Adventuring in a 4x4 in the Salt Plains of Uyuni

One of the highlights of my trip so far has definitely been the four-day jeep tour to the Salt Plains of Uyuni. The trip takes 4 days, and weaves through some of the most enchantingly beautiful scenery I’ve ever encountered. From cactus filled valleys, mountains the colours of fire, lakes of crystal green, geysers, indigenous villages, Incan ruins to stunning wildlife such as llamas, flamingos, vicunas, and alpacas. Most of the trip was above 4000 metres, where trees stop growing, and the landscape is barren and dry. The contrast of lakes and rivers and wildlife at this altitude makes a powerful image, and brings home the fragility of life and the miracle of survival.

The setting off point for the trip is a town called Tupiza, which is a couple of hours from the Bolivia-Argentinean border. I love the Lonely Planet’s introduction to this town: “If there’s ever a place where you want to throw your leg over a horse, brandish spurs and say ‘ride ‘em cowboy,’ this is it.” Apparently it’s also the resting place of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, nearly 100 years ago. I still don’t really know who they were, and am not really sure that I care, but the image of the Wild West that is conjured by their names really is what this town is like. With all that, I couldn’t NOT go horse riding, although I still had the memory of the burning backside with me from the three day horse trek in Songpan, China a few months earlier. So I signed myself up for a three hour horse ride as part of a day trip around the sights of Tupiza, and there I met two British couples who would be my companions for the day, Graham and Amy, and Steve and Annie.

We did a ‘triathlon’ of activities throughout the day: a combination of sightseeing by jeep, hiking and horse riding. Our guide for the day was Eddie, a retired doctor who now runs the Hotel La Torre where we were all staying. He spoke excellent English, and explained some of the sights along the way as well as sharing with us some stories of his life. Incidentally, Eddie also likes a bit of a drink, and my strongest memory from the Hotel Torre is him draped over the fish tank in the foyer, announcing in a proud slur ‘I’m talking to the fish.’ Nevertheless, we were most grateful to Eddie for the ‘saltenyas’ that he provided for lunch. Made by his wife, Irma, these were seriously the best thing I had eaten in South America. Kind of like pasties, only juicier, more tender and more flavoursome, with surprises such as olives and boiled eggs to be found inside! The best thing about the day, however, was the horse riding. The back of a horse was seriously the most perfect way of seeing the scenery.

Graham, Amy, Steve, Annie and I must have bonded at least a little during that day, because by the end of it we were laughing like old friends, and we had decided to do the 4-day Salt Plains tour together. To be honest, I was a little bit apprehensive initially… I was the odd one out, the only one on my own without a partner, the only Australian… And although we’d had a great day in Tupiza I had no idea what four days cooped up together in a car would be like.

Luckily, these four people are seriously four of the best Brits I have ever met. I laughed more than in those few days than I have in years thanks to their wicked sense of humour. I seriously think I have extra laugh lines now that I didn’t have a week ago! Everything is fair game for a joke, nothing is sacred, therefore everything is funny. But the best thing about the group for me was the positive attitude that everyone had.

A short way out of town on the first morning of the trip, Alfredo, our driver and guide pulled over the car, turned around from his seat to introduce himself. I don’t remember everything he said, but he definitely spoke at length about how we would need to be patient, that if we had car problems he would be able to fix them with our patience and cooperation. I remember thinking how he must have had some shocking groups in the past if he felt the need to say that up front…

Luckily, nothing went wrong with the car for most of the morning, and I had almost forgotten about the spiel about patience, when we got our first flat tyre… The first of MANY… The roads throughout the area are incredibly basic, at best, and we ended up with the vehicle from hell. Throughout the four days, anything that you might imagine could have gone wrong with the vehicle did, from flat tyres, to something with the brakes, something with the radiator, something with the battery, something with the suspension… Throughout the whole trip, no one complained, no one whinged, in fact, I think we all just laughed every time something else went wrong. It was almost like there was a consensus that we couldn’t do anything about the situation, so we might as well make the best of it. For me, that was the one thing that could have made the trip dreadful. But instead, the positive, bright, cheerful attitude from each one of my companions was the total antithesis of the ‘whinging pom’ that I think we need to rethink the stereotype. These were seriously fantastic travellers…

Of course, it helped that Alfredo was a genius with repairs, and such a fantastic guy and good spirited about the whole thing. Whenever something went wrong he would say ‘there are no problems, only solutions’ which is a saying of his that I just loved. He would then get his overalls on and using whatever he happened to have in the jeep would fix the problem. We had three flat tyres on the first day, and only the one spare tyre, which meant that Alfredo had to do some pretty nifty puncture repair. It was an education just watching the process, in which Alfredo took out the inner tube like we would a bicycle tyre, placed a patch over the puncture, and pumped up the tyre again BY HAND!!! We each had a go at pumping up the tyre, but at that altitude, after about 30 seconds we would start to tyre, so it became a kind of tag-team relay to get the tyre pumped up fully.

Graham, an ex-army mechanical engineer, always seemed to know what was going on, though, which was calming. He was Alfredo’s right hand man when it came to repairs. He also had a multitude of survival skills thanks to his time in the army, and I’ve lost count of the number of things that I learnt from him. I do remember that a good way to warm up your socks for the next day is by putting them under your pillow as you sleep, and that for warmth, it’s not a good idea to wear the same socks for the day that you’ve worn to bed, and vice versa. Also, apparently if you put cold water on your feet before getting into bed it ensures that the blood rushes to them and warms them up more quickly… but I still haven’t had the courage to try this one.

After our mammoth puncture repair session we finally got on our way, just as it was starting to rain. So as we drove past a lady walking along the side of the road we unanimously agreed to pick her up. She had left home at 5am that morning, and had been walking all day to take the school news to the next town... Alfredo informed us that she would have walked 70 or 80 kilometres. There are no phones, no electricity, and so she was commissioned to walk between towns in order to pass on the information about the school in person. She had a lovely smile, and was so grateful that we stopped. She told Alfredo that he was a godsend, and that she was sure that God would watch over us on our journey and we would have no more obstacles in our way. If only. But there were no more car troubles that night.

We arrived at our destination two hours later than the other jeep we were supposed to be travelling in a convoy with, as the sun was going down over the horizon. Ordinarily this wouldn’t have been a problem, but we were all dressed for daytime, and the difference between day and night temperature in the mountains of Bolivia is really startling. It was freezing, to say the least, and we all decided we would be much more prepared for all kinds of weathers and all kinds of circumstances on the next day. Delfina, the cook for the expedition, cooked us a spectacular meal of vegetable soup, beef steak and mashed potatoes, which helped warm us all up. Alfredo joined us for some beer and conversation after dinner, by which time we were all laughing about our car troubles, the weather, everything.

The second and third days were much the same. Early morning departures and spectacular scenery along the way. We saw many beautiful lakes, full of flamingos. My favourite was called Colorada Lake or the colourful lake, and here we saw flamingos and alpacas together, and a beautiful reflection. And of course, more car trouble.

I also feel enriched thanks to the game of ‘shithead’ that the Brits taught us along the way… The aim of the game is not really to win, but just not to lose, because if you lose then you are the shithead, and no one wants to be that. We explained the game to Alfredo, which was a bit of a challenge thanks to the language barrier, but he cottoned on quite quickly, and he loved it. Watching his expression as he struggled not to be ‘cabeza de mierda’ was hilarious. He had such an innocent joy when he managed to beat out Steve, we all laughed so much just watching them…

The highlight for us all was definitely the final day on the salt plains themselves. We had to wake up at 4:30am to be on the plains in time for sunrise, and we all grumbled a little about that, especially Annie, who is definitely not a morning person. But seeing the salt flats covered in water, and watching the sun peak over the horizon and its mirror-like reflection was one of the most beautiful things I’ve ever seen in my life. When I look at my photographs I can hardly tell which half is the sky and which half the water. It looks like we were in a photography studio, it was that perfect, but the magic of it is that none of the beauty of the moment can be conveyed in photos… A little of it was captured in the video that Annie took, but it still doesn’t truly show what it was like being there.

The rest of the salt flats was also fantastic, although nothing could top the sunrise. Steve bought a soccer ball, and he and Graham organised a game of soccer on the salt with the drivers and some other tourists. At 3680m above sea level, I thought it was incredibly impressive that they even thought of playing soccer. While they were playing, Annie and Amy and I played in the salt as well, by taking crazy photos… The pure white of the salt means that you can get awesome effects in the photos, and you can position people in the foreground and background and they appear different sizes rather than looking like they are a long way away. We got a bit carried away and tried lots of different photos, but not all of them worked.

By midday that day we had made it to Uyuni, and we had to say goodbye to Alfredo and Delfina. They were a great combination, and Alfredo, in particular really made the trip for us. We really wanted to do something for him besides the standard tip for great service, so we asked him to take us to an internet café in Uyuni and wait for a few minutes before leaving, and we put our group photos onto CD for him. Steve also gave him the soccer ball as a memento of the trip. Alfredo really was outstanding in every way. As a driver he was safe and responsible, he was knowledgeable as a guide, he was caring as a person, always making sure that we were looked after and happy. And above all, he was just a bunch of fun. But all in all, I think it was a combination of everything that made the trip so memorable for me. The people that travelled together, Alfredo, Delfina, Annie, Steve, Amy and Graham… our shared experiences, the games, the laughter, the sunrise, the crazy photos… they all helped make it a trip that I will remember for a lifetime.