Sunday, April 30, 2006
Our tour of the Salar de Uyuní
So after a false start yesterday we started our 3 day tour over again. This time we had 5 other people with us: 2 french couples (Charlotte & Franck, plus Yvan & Cecile) & a Brazilian, Rafael. There were all really nice & we enjoyed getting to know them. We'll probably hang out with some of them again after the tour since Yvan, Cecile, & Rafael's travel plans overlap our own with a couple common destinations, but different schedules.
Our first 2 tour days were more or less the same, we visited a salt refinery on the edge of the salar (note: salar = salt flat), learning about how salt is extracted & processed, we then went to Incahausi ("fish island" in Quechua), an "island" shaped like a fish (long ago the salar was an ocean)
salt hotel
& on the second day we day we made a failed attempt to watch the sunset from the wrong side of a hill
not enough food for dinner
Salar, salt hotel, Incahausi, & a missed sunset from a lakeside refuge in Chuvica
Day 3 of the Tour
sunrise on the salar
left a little late
Ellie worries that our driver doesn't want to be the last car en route since our car is the oldest of the bunch & we're not sure that he has any way of calling for help if we break down.
We saw some beautiful things that day: llamas (which we were able to identify for ourselves now that we know the difference between all the cameloids), la valle de las rocas, the stone tree, & flamingos on the Red Lagoon before sunset,
we spent a lot of time in the car that day, sadly the only thing we had to listen to was a Village People tape which we traded with one of the other groups who were tired of listening to the same music after a day. Sadly their tape was only slightly different & only marginally "better" than what we traded them. Anyway, by the end of the day everyone in car except our driver was doing the YMCA
the dinner food shortage outrage
That night for the first time in my life I saw the Milky Way, it was beautiful. I didn't know you could actually see it from earth! I've seen stars on clear nights in the country before, but this was so much better...
& a cold night in the lagoon's refuge
Tour Day 4
an underwhelming geyser show
a warm hotspring on a cold morning
the tranquil surface of the Green Lagoon
Everything changes when you enter Chile (roads, busses, prices)...
So after a false start yesterday we started our 3 day tour over again. This time we had 5 other people with us: 2 french couples (Charlotte & Franck, plus Yvan & Cecile) & a Brazilian, Rafael. There were all really nice & we enjoyed getting to know them. We'll probably hang out with some of them again after the tour since Yvan, Cecile, & Rafael's travel plans overlap our own with a couple common destinations, but different schedules.Our first 2 tour days were more or less the same, we visited a salt refinery on the edge of the salar (note: salar = salt flat), learning about how salt is extracted & processed, we then went to Incahausi ("fish island" in Quechua), an "island" shaped like a fish (long ago the salar was an ocean)
salt hotel
& on the second day we day we made a failed attempt to watch the sunset from the wrong side of a hill
not enough food for dinner
Salar, salt hotel, Incahausi, & a missed sunset from a lakeside refuge in Chuvica
Day 3 of the Toursunrise on the salar
left a little late
Ellie worries that our driver doesn't want to be the last car en route since our car is the oldest of the bunch & we're not sure that he has any way of calling for help if we break down.
We saw some beautiful things that day: llamas (which we were able to identify for ourselves now that we know the difference between all the cameloids), la valle de las rocas, the stone tree, & flamingos on the Red Lagoon before sunset,
we spent a lot of time in the car that day, sadly the only thing we had to listen to was a Village People tape which we traded with one of the other groups who were tired of listening to the same music after a day. Sadly their tape was only slightly different & only marginally "better" than what we traded them. Anyway, by the end of the day everyone in car except our driver was doing the YMCA
the dinner food shortage outrage
That night for the first time in my life I saw the Milky Way, it was beautiful. I didn't know you could actually see it from earth! I've seen stars on clear nights in the country before, but this was so much better...
& a cold night in the lagoon's refuge
Tour Day 4an underwhelming geyser show
a warm hotspring on a cold morning
the tranquil surface of the Green Lagoon
Everything changes when you enter Chile (roads, busses, prices)...
[edited to add that I'm not certain Kepfram was actually done with this post, but 20 years later, he was never going to be, so here it is!]
Labels: Bolivia
Ellie and Kepfram, 9:06 AM
