Chile to Bolivia

After a few weeks working my way to northern Chile I arrived in San Pedro de Atacama. I booked a 4 day jeep trip going from the chilean desert into the Bolivian salt flats. Its Carnival at the moment, so finding drivers that arent partying was difficult. I did a little tour out to a lagoon where you float like in the dead sea, totally surrounded by chunks of salt. Very cool! We had to be sprayed off because you turn into a salt cube yourself once you dry off a bit. Then we drove to a swimming hole that has no bottom, or at least theyve never been able to find out how deep it is using many different kinds of technology. After that was a desert sunset over another lagoon while we drank some Pisco and ate snacks.

There is currently a visa fee that is only for Americans entering Bolivia. Once I was stamped out of Chile, my passport was confiscated, put into a brown bag and stuck under the dashboard cover in my jeep. I was almost in tears to not be in possession of my own passport in a very anti american country that didnt even have an american consulate, but I really had no choice at that point. I spent the whole trip obsessively checking to make sure it was still there.

The jeep into Bolivia was amazing! You are surrounded by lagoons of every color, flamingos and llamas. The altitude is pretty intense, you go from 2000 to 5000 meters in a day (which is 16 000 ft). I bought some coca leaves and chewed them to help with some not so fun symptoms of altitude. The first night we all stayed in a Refugio ( a cement house with a room full of 6 beds). In the evening some kids showed up to play instruments and act out poetry. There is no water or electricity way out in the salt flats, so it was an early evening.

During the trip we saw the rocks that Salvador Dali painted, went to thermal pools, got caught in a snowstorm the middle of a desert canyon and stopped a few times while our guide was helping other drivers take apart their alternaters, tires and whatnot (our jeep was a goody).

Our final day we woke up in our salt hotel, ate breakfast at 6 am and realised out driver was no where to be found. An hour later he came stumbling over, with a huge swollen face. He had been defending one of his friends at the Carnival party the night before and had been knocked out. So one of the guys in our tour got to drive the jeep to the salt flats while our driver was passed out with us in the back. Crazy crazy Bolivians.

Bolivia is pretty crazy right now. We arrived in Uyuni where they had no running water or internet and decided to hop on a night bus and get to La Paz ASAP. With no sleep for a few days and a bit of altitude sickness I just need a place to crash. Its rainy season which means the roads wash out, but our bus was still headed north, so we were too! The first 5 hrs of the journey was unpaved and our driving was gunning it the hole way. Once we reached the flooded roads I could feel the bus slipping around and heard the water slashing up the side of the bus. I just closed my eyes tightly and prayed for sleep. Once we arrived in La Paz, out driver came out to warn us there are a lot of robbers at this time in the morning, so to be careful with our belongings. Awesome eh?

There is very easy access to cocaine in Bolivia. My 2 roomates were obviously in Bolivia for that reason and basically told me I should take a Valium if I expected to sleep that night. I was able to switch rooms, and it was good I did because I watched a parade of people coming in and out of that first room all night for the party guys inside.

I was planning to go work in a monkey reserve for a few weeks, but Bolivia is having a huge outbreak of Dengue fever in that area. I also had some friends that were headed to the Salt flats down south, but severe floods blocks all roads south as well. So basically everyone is trapped in La Paz, and we are all getting outta here. There have been lost buses, deaths due to the fever in all other areas, all around dangerous place to be on top of Bolivias already bad reputation. My next post should be from Peru!