High in the Sky

22-24 February
3 day 4x4 tour through salt flats

We arrived at Extrella del Sur, our tour operator, bright and perky in eager anticipation for our 4x4 trip into Bolivia, along with hungover Ron and Maarten in tow. This is where we met Thomas and Louise, from Denmark, also hungover from a night of partying with the locals. Once again, due to superb planning we had little Chilean pesos left over, as did Thomas and Louise. In desperation for something to eat for breakfast, Thomas had to walk around the group begging for ¨small change for bread¨.

Maarten, still convinced that the US$18 laundrette had stolen his precious bright orange Netherlands football shirt, banged incessantly on the launderette door from 8am-8:30 when finally they opened. Much to his despair, it wasn’t hanging on the line, but Gayle found her missing sock and undies...

Caught the bus to the Bolivian border. Immigration was going smoothly until Nicky got to the front of the queue with her South African passport… ¨South Africa?.. no visa?¨´ and had her passport confiscated by the border officials. Waves of nausea and adrenaline surged amongst the group, fearing that we’d be returning to Chile and Nicky would be jailed!

Bribes were contemplated, however the border officials agreed to let Nicky into the country provided that her passport remained in the custody of our tour guide until arrival in the next town, Uyuni where she’d have to go to immigrations to purchase visa. The requirement of a visa was a shock to Nicky as she had checked this out previously, both South African and Bolivian home affairs had said it was not necessary. We’re convinced the border is using an ancient photocopied document of countries requiring visas (typical 3rd world country, feel like we’re in Africa) - NOTE to South Africans holding another passport USE THIS INSTEAD!

So the six of us, Nicky, Gayle, Ron, Maarten, Thomas and Louise, set off in our Toyota landcruiser into Bolivia (with Nicky’s passport in our tour guide´s, Vallerio, breast pocket).

The scenery was exquisite. We could see how Salvador Dali found his inspiration from this landscape as the slightest change in light and angle transformed oranges to greens, reds to blues, and browns to purples. Each lake was a different colour - creamy white, azure, lime green and brilliant red with millions of pink flamingoes, all created by different minerals and micro-organisms. We swam in Aguas Termales, the hot spings, and saw geysers of hot, blubbling, plopping mud and spewing out steamy gases.

One of the highlights of the trip was staying in the Hotel de Sal, built entirely of salt including the chairs, tables and the floor, another being the Uyuni Salt flats. Photos of these 12000km2 salt flats can never fully capture the mesmerising panorama of this neverending expanse where the land reflects the sky and it is difficult to differentiate between the two.

Our tour ended in Uyuni where we found a closed immigration office. There are not many places in the world where you can knock on the door of the brother of the immigration official, speak to his cousin´s wife´s and then her uncle´s son, who gives you a phone number, and 20 minutes later, the immigration official opens the office door at 4pm on a Saturday afternoon for a gringo! One hour and US$45 later, Nicky had a Bolivian visa in her passport and we fortunately able to leave the dump of Uyuni behind and catch a bus to Potosi.

The bus ride was another adventure in itself. Initially we were all pretty pleased with ourselves and our comfy reclining seats in the back row until, at the time of departure, last minute stragglers jumped on the bus with bags, babies, groceries along with their body odour and deposited themselves on the floor between our legs for 4hour bus ride - much to our bemusement. The humour was heightened when Ron hit his head numerous times on the roof of the bus, as we bumped along a horrendous dirt road to Potosi.