Flooded Salt Plain and High Altitude

Welcome to Bolivia! Was here for less than a day and already loving it. Gonna be a lot of photos in this post!

Crossing the border was interesting and confusing and just like a border town in Mexico. Insane. Made it through, got threatened by a cop, exchanged some cash for some bob’s (Bolivian Bolivianos) and got the hell outta there. Just like a border town.

Tupiza

First stop, Tupiza. A small dirty but very friendly Tuck Tuck town. Bummer don’t have a picture, the majority were themed after superhero’s, or had more flashing lights on them than a 70s disco. They made way for the Extranjero that doesn’t know the traffic rules and whose sprinter is too big for the streets. Also empanadas are now called Salteñas. Had a great campsite right outside of town at a Barons House. Great times.

Uyuni Salt Flats

So we booked a 4 day excursion that ends in the Uyuni Salt Flats, supposedly the largest salt flat on earth, but those claims are always with a *. The tour will take us 3 days into high high Bolivia for a bunch of cool stuff and end at the salt flats which are flooded this time of year (wet season).

The tour was actually miserable but I won’t go into those details. There were literally hundreds if not a thousand Land Cruisers doing the tour, we lucked out.

Day 1

So the first day was supposed to be a very very long day kilometer wide. Turned out to be very long indeed, but not via distance. After only 20km we got a flat tire. Happens, especially on these brutal roads. Took out the spare to find…

I would have bet a lot of money you could never pump up a huge off-road car tire with a bicycle pump. We did… about 20 times. Each time to make it just another km or so. Eventually we reached a town of 20 people living in stone houses where no one could help us. Had a “hotel” though.

Day 2

Our guide spent all night somehow organizing another tire. We argued for a long while and earned an extra day so we don’t miss out on anything.

Pueblo Fantasma

First stop was at a real big ghost town.

The town was a mining town. They made a deal with the devil and next thing they know, “accidents” started happening everywhere in the city, lots of deaths. So the people got the hell out of there. Only 50 years old, now it looks like this.

Then a lot of other stops.

Day 3

Day 3 ended up being 15 hours of driving.

Next stop were some thermal baths. Kinda nice, kinda gross. No pics, but there were a bunch of latinas all taking selfies with their selfie sticks and bikinis. Should’ve taken a picture of that. Got another flat tire here.

Technical question. Car can run with a dead battery, alternator does the work. Car can run with dead alternator off the battery, till it dies in about an hour (depending on charge). Can a car run without battery? The positive mount broke off, there is no complete circuit. Or did or string actually do the job and complete the circuit?

Day 4

Exhausted from day 3, we start day 4.

Salar de Uyuni

So we finally get to the salt flat. It’s flooded with about 6 inches of water for the wet season. You can still drive and walk around it. The water adds a cool mirror effect. Too bad for the sunset, there were literally hundreds of other land cruisers there causing ripples in the water.

Day 5

So after a night in a salt hotel, our guide made a lot of stress we leave at 5 for the sunrise. Around 6 we found him comatose in the back of another car from either drugs or booze. Took forever to wake him up. The girls were very disappointed as sunrise is over. Eventually we felt bad for the guy finding out what happened.

And that was that! Kind of. Later hit up a shop and bought Michelle a llama pullover and then did a long crazy scary drive back to Tupiza where also the front right strut spring broke. That is not why it was scary or crazy though.

Back in Tupiza for a day or relaxation at the Bloody Barons house and the Bolivian journey continues!