Oh, Bolivia, you’ve been too good to us! Despite the fact that our entire trip through South America was special, I would have to say that Bolivia is the country that really stole my heart. I can’t even pinpoint what I liked the most, it was just the overall feel that the people, cities and the landscape reflected. And even though it was freezing cold at night (up to -10 degree) and we had to sleep without heating or electricity for the first couple of days – it was definitely worth it.

Bolivia – and so it begins…

We started our Bolivia journey by crossing the boarder in La Quiaca, Argentina which is a very common backpacker route. When you take the bus from Argentina to the boarder, it will not be allowed to cross it, so you have to get off before and cross the boarder by foot. The Internet stated that it was just a short walk to the check point, however, we arrived at 4:30 am in the morning and everybody told us not to walk around at night. So we had to wait for a couple of hours (the most authentic experience – waiting in the bus terminal, squeezed in with locals and stray dogs sleeping on the floor) and left the bus station at around 7:30 am so that we would make it right on time for the the opening of the immigration office. We got lucky as we didn’t have to wait in line for very long, so I definitely recommend to go there as early as possible as it can sometimes take you hours to get outta there. Once we crossed, we were in Villazon, which is a tiny town in Bolivia. From there, we wanted to go to Tupiza as we booked our Salt Flat tour from there. If you are in Villazon, just walk up to the bus station and check which mini or regular bus is beste to take you to the next city. Some of the busses are really shitty (if your bus has cracks in the windows or missing essential parts – its probably not the one), so don’t settle for the unsafest just because it’s cheap – in Bolivia everything is really inexpensive, so it should not matter whether you pay 30 or 45 Bolivian dollar.

Tupiza

We only stayed in Tupiza for a day as we had to leave very early the next morning to go the our Salar de Uyuni tour with Tupiza Tours,  however we wanted to make the best of it and decided to go horse back riding with La Torre Tours, as they belonged to our hotel that we stayed in (if you like water coming out of your shower – don’t stay there). The tour took three hours, a woman picked us up and brought us to the horse farm. I’ve sat on a horse before, but I wouldn’t say I am an expert – I never fell, so thats a plus, I guess. However, if you are promised a beginners class on horses that are suppose to be really calm (my horses name was Domino – you can guess how that worked out – NOT) you would expect a chill ride, normal paste. Not with my horse, he did not like me to be boss, so he just did whatever he wanted to. Thanks for that, Domino you dick. Nevertheless, the landscape was beautiful and I would do it again if I could – even on a horse like that. Lots of red rocks, huge cacti and amazing weather – the perfect combination. Our guide took good care of us regardless our small communication problems. He didn’t speak a word of English and my Spanish is fairly limited (“Quiero una cerveza, por favor”), so I felt extremely bad that we were unable to exchange a real conversation and just awkwardly smiled at each other or dropped some Spanish words in between. Nevertheless, it was a fun experience and besides hurting butts and smaller injuries (haha Henni), we all got a really good first impression of what Bolivias landscape has to offer.

If you ever make it to Tupiza, it is a really small, but very charming little town that offers lots of nice restaurants (Sorry Llamas), Souvenir shops and bars. Of course, the city is targeted for tourists, however I didn’t feel like it was too much or uncomfortable (we were there in low season, I don’t know how crowded it is during high-season). Surrounded by the Palala mountains, Tupiza is the ideal starting point when wanting to do the Salar de Uyuni tour. Now that we did it, I am so glad we didn’t choose to start our tour from Uyuni, which is the city located right next to the salt flats. I heard so many bad things about tours starting from there, especially about drunk drivers and a very tricky mass tourism business with tons of tour companies over there, that I can only recommend to go to Tupiza, stay a night or two and book your trip from there.

From Tupiza to Uyuni

We started our trip with Tupiza Tours really early in the morning and were joined by a really nice French couple, our English speaking guide Janeth (if your Spanish is not advanced, request her, she is so much fun and it is definitely worth the extra money to have someone explaining you everything in detail), and our driver Rafael. Our schedule was pretty tight – we booked a four day tour, with the last day being in Salar de Uyuni.

Day I

Passing Quebrada de Palala and El Sillar mountains we were on our way to the mining zones of Nazarenito, Chilcobija, Cerrillos, Polulos and Rio San Pablo. At the beginning, I was not quite sure whether the constant sitting in the Jeep would take away the experience of the landscape, but Janeth made sure that we were able to stop whenever and wherever we wanted to. And boy I have to say, the landscape is just breathtaking. I could not get enough of looking out of the window and just enjoying the quiet and peace of being the only Jeep around. My personal favorite were all the Llamas that we saw on our way – they make the most hilarious faces ever (I tried getting a better picture of them, but they were not too excited to see me whenever I came close). During the day, we made our way to the abandoned town San Antonio and walked around the old Colonial Ruins of the Inkas, where they explained what they found in the mines and how life was for them during that time. They also call it “little Bolivian Machu Picchu” – not sure if Janeth just made that up, but you can see some similarities, right (Haha)?

The day ended passing Laguna Morejón, where we arrived at the highest point of the day (4855m), thank god without any troubles of breathing or height sickness, which was my biggest concern at the beginning (yeah, I am that person that passes out every chance I get). Even though windy and freezing, this Laguna gave a beautiful view and a taste of what to come during the following days. In the evening, we arrived in a village called Quetena Chico were we stayed for the night. In this village, local families are hosting tourists in very basic accommodations with no showers or electricity at night – if you want an authentic experience, do it. I really liked it and it wasn’t as cold as expected at the beginning (bring a sleeping bag that is able to keep you warm for very cold temperates). If you expect a higher class hotel, I know you can book it and pay extra- but then again- why would you go on a trip like that if you are not open to a little adventure (Are you ready for a new adventure? – Poor Crocodile Hunter).

Day 2

Following breakfast (6:30am), we left early to drive to the stinky Lagoon Hedionda and further through the little Salar Challviri. On our way, we passed a few of the famous Llama Hotels (my dream) and continued our way to the hot springs, where the French and Henni took a bath. To be honest, it is not the nicest hot spring I’ve ever seen- if you like sitting in a hot tub with a bunch of other tourists right next to construction side, ok. But the others claimed that it was really nice (considering that it was pretty cold during the day), so you should just give it a try if you get the chance. From the hot springs on, we all noticed that there were more and more Jeeps coming our way and it got more touristy the closer to came to Salar de Uyuni. I am happy that Rafael and Janeth tried to take different routes so that we would not be followed by all of the tourists all the time. After lunch, we finally arrived at Laguna Verde, which was the nicest Lagoon that we saw on the entire trip. It lies right on foot of the volcano Lucancabur and gives the nicest view with its turquoise water.

Once we were done taking pictures at Laguna Verde, we continued our journey up to 5000 m altitude and I have to say, walking around there got a lot harder. However, we just pulled it all together and went to visit the famous Geysers, which smelled like rotten egg but looked pretty awesome to be honest. Again, when we arrived a bunch of tourists were already there and I guess at that point of the journey, even in low season, you just cannot avoid and just have to roll with it.

Our last stop was Laguna Colorada, which is a redish looking lagoon, surrounded by mountains and a lot of flamingos (yay). It is kinda sad because most of the Lagoons are slowly disappearing as they dry out, thanks the climate change (thanks humans), so I am actually grateful that we got the chance to visit this amazing scenery before its all gone one day. Walking around the Lagoon is quiet and peaceful, except the occasional shouting of guides at tourists (attention attention, you are NOT allowed to go too close to the water, especially not when they told you approx. 10 times before – don’t provoke your guide, he is prepping your food, mate! haha). We had one hours to explore the area and take pictures. I could have stayed there way longer, I usually don’t like having time limits and feeling the pressure of being back at a certain time. But if you commit to tours like that, you just gotta accept that the schedule is tight and you have to keep on going.

Day 3

After the coldest night of the trip in the highest altitude, we moved on to the north, crossing Siloli desert where we visited a stone garden with a famous stone tree and all kinds of stone formations. It was actually fun climbing around with the others while the sun came in. It’s funny how all of my pictures look like it was the nicest summer day, when it was actually so cold. However, the sun was shining for four days straight which was so nice to warm up during the day and to experience the landscape to the fullest.

We passed the trail of Jewels, consisting of five different Lagoons (Ramaditas, Honda, Chiarkota, Hedionda and Cañapa), as well as Volcano Ollague on our way to Atullcha, were we suppose to stay in a salt hotel for the night. Different from the other group from Tupiza, we took a more individual route to leave all of the other Jeeps behind and visited a coral field, which displayed the remains of an underwater landscape back in the day. It’s crazy, these corals contain so many fossils which have never been examined because the Bolivian government does not have the money to send out experts. So now these fields lay in the middle of Bolivia, untouched and it will probably take many more years until anyone is going to discover whats really behind it (Akte X?!).

As our salt hotel was further away from the second Tupiza group, Janeth made some arrangements so that we could all stick together and spend our last night as one big group (Go Janeth). The salt hotel did not only mean warmer accommodation but finally warm water for all of us as well. The evening was quite short as we had to leave to Salar de Uyuni at 4:30 am in order to catch the sunrise at Isla Incahuasi.

Day 4

Last day, the day we’ve all been waiting for. To be honest – and I don’t mean that negatively at all – Salar de Uyuni was not my highlight of this tour. Or better, it was not the only highlight of this four day tour. I know, everybody goes on that trip to see the salt desert, but the landscape, the scenery leading to Salar de Uyuni, was so unexpected and so beautiful that it deserves at least the same hype as the desert itself gets.

Anyways, we started our last day early, as said before, and drove to Isla Incahuasi to see the sun rise on top of the mountain. It was only a 20 minute climb to the top (yeah not as easy when you are sleepy, cold, and in high altitude… mimimi) and we all sat quietly, waiting for the sun to come up. It was pretty impressive- even though we were a lot of people up there, nobody really dared to talk (or maybe they were all just really tired, who knows), its seemed like they all enjoyed the moment to be up there.

After the sun was up, we had breakfast at the foot of the Isla, before we were heading further in to the desert. I still cannot imagine that we drove on layers and layers of salt (125m), white salt as far as the eye can see. Of course we also stopped to take to typical pictures that you can find online (‘Oh no, a dinosaur in the salt desert – run Forest run), which took longer than expected, as everyone wanted to have five different poses (poor Janeth on the salty ground).

Following the first salt hotels in the desert and missing the little salt mountains (all gone), we had lunch and made our way to the final stop of the trip – the train cemetery right outside of Uyuni. Abandoned trains, old rail roads, great for pictures and to climb around if you dare to. It was just a quick stop, as we had to get to Uyuni around 1pm where Janeth and Rafael dropped us off after four days together. I feel like we got extremely lucky to have such nice people with us at all times. They really cared about our well being, were funny, explained everything in detail and played the best music playlists ever (Everybody, yeaaaah yeaaah) always with a smile on their faces. Also, the people we met on the tour were awesome and made this four day trip special – and this is essential if you spend 24/7 with each other. Reunion soon!

Bolivia part II – to be continued