Bolivia- The SalariaIt is the end of November and we find ourselves 13 hours out of La Paz, stuffed in the back of a landcruiser crossing one of the most stunningly beautiful deserts I´ve ever seen- Bolivia´s Salaria - a great blindingly white salt flat expanding hundreds of miles across one of the most desolate deserts in the world. This place is special, not only because of the spectacular scenery, but because it is also home to 3 types of endangered pink flamingos that live in the desert´s salty turquoise lakes.
Of course (per usual), I wasn´t sure what I was getting into when we stumbled off the bus in Uyuni at 4 in the morning from La Paz, knocked on the first hostal door we could find, and crashed out into our double beds still vibrating from a 13 hours bus trip from hell.
Uyuni is the gateway into the Salaria from the north and consists of a handful of hotels, restaurants, tour companies, and tourist gimmicks, plopped in the middle of the dusty brown flat land. it wouldn´t even exist without the stream of toursits that run through the town inot hte Salaria and down to Chile
There were a couple reasons why I wanted to get out of this place, not the least because our hotel had no water...I mean not a drop...So we quickly found a tour to take us on the 3 day trip through the Salaria. It wasn´t hard to choose. Every company is pretty much the same; The same route (3 days), the same car (Toyota Landcruiser), the same guides (¨chauffers¨)
The next morning we meet the rest of our group at the tour office at 9 where our driver, santiago, is waiting for us. There is an older German man travelling solo (a talker, there´s always
one), and a Polish couple who had just gotten off the same horrible bus ride we´d done the day before. Once we were snug in hte Cruiser, we were off!...Along with about 50 other Cruisers, all elaving at the same time, on the same road.
One thing to remember is that Santiago is a ¨chauffer¨ which basically means a taxi driver from La Paz...and though he knew nothing about the salaria, the desert, cooking, safety or apparently earning tips, one thing he did know how to do was drive faster than all the other land cruisers going to the same place...So me Brad, the Poles Marek and Magda, and the German Klaus, bonded
while hanging on for dear life as our driver plowed through dirt and gravel.
The Tour:
Around us drifts of brown dirt shift on the flat dusty terrain. On the horizon the brown melts into purple and then a line of pure white. That is the salt Flat, a seasonal salt lake that forms a thick crust of icy white during hte dry season. When we reach the flat there is nothing but miles and miles of blinding whiteness. nohting grows here. Our first stop is a little island that has managed to eke out an ecosystem above the salt. It is covered with fossilized coral and old giant cacti. next to the entrance is a 900 year old cactus! we hike around here, and santiago sets out a lunch for us, then chats with the other drivers while we run off and take funky pictures with the rest of the tourists.
The Poles are on a whirlwind tour of South America and take about 300 pictures. We get into the hostal around 3p (thanks to Santiago who would start driving away when he felt like we´d had enough time at a certain place) and since we have nothing to do until dinner we buy about 10 beers and get wasted, laugh, eat, then pass out in our shared room.
Brad and I sneak a walk into the desert and watch the full moon rise over us and shimmer across the salty desert floor.
In the morning we leave the salt flats for the lakes. These azure lakes are home to 3 endagered species of flamingos that feed off the red algae that thrives in the salt. It was really something to watch these birds, whose necks curve artfully over their tear drop bodies, flashing pink in the sun, and balancing on two little stick legs as the wind blows violently across the water.
We end up at our final destination of the day...a deep blue lake with currents of red algae, and clear streams flowing into it, creating a lush green frame in the desloate stretch of grey brown.
Here the wind is so violent it take us a half hour to walk to the lake and an hour to walk back against it. The flamingos are pushed comically across the water, tottering on their sticks. It is really a beautiful sight.
Our last day is spent seeing some of the amazing geological fomrationsa round the area...though 
Santiago has no clue exactly what they are....There are natural rock formations, geysers, and a volcano that is still active today.
This natural beauty isn´t even dimished by the fact that we get stale bread and nescafe for breakfast, or that Santiago failed to mention to us that there was a natural hot spring that we could swim in if we wanted. At the springs there are about 30 college kids splashing around in the hot pool...we look longingly at it but our suits are packed in the top of the Lancruiser and so we walk around a bit. In search of some warm coffee to lift our spirits we stumble into an albergue where other tour groups are being served....our mouths drop....cakes, coffee, yogurt, fruit!? Sometimes ignorance is easier to handle...we all go grudgingly back to the car, to Santiago and his stale bread....Such is life in the cheap tour department.
We end up at the Chilean border where B and I leave our new friends and head off to our next leg of our trip...Argentina!!
Bike tour of the Wine coutry!
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