The Bolivian adventure begins from here! One of the tours we took from San Pedro de Atacama was a 4-day jeep ride through Bolivia's southern national parks. The tour's grand finale was at Salar de Uyuni (Uyuni Salt Flats), but this I shall describe in the next post.
For the first two days of the tour we drove around Eduardo Avaroa Andean Fauna National Reserve. I never could remember the full name of it, had to Google it every time. But apart from the name, this reserve is absolutely splendid. There are basically no roads, just jeep-tracks crossing the vast bolivian wilderness, and this is how the tours jump from lagoon to lagoon, from volcanos to rocks. There were plenty of interesting natural phenomenons to see.
The border crossing between Chile and Bolivia was already an indicatior of how drastically different those two countries are. From San Pedro to the border we drove in a large bus on a high quality asphalt road. We reached a few bunkers in the middle of nowhere, at the feet of a volcano Licancabur. After passing the necessary control points we were divided into gropus of 6 people and were assigned one spanish-speaking guide and one jeep that he would drive. Then, there was no road. Literally, no road. The drivers were so experienced that they already know which unmarked routes to take. After the border crossing we entered the national reserve and moved from attraction to attraction. In our jeep there were the three of us, one other polish guy and a brasilian couple that had some difficulty in communicating in english (but we tried) and our fantastic local guide - Oscar. He knew some english, but since he saw that we speak a bit of spanish he pushed us to keep the conversation in this language and it worked surprisingly well. Honestly, we had such a great time that I was not even bothered by spending four nearly entire days in a car, sitting on the middle seat cramped between my two male friends. An interesting fact is that we were essentially cut-off from any internet access or even reception for three days. No wi-fi at any accomodation that we had. So it was a very cleansing experience for me, being able to ditch the digital world and focus fully on the moment.
Was a great experience, really.
Just a few meters away from the border crossing we saw the beautiful Laguna Blanca - the white lagoon. Possibly the most subtle of them all, with salt crystalising on the edges.
Right next to it there's Laguna Verde - the green lagoon. It has a vivid turquoise colour due to the amount of copper particles in it. From the point that we were standing we had a great view to my favourite volcano - Licancabur, the lagoon is essentially at its feet. We felt like running around to take photos, there were a few rocky hills in the area, but we had to remember to take it slow in order to prevent altitude sickness.
During this trip we were at all times above 3,500 meters above sea level, at the highest point we reached nearly 5,000 meters, so it's not an altitude for fooling around anymore.
Next, there was the desert named after Salvador Dali. It is said to look exactly like in Dali's paintings, even though Dali never visited Bolivia.
Oh and then was a super pleasant one - termas the Polques. Hot springs with a fabulous view! We spent about half an hour just sitting around in this perfectly warm water. Just a little bit further there were flamingos wandering around, and those were actually the first of many flamingos that I encountered.
Then, we visited a geyser called Sol de Manana. This was the highest altitude that we've been at, but our guide told us that much later in order not to stress us out at the site. Those geysers were quite violent, the steam was billowing aggresively and it was necessary to keep a safe distance because the legend has it that someone died after getting too close. I don't really know how, but I didn't want to find out.
Next we stopped in a hostel in a small settlement in the middle of nowhere. But I didn't know that a south-american dream of mine would come true there. I really hoped to be able to see some llamas, alpacas or guanacos running free and that I would be able to come close. It happened! We stumbled upon a flock of Llamas. Proper llamas. Right after getting off the jeep I rushed to them to take some typical-postcard-like shots and I couldn't be happier with them.
You know, llamas don't care at all. They won't let you come too close, but they won't run away or anything. They would just walk slowly past you without showing you any visible interest.
After lunch at the hostel we had one more attraction and it was Laguna Colorada, a intensively pink lake with a big population of flamingos that were inhabiting it. Set between hills and mountains it was a really beautiful place.
The next day we kicked off with visiting Arbol de Piedra - the stone tree. In the middle of a sandy part of the desert stands a formation of fantastically shaped rocks, and there is a peculiar one that resembles a tree. A special landmark. It was quite cool, however we spent much more time climbing other, taller rocks.
All of a sudden we made an unannounced stop and it was because our guide knew that there were a population of Viscachas living in a particular rock formation. Viscachas are super adorable, they are the size of a rabbit and they look pretty much like one. They weren't afraid of humans at all. Apparently, they live deep in the tunnels between those rocks and one of them is keeping watch for any potential dangers.
Next, we had a tour of lagoons. All of them were very picturesque, with large amounts of flamingos floundering in its waters, and occasional Vicunas around.
We usually had breakfast and lunch just like this - either on open air or in a hut in the mountains where I think there was free access to.
We were encouraged to try some local beer with extracts of cactus and coca leaves. We stopped in a village called San Juan for the shopping. This was also a first insight to Bolivian culture, we didn't really see any local people before that weren't hostel-workers or tour guides.
And there were more llamas. They were actually being led by a shepherd on the middle of the road and we had to wait for them to move and let us through. Actually, all the roads were dusty, I think we might have driven one asphalt road. Without a jeep it would be a disaster to move around, not only in the national reserve but also out of its boundries, just between regular villages.
We stayed overnight in a village named Colcha K in a salt hostel. The walls were made of salt, and yes, we did check that personally. It was super entertaining.
The three of us went to have a quick look around the village and we couldn't help but to get an unfriendly vibe. There were barely any people on the streets, it seemed deserted and unwelcoming. It was not just this town, though, in every village that we stopped in we got that impression. It was an interesting experience, though. I think that chilenos were much more open for tourists, much more friendly in general and more "european" or "american" in some ways. Nevertheless, bolivianos were much more traditional and devoted, so being able to observe them was very educating.
But i will always remember when in this village some kids pointed at us from a window and shouted "GRINGOS".
0 komentarze