Crossing From San Pedro, Chile to Uyuni, Bolivia

The Morning of the Departure:

I ended up booking my trip to Uyuni without anyone that I’d met in San Pedro or in other places during my travels. There were 17 people in our caravan none of whom I knew. I knew a few of the people in just about all of the other groups leaving on similar trips, just no one in mine. It may sound like this was unlucky—that it might make for a lonely trip—but I found that among other less-than-pleasant people, my incredibly talkative acquaintance, Kim, was traveling in one of the other groups. Rosemary is right, things really do seem to happen in 3’s for Italians, so maybe this will my last encounter with him. He happened upon me as I waited for my jeep in the logical place: on the street in front of the travel agency. Kim kept trying to convince me that a jeep clearly marked and parked by a different agency must be mine and that I should jump aboard the random vehicle trusting blind luck. Call me crazy, but I’ll take logic over uneducated impulse nine times out of ten. I spent the time until my jeep came trying to explain to Kim why that didn’t make sense and why he should stop urging me in that direction. My attempts were fruitless. He persisted until his own jeep came and relieved me of his adamant company. My jeep arrived shortly after. I boarded and waited for the rest of the group who were almost all running very late. Apparently, although Kim’s decoy jeep failed to fool me, the group of Danish girls that delayed our group had taken the bait. We had to wait for the drivers to balance out the incorrectly distributed masses before we could head on our way.

The Group:

Meeting the people on the trip was interesting, a random gathering of strangely compatible people. There were two British women, a German couple, three Dutch guys on their gap year, another Dutch girl who had a disaster involving a lost passport, an Australian couple, me, and the four Danish girls in my jeep. Our first stop was at the Chilean/Bolivian border. I was the only one treated badly (being American), they have a special procedure for Americans where they take your passport away and send you out of the building for half an hour… just so that you can return and be told that they process your information inside the border at immigration offices. I can’t imagine a better way to start a trip than dealing with a bunch of rude, curt, purposeless, and presumptive Bolivian militia. This, however, was just about the only time I was treated badly in Bolivia.

The Sights:

After the border, the stops can be summed up as a lot of small lakes with salt or mineral deposits that made them appear various colors: Laguna Blanca, Laguna Verde, Laguna Colorada and plenty of others. Although they were interesting and beautiful at first, 2 days of lake visits really did get a little boring. We witnessed flamingos and llamas in their natural habitats, but just like the lakes they got less and less remarkable as the trip continued. We changed scenery only on occasion, taking breaks to check out some irregular rock formations and other scenery that offered a bit of variety. We mixed things up by climbing rocks and finding other ways to exert ourselves when we had the opportunity to get out of the jeeps. Fortunately we were able to pass the less interesting time in good company.

The Salt Flats:

The third day highlighted the trip nicely. The night before, they drove us out to the flats so we could look at the stars and pointed out some traditional Bolivian constellations (I think they probably made them up and simply use them to dazzle tourists). Since there was virtually no light and only a thin layer of atmosphere between us and the sky, the Milky Way formed a perfectly thick and obvious line all the way across the sky, and the patchy light created by nearby galaxies illuminated large blotches in the star-speckled sky. After a great night’s sleep, we arose at 5:30 AM to watch the sun rise on the salt flats. The rest of the day was a long drive across salt, NaCl, and sodium chloride, with lots of stops on the pristine, glistening flat lands.

We did the usual salt flat activities: lifting jeeps, standing on soap boxes, and threw in a few originals as well. The perfectly flat, featureless ground creates a depth-less canvas where everything appears 2-dimensional. After some photo sessions and short visits to the nearby sites we headed to the town at the end of our journey.





We arrived in Uyuni, a small town where there was no choice but to constantly run into each other during our planning of other trips. Inevitably a few of us ended up heading the same direction. There is a lot to be said about the people I met, and what it means to be an American abroad… but I’ll save that for later. The short version is that I met a lot of people, had a lot of great times, and saw some incredible things. I can’t wait to travel in the near future when I’ll have more money at my disposal to do other trips of this sort.

San Pedro de Atacama, Chile

The First Day and Night in San Pedro de Atacama:

I took the same bus from Salta to San Pedro de Atacama as a few other people I met in the hostel, but I didn't end up hanging out with them when I got there. The hostels in San Pedro were generally expensive and offered very little, so I walked around town for a few hours without finding anything that appealed. Eventually my mind asked the 'why the hell not?' question, and I walked about 3 miles out of town amongst the dunes and set up camp for the night. The sunset bathed the oasis and surrounding mountains in a rich assortment of colors and left the desert pitch black only a short time after it began to settle on the horizon.

Only short bursts of intense wind accelerating over the dunes disturbed the silent calm of the Atacama. I took time to just lay back and stare at the stars, the only visible light anywhere. We humans tend to think of shelter as a way of securing ourselves from the harshness of the natural world, but just as often we close ourselves off from the inspiring beauty that only nature can accomplish. Although not staying in the over-priced hostels that the others from the Salta crew settled for severed a few ties, I managed to take an incredibly new and refreshing experience from my decision. I woke up and hiked back into town early in the morning before anyone might happen upon a tent nestled amongst the dunes.


Cycling Around San Pedro

The Valley of the Moon:

After arriving in town I rented a bike for the day and set out on an ambitious journey. I brought food and water to last the day and left San Pedro with a map that looked like (and functioned like) a piece of 'art' drawn by a 5-year-old using Microsoft Paint. The road on the "map" persisted where the actual road jogged, a left curve drawn as a right bend. The mountains were valleys, the forks were spoons, and I ended up navigating the sights blindly. At least the terrible cartography encouraged side-excursions into unmarked, but interesting looking canyons and trails.

After finding a few cool, tucked-away places, I arrived at the aptly named Valley of the Moon. It appeared in a vastly different place than was marked on the "map"... about 5km and a full 90 degree curve before the marked location. It was, however, quite a sight. The salt that surfaced as a result of the recent rain made the small mountain range appear like a lunar landscape.

The Valley of the Nothing:

Leaving the Valley of the Moon was incredibly disappointing. I decided to continue on the circle as it was marked on the terrible abstraction that the rental company called a "map." I was supposed to see 'The Three Marias," a cave in the mountains, and meet up with the main road shortly after. What I actually saw were 3 rocks that didn't prompt a second look, a hole in the wall that didn't even provide shade at it's furthest end, and a whole hell of a lot of nothing. So I ended up biking in a desert valley for 2 hours and back over the mountain range with the most interesting sight being my hands perceptibly turning more red. The area was about as dry and visually stimulating as this part of this post. Either way, 39 kilometers later I had completed the loop having seen a few unmarked canyons, the Valley of the Moon, and a lot of rocks in varying sizes and degrees of fineness.

La Quebrada del Diablo:

Having completed the days recommended amount of riding, I of course decided to keep going. The road continued to the Devil's Ravine. A long road nestled between rock walls that sometimes towered beyond sight. The road was narrower than an average American at its narrowest, shorter than an average Bolivian at its shortest, and as awesome as the average me at its most awesome. It was an interesting thing to take a bike through, being bikable for about 90% of it's 5km (estimated) length. The only sounds that echoed through the tight rock formations were those of my rickety bike, and an occasional falling stone.

Devil's Cave, and the River from the Oasis:

An unremarkable archaeological site lay further up the road along the river that flowed out of the oasis. Pictures were not taken. Pictures were not deserved. The surroundings and river were far more impressive. Take that, mankind. Your overly-glorified achievements once again pale in comparison to the natural beauty you destroy in order to "create."

Backtracking from there was the only way to get back to town, and I barely managed to fit in the last stop on the map before sunset. La Cueva del Diablo(another inspiring and unique name...). Nestled way up on the mountainside, the cave was an interesting thing to bike through, turning pitch black for the majority of the ride through. The hillside on the other end provided a pretty remarkable view of several drastically different environments. From that height it was easy to see the river bed; the dry desert mountains; and the snow covered dormant volcanoes of the Andean Altiplano.



The Daily Totals:

Returning to town was a quick, mostly downhill journey. I had some nice, cheap Chilean food as recommended by a local man (it pays to speak Spanish), and checked into the cheapest hostel I could find. I managed to do virtually everything on the map, covering about double the distance that the rental agency recommended. I paid the difference in sunburns, since deserts really don't offer much shade.

Kilometers Biked: 96
Hours With Bike: 13
Bananas Eaten: 4
Liters of Water Drunk: 4
Percentage of Body Sunburned: 50
Total Expenses (bike, housing, food): US $22

Sand boarding on the Dunes:

After taking it easy the next day, I went out to the dunes to try out sand boarding.

I didn't stay out long on account of tiring trips back to the top of the dunes, uncomfortable heat, and a general disappointment in the amount of excitement sliding down a wall of sand provides. You have to re-wax the board every time you go down the hill. When it runs out you slow down, and sometimes catch a patch of compact sand that throws you forcefully off the board and onto the dune, which is not as forgiving as it sounds. Not all the rocks in the desert have been worn down to fine sand particles, some are still just rocks.

Either way, it rounded out the Atacama trip in reasonably fun, and inexpensive manner. The next day began a 3-day jeep trip through the Andean Altiplano to Uyuni, Bolivia.


P.S.
Blogging next to obnoxious German youths playing Mario Kart definitely isn't something I thought I'd be doing in Bolivia.

Unremarkable Mendoza, and Minimally Interesting Salta

The Bus from Bariloche:

I arrived in the bus station and once again ran into my talkative Korean friend Kim. Honestly, I really wasn't in the mood to humor him, and hoped that we weren't taking the same bus. Luckily, he headed west and I turned north to Mendoza. I met an amazing girl on the way there, an adventure tourism guide from Quebec who tipped me off about San Pedro de Atacama.

Mendoza, Not the Place for Me:

Although hanging out with her in Mendoza was fun, I was happy to leave after one night, and one disappointing wine and bike tour. I ended up hanging out with a Spaniard wine connoisseur that drove me nuts the whole wine tour. He was the wealthy elitist type and stuck to me like glue simply because he didn't want to go to the wineries alone. The wine country felt like the California central valley, which didn't interest me at all. The trip was moderately painful, but I won't dwell on it. I drank and enjoyed a couple vintage malbecs, and was happy with just that. I was very glad to get on the bus to Salta.

Salta, don't Be Fooled by the Name:

An incredible mountainous jungle surrounds Salta, a city that has become a popular hub for travelers heading into northern Chile and Bolivia. I had gone expecting desert scenery, and was pleasantly surprised by the beauty that surrounded the city.

Most of the activities here, like Mendoza cost an arm and a leg... so I just stuck to camping and trekking. It was a good place to collect myself and get a little rest and relaxation, although the city itself was rather busy. There was a nice park, and a beautiful trek up to the top of a mountain next to the city. There was a tram that takes lazy people to the top as well, but I couldn't imagine paying to miss out on a great walk up a winding 1,000 step stairway through in the middle of the jungle. When I approached the top, I was disappointed to see a touristy and unnatural lawn and resort. They had a fake waterfall with disgusting recycled water, and a fancy cafe for the wealthy tourists. I took a few pictures of the city from that trap, and went back down to the city VIA the staircase.

Unfortunately there was little else to do in Salta without forking over some serious cash, so I left it behind after 3 nights. It took about that long for my body to get used to the altitude anyway. From there I bussed to San Pedro de Atacama.

All the bus rides I've taken were beautiful and interesting, but this one in particular was truly incredible. After watching the jungles melt into desert, we drove across a small salt flat. It looks like water in the photograph, but you can tell from up close that it's just a giant field of glistening and dry salt. I have never seen anything else like it, and it's made me very excited about the trip I'm going to make into Uyuni, Bolivia.

The scenery was fantastic, and despite a slightly disappointing entry into San Pedro, I've found the Atacama incredibly diverse and fantastic.