Salt Flat Tour: Day 1

The primary reason we came to Bolivia was to do the salt flat tour, a standardized 3 day trip that leaves from Uyuni in a jeep that inevitably breaks down in the desert during the journey and is led by a surly driver who doesn't speak English. But we were told that the trip, that is 10 hours a day of driving with minimal stops to get out and see rocks in the desert, was more than worth enduring all this. We were slightly confused as to why, but figured we should trust the general consensus and sign up.

Fortunately, we got the tip off that tours leave from Tupiza, and not just Uyuni (which is supposedly the worst town on earth with streets lined with nothing but tourist agencies competing to offer the worst salt flat tours possible). In Tupiza, there is one tour company, Tupiza Tours, and it has a good reputation for quality of food, drivers, jeeps, tour guides, etc. The only problem is, the tour is one more night. And more expensive. But we thought it worth it and we were (obviously) right.

We woke up the day of our tour and partook in the amazing free breakfast at Hotel Mitru. Then we were introduced to our tour group, first to Conchita, a Dutch girl traveling by herself. This was interesting because Conchita, in South American Spanish, is a rather strong euphamistic word (literally, it means 'little shell,' but it is understood to be a reference to female anatomy in the stongest term possible), and so her introductions to our driver and cook were fun to watch as they did double takes. Next we were introduced to Bob, who pronounced his name Boob but was really named Chuck (I still don't understand) and Daniel, American retiree friends traveling together. Our driver, Rene, was quickly commended by us for his stunning mane of hair, and then we met our cook, Luis, who was only 21. And then we were off for 4 days of unpaved desert roads.

We drove a few hours, then made our first stop for about 10 minutes to look out at some scenery. Red, candle-like structures as tall as mountains in canyons out into the distance. Then we got back in the car and drove for a few more hours...generally the theme of the trip.

We lunched by a vast pasture, surrounded by hundreds of llamas. Kelly and I entertained ourselves by chasing the llamas while the food was prepared. We then sat down to a fabulous picnic with lots of fruits and veggies and sandwiches. The main course were delicious tamales filled with, what else, but llama meat. They were fantastic, though the scene was a bit morbund.

After lunch, we passed lots of llamas in the fields. Who owns these llamas? That's what I want to know. But they all have brightly colored pompoms on their ears to mark them. We also saw a llama just giving birth, the baby not even able to stand yet. It was the cycle of life in action...and the cycle of my lunch. We also saw wild vicuñas, which are an animal similar to llamas and deer, with long necks, that are endangered and only found in the remote areas of the Andes.

The 'road' got even rockier and the constant bumping induced me to announce that my stomach was making a llama licuado (milkshake) which, hours later, turned into full on stomach sickness. But we can go more into that on day two.

At night, we stopped in a desolate group of houses (because I wouldn't quite say town) on cement beds. I have no proof but the pain in my body that they were actually cement. At night, temperatures dropped to about freezing, lower than those we experienced on the Inca trail. We had no sleeping bags, just some wool blankets, so we put on every article of clothing we owned and shivered through the night. Good times were had by all.