South West Bolivia

We recently arrived back to civilisation after a 5 day tour around remote regions of South West Bolivia. We knew that Bolivia had a lot to offer, but we never expected to find it all in the one place! This area is just a hotbed of geothermal activity!

For the tour, we joined up with a cool French couple (Julien and Elodie) and together with our excellent guide (Freddy) and his 4-wheel-drive Jeep, we drove along a rough dirt track through the Andes from Tupiza to a town called Uyuni. We could go on for hours about the trip (it did last 5 days!) some of the fantastic things we encountered were:

· Numerous Volcanos – some active, and one of which was currently erupting and venting a continuous plumb of sulphur gas

· Bubbling hot springs – we took a nice swim in one.......ahhhh relaxing!

· A Green Lake – coloured a bright artificial turquoise colour due to the minerals in the water (including arsenic)

· A Red Lake – coloured a deep red colour due to the micro-organisms present in the water

· Steaming Geysers – cracks in the ground with hot clouds of sulphur rising out

· Weird and Colourful Rocks – lots of different and unusual rock formations

· Twisters – a number of mini and not-so-mini tornados

· The Salar de Uyuni – the world’s largest salt flat.

In addition to the above, we saw a large number of interesting animals/birds, most notably THOUSANDS of pink flamingos which seemed to thrive on the minerals in the lakes, as well as numerous Lamas, and a number of Andean Rabbits (they look just like regular rabbits only they have a tail like a cat!)

Volcano Climbing

One of the highlights of the tour was climbing the 5960m volcano Licancabur, right on the Bolivian Chilean border. We had heard conflicting reports about the difficulty of the climb....the Lonely Planet guidebook indicated that it was 8 hours up and 2 hours down, whereas our own tour guide said it was much easier than that and it could be done in 4 hours up and 1 hour down. Unfortunately the Lonely Planet was right and it proved to be more difficult than we anticipated.

We commenced our climb in (freezing) pitch darkness at 4am in the morning – the reason being that if we started too late, then the winds at the top of the mountain later in the day could be too strong. The stars out there (far from any artificial light) were some of the best we remember seeing anywhere. After a time, the moon emerged giving us some light, and then later we were treated to a fantastic sunrise – truly amazing!

The base of the mountain was at approximately 4400m so we had a climb of about 1500m to do. (To put some perspective on this for the non-skydivers out there, we normally jump out of planes at 4000m above sea level!) The climb itself was not so technically difficult but the real problem was the lack of oxygen as we got higher and higher. At the base, the air was already quite thin but we had become relatively accustomed to this so apart from occasional shortness of breath, we were largely unaffected by it. However, as we got higher, the lack of oxygen was affecting us more and more. Altitude sickness started to set in as we got closer to the top.....nausea, headaches, blurred vision, light-headedness....it was just like being drunk but without the benefits! At this stage, we were moving very slowly, taking just one slow step at a time and frequent rests.....we must have looked like walking zombies! Thankfully we did eventually make it to the top after 7 hours and the views were really amazing.

You might wonder how a volcano that takes 7 hours to climb only takes 2 hours to get down...well so were we....and we found out soon enough! The route down was different to the route up and basically consisted of a 1500m slide of loose stones. Yes, believe it or not, but to get down, we were basically expected to start a mini rock-slide and surf it down bit by bit. As exciting as this sounds (and it was exciting at times) it was a bit scary and very draining. It actually took us 4 hours to get down due to the altitude sickness (especially Kadi) and we were so happy to finally have our feet on solid ground at the bottom! It was probably the toughest hike we’ve ever done but very rewarding.

Salar de Uyuni

One of the main reasons for us to come to Bolivia was to check out the Salar de Uyuni....the largest salt flat in the world. It is basically a massive bed of salt that formed thousands of years ago when some mountainous salty lakes dried up. What is impressive about the Salar is the sheer size: it stretches for hundreds of miles in all directions and when you are in the middle of it, there are places where the salt goes all the way out to the horizon. Very surreal, especially when the sun creates a reflective mirage effect on the horizon. The mountains nearby look like floating islands on the Salar. So the thing to do when you are at the Salar de Uyuni is to take loads of funny photos of people looking big and small like below :)

As part of the Salar trip, we spent one night in a hotel made completely out of salt! Yes, the floors, walls, tables, chairs and beds (excl mattress) were all salt! Thankfully the food wasn’t!