Splendour on the Salt Flats

Uyuni is now a tourist base for travelling into the neighbouring salt flats but used to be an industrial base for digging out the salt and transporting it by rail.  Needless to say it all went down the tubes with salt available elsewhere so they shunted the locos into the sidings and left them to rot.

We were warned previously that the salt flats were a highlight of any tour with the chance to take wacky photos because of the trick perspective afforded by the flat landscape and bright light. In the summer rainy season the whole flats are submerged with a few inches of water but we had the good luck to have dry salt in the centre and water at the edges.  Our guide had been 20 times and never seen it like this. Hence the earlier reference to unseasonal rain in Potosí.

As you can see Verity has lost none of her gymnastic ability but has shrunk in the wash. I won't bore you with all the other pics we took involving running away from dinosaurs but they are very clever.

We drove across the flats in 4x4s mesmerised by the views, getting better as the sun went down and we got to a flooded area near our destination.  The solid salt crust easily supports the cars but it is a bit eery to splash through the water. 

As we drove towards the tiny village under an old volcano it was hard not to be dazzled by the reflections of the mountain and the dying light.  In today's digital photographic age it's so tempting to live life through a lens rather than putting the camera/phone down and just gawking at it.

Yes that is snow on top of the mountain. You can see the hexagonal ridges which form as the salt crystallises just under the surface.

The driver had to drag us away to get into Coquesa so we could have dinner. Looking back we could see the other group against the pink glow of the clouds giving some idea of the scale of the surroundings. 

We had a lovely supper of llama steaks in a small dining room close the shore. Everything is built of solid salt blocks, including the beds. The size of the blocks was determined long ago as the size which llamas could carry slung one on each side.

We had been warned about the cold and they were right- but we ventured out to see an incredibly clear starry sky. No light ( or indeed any other) pollution here.

Back at breakfast we watched the llamas as other groups set off to cross the flats.

We were to loop back to Uyuni across the flats and round the mountainous surrounds of the flats, all across incredibly bumpy dirt roads taking two days in all. So off we went first to an island covered in coral rocks and cacti.

We then left the salt behind and ventured into the hills peaking at about 4900m at one point.

More to come....

The (former) biggest and richest city in the world - Potosí

This was the highest place we had stayed at so far at about 4000 metres and you could certainly feel it on the cold windswept plateau.  Behind the city is the volcanic Cerro Rico or rich mountain which contained more silver than anywhere else in the world.  The Spanish extracted vast amounts of it using slave labour which caused a large part of the demographic collapse of the indigenous population. It is estimated that 8 million people died in the mines.

At its height it really was the biggest and richest city in the world but now its only superlative is highest city in the world.  Like mining communities elsewhere once the mine goes there is really no reason for anyone to be there.  There are still loads of miners working in Victorian conditions to extract silver, zinc and tin but there is no refining capability there so it gets shipped off as dried sludge containing 2% silver.

There is a big tourist operation to take groups underground so I succumbed and Verity went to see the old Royal mint Casa de La Moneda.

You get dressed up in all the gear and get dropped off at the miners market to buy little gifts for the miners underground like soft drinks or bags of coca leaves or sticks of dynamite (I kid you not). Then you see the disgusting plant where they pulverise the ore and use chemicals to get the mix to be frothy and float off the concentrated metals (well 2%).

Then it was underground to see the mine.  You walk along the narrow passages with the roof held up by not much with sulphurous air and stumbling over the rails.  They are still working mines so groups of men work certain seams hoping they will strike it lucky. The guide was an ex miner who had got out and set up this particular tour. 

It's an interesting debate about how you could improve the lives of the miners. They say they could bring in modern technology to extract most of what is left but that would be a rapid process that would spell the end of the mining in a short time.  They seem to want to go on in the same old way which hasn't really changed for 100 years. Not a particularly comfortable experience but an insight into what I might have been up to if I had been born a hundred years earlier in the Durham coalfield.

Meanwhile Verity was seeing what happened to the precious metals in the old days. There are fantastic remains of coins and religious works of art collected from around the area.

We weren't sorry to leave Potosí which had seemed like a God forsaken place not helped by lashings of rain throughout our stay - but the end result of the unseasonably early rain will be revealed later......

A wild van ride through the mountains towards the salt flats seasoned with views of llamas and tiny hamlets.  In the middle of nowhere with a flat tyre, spare wheel and no jack we were lucky to flag down a car with a jack.  Then upwards and onwards through an increasingly arid and flat landscape to Uyuni.

Zebras in Sucre

Sucre was our first taste of altitude and we managed pretty well, even doing a couple of early morning runs. Technically it is still the capital of Bolivia although La Paz is where the centre of commerce and government is.  Sucre was developed because of all the silver wealth coming out of Potosí and it was a much more hospitable place to live than up near the mines. 

This was the hotel we stayed in which was  in the typical colonial style.  There are lots of lovely buildings including the big cathedral but opening hours of museums and churches seem pretty random.

Like most of South America the traffic is horrendous so they have a novel way of facilitating people crossing the road.

Apparently the young people who don the zebra suits might be doing community service and the dance about and wave at kids.  maybe we should get lolly pop ladies to do the same.

We decided to get out of the city for one day and did a bike, hike and swim trip. We took a jeep with the bikes on a trailer and drove out of the noise and bustle of the city to where we could bike mainly downhill.

Everywhere is really steep so we took the advantage of seeing the city from the high viewpoint of an old convent.

From Sucre it was a rough drive heading to the source of all the wealth that had built the city.....

Singani in Santa Cruz

Santa Cruz was HOT! It's a biggish city very different from the rest of Bolivia.  In the Eastern lowlands it's developing as a big commercial centre but it's not really a tourist destination.  More a chance to do a big laundry and catch up.  

We managed an early morning sort of Park Run in a dilapidated park and visited some art galleries and walked up the bell tower.  We also started taking our Diamox altitude tablets inpreparation to fly to Sucre.

We had moved from the land of the caiparinha to the land of Chuflay, a mixture that is suppposed to be hangover resistant.  It's based on a spirit distilled from Bolivian wine and while I wasn't impressed with the ginger ale and sprite it's mixed with in Chuflay it goes down a treat with plenty of lime and a dash of sprite with plenty of ice.  Best taken on a roof top bar late at night.

The next day was a 25 minute flight up to Sucre.

Hammocks and humming birds in the Pantanal

.We had lunch in the base lodge in the blistering noonday heat and started to see proper wildlife.

This is a capybara with attendant parasite remover. 

And here's a stork with baby in the nest. After lunch we transferred to a tractor trailer for the dirt road ride to the fazenda where we claimed our hammocks in a great big room with screen sides and some fans.  They were really comfortable apart from the heat. Our guide was Paolo who was glad to see we were interested in birds and had a fantastic ear for birdsong and seemed to know at a glance what things were. We had a 2 hour walk with him towards sunset and saw loads. 

This was a rare and tiny Toady Flycatcher nesting just outside the hammock room and below is a caiman - we had to watch out for them as they climb out of the lake at night and walk across the path. They are timid creatures. 

The next day saw Verity and I up for sunrise and again saw loads of birds. Our tally for the 2 days was 55 but there was no guide book so we weren't sure of others.

One of the loveliest birds is the Hyacinth Macaw - usually seen in pairs or bigger groups with great long tails streaming in flight.  I managed to find a feather for my hat.  A word on technology. Verity thought the SLR with zoom telephoto would be too heavy (1.7 kg in fact) so we took Miner Marshall's advice and bought a nearly new Panasonic LUMIX with fantastic zoom (450gm) and these are the fruits of mainly Verty's handiwork..

We were definitely the sad gits of the tour - the only ones with binoculars and keen to see a lot more than the others.  For the others there was of course the ever present caiparinhas near the campfire and made in buckets.  Even I knew when to call it a night. 

For those familiar with Wales units the greater Pantanal is 8 times Wales and floods after the big rivers bring the water from the highlands. It was very dry for us but at least we escaped the midges with liberal use of DEET. I would definitely be tempted back at April time. We did get to go piranha fishing and we ate the ( team ) fruits of our labour. In other words we just spent a couple of hours feeding bait to the greedy beggars. By the way they are delicious. 

The next day was a long day travelling first by the tractor trailer enlivened by seeing various kingfishers and deer, followed by transfer to minibus to Bolivian border which took ages waiting for a stamp from a bored official.  All of life was there from little old ladies in bowler hats, through travellers with unicycles on the road for two and a half years to the slightly bizarre picture of a family of Mennonites - Dad and five boys in overalls and caps and Mum and daughter in old fashioned dresses and head scarves - all blonde as could be. Apparently there are 7 or 70,000 in Bolivia.

Then an extremely slow overnight train through the flat hot desolate Eastern lowlands of Bolivia to Santa Cruz taking just 16 hours. Luxury.

More to follow.

Snorkelling in Bonito

GgThe town of Bonito has only recently changed from being a supply station for the vast Pantanal to a tourist destination because of the attractions of the surrounding clear rivers and caves in the limestone scenery.

That's my rather inelegant dive into one of the natural swimming holes. The day was scorching and gave a taste of what was to come. We probably wouldn't have chosen this as a day out, standing around and consuming yet more caiparinhas and guess what? more barbecued meat, but Bonito has limited charms otherwise. 

The real deal in Bonito is the chance to snorkel down to the Rio Plata in a small group. People we had met doing the trip the other way all rated it highly.  After a rough ride down dirt tracks you get to the fazenda and have some instruction and get kitted out with the gear which appears ridiculously hot in the baking sun. You have a half hour walk down through the thick forest and eventually get in to the river to familiarise yourself with the gear and my latest gadget - a waterproof cover for my camera.  Just as we got into the water a giant otter wriggled round our legs and swam around. A fantastic sight.

The experience was fantastic and I would thoroughly recommend it. If we hadn't done this bit then Bonito wasn't really worth it. We were lucky because places are so limited to protect the river.  Nice to finish the day drinking beer and listening to live music.

Up early to run at 5.30 but still too hot and then we headed off in a minibus into the Pantanal proper.

Iguacu Falls - one of the 7 natural wonders of the world

We took the very early (5.30) bus to Sao Paolo which is a huge city in the South of Brazil and flew up to Foz de Iguacu. It was an orange juice and packet of peanuts flight if you know what I mean. 

The bus goes up the very windy pass over the sierra del mar and after that it was a long flat ride.  Then straight to the Falls to walk along the Brazilian side. Apparently October is the best time to see the falls because of all the water falling beyond that Sierra flows Westwards to the Falls.  From Brazil you have a magnificent view of the river as it splits and falls over the basalt cliffs in a multitude of falls.  

The guide said it was better to do the Brazil side first because you get a better VIEW but when you go to the Argentinian sde the next day you get INTO  the falls.  There are Toucans to see and the nasty raccoon like Qatis (they bite) but the falls themselves are overwhelming especially as we got there late and there were less tourists (by the way we are travellers not tourists) and lovely evening light. 

This is our group - we have managed to use discretion when too much heavy drinking has been going on (well not so much discretion on Jim's part - Ed) 

We  got back to the hotel and went out to the guides house where they regularly arrange barbecues for the groups. There followed the usual Brazilian over consumption of meat and a mini samba display by two relations dressed in all the gear. Let's face it the costumes don't hide a lot and certainly not the advanced state of pregnancy of one of the girls. Verity and I made the wise decision to make a quick exit at 11 while the others stayed til 2. 

The next day it was a slightly convoluted trip to the Argentinian side crossing the wide river and showing passports then into the (slightly shabbier ) Argentininan park where you do a slightly tatty walk and tractor trailer ride explaining the wildlife to get into the boat.  We had been warned and so changed into bathers and put everything else into a dry bag. 

See what I mean about experiencing the falls? Apparently the very next day nobody could take a boat trip because there was just so much water coming down - we would have been gutted. It was slightly crazy - a bit like having a warm shower and adrenaline rush at the same time.

There is a special swallow which lives behind the falls (safe place heh?) and we could see them clinging to the rock next the plummeting water.  The falls were certainly (one of) the highlights so far.

The evening meal was a Rodizio which literally means going around.  You pile your plate with salads and carbs and men come round constantly with skewers of ever kind of meat fresh from the grill (anyone for chicken hearts?) and all for £6.50 per person. 

The next day we  went to a bird park where they were trying to breed endangered species. It certainly helped later trying to identify species in the wild. Then we had an overnight bus to Bonito on the edge of the Pantanal a huge flat area which floods after the rainy season brings water down in the big rivers. The bus was an interesting experience. I'll leave it at that!