made it back to San Pedro at 2pm and the frenchies and I splurged and had a really nice gourmet meal of steak, fish, good wine and a local dessert.

On Sunday having missed my bus ride to Salta to do the jeep trip to Bolivia (there's only three buses to Salta a week) I paid for a private car to Salta and had the craziest ride of my life. The last time I felt the need to seriously pray for my life on the road was in Africa but on this ride I must have prayed for almost 8 hours straight! My driver was a 300 lbs man who chain smoked for 8 hours straight and drove like a terrible race car driver. For most of the drive he was on the opposite side of the windy mountain roads. He had a major case of road rage and was swearing, honking and passing cars with oncoming traffic missing us by less than a second. As we approached the airport he clipped another car and I had to yell at him. Although he didn't speak a work of English I think he caught my drift! The last few minutes in the car were tense to say the least. I almost missed my flight and showed up at the Salta airport as they were boarding. After another two hours in a plane I arrived to Buenos Aires at 10pm exhausted and starving (we didn't stop for food the entire day so I hadn't eaten since 8am). I checked into my splurge of a bed and breakfast at 11pm and passed out glad to be in BA and so happy that I decided to do the jeep trip. It was a long week of travelling everyday and no sleep, but what a trip!