Our original plan was to travel there by bus and stay for two nights in a hotel literally built of blocks of salt and located on the salt. Our hosts changed our plan and decided that one of the members of the Potosi Rotary Club would take us in his personal vehicle and bring us back the same day. We were told that the salt had some water on it, which would limit our mobility and make a full day there unnecessary. At least that’s what I think I heard from the mostly Spanish conversations.
So we all awoke at 4:00 a.m. It was around 5:00 a.m. when we rolled out of the city. Our host and his driver sat up front, Tamsen, Anne and I sat in the middle, and Doug and Judah sat in the far back in a late-model Acura SUV.
All of us would have been happiest to find whatever comfortable position we could and get a couple of hours of additional sleep. But our host put bass-heavy local music on the stereo at a volume that had me scurrying for my earplugs. When I could see that other team members were similarly uncomfortable, I finally asked our host to reduce the volume, which he cut by around 80%. The music, at this blissfully reduced volume, was our companion for the entire trip.
As the sunrise approached, I could see that we were in an area of large, scrub-covered mountains. The road wound through them like a ribbon, constantly attempting to moderate the elevation gains and losses. Most of the trip was between 12,000 and 13,000 feet elevation. The area was sparsely populated and there were few other vehicles on the road. In places, the road had two nicely paved lanes. But there were continual interruptions with dirt sections, particularly work-arounds where new bridges were being constructed. The area reminded me of the red-rock country of northern Arizona. It was stunning countryside!
We made a brief stop at an old mining town, where several locomotives (made in America) sat rusting in the abandoned yard. Our host said a Japanese company was coming into the area to reopen some of the mines. It was the first railroad I could remember seeing in the entire country. I tried to imagine the enormous engineering task of getting trains from here to the ocean ports.
Finally we crested a pass and descended into the Uyuni valley where the great salt flat spread out before us. We stopped at a cheap hotel in town where we had breakfast (eggs and toast – I declined to drink the hot chocolate made with local water) and used the bathroom (where the toilets had neither seats nor toilet paper). Later, we waited in the car while our host entered the market and bought makings for a picnic lunch.
We got back into the SUV and drove 5 more miles to the edge of the salt. It was clear that there was a considerable amount of water on it. We drove directly into the water and another couple of miles to the hotel of salt. Salty water splashed all over the car. Workers shoveled salt into piles for drying and eventual harvesting.
We arrived at the hotel and hung out for awhile, listening to all the foreign voices at this tourist attraction. There was a raised area of hardened salt where flags of many nations flew in the constant breeze. Everyone tip-toed around the large puddles of water and took lots of pictures, mostly of the surrounding mountains -- some snow-capped -- and the amazing reflectivity of the salt flat.
We entered the hotel where we had our picnic while sitting on salt chairs and before a salt table (with plastic table cloth, of course). Our meal was of an unidentifiable meat sliced from a large tube, served on white bread with mayonnaise and ketchup, watered down with Coca Cola.
We discussed options for further exploration. I was interested in seeing the flamingos that are at a nearby lake, but was told that was another 16 hours away. We finally decided to depart. We stopped in Uyuni again, where we walked the market while our driver had the car washed, which seemed to take two hours. Finally, we were on board again for the next four hour trip back to Potosi. The highlight was when the car was stopped so the guys could pee (When you’re a guy, the whole world is a urnal.) and a young llama came by to investigate. Cute guy!
We arrived back in Potosi in the dark around 8:00 p.m., exhausted.
Today is a travel day. We will take a bus or taxi for three hours back to Sucre, then fly down to Santa Cruz, then fly back up to Cochabamba.
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