The hotel owner did not exaggerate but rather understate. Before Oruro we are already shaken like on a powerplate thanks to non paved streets. Sleeping is almost impossible.
At 2 am the bus stops and the drivers are changed, which is good to see, but unfortunately the road is getting worse and worse and soon we are only sliding around between sand and gravel. Sleeping is impossible and at 8am we arrive in Uyuni, not in our best moods. Even here hardly any streets are paved and everything is dusty. We are shocked but way to tired to fully realize it.
In the office of the tour operator we get more information about our trip and then we have two hours to find breakfast and finally some coffee as well as a place with internet to book a flight back to La Paz. After coming back from the desert we are sure we do not want another night like this.
There seems to be no restaurant with internet and our coffee addiction leads us into a breakfastplace. I brought my toothbrush and want to change in the bathroom, but there is no running water and fromthe way the toilet looks like, I also don't have to pee anymore...
Only reluctantly I eat the dried bread and drink the instant coffee with milk powder, which is the normal way of servinng coffee in Bolivia. And there is no Starbucks anywhere...
In a convenience store/ internet place we find wifi and get to use it for 15 min. The couple running place is checking closely and already yelling at a tourist who is on the phone, almost taking it from him although he is willing to pay more.
I am frantically searching for a flight from Uyuni back to La Paz and when. I get it the confirmation will be only in a couple of hours, great!
In the coffeeshop next to our pickup place we are lucky with the bathroom and the coffee we order just to be nice is real! We do have to wait for it for a long time though because it has to be made in the real coffeemaker by the boss himself. The ladies cannot do it and boss is out. He has 15 more minutes before we have to go and it works out, on time for my second nose bleeding session. The first one. I had on the bus already. Thanks La Paz and your old cars, I guess.
Until we are really sitting in the car we have no idea who is travelling wih us. I am still armdeep in my backpack to get the stuff I don't want on the roof and when I take my hand out my middle finger is hurting and swelling up. I have not noticed being stung, can't see anything else. Weird.
When we are picking up two more girls in front of their hotel I am running around trying to find some ice for the finger. But that is an issue here. I panic and the creativity kicks in. At the butcher I see some yoghurt in the fridge, so I want to buy it. When. I touch it though, it is not cold. Why should it be coming out of a fridge where there is also meat? I am handing the yoghurt back and give up. It will be fine.
2 Brazilian guys, 2 Dutch girls, Arzu, Franz - our driver - and I are on our way. First stop: the train cemetery. Here we can find old and rusty trains. Everything just like the way here is dusty and every step creates a cloud of dust. My nose is not happy and starts bleeding again. This time it won't stop and being in the car again with the windows closed in the heat and the shaking are not helping. I go through several tissues and it won't stop. We have the next stop at the entrance of the salt flat. I run out past the tourist stalls towards the Banos sign. The toilet lady shouts after me that I need to pay, I turn around show her my bloody face and keep running.
I have no clue why she has a right to collect money for what she calls a toilet anyway... But with some water from my bottle and some of my own toilet paper I can stop the bleeding. I hope it will be fine now, but with all the dust, changes are slim.
Inside the salt flat we stop again and see some piles ready to be transported back to the town for processing. This is really cool and there is no more dust. Everything is "clean" here. The desert is unbelievably light and without sunglasses it is like when I am skiing. Everything is really really flat, you can see very far. White, white, white...
At the flag place the Brazilians are happy. Their flag is the most common here. :)
For lunch we stop literally in the middle of the desert and while Franz is preparing lunch out of the trunk we are starting to take the illusion pictures. Very funny. The ground is really hard though.
We drive and drive and my eyes are closing. When we stop we are in front of an island in the middle of the desert, full of cactusses. We have one hour to walk up and explore. Since my nosebleeds it is hard for me to breath and we almost don't make it all the way up.
At around 5 we leave the Salt flat at the other end of Uyuni for our first night in a salt hotel. We are the first ones and get the best rooms. Then we also take a shower. For 1.20$ it is even hot for 7 min.
Our room seems cold but everything except for the foundation is made of salt blocks.
For dinner we get a typical Bolivian soup, which is really good and the Bolivian national dish we get after is also tasty. This is definitely in the top 5 of the best food. I have had in the past weeks. For entertainment we get to hear stories from a guy from the next table. He has an opinion about everything and has been everywhere. Arzu is embarrassed because he is from Turkey and so she is Canadian for the night. :)
At 9pm we are in bed and pretty surprised at how warm it is. The salt really keeps the cold outside and I am sleeping really good, like I haven't in a long time.
No comments:
Post a Comment