After traveling for so long, it is hard to believe that a site can generate such enthusiasm from me. I was slowly getting numb to "must-see" places, but low and behold, Uyuni and the desert of Atacama have jaw-dropping abilities!!! It left me, even for a weary traveler, with jaw-dropping impressions and renewed my curiosity for travel !!! Perhaps this is exactly what I neede to do a facelift to my spent/weary spirit.
The Uyuni Salt Flat in Bolivia, the world's largest salt flat at 10,582 km2 and at an altitude of 3,656m altitude. When one visits the Uyuni Salt Flat, one must visit the complete tour which includes a 3 days tour which encompass impressive sceneries of virgin desert landscape unaltered by human with snow-capped mountains, lakes inhabited by elegant pink flamingos, two famous lakes, one that is pristine transluscent apple-green and the other blood-red!, incredulous rock formations formed and shaped by the wind over time, natural geysers and thermal spring!!!
The tour starts from the town of Uyuni, at an altitude of 3,670m up to desert area of over 4,000m. The sceneries one encounter during the whole trip, is one of the most incredible I've ever seen. It never ends to impress me. And I thought that my last 72hrs+ bus ride from the coast of Peru to Buenos Aires was beautiful (see pics on right column Across the desert : Peru to Argentina by road), but no... this trip blew me away. I think the most impressive part is to realize that there are still such pristine, undisturbed natural beauty, that human kind has not yet come to destroy... hence the beauty remains. Probably also due to the desert characteristics, human are not usually attracted to extremely dry area :) For those of you who are reading this, Bolivia has such undiscovered, untampered natural beauties waiting to be discovered!!! No wonder I fell in Bolivia the minute I stepped foot onto this country. To this day, I am still fascinated by what it has to offer, in terms of nature, different climates tropics, subtropics, altiplano, rainforests (yes, Bolivia has a part of the amazon as well!) and the weather varies a lot also due the altitude. A country that has so much to offer!!! :)
Of course any trip/tour is enhanced by the company. Since day 1, I was put in together on a Jeep with 6 Chileans, all very friendly, on the contrary of some stereotype :o They've made my trip, one that is very enjoyable to remember. These Chileans taught me a lot of the colloquial wordings specific to Chileans, and even themselves told me that although Chile is one of the most developped countries in South America, their citizens do not make a good example of their education as they are probably the nation in South American whom uses the most street jargon... to the point where they sound uneducated!
If anyone is planning to head for this trip, just be aware that the sun is really hot during the day and the evenings are BITTERLY COLD! One evening when we stayed at above 4,000m at a simplistic lodging where at such altitude, desert like weather, with no heating... it is realllyyyyy cold !!! In such conditions, would have been great to sleep hugging a loved one... where is he when I needed him!?! And of course, forget about shower... there is no such thing in the desert accomodations. One is lucky to have electricity, and forget about hot water also...
Although the conditions are a bit extreme, the beauties one witness makes you forget every discomfort caused by weather, actually it makes you feel and appreciate the presence of nature. Especially on day 2, after waking up at 4am in order to watch the geysers before sunrise, we were rewarded to a dip in a natural thermal spring in the altitudes :) Dipped in thermal hot spring surrounded by incredible scenery in the altitudes, with no other living beings around (except for the hordes of tourists but still not that much compare to Peru!), is a feeling that one has to LIVE it to know it, a sensation of elation and connection with the purest of what nature has to offer... A MUST !!!
Jenny, where are you now?
ReplyDeleteMissing you,
Sam