DAY 1. On Tuesday morning at 8.30 AM it was time to climb aboard our Jeep with our driver/guide Zuben, our cook Rosilla, and an Australian couple called Nick and Catherine. We drove for 7 hours on winding gravel roads and were able to see some amazing sights on the way. Tupiza and its surroundings are like the wild west of Bolivia and it features a lot of red rock, cactus and dusty mountains. At the end of the afternoon we arrived in San Antonio de Lipez at 4200 meters. Tupiza is situated at 2950 meters so we climbed more than 1000 meters in one day. San Antonio de Lipez is a small town in the middle of nowhere and we were told that our accommodation would be very basic. I thought it was fine though - indeed, there was no hot water, no shower and no electricity besides our lonely light bulb, but we had a big room for the four of us, thick mattrasses, thick blankets and plumbing. Since we had some time before dinner, we decided to climb the hill behind the village to see the sunset. This was a big mistake. Although I love hiking, I hate climbing and am quickly out of breath. Add to that the altitude of 4200 meters, the fact that we had climbed more than 1000 meters that day, and that you shouldn't exert yourself before you're at least somewhat used to the altitude, and you can see what I did wrong here. After dinner a group of village boys came in to play music for us. I remember tearing up at that moment because I was just so happy to be there at that moment. I felt so blessed to be able to travel and to see things that so many people never get to witness. It was an incredible night. We went to bed early but I couldn't sleep - my first official symptom of altitude sickness. It was below freezing and despite the many layers I was incredibly cold. The next day we had to get up 4.30 AM.
Valle de la Luna
San Antonio de Lipez
San Antonio de Lipez
DAY 2. Our second day would be our longest day with 10 hours of driving ahead of us. We saw some truly amazing sights on that day - hot springs, colored lakes, volcanos, geysers, mud pools, deserts and thousands of pink flamingos. We spent the night in Huaylljara, another small town in the middle of nowhere at 4340 meters. Again our accommodation was very basic but did not disappoint, but I started to feel a little ill. I was still incredibly cold but Rosilla made me a warm water bottle, I wrapped myself in every single item of clothing that I had brought, got into my sleeping bag, put 3 blankets on top of that, and slept for 10 hours straight.
Aguas Calientes
Laguna Verde and Volcán Licancabur
Sol de Mañana
Laguna Colorada
DAY 3. The third day was shorter with just 7 hours of driving and we saw many more of the amazing sights in the area. The only downside was that by then it had become quite clear that I suffered from altitude sickness. Luckily, we had been descending since the geysers and mud pools of Sol de Mañana at a staggering 5000 meters and were now back at around 3000 meters, but besides insomnia I now also suffered from a terrible headache and nausea. I tried chewing coca leaves and drinking lots of water, but nothing helped. During lunch I believe Zuben took pity on me for he gave me two pills and 30 minutes later I felt as though nothing had happened. I wrote down the name of the medicine so that I can take it with me to the Inca Trail! In the afternoon we stopped at the town of Uyuni where we visited its Cementerio de Trenes. Uyuni is the main hub from which to visit the salt flats but is an incredibly dirty and ugly town. I was relieved to find that we had made the right decision to start from Tupiza instead. We spent the night in Uyuni and although it wasn't as cold as the previous two towns had been and we had a private room, the (lack of) plumbing left much to be desired.
Arbol de Piedra
Laguna Honda
wild flamingos at Laguna Hedionda (for Matt and Aimee)
Valle de Rocas
DAY 4. The last day of the tour meant getting up at 5 AM to see the sunrise over Salar de Uyuni. This salt flat lies at 3650 meters altitude and is 10.500 square kilometers in size, which makes it the biggest salt flat in the world. The salt flat is made up of 11 layers between 2 and 20 meters in thickness. It is quite surreal to drive over the salt flat for as far as the eye can see there is nothing but white emptiness. When you walk over the salt flat it feels like walking on snow and ice. The salt flat is cold and sharp as glass and it shimmers in the blinding sunlight (all four of us wore shawls across our faces to prevent getting horribly sunburned). We had breakfast at the Hotel de Sal before driving even further into Salar de Uyuni to take the obligatory funny pictures. We had lunch in Uyuni and afterwards it was time to say goodbye to Nick and Catherine - they were to stay in Uyuni and take a train to Oruro and then a bus to La Paz while we had 4 hours of driving ahead of us back to Tupiza. It was an incredibly beautiful drive through more wild west country. When we arrived back at the hotel at 5 PM we ate a pizza in bed and crashed.
Salar de Uyuni
Hotel de Sal
Salar de Uyuni
Salar de Uyuni
This tour was definitely one of the highlights of our world trip. At times it was very challenging, but mostly it was just incredibly rewarding. Our driver/guide and cook were also amazing. Zuben always got us on sight first, offering us the best panoramas and the nicest rooms. Rosilla was extremely accommodating to our vegetarian needs (Nick and Catherine had temporarily become vegetarian after seeing the meat sold at the local Tupiza market) - she got up at 3 AM every day to prepare such dishes as lentil burgers and cauliflower fritters and other amazing foods. If you ever get to travel to South America, this would probably be my one recommendation. There are many tour agencies offering similar services, but we used Tupiza Tours and couldn't have been happier. Their service is sublime and they pump money back into local communities. We have 5 more days in the pretty town of Tupiza where there is still a lot to see, but for now I'll stay put at Hotel Mitru's solar-heated swimming pool.
If you'd like to see more pictures of our world trip, check out our picture gallery here!
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