Our journey with Explora continued into Bolivia with the "Travesia". The plan was to spend 2 nights at Ramaditas, 2 nights at Chituca and 3 nights at Uyuni Salt Flats all with Exlpora. On Tuesday we would drive back to San Pedro. We left around 8:30 on Tuesday morning and had to wait for about an hour to cross the Chilean boarder- which was pretty civilized. We pulled up got out of the car and had our passports stamped. We then said goodbye to Celeste and met our new guide Elvis and driver Johnny and prepared to cross into Bolivia.
The Bolivian border was a little bit more chaotic with many people standing around and many parked cars. Elvis took our passports, along with a bag of sodas, and told us that he had a friend inside, and that we should go stand in "that very long line". After a few minutes he came and got us, gave us our stamped passports back and off we went to customs- which went pretty smoothly, except our forms had an error, but Elvis assured us that they would help us out. After a few minutes they gave us a small laminated green card and told us to give it to the cop outside.
 |
| Across the boarder and through customs |
Our first day was packed- we saw the white like, the green lake, the blue lake, the red lake, the Bolivian geysers. At the highest crossing we were over 16,000 feet. We had lunch on a mountain with a view of the red lake. We saw an Andean fox, many vicuña and many viscacha.
 |
| At the white lake- just after crossing the boarder |
 |
| Andean avocet in the white lake |
We made it to our hotel (AKA container) late in the afternoon. Elvis briefed us on the next day. The plan for the morning was a short (25 min) drive to Lake Cache to see some flamingo and walk around a bit and then return for lunch. In the afternoon we would do a short hike part way around the Ramaditas lake.
In addition Elvis told us that the reverse drive was really too long to do in one day. If we wanted to do that we would need leave at 2am Tuesday morning. He suggested that we find another hotel in Uyuni to stay in on Monday night so we could leave at 6am (instead of 2am) Tuesday morning. This was unwelcome news given we had already planned (and paid) for Monday night at Explora, but leaving at 2am seemed really unappealing so we booked a room just outside of Uyuni. Based on Elvis' recommendation we switched the nights so that we had only 1 night at Chituka and 3 in Jirira which turned out to be the right decision for a number of reasons.
 |
| Chilean Flamingo at Laguna Cachi |
 |
| Many flamingo at Laguna Cachi posing in front of the snow covered mountains |
 |
| Kite flying at Laguna Cachi |
When we got back to the lodge we had some lunch and then headed out for our afternoon hike. Elvis was surprised by how much we liked to hike and that we suggested going all the way around.
 |
| Starting our afternoon hike around Tikucha lake |
 |
| The lodge from the far side of the lake |
 |
| Elvis and Filip as we race to beat the storm |
We left Ramaditas and headed toward Chituca - with a few stops along the way, including several lakes with flamingos and one with babies. We practiced identifying which ones were Chilean, Andean or James flamintos. We then got out of the car to do a short hike (~2 miles) to our lunch spot. The rocks were impressive and the birds fun to watch.
 |
| Babies! |
 |
| We were close enough to see how they scavenged for food |
 |
| Rocks along our hike to lunch |
 |
| Playing as we waited for lunch |
 |
| Lunch spot- it was raining everywhere but where we were |
When we were almost to Chituca, we saw several llamas with pink ribbons. A local community was having a tekatchu. We stopped and they invited us in to share their beer and watch the festivities. (And "sharing their beer" meant insisting that we do a quick shot of a warm Corona.) The ceremony began by sacrificing two llamas (one black, one white) - fortunately, we missed this part but we saw their heads and all the blood. They put ribbons on all the adult llamas and all the babies just ran around.
Our drive to the salt flats started at 7:30 the next morning. We stopped in Uyuni for a coffee at the Llama cafe - which was littered with young back-packers hanging out, doing nothing. After leaving Uyuni we started our long drive across the flats. Along the way we stopped to see salt sculptures- creations from a local artist - and a short stop to play with the cell phones.
We then continued on towards our hotel. About 30 minutes out we stopped and Jonny and Elvis set up a picnic lunch for us in about 3 inches of salt water, where we had some llama jerky (among other things) - and we flew the kite. After lunch, Jonny and Elvis packed the car and Filip and I start walking towards our hotel. They picked us up after they were done. We arrived at our hotel in Jirira around 3pm.
 |
| Awaiting lunch |
 |
Lunch spot
Flying the kite after lunch
|
 |
| Salt island we walked to after lunch |
The car coming to pick us up
We planned to the hike up the volcano Saturday morning but the weather looked very bad so instead we did a short hike up a small island that we could see from our room. As we were hiking down Filip commented on how the rock was really sturdy- our shoes gripped it well. Elvis told us it was coral. The hike was about 1/4 mile to the top and 1/2 mile down. Although it was short it was a really fun hike.
 |
| The lodge from the coral island |
 |
| Pasacana fruit from the cactus |
 |
| Elvis picking the fruit from the Pasacana cactus |
 |
| At the top |
 |
Tunupa volcano from the coral island (now tomorrow's planned hike)
Just starting to head down
Hiking down the long side of the island
|
 |
| Ojos de Agua (Eyes of the water) at the bottom of the island |
 |
| The coral island. We hiked straight up to the center and then down the long side |
For the afternoon, Elvis took us on a bike ride in the salt flats. The plan had been to bike to a spot to enjoy the sunset on the salt flats but after about an hour of riding we were both getting wet and cold so we opted to head back to the lodge instead.
The weather on Sunday was perfect for hiking so we hiked up to the view point of the volcano. It was probably the best hike we have done on this trip as it combined beautiful views and it was a challenging climb. We went up about 2000 ft to 15,280 ft above sea level- a new high for us on a hike.
 |
| View of the salt flats from the volcano view point |
 |
At the 15,280 ft viewpoint. Colors with vivid.
|
 |
| Filip in the llaretas |
 |
Llama heard was really curious about us
|
We got back to the lodge around 2 and had lunch and then had a lazy afternoon until around 6 when we met Elvis and Jonny to head out to the sunset. It was a beautiful sunset, although a little on the chilly side.
 |
| Sundowners and chill |
Elvis having more fun with the iphone
Monday morning we went on a short hike in the wetlands just beside the salt flats and enjoyed watching the llamas play. After the hike we went back to the lodge for lunch, packed our stuff and headed to Uyuni as planned for the night. We grabbed some super-sized sandwiches at the bar for dinner and headed to bed early as we had 6am pickup in the morning to head to the boarder. Unfortunately, overnight there was a landslide on the Chilean side of the boarder and it was closed. Elvis told us we needed to wait and around 8, he texted and said he pick us up at 8:30 and we would drive to the boarder and wait. We eventually made it across and back to Chile to our final hotel around 8:30pm. This was somewhat disappointing as we had planned on being there around 1pm, but at least we made it.
 |
| Map of the Explora lodges in Atacama and Bolivia |
Comments
Post a Comment