The first day of our journey on the Salar tour, Mansi and I woke up in hopes of eating a delicious pancake breakfast. Unfortunately, the pancake store was not open. After all, it was 8 AM, and that is just too early for Bolivia. Instead we went to the local market and stocked up on pan, mandarinas, and this delicious deep fried dough smothered in honey. So we got to the tour agency, hopped in the back of the jeep, and we were off. The first day was a little boring. We stopped a few times to get some photos of the pretty scenery, but we were mostly just driving.
The other two people on our tour were Chris and Janice, a late twenties / early thirties couple from Sydney Australia. They helped make the experience way more fun. And so did our driver, Daniel. That night, Daniel came in asking for all the lyrics to “I gotta feeling” by Black Eyed Peas. So all five of us spent about 45 minutes listening to the song on repeat and copying down the lyrics for him in his notebook. I then continued by giving him pronunciation lessons on how to say “tonight”—which is actually a hard word because the ‘g’ is silent. Luckily I had taken a Spanish phonetics class and knew how to write it phonetically in Spanish “tu-nait.” Fun times singing… but it turns out that lyrics sheet might not have been the best idea… read on to understand.
Day 2: You can pee here. The volcano is inactive.
Day two was the day of the lagoons, volcanoes, a desert that inspired Dali, and thermal baths. Many of the lagoons reeked of sulfur, which I guess makes sense because of all the volcanoes in the area. We even saw some geysers that were created by the nearby volcanoes that were spurting out sulfuric gases. It probably was not the smartest idea when Mansi and I decided to run in between all the holes spewing up these gases, but we just tried to hold our breath. It didn’t really work though, and I think my mouth tasted like sulfur for about an hour.
In the morning at the first lagoon, Mansi and I decided to warm ourselves up by drinking some of our Singani. Yes, it was 10 AM and we were both extremely tipsy. But it was well worth it because I wasn’t cold anymore. Plus, it was essential to drink it at that moment because the bottle had started to leak and we just really didn’t want Singani to spill all over the Jeep. Therefore, it was absolutely essential to drink at 10 AM. You would have done the same thing.
In the afternoon, we ate lunch at the thermal baths where we all just stuck our feet in. None of us wanted to go all the way in because it was just too cold when we got out that we wouldn’t have been able to deal with it if it was our whole bodies.
Day two was also the day that I decided to be stupid and step in disgusting sulfuric mud not once, but two times! So not only was my right foot completely crusty, crumby, and dirty, but so was my left. My sneakers are still caked in mud, and I am thinking I will probably just wait until I get home to have my lovely mother take care of cleaning them. (I love you, Mom!)
We got to our hotel around 4 PM which was next to la Laguna Colorada which was a red colored lagoon with bright pink flamingos in it. Mansi and I headed down to the lagoon to read, but then we got bored so we decided to have a dance party. Songs of choice = Mi nina bonita (Chino & Nacho), Dynamite (Taio Cruz), Wavin’ Flag (K’naan & David Bisbal), and Waka Waka (Shakira).
Once the sun set, we headed in to eat dinner and called it an early night since it was just way too cold to not be underneath a mountain of blankets.
Day 3: Good thing we brought that Singani
The third day of our journey also happened to be Independence Day for Bolivia. We spent the day seeing a few more lagoons and driving through the national park. We also saw some cool rock formations. Supposedly one of them is supposed to be sacred because it looks like a tree… I guess they think that’s cool here. We climbed a bunch of rocks, and saw some more pretty scenery, and then… guess what? The day was over.
We ended early again today, and we unloaded our things for the last time at a salt hotel next to the Salar de Uyuni. Since no one was at the hotel, we asked Daniel where everyone was. He told us the whole village was at a party for Independence Day. Well, Mansi and I knew we wanted to be at that party. So we grabbed the rest of the Singani and we were on our way. We found the party—it wasn’t hard at all; only 12 families live in this village. We felt a little awkward crashing the party at first, but then an old man ushered us his way. He told us we both had to drink some beer (luckily it was Huari, my favorite). Then we presented him with our bottle of Singani, and everyone cheered. We were then immediately loved by all 12 families in this community. They kept pouring us more beer (also each time we got a new cup, we had to offer some to Pachamama, or mother earth, by pouring a little onto the ground), and soon we were both pretty chispada, or tipsy. We watched games, and Mansi even participated in a potato sack race. She purposefully lost, though, because she was supposed to represent the U.S., and we both wanted Bolivia to win on their Independence Day.
After the partying with the locals, we walked out to read near the Salar. Not much reading got done, though, because we began to write in the salt messages to our friends.
After playing on the salt flats, we headed back to take our first shower in days (this tour is not conducive to being clean since showers do not exist at the majority of the hotels on the tour). Finally I was clean, and I ate dinner, and once again, we called it an early night since we just needed to get under our covers.
Day 4: I gotta feel you (-ing)
The last day of the trip was one of the most fun. We had all gotten so close that we were not ready to leave each other. We woke up at 5 AM to watch the sun rise over the largest salt flats in the world. After watching the sunrise, we headed to the Isla del Pescado (Fish Island, which looks like a fish when you see it from above). It was one of the most beautiful places I have ever been, and I’ve decided that if and when I come back to Bolivia, I want to spend a night or two on this “island” in the middle of the Salar.
After walking around the island and eating breakfast, we decided to play on the salt flats. We had lots of fun, and many interesting pictures were taken. Mansi and I even decided to dance on some tables made out of salt at the original salt hotel.
Finally, the tour was over. We were on our last leg of the journey heading to Uyuni. Daniel decided to play “I gotta feeling” one more time. This time, taking out the notebook with the lyrics in it to sing along. He had both hands off the wheel and he kept turning around to look at Mansi and I so that he could be in the video we were taking of him. All I can remember is Mansi and I laughing hysterically as Janice kept screaming for him to watch the road (probably because we kept driving off of it, but I thought that’s what four wheel drives were for). He dropped us off in Uyuni, we all exchanged e-mail addresses, and we said our goodbyes.
I just love your blog Becky :) I miss our dance parties!!!
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