The Plastic Backpackers - Chile 2 Bolivia

So being unemployed has its advantages....Not having to ask work for permission to go on holidays!!!!

Mid march saw me catching yet another plane, to head to Santiago in Chile...The start of 3 weeks travelling parts of Sth America with Daniel!

We had planned to stay only the weekend in Santiago, enough to visit many of the tourist sites, (most of which I had already seen last year,) and spend an afternoon with the Gorgeous Katerina, and her family. Was fantastic seeing Katerina a year after our celebrating our birthday together in style...The fabulous news was her upcoming wedding to Rodrigo. Congratulations guys. Love you both to bits.

After a few Mango Sours, Rodrigo and Katerina drove us to the bus station for our, (quite surprisingly, pleasant) 24hr bus ride to San Pedro de Atacama, in the north of Chile...The border with Bolivia.

San Pedro is a gorgeous chilled out little town, where you expect cowboys on horses to be ambling by. From here we wanted to organise a trip to the Bolivian salt flats...When we asked at the hotel where to go for the agencies, the lovely lady gave us directions to the main street...

San Pedro is located in a very arid, desert-like landscape. They haven't had rain in one year...Not one drop fell in Jan & Feb, their rainy season...

Seeing as we had a couple of days there, we made the most of it and did some sightseeing, visiting La Valle de la Muerte, (Valley of Death), which had us scrambling up one of the most gigantic sand dunes ever! and Valle de la Luna, (Valley of the Moon).

Valle de la Muerte

Valle de la Luna (Below and Right)

In keeping with the desert-like atmosphere, it was very hot during the day and rather cool and breezy in the evening...

Also visited the salt mines out there...quite interesting to see rocks made of salt just jutting out of the earth...This planet is just amazing. Just when you think you've seen it all, something rather small makes you realise there is so much more....Will there ever be enough time to really see it all?

The next day, along with 3 young Norwegian girls, and a French guy we all embarked on our 3 day journey through the Bolivian border onto the salt flats...Most of this trip, although it didn't feel like it, was done at an altitude of over 3,500m...Quite breathlessy (literally) incredible!

From San Pedro, we drove into the desert for a good hour...Into the middle of nowhere stood a small mud shack with the Bolivian flag flying...Border Control.

There we had some tea, met each other, our driver, Javier, and the vehicle which was to take us from one end of the desert to the other....

Our first stop on this first day, once across the border was at the national park entrance where the last 'toilets' were available for a small price...I didn't have small change for the privilege of using the facilities...So when I asked the woman what the solution was, she asked for my earrings, which I promptly gave away - Priorities are priorities.

I must say, I was glad it was just my bladder that was almost overflowing, because had it been anything else I would have been at a loss with the lack of instructions....

After the necessities were over and done with we stopped at the Lagunas Coloradas...Laguna Blanca, Laguna Verde, y Laguna Colorada....

Laguna Blanca is white from the amount of salt in the water...Laguna Verde is that colour due to the amount of arsenic...And both are within 20m of each other...Rather bizarre seeing wildlife on one lake and nothing on the other!

Laguna Colorada is this amazing ochre colour...With colonies of flamingoes adding a pink hue...Wow.

At Laguna Blanca, Javier is buried deep in the bonnet of the jeep...It starts.

We also had a stop at a thermal bath at 3,800m....Felt rather the fool being the only Australian, and also the one most resembling an aspirin...The Scandinavians were bronzed bodies, with tufts of yellow straw for hair....

We stopped along the way, at the Dali Rocks; a collection of rocks resembling those in Dali's Melting Clock paintings (Not that Dali ever came anywhere near here, but hey,)....Head goes back in the bonnet....

Our last stop on this day, was a set of boiling mud pools at over 5000m...Quite impressive and smelly. Puts a whole new slant on the whole 'mud bath' - This stuff was literally boiling and you had to be careful in some areas, as it would splash out a couple of metres....

Slept in very basic dorm accomodation at approximately 4,800m...With some of us feeling the altitude ever so slightly.

Day 2...So we're all set to go. Car is packed, everyone has everything, everyone is in the car, when Javier tells us that we all have to pile out again, because one of the tyres is flat....Off he goes to pump it up....

This day is a lot of driving to get us to the start of the salt flats...A lot of driving, but not short of amazing landscapes...It may be a desert, but it is so pretty...

We stopped at some amazing rock formations in the middle of nowhere...A rock that has been wind swept into the shape of a tree...Use your imagination.

Here Javier, has a friend to look into the bonnet with him.

This day as well, we saw some amazing high altitude lakes...Filled with birdlife...Funny how human nature can get quite blaze about its surroundings. We were all still admiring the beauty and where we were, but tended to take out our cameras a little less.

We had lunch at one of these lakes...Back in the 4x4...And 10min down the road, Javier opens his door, sticks his head out, and realises something is wrong...Very wrong....The part holding the suspension to the bottom of the car is broken and dragging in the ground...All is well, though, because the suspension can now be tied to the car with rope!

Feeling very secure, we troop on....Now in the space of 200 square kilometres we are traveling along with maybe another 19 cars...Not many, given the amount of space and lack of proper roads - Make your own way...However, we had to give it to our fabulous driver, who very skilfully manages to hit another car!!!!

And when one very angry driver comes to chat to him about the damage...Our driver, decides that the best solution is to back up, so as not to have to talk to the other guy!!!

All of us were very relieved to reach our hotel...In one piece.

The hotel was rather special being made almost entirely of salt...Right down to the beds and the floor covering...So off course there were the obvious jokes over dinner about taking small chunks out of the table to season the meal.

Day 3...Onto the salt flats!!! Yay!! Almost....200m down the road, sorry, need to get out of the car again, flat tyre. Right that's it, I've had it, as does the other Alex, the French guy....(Go the Frogs!!!) And well.....I have my say. Our cherished Javier does not really appreciate a white woman letting him know she is not overly happy....He tells us, amongst other things, that while he changes the tyre we can walk. The Scandinavian contingent, have already started to do so...Alex and I are behind them after a few more heated words and the offer of helping ot change the tyre...

So that by the time the tyre is fixed, Daniel and the Norwegian girls are mere specks on the horizon....Javier decides it is really funny to drive past Alex and I, and wait for us to walk to the rest of the party...And that honking will make us hurry up...I've developed a sudden love to stroll.

Nothing could have taken away from the beauty of the salt flats though...Quite simply wordless to explain them...Can only do it through photos....

Just before rolling into Uyuni we also visited the train graveyard...A placejust outside of town where all the old steam engines which were once used to cross the desert have just been abandoned...Makes for some very cool scrambling and climbing!

We arrive at Uyuni, and knowing that Teesh should be arriving into town soon, we settle ourselves down to a bottle of local beer...And wait till our night bus to the mining town of Potosi.

Unfortunately we missed Teesh by about 30min...And took one of the noisiest, smelliest, and bumpiest rides, arriving into Potosi at 1am, not having organised a hotel...And not realising that they just happened to be having a tourist guide conference at this time....Checked into a hotel that blew the budget just a tad...

Right: Potosi & Cerro Rico

However it was all worth it! Potosi is rather an incredible town...Not only is it the highest city in the world, at 4100m above sea level, it also happens to have Cerro Rico, a mountain which for the last half a century has been mined ruthlessly for silver.

Cerro Rico, quite literally means Rich Peak - It was discovered in 1545 by a sheperd who was caught out with his flock at night and noticed a trickle of small silvery liquid coming out of the fire he had lit. News spread fast, making Potosi one of the largest cities in the world in the 17th century....160,000 inhabitants - Larger than Madrid, Paris & London in the same era.

Between the years, 1545 - 1872, (until independence from Spain,) a total of 9 million people died while working the mines.

Today a total of 15,000 still work in the mines, (directly and indirectly the provides for approx. a third of the population of Potosi,) and a miner can be as young as 12 or 13 years of age. The average life expectancy of a miner is 45 years...Every week 3 miners die of black lung or silicosis, and 15-20 per year, die in mining accidents.

Nowadays it isn't only silver they mine, but tin, lead and zinc.

Cerro Rico, once used to tower 5100m, however with the amount of mining it has undergone, it has lost some of that height and now is 4800m....

So of course with all of these scary statistics, we had to go and check it out!!!! And boy was it amazing. No tour is complete without a quick look at the miner's market where you can buy coca leaves, (what the miners chew during their 8 hour shift - They cannot eat in the mines,) a bottle of fizzy drink, and of course dynamite!!! No license needed, just waltz on in and hey presto, walk out with a few dozen sticks of dynamite!

Above: Me laughing with my dynamite in my hands, Johnny our guide, in the yellow shirt.

We then suited up and headed up the mountain....Johnny our guide innocently asked if we were claustrophobic...Maybe we should have answered yes.

We spent a few hours walking bent over, crawling through holes only just big enugh to fit your shoulders through, or climbing up very rickety ladders, not attached to anything.....And all of this with only the light of our head torches...Once they were off, it was pitch black...Blacker than black.

Must admit, I was relieved to see the light of day again. It was a fantastic tour though, and definitely not to be missed, if you're in that part of the world....

Potosi also used to be the city in which many of the world's currencies were fabricated...So we took a quick look at La Casa de la Moneda...(The house of money) Again, quite a fascinating tour when you consider the conditions people and animals were working under...

That night we hopped on yet another night bus to the Argentinian border...Story for the next blog however....

For those of you with more time on their hands....Check out:

http://www.ringo.com/profile/alex_corcoran2000.html and go into the 'Sth America with Daniel album'

It is still a work in progress though...