Bird Hunting

We’ve arrived in Potosi, the highest city in the world and home to the infamous silver mines that financed Spain for 200 years. We’re staying in a colourful hostel on a narrow street far from the bustle of the markets. We spent an adventurous 3 days on the road from San Pedro de Atacama (Chile) to Uyuni (Bolivia) bouncing across the Altiplano in a 4x4 with new friends. We visited beautiful lakes, saw plenty of flamingos, llamas and vicuñas, watched the sun rise over the enormous Salar de Uyuni and bathed in hot springs at nearly 5000m. The trip had its fair share of adventure too! We were escorted by a group of Brazilian motor bikers whose luggage we carried in the car, the jeep took an hour or so to start on the frosty morning of day 2, we engaged in a vehicular bird hunt and witnessed our cook smile for the only time when she caught the poor unfortunate grouse-like bird (which she thankfully let go a little later in the day) and we later came across another tour group’s jeep firmly stuck in the mud which we helped dig and push out to little thanks from the stranded tourists! Our victory meal in Uyuni consisted of quinoa, salad and llama meat. Unfortunately it came back to haunt me for most of the night. I’m feeling much better now after sleep, lots of water and Jon’s wonderful care.

Tomorrow or Tuesday we’ll catch the bus to Sucre for a few days and then we plan to hit La Paz. Bolivia feels very different. Many of the women wear the traditional dress of woollen tights, full pleated skirts and small bowler hats. The towns are dusty and bustling full with people. It’s much cheaper here - the country is much poorer. It’s been great to travel with Team Solidarity (the nickname for our group of 6 from our journey to Uyuni: a couple from London - Joanne from Ireland and Lorin from the UK, Elan from Israel and Edson from Mexico), however there are only five of us together in Potosi and tomorrow or the next day we’ll separate further. Travelling in a group feels much more secure and fun! We all look out for each other and we’ve had some wonderful conversations.

Desert Days in The Atacama

This morning we travelled an hour east across the desert to Calama, a small yet bustling town thanks to the enormous open pit copper mine just outside town, the largest in the world and where Che happened to meet a couple of socialist miners who started him on his famous path. I doubt we’ll be quite so influenced though it was interesting to see the environmental and social impact of the mine ... huge dusty clouds blanketing the area and man-made mountains yet a vibrant wealthy town, though with a higher proportion of people hobbling around on crutches. Here in Calama we had to procure a Bolivian visa for Jon. After many trips from the Consulate to the bank, the internet cafe, the photocopy store we finally had enough paperwork to meet the entry requirements and the visa was issued (apparently a reciprocal game since the Bolivians endure the same bureaucracy if they wish to visit the US). So now with visa in hand we leave San Pedro de Atacama in a couple of days to travel by jeep to Uyuni in Bolivia across the famous salt flat and via a few colourful high altitude lagoons.

San Pedro de Atacama has been a wonderful place to rest. We’re now half way through our trip and we’ve been taking a small vacation from backpacking in this tiny town in the Atacama Desert. The dry heat is conducive for napping and the high altitude (around 3000m) makes for early alcohol free nights. The Atacama Desert and neighbouring Altiplano are beautiful in their dry and brown barrenness. Perfectly shaped volcanoes line up intimidating the western horizon, between which lie multicoloured lagoons. A few days ago we hiked slowly (due to being altitudinally challenged at above 4000m) between a couple of these lagoons, one blue and one black and each rimmed with white minerals and with rare horned coots breeding. Unfortunately one of the lagoons no longer lived up to its name, Lago Miscanti (Place of the Toads) due to the lake being stocked with trout which ate all the toads. Now the trout have even consumed themselves and the lake is home to algae and the coots. Earlier in the day we visited the Salar de Atacama (3rd largest salt flat in the world) and watched the flamingos dancing in the mud to stir up some food.

I think we must be half way up the continent after travelling the length of Argentina. The north west of Argentina was probably our favourite. It felt much less European than the south. We were starting to get weary of towns that felt like they’d been purpose built for tourism in a style reminiscent of pictures on Swiss chocolate bars. People’s faces started changing the farther north we travelled along with the landscape, architecture, food and atmosphere. Salta was a gem with it’s cool leafy plaza surrounded by beautiful colonial buildings. We rented a car here and ventured on a 3 day road trip through some stunning red rock gorges, cacti forests, small pretty villages and yet another hair-raising twisting gravel mountain road this time in thick fog with rushing rivers to drive through. The previous ear-popping, clinging to the door handle road was on our return to Mendoza following our trip to the stunning Aconcagua National Park. We’re starting to get used to these trips but I wonder if we’re ready to tackle the “Road of Death” in Bolivia ..... And a quick word about Mendoza ... the food and wine was amazing. We splurged at some fantastic restaurants and enjoyed the likes of baby goat, filet mignon, caramelised gnocchi, grilled salmon with some delicious local wine and of course more ice-cream! Mendoza is a large enough city with plenty of industry that tourists just disappear in the medley, a welcome relief from Patagonia.