Overnight bus plus more to Sucre. Sucre was the capital of
Bolivia and known for its colonial buildings and beautiful scenery. We arrived
and instantly Chad said he was going to find a bus to the salt flats. From the
bus terminal you couldn’t see anything of the city and didn’t look that nice.
As Chad ventured off to figure out a bus solution I chatted with the group to
see what there plans were. The girls mentioned horseback riding and not knowing
when they would leave Sucre. Arve was now falling for Mathilda and knew he
wouldn’t leave her. The way they made it sound was they were going to be in
Sucre for a while and I really wanted to get to Argentina for my three
activities: wine, steak and woman. Not much more I could ask for. Chad came
back and said there was a bus leaving in 5 minutes for Uyuni. This was the town
where the largest salt flats in the world were. Instantly, on a limb I said
goodbye to everyone and said I would see him or her in Uyuni (hopefully). We
all had our horrible goodbyes and part of the group broke up. This was a very
said moment as me and Arve had been travelling for the past month and the girls
and I became really good friends. All within 30 seconds we all dispersed. Wish
there was a better way than this way but it happened.
Uyuni
The bus that I thought would take only a few hours turned
into 10 hours. A bus that I seriously regretted once I got on. I felt so bad
for the way our group left, I felt I shouldn’t have ever left. After 10 hours
we arrived into Uyuni. This town was a complete shithole and started to stress
instantly. Chad and I both realized this place sucked and didn’t know what to
do. We knew the salt flats were here but no sign of any salt. We walked around
looking for hostels and one day trips to the flats. Another main reason to
coming to the flats was for the day trip, not the 3 day campouts. None of us
wanted to do that and heard you could do day trips here. Instantly asked if
this was possible and most of the places said only 3 days were offered. Stress
began. Next issue was trying to figure out how to get out of Uyuni to Argentina
and for Chad to Chille. This equaled stress number 2. Then finding a room plus
getting some dinner since that never happened since yesterday. Overall the
first hour in Uyuni was hell and already wanted to leave.
We found a hostel and ventured out to get the deeds done of
booking the flats and booking buses out of this town. Done! We found a day trip
for $20 and both bought tickets get out of this town! Chads bus left at 3 am
the next day and my bus left two days later. The only option for me was a night
bus at 8 pm and the tours come back at 8 pm so I had to opt for the next day.
Salt flats:
Next day woke up bright and early for our 10:30 am tour. Yes
10:30, extremely late for a tour. We started to drive into the wilderness for
about 15 minutes and the driver pulls into this railroad cemetery. No idea why
there is a railroad cemetery here, or why it’s a tourist attraction but we
stayed here for 30 minutes to take photos of these things. Either some people
have never seen a train in there life or they are just dumb. Either way, I
jumped on the train and snapped a few photos to look normal. Got back in the
van and took off for the salt flats! 45 minutes later the driver stops at some
random, deserted street clothing strip for all the tourist to buy random shit.
This is another reason why tours are typically overlooked by people and taken
advantage of. We stopped for a while. All of the gifts were made out of salt!
Wow-ee. I gave in and bought some salt dice. Damn driver. Next stop salt flats!
Next stop indeed was salt, and miles upon miles of salt. But this first stop
was where workers would dig up salt and pile it on top of each other forming
this pyramid shape salt mine that is about 4 feet tall. Surrounding the cone is
a perfect square of water that the worker dug up. They do this to dry out the
salt. Another interesting stop because we were just in the middle of the way of
all of these workers trying to work, while we take photos of salt. Quite ironic
in my opinion. This is another reason I did the day tour, not three days. Next
stop salt flats! Even though we were already on endless miles of salt and 7
meters deep of this stuff we kept on driving. Each time you would see a car,
the car would look like it was driving 400 km a hour and before you knew it, it
was gone. The perspective out here is gone and depth reception is out the door.
That part was my favorite about this area. You felt like you were on another
planet and earth did not exist. One of the stops was to take some perspective
photos. Since there is no perspective you could shoot photos that looked like you
were small. Sort of like the movie/book “Indian in the Cupboard”. You can take
a photo and look like you are 2 inches tall. Our photos were jumping on a
beanbag like a trampoline. Pretty neat huh? Next stop was some island. This was
not an island to me since I could walk into the salt but still very ire and
surreal. To get on this island you had
to pay. Our solution was to walk around the island fo free. Beat that system.
The lunch that day was pretty good: T-bone steak and rice. Not bad.
Got back from the fun day at the salt flats. Exactly what I
imagined and checked off the list. Grabbed some food and went to bed. That
night Chad left for Chile and I had the benefit to stay in Uyuni for one extra
24 hours! That day was pretty boring I must say. Went to the Internet café for
most of it and did a bit of people watching, then repeat. I had no hostel so
couldn’t just sleep it away. That night grabbed some pizza (for some reason the
whole town was pizza shops) and headed to the bus. This is where the best part
of the trip started. It was when I got to leave Uyuni.
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