Uyuni Salt Flats 4x4 Tour

To get back to Bolivia I needed to join a 4x4 tour, I did so and left the next day. I´d forgotten how capable Land Cruisers are over rough ground and deep sand, really incredible, we "cruised" at more than 80kph over ground that I could have only tackled at 3-4kph (i.e. 1st gear) on my bike !

There were 6 of us in each one and 3 jeeps in our tour. It was well organised and the food was good and our driver "Felix" was an expert and quite safe. I joined up with two other Brits, Katie & Simon.

On the way to the salt flats I realise that the Potosi strikers have done me a huge favour !  If I´d tried to cross the salt flats, then the border, by myself, on my bike (which was my original plan) it would have been a total disaster !!! I realise the roads in this part of Bolivia are non-existent, unmarked, no villages, no water, no petrol, nothing !. I would have been fully commited as this point (no way back to Uyuni). Bike wise, this place is only for big Enduro´s, and then, not going alone....At the night the temperature, apparently, drops to -25 deg C, I´m not sure, but it´s certainly cold !!

 To get to the salt flats from Chile it´s a solid two day drive. There are lagunas and more lagunas, most with Pink Flamingoes and some Vicuñas (deer like creatures). On the second night we get decent accomodation, but of our group, for no reason, I´m  the only one who gets a hot shower !!  this makes me less than popular. We get a very welcome bottle of red wine for supper and us Brits talk politics until it´s gets late !!

We stop at thermal springs (I foolishly forgot to pack my bathers, so I can´t go....). Then there are steaming geysers and bubbling sulphur mud pools (all very reminiscent of New Zealand).

On Day 3 we arrive at the highlight of the tour, the Uyuni Salt Flats. A dazzling white sea, flat as a pancake, as wide as the eye can see.

There is an "island" for taking pictures (right).

The jeep can go in any direction at motorway speeds, 130kph, it´s just like being at sea (only faster) and wholly surreal.

Me, Simon and Katie have a go at taking eye-fooling "perspective" shots, but none of them work out that well.....it´s not easy to do....

The tour ended in Uyuni (after visiting the train cementary, in the desert, right), and rather than head straight back to Chile I decided to stay on in Bolivia for a few more days and take a 6hr bus ride to Potosi (again, where I was not able to go before). So, following Katie and Simon, we bus to Potosi that evening and arrive very late, the intention is to do the Silver Mine tour (the main attraction in Potosi).

Our group talking with Miners...

The mine tour is interesting and nothing like as difficult or dangerous as it sounds in the guide book. We meet plenty of miners down there, they are still using pick axes and buckets !!, the underground air is full of silica and asbestos particles, it´s very bad for their health. 400 years ago the mine produced ore that was 90% silver !! by far the highest ever recorded, this mine bank-rolled Spain for centuries !! They showed us a nugget of 90% silver, they keep it just for luck, they almost never find them now. We bring "presents" of alcohol (95%...), cigarettes and coca leaves. Interestingly, the recent strike was partly about a Silver Smelter that the government has not got working yet and is now stalling d/t international business pressure (ahem...). Of course, it´s not hard (to smelter silver) and they should have had it 300 years ago !  If a miner chooses to use a pneumatic drill they have a life span of just 3-5 more years (thanks to the poisoned dust).  It´s called a Co-Operative mine, but the miners earn just $2 a day and the concession owners drive Hummers, some Co-Operative...

Typical mine shaft

After the tour, the other 3 (we picked up one more, Chris) scat to La Paz after we have had a beer or two. I stayed one more night in Potosi (too tired to take another bus) and took the bus back to Uyuni the next day.

Back in Uyuni I take the "express" 4x4 trip back to San Pedro de Atacama. We stop at the thermal springs and this time I get a chance to dip in it, albeight for only 15 minutes. On arrival San Pedro I have a bit of an argy-bargy with the guesthouse regarding my bike, they want to charge me for storage, I tell them it´s too late for that, they should have told me that at the start. In the morning I leave, very early, to avoid another confrontation with them.

Arica and South

It´s something of a "Reverse Culture Shock" to arrive in Arica, Chile from Bolivia. What happened to South America ? The people are larger, taller, fairer skins, no indigenous apparel, everyone is dressed Western style. I actually saw a Fat Child !!  Everything is Westernised, there are shop fronts with glass in ! and Malls. No vendadores on the streets.  And above all, everything is really expensive !! It takes some time to adjust back to all this again, and for several weeks I really miss Bolivia.

The best bit about Arica was just down the coast where the road peters out into a surprisingly smooth gravel section, which follows the cliff edge for several kilometers. I ride along it on my bike !, through an entirely natural tunnel section, pic right, very satisfying !!



The next day I start the run South, down on the Panamericana (again). There is nothing out there but desert !!!  once again, there are not too many petrol stations !. It´s 260km before I see the first one after Arica. Round about the middle of this distance 3 fairly desperate Chilean women in a Freelander stop me, twice !!, and ask for petrol ! Me !  with my 2 gallon tank !  I have to decline as I did not know how far until the next station (even if they had taken the lot, they would not have made it in a 4x4 !!).

Just as it´s getting dark I pull off the road and ride about 1km to one side and then, for the first time, put my new tent up and "wild camp" in the desert. It´s quite a comfortable night but even at that distance I find the trucks make quite a racket. The new mat and sleeping bag work well and I´m surprised in the morning to find frost on the inside of the tent and a frozen water bottle, it must have gone negative overnight.  The tent is JUST big enough to get all my clobber inside, plus me. In the morning I realise I´m far too close to the road, with the sun on it the tent is a flaming orange beacon to any passing police person. I did not really want a bright orange one for just this reason, but it´s all they had....

Next day I visit Humberstone, a "Ghost Town" constructed in 1934, abandoned in 1960. It was a town built in the desert, entirely for "Saltpetre" extraction, used in natural fertilizers. Because it´s in the desert everything is in superb condition, there is a theatre, church, cinema, all looks in working order, yet it´s been 50 years !!. I find two things particularly interesting, firstly that most of the machine tools are British !  including the locomotives. Secondly, there are no plastics  !!  none at all. It´s hard to describe why this is strange, everything is made of wood, steel and iron, just as it would have been (I suppose) in 1934.

In the afternoon I manage another 160km further South before finding another campsite in a copse of trees. This one is not so good, it´s rather spooky and the local shop does not sell any food. So for Supper and for Breakfast I have just two manquy stale cheese sandwiches (bought at a Customs checkpoint earlier in the day), I was not impressed !! and did not sleep at all. 

I had a good day the next day and made it to the booming mining town of Calama, riding past the world's largest copper mine at Chiquamata, and it`s giant green slag heaps (pic below).

Giant, green-tinged slag heaps.....

At Calama I found I just did not have the stomach for another night out in the desert, just too tired & too smelly ! I found what I thought was a cheap miners boarding house and stayed there, I had a room but everything was very grubby. I had a good night (I slept) but in the morning I found that not one of the "miners" had gone to work, they turned out to be mostly druggies, alcoholics and street robbers (one of them tried to sell me one of the phones he´d stolen the day before !). I found the steering lock (on my bike) was broken in the morning, on reflection, I think it could have been a lot worse !

Later on that day I reach my destination, San Pedro de Atacama, the road to get there was quite amazing, over high passes, across enormous plains, the quality of light and the scale of the line of volanoes in the distance was mind-blowing.

After some trouble finding a place that I can store my bike at, I pay $16 for a dorm bed, the most expensive lodging in my whole 9 month trip to date !! In the evening I try and find an agency to book a 4x4 trip back to Bolivia, as thanks to the strikers I missed out on the "Salar de Uyuni" in Bolivia, now I can go back to Bolivia, from San Pedro (for a price...).

To Chile....

The volcanoes of Park Lauca, Chile border

I did not expect the road (from La Paz, Bolivia, West to Arica, Chile) to be as scenic as it was. It was a superb ride and I passed a guy (on a heavily loaded Moto (small motorbike) coming the other way, and waved ! First time I´d seen anyone with the same plan (I suppose it was...).

Llamas

 I have to stop at one dusty little Bolivian town. There was just one guesthouse and it was closed, I had to track the owner down to the church to gain entry. I felt like Bruce Chatwin !!  picture below;

In the morning no-one is around except "Granny" and she royally rips me off on Gasolina.  I asked for 4 litres, but because the bike is at the back of the guesthouse she (mistakenly...) uses a plastic can after measuring out 4 litres with her "litre" measure. But the can is graduated in Litres !! I can see I have exactly 3 litres !!  Her "liter" measure is about 800ml and she had given me 3 and half of those !! After some argument I get about 3 and half litres and have to pay double the usual rate for 4 !

After the last border experience, crossing to Chile is a doddle. There is only one thing they really care about at the border, it´s fruit and dairy products !!  you are not allowed to bring them in and they search everything !! and scan everything. There is even a fruit sniffer dog !!

After the border I go the the tiny village of Parinacota, 3km up a dirt track and higher than 4500m, picture below;

I met some French girls who were just leaving the only hostel, they said the owner had gone to Arica and would be back shortly. Well the door was open so I made myself at home and waited. I waited til long after it was dark !!  nobody showed and I was alone and hungry. I was forced to get Supper at the next village 6km away (lucky I could, just one restaurant there) and return in the freezing cold back up the dirt track.  I stayed there overnight but the owner never showed up at all ! In the morning I had a great deal of trouble starting my bike as it´s was about -5 deg C, I had to roll it down a hill in the end, right through a herd of Llamas ! (no picture unfortunately) to start it.

I started the day at 4500m altitude and ended it at 5m !! at the coast at Arica. Great scenery all day and very curvy mountain road all the way down the valley. At the top it´s green and verdant, at the coast it´s the Atacama desert, no plantlife, and no animals either and it´s lovely and warm with a strong warm wind blowing.

The next day, in Arica, I have a "day off" and I find out that the Bolivian Potosi strikers have ended their strike, which leads to a few minutes of muttering......

Stuck in La Paz

La Paz

After the Independence Day holidays are over, I go shopping !. First on the list is Camping Stuff, I know when I get to Chile and Argentina I´ll need to camp as much as possible, to save money. I´ve been told countless times, Chile and Argentina are expensive !. And I´m planning to "wild camp" in the Atacama desert, when heading South through Chile. There is almost no choice, imported stuff is very expensive, but Argentinian made "DOITE" seems OK, so I buy a tiny, but light, one man tent, a thick, synthetic, sleeping bag and inflatable mat, all for 149 pounds. The quality is about 50/50 "Millets" / "North Face" !!!, I hope it lasts !

In La Paz you don´t just get Zebra crossings, you get Zebras !!
(they help you cross the busy roads !)

I need a motorbike lock, better webbing for holding it all together, tyre levers, sewing kit and needle nose pliers. I manage to find it all, except (once again) for tyre levers. This time I get some shaped re-bars, and I hope, upon the next puncture, they will be sufficient.

I´m ready to leave La Paz, after 6 days, but fate has other plans ! There is now a serious strike in Potosi which has spread to Uyuni, the protesters have blocked all roads in the area, and all roads South. I know that there are no buses or trains, so I ask if the protesters would be sympathetic to one tourist on a motorbike ? A big NO !  They are not sympathetic to tourists at all. I´m told that tn Potosi a desperate group of tourists ("imprisoned" for 12 days) chartered a plane to escape, "lit" dynamite was thrown at the plane (they are miners, they have a lot of it !),     they seem serious ! 

Now with camping stuff !!!

Instead of leaving I did the "Death Road Cycle Ride". It´s not very deadly, just a nice, scenic day´s mountain biking, but it is a 3600m vertical drop in just a few hours !! there is no verge on the road, and it drops a sheer 400m in  places. I believe it was covered by "Top Gear" last Xmas, but they spiced it up (apparently), there are no buses or lorries now, and have not been for 4 years (there is a new road), in the past apparently 100 people a year died on it !

I received an email from a girl I met in La Paz who is now in Uyuni, she tells me there is no petrol & no electricity in Uyuni and no salt flat tours !. This clinches it for me, I´m convinced the strike will last for weeks more. So after 9 days in La Paz I decide to ride West to Chile and then South to "San Pedro de Atacama" where I can get back to Bolivia by 4x4.

The day before I go I check my bike and find the luggage rack has been completely broken off !! Asking a few questions I find that the office, under the hostel, had a BBQ and moved all the bikes out of the way. When confronted they agree to pay to have it welded back up. But I´m severly p****d off, even welded up it won´t be as strong as before, and I´m totally relying on it. They had no reason to move it without trying to contact me first, as it was properly locked up, both wheels locked (the reason they tried to lift it, not push it, and broke the rack).

Next day I manage to get all the camping stuff on the bike, it looks a bit curious but seems to be OK. After leaving La Paz I ride straight through a Peaje (toll) without stopping, this is what I´ve done countless times in Peru, as bikes don´t pay. In Bolivia a Peaje is also a police checkpoint !  little did I know. I am chased down by two angry policemen who make a big fuss !  After 15 minutes I realise they want money, so it costs me 5 pounds, and I´m allowed to continue....

Copacabana & La Paz

I treat myself to a day´s "rest" in Copacabana to recover from the border "incident" ! Copacabana is a town on the Bolivian side of Lake Titicaca. It´s the annual festival, so it´s very, very busy and I end up sharing a room with a lovely Japanese girl (lucky me !). Not so lucky was the drunk guy who repeated to try and get in our room at 3am, he kept coming back as he was sure we were in his room !

People waiting to see the "Virgen de Copacabana"

The best bit was the evening trip to see the "Virgen de Copacabana", the star of the festival, literally hundreds and hundreds of Peruvians & Bolivians queued the whole night in the dark (and cold) to pay their respects and leave presents, incredible devotion (picture above). They had a tradition of breaking glass bottles against the cliff face, at the end of 7 days the pile of broken glass was above the waterline !  how do clean that up ? In the basement of the cathedral the tradition (apparently) was to draw a picture with candle wax of what you wished for, I saw endless crudely drawn cars and houses !

The day I rode to La Paz was the best day yet for motorcycle touring, a superb road with fantastic mountain scenery and with actual bends in it ! There was a ferry crossing and I got talking with two Argentinian motorcycle tourists (the first I´d seen since Lima !!), I picked up some useful facts about South Bolivian roads, as they had been down to Uyuni (but had not crossed the salt flats, the "Salar de Uyuni").

I arrive La Paz in good time, the view of the city from "El Alto" (from where the road winds down) is breath taking ! I´m not so impressed when I´m told on arrival it´s just about to be "Independence Day" (10 days after Peru), and everything will be shut for 4 days (a little unlucky !), I have a large shopping list of things I realise I need (like tyre levers !). Still, I enjoy the bands and marches that take place for the first day or two.