At the end of the first Back To The Future movie, Doc Brown says "Roads? Where we're going we don't need roads.", and then lifts off in his car/time machine and travels to the year 2015. Bolivia appears to have adopted the same philosophy towards roads, except for the flying/time travel parts. Although, I'm sure at a few points we were airborne for a second or two. Anyway, I'm getting ahead of myself.
On our last day in San Pedro de Atacama, Boxing Day, we hired a couple of mountain bikes and headed out of town to some nearby points of interest, including the ruins of a village from around 1,000 BC and a fortress town from around 500AD. Near the latter is a cave called "Cuave el Diablo" (Cave of the Devil), which we of course explored. Snr. Cohen attempted to climb into one the inaccessible parts of the cave, but was unsuccessful. Instead, he satisfied himself by climbing a steep path outside the cave. Upon reaching the top, he discovered two things:
1. Deep sink holes that would be rather difficult to get out of if fallen into, and
2. Getting down would be more difficult than getting up.
Twenty minutes later, he managed to clamber/slide his way down and we were able to continue on our journey. All in all though, a fun day, and some good exercise as a bonus.
Upon returning to town, we needed to pay for our accommodation and buy food for our trip across the Bolivian salt flats the next day. Unfortunately, we discovered that none of three different ATMs in town wanted to give us any money. This lead directly to about two hours of running around town attempting to secure the necessary funds. Eventually, we managed to convince our tour company to give us a cash advance to cover most of it, and converted some of our remaining US currency for the rest. No worries!
The next morning, we set out for the first day of a three-day tour across the deserts and salt flats of south-western Bolivia. Our tour group consisted of the two of us, two girls from Rio in Brazil, and an older couple, consisting of a French woman and a Chilean/French man, and of course our Bolivian guide/driver. The Chilean and our driver were the only native Spanish-speakers, and English was hit-and-miss, so communication was fun. It usually consisted of Spanish with a bit of English, with the Brazilian girls (who spoke Portuguese, some English and a bit of Spanish) translating for us occasionally.
In any case, the trip was great. The first day, we drove past several 'lagunas' (lagoons), each a different colour, and all higher than 4,000m above sea level. Laguna Blanca was white, Laguna Verde was a brilliant aqua green, and Laguna Colorada was a reddish colour. Pink flamingos are plentiful, and we even got to take a dip in a hot spring.
After a decent night's sleep on the edge of another beautiful and very windy laguna, we set out again, past more lagunas, interesting rock forms and mountainous plains covered in yellow brush. The day ended crossing a section of the Salar de Uyuni. The salt flats are pretty amazing, with white expanses in all directions. Driving on the salt was actually better than following any of the roads to get there.
David had been praying for rain so that we would be able to get some photos with water on the salt flats. When this happens, you get some amazing reflections. If it's not too deep, you can walk through it and it looks like you are walking on water, or even in mid-air if you get the right angle. Thankfully, the heavens provided, and we got some pretty cool shots, such as the one in this post.
Upon finally arriving in Uyuni, it quickly became apparent we wouldn't be wanting spend much time there, so we bought some bus tickets to Cochabamba, about 12 hours drive to the north-west. We have a friend named Elizabeth from our church who lives there with her husband Oscar.
This is where we discovered the Bolivian affinity with Doc Brown's driving philosophy. It turned out that the road from Uyuni northwards was pretty much a dirt track in most places, and sometimes less. After some initial concerns about the loud rattling sounds from the rear right axle, and the occasional 30-degree tilt to the left or right, we finally made it to Oruro, we had to change buses at about 3am in the morning. Finding the right bus company (or any company, for that matter) proved interesting, but eventually we found one and were merrily on our way to Cochabamba.
After we arrived, Elizabeth and Oscar welcomed us warmly. After some breakfast and a much-needed shower, we headed out for a look around town. We visited local markets (including one from which you can buy anything whether it be shoes, baby intercoms, food, PlayStations), some of the nearby towns (each with a quite different feel), ate some local food, and visited some of Oscar's family.
Although most of you are already well into next year by now, it is still 2008 here. In any case, Happy New Year to you all! Oscar is a pastor in a local church here, and it should be interesting to celebrate New Years with them later today and some of the local young people.
Until next time, hasta luego!
Los Davides
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