When bus plans fall through, you take an impromptu road trip! Ended up with a group of four (Linh, Davi, Niklas and myself) hiring a car and driving up north to Purmamarca and Tilcara to see the amazing desert and mountain landscapes. The highlight of this north route from Salta is Cerro de los Siete Colores, a mountain range famous for its many different coloured mountains (different elements in the rocks).
The towns along the way were so small and charming, most depending on tourism for their survival. However when you're surrounded by such stunning scenery, you can be sure tourists will constantly flock there. I did my part for tourism and bought some llama empanadas.
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Day 19
After our bus debacle the other day, Linh and I managed to nab last minute tickets to San Pedro de Atacama on an Andesmar bus leaving at 1am. A long and frustrating 16 hour bus ride later we arrived in San Pedro to a party hostel in the middle of the desert. At the time of booking, I thought it would be fun to spend Christmas at a party hostel but given how exhausted we were, that decision would come back to bite me in the arse.
That night, the hostel organised a BBQ which was great, purely because it meant I didn't have to do anything for dinner but it was also a good opportunity to meet some of the other occupants of the hostel. But as the party raged on throughout the night, I went to bed early as I had a 4am wake up call for my trip to the geysers (well I tried to sleep despite the pumping music).
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Day 20
Tip: add an hour when accounting for South American time. After getting barely any sleep we crawled out of bed at 4am in anticipation of being picked up between 4:30 and 5am for the tour. By 5:30am, we gave up and went back to bed. Literally minutes after we crawled back into bed, the guide showed up and angrily claimed that we were slowing things up. Ugh. After we frantically got dressed again, we were bundled into the mini bus and on our way. Finally.
We got to the geysers around 7:30am so that the cold morning air would really accentuate the 85 degree steam coming from the geysers. It was beautiful and quite cool to walk through the safe parts of the steam.
Shortly after, we got to enjoy a dip in the thermal pool which was much needed after the long days we'd been having. Only downside was that the water would fluctuate between warm and insanely hot whenever a geyser let off. Nevertheless, a great experience and worth the early morning wake up call.
That afternoon, we went to Valley de la Luna (Moon Valley). As indicated by the name, it was like stepping onto another planet. The rock and salt formations were so detailed and crawling through the pitch black caves was a really cool experience.
To end the trip, we went up to Coyote Rock for some amazing photos of the landscape and to watch the sunset from the outcrop.
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Day 21
Christmas Day began early with an expected 7am pick up (not good since the music had been pumping until 5am - seriously too old for party hostels anymore haha). Add an hour for South American time and we were finally picked up at 8am to begin our three day journey into Bolivia and to the famous salt flats.
As our driver picked up the other passengers, we soon realised that our group was comprised entirely of Asians (albeit two Aussies, two Germans and one Korean). Not sure if it was intentional, but I guess they decided to put three Nguyens together. Anyways, we were off, clearing the Chilean and Bolivian borders with ease, and soon zooming through the Eduardo Avaroa Andean Fauna National Reserve in Potosi, Bolivia.
Photo stops were common with stunning backdrops at Laguna Verde and Laguna Blanco, before we headed to the Sol de Mañana geysers for a brief dip in the thermal pool. At this point, we were up at 4,900m above sea level. What had just been a dull headache for the past few days since San Pedro was now a pounding in my head. Damn altitude sickness. Luckily I didn't get the shortness of breath that Linh experienced.
Towards late afternoon we arrived at our refugio which was surprisingly good/warm. I had been expecting to camp so the thought of a warm bed lifted my spirits immensely. Lunch (llama steak) and dinner (soup and pasta) were prepared by our driver Jhony who was so lovely and very friendly, and especially accommodating to those of us who couldn't speak Spanish. Most of the time I was able to understand him with my broken Spanish so that was a win.
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Day 22
Restless night because of altitude sickness. I ended up popping some pills to try and dull the pain but not sure if it helped. I think Jhony knew how tired/sick we were all feeling so today was a pretty slow and easy day. Most of our stops involved simple photo opportunities as opposed to hiking tracks. It was especially a good day for seeing animals, especially flamingos, vicuñas and llamas, as well as the odd chinchilla and rhea.
Our refugio that night was a salt hostel, where the walls and furniture were all made of salt. Pretty novel. What was even better was that this place had constant electricity and power points unlike the previous place. At this point, we were also much lower in altitude so my headache was gone - win!
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Day 23
Staying in a salt hostel is so dry! I was constantly waking up throughout the night to drink water. Anyways we were out the door at 4:30am to make our way to Incahuasi, a cacti-covered island in the middle of the salt flats, to see the sunrise. We drove there in the dark (literally) - not sure why but all the vehicles drive with their lights off.
After scaling Incahuasi, it was a matter of sitting and waiting for the sun to rise. It wasn't as spectacular as expected (and I'm still not convinced it was worth the early wake up call) but still a nice view.
After that, it was time for fun on the salt flats doing the cheesy photos that all tourists must do. It was a bit difficult though since our cameras were too sophisticated and hence were focusing on either the foreground or the background thus ruining the illusion. Nevertheless, it was a fun morning marvelling at the famous Uyuni salt flats.
Our last stop on our three day journey was at Cementario de Trenes in Uyuni, a graveyard for abandoned trains. There was just something about this place that really captivated me. There was just something so haunting about the place. If only it wasn't overrun by tourists though.
With that, the tour ended and we were dropped off in the town of Uyuni to await our overnight bus to La Paz. It'd been a tiring three days travelling through the desert but the sights along the way definitely made it worthwhile. This three day journey over the salt flats is one that everyone seems to take so it's hard to appreciate the serenity of these landscapes at times. However it's definitely worth doing and no doubt you'll get amazing photos and experiences out if it.
HBL signing out from Uyuni, Bolivia.
Up next: Surviving Death Road to ring in Cusco 2016...
Previously: Flying through Argentina: Patagonia, Buenos Aires and Salta...
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