El Salar de Uyuni y las Joyas de los Andes

This is not our usual post.
This is a bed-time story for our nieces Isla, Irene, Lulu and Júlia. We hope you enjoy it!

This story didn’t happen once upon a time, in fact it feels as if it was just yesterday when Sal and Xavi were in Uyuni, a small town in the middle of the desert in Bolívia, planning their next adventure.

Over the last couple of weeks they had heard plenty of rumours from fellow travellers about El Salar de Uyuni y las Joyas de los Andes (The Uyuni Salt Flats and the Andean Jewels).

Andean Jewels? asked Xavi to a Dutch guy with dreadlocks.
Ja man, they’re hidden in  this crazy place, beautiful stuff… everyone goes there but no one has been able to find them. It is said to be the biggest treasure of humanity, whoever finds the Jewels will be the richest person on Earth!
Wow, let’s go there and find them!, urged Sal.
So off they went!

While searching for a guide, Sal and Xavi met 4 other girls who were also looking for the Jewels: Sandra, Christina and Julia  from Germany and Mare from Austria. Feeling lucky with such a good company, Xavi found Domingo, an experienced Bolivian driver who was very happy to take the group on their quest.

The team starts their adventure! From left to right: Xavi, Sal, Mare, Christina, Julia, Sandra and Domingo

Their first stop was at the Train Graveyard, where half a dozen rusty locomotives lay motionless under the sun.

These trains used to carry precious metals from the Bolivian mines to the Chilean coast, said Domingo.
Precious metals?? This has to be it, let’s look inside them! They all yelled at once.

They spent hours and hours searching, even inside the engines and underneath heavy parts, and guess what?!?

No signs of the Jewels anywhere!! However, they had a great time jumping from train to train and getting to know their new friends a bit better.

A few kilometers further into the desert the group found a huge statue made of salt and, despite being quite hungry, they didn’t go and lick it (yuk, gross!).

However, they learnt from their guide that the statue was built to celebrate and welcome the famous Dakar race, where drivers and riders from all over the globe gather and race in the astonishing landscapes of Chile, Argentina and Bolívia once a year.

Next to the statue there was a nice hostel, all of it was made of salt too.

Wow, don’t they use glass windows, iron structures or wooden columns?
Not at all! confirmed Domingo, locals here have learnt to make the most of what they have… there’s salt everywhere, but they also grow quinoa, a super-food that goes very well in salads… and they farm llamas, an animal that comes from the camel and has adapted to the colder weathers of the Andes growing a very soft fur.

The Salt Hostel, everything you see is made of salt!

During this stop, the team continued to look for the Jewels, inside the hostel, the salt statues and the bags of quinoa…they even tried to look in the fur of the llamas, but they got spat on!

No success after half a day, but still amazed about the things they had discovered so far, our group of adventurers continued driving into the salt flats (which by the way are the largest in the world!), and where they were about to discover, crazy-crazy stuff really happens!

El Salar de Uyuni

When they arrived to the middle of the Salt Flats, to their amazement, Sal and Xavi’s infancy heroes came up to life! A lego man went for a walk with Sal.

Apparently he was planning to build a massive lego city on the flats and wanted to ask Sal about her opinion on the colour of the pieces – while Xavi practiced some Tae-kwon-do with Songokuh (Júlia is pretty good at it so can you help me with my kicks?, asked Xavi to Songokuh).

Then, when everyone was having fun, this huge Godzilla monster appeared from behind a volcano and started chasing them!

Sal and Xavi tried to scare him away with some kames…

We can be pretty freakie when we want…

Luckily, they found their friends who were hiding inside a massive hat and…pheew!… helped them hide and escape from it!

They were so happy about surviving the attack from Godzilla but so exhausted that they had to take a siesta! (ZzzZzZzz) To recover energies they made a human-star shape on the floor as they slept.

The second-last stop of the day was at Inka Wasi (also known as Fish Island from its shape), a massive island in the middle of the salt flats with giant cactuses and coral formations.

40,000 years ago the sea covered these lands. This is why when the water evaporated it left the salt flats and coral formations that you can see today, said Domingo the guide.

Everyone started to look for the jewels between the cactuses and behind the rocks, as it would have been a great hiding spot.

Where are the Jewels??

Instead, they only found the flowers from the cactuses, which blossom right in that time of the year. How lucky were they to witness this happen!?

Also, some of the cactuses were up to 12m tall… this is more than 6 Scotts ontop of each other, amazing!!!

Exhausted from the long day and before going to bed, Sal and Xavi met a local kid, Jesús. Jesús was 5 years old and he lived in the small community where the team was going to spend the night, so they decided to ask him if he knew where the Jewels were.

I’ll tell you if you beat me at soccer! said Jesús.
Fair enough replied Xavi, this is going to be easier than I thought, hahaha!

Jesús, the new Messi

Little did Xavi know about how good and passionate Bolivians are about soccer. Despite his small stature, Jesús trashed Xavi 10 goals to nil!! … so they couldn’t retrieve more information on their first day.

The day after Jesús gave them a clue: you could ask the llamas, they’ve lived in this place for longer than my ancestors!

Sal went and asked the llamas very politely about the whereabouts of the Jewels… but the llamas just stared at her as they were chewing their food.

Jewels? We don’t know what you’re talking about!

She tried in English, Spanish, Català and even in her broken Japanese… the only response she got were llamas staring at the horizon, so they all decided to continue their trip in that direction.

The new day brought them to even more fascinating landscapes than the day before. First, into the Chiguana desert, which is surrounded by crazy rock formations and volcanoes (one of them semi-active, the Ollague 5,840 high).

Not much further they found the first of many lakes inhabited by 3 different types of flamingoes. These flamingoes feed on microorganisms found in the lakes and each lake has a distinctive colour. The different colours come from the different minerals that reach their waters.

Every corner they turned brought them to another beautiful landscape. Next, they found rock formations with the shape of different vegetables! You want to guess which one is which??

The mushroom…

They all call this one the tree but we reckon it looks like broccoli!

No idea what this is…can you help??

How about this one?

Among all the different lakes, the most impressive one was Laguna Colorada (Red Lagoon).

The group of friends had never seen anything like it or so many flamingoes together. The light from the sunset made the lake change its colours, everyone stared at it mesmerised for hours. If it hadn’t been for the cold, they could have stayed there and fallen asleep watching the stars.

The 3rd day the team started looking again for the Jewels around a different landscape, where geysers smoked and mud pots boiled.

Boiling mud pots

They could have easily been on Mars!

The stink of sulfur was worse than Xavi’s farts and they could barely see anything with all the steam coming up. Also, if they didn’t pay attention, the steam geysers could send them flying more than 10m high!

Block your noses!! Sal & Xavi farting together

Check out the white cap flying up!

After such an exciting and dangerous start of the day, the team asked a wise looking vizcacha where they could continue the search.

The old-wise vizcacha doesn’t like getting wet

I don’t like getting wet sooo… if I had to hide any jewels, I would put them in the hot pools! The morning was quite cold, so jumping into the hot pools sounded actually like a very nice idea!

35ºC water feels nice when it’s just 10ºC out there!

After swimming and diving in the search of the Jewels and only finding more feet from other travellers, Domingo warned them: we’re getting to the end of the trip… Christina, Sandra, Mare and Julia are going to cross the border to Chile and Sal and Xavi will continue to Argentina… If you don’t find the jewels soon, you won’t be successful in your quest!

So we headed to the last landmark in the route, la Laguna Verde and volcano Licancabur. Being aware that their time together was getting to an end, they actually didn’t spend much time looking for the Jewels. Instead, they made the most of the time chatting, joking, laughing and getting to know Domingo and his culture better.

Laguna Verde

And before they knew it they had arrived to the border with Chile, where the girls had to say goodbye.

I guess that we will have to leave the search of the Jewels for another time, said Sal.
Yeah, such a shame!! complained Xavi.
After so many adventures and beautiful places we almost forgot to look for them! said Sandra as she was thinking aloud.

Then Domingo called them all for a group shot and while everyone was saying cheeeeese and patataaaaa he announced:

You guys have just found the Jewels!
What? Are you kidding us?? We can’t see any diamonds or rubies! cried Mare
Don’t be silly!, laughed Domingo.

And he went on: remember the first day you met each other? All the team nodded. It’s been 3 full days of adventure, understanding different cultures, making new friends and witnessing some of the most beautiful landscapes that Earth has to offer.

Domingo, thanks for everything you taught us!

All these things I just mentioned to you are the real Andean Jewels that people keep looking for, you’re so lucky to have experienced them!! Treasure these moments and continue travelling to make your treasure bigger and bigger.

So following the wise words of Domingo, they all hugged each other, waved goodbyes and realised that material things will never be as important as friendship, adventure and having fun!

Happy times!

Good night, sleep tight!
Sal & Xavi xoxo

Bolívia II – Sucre, Potosí and Tupiza

From one Bolivian capital city to the next, we moved on to Sucre, the constitutional capital of Bolívia (rather confusing that they have two). Sucre is a Unesco colonial style town with well preserved white houses and buildings in the downtown area. It’s also the site where Bolívia’s independence from Spain was first proclaimed by Simón Bolívar.

Sucre rooftops – plenty of churches in there too

Apart from beautiful streets and parks, we didn’t find all that much attraction in town except for finally seeing the traffic zebras we had heard so much about!

Zebras in action

Apparently originating from a boy scout initiative to encourage drivers to respect traffic laws and pedestrian crossings, it was such a success that the government bought the idea and implemented it in the main cities. They’re like lollypop ladies on steroids, people dressed up in zebra costumes dance onto the street to force drivers to stop with the lights and then help people cross the road safely. They were very happy and friendly and clearly have a huge fan base in the local children. They even high-fived us after similing and waving at them.

The local kids aren’t the only fans

After checking out the downtown area, we went out to the nearby Parque Cretácico Cal Orck’o to see the world’s largest collection of dinosaur footprints. The prints were uncovered on a vertical wall in 1994 by miners in a cement quarry which is still operating today.

The wall measuring 1.2km wide and 80m high is criss-crossed with prehistoric prints.

What used to be a flat muddy plain inhabited by dinosaurs 65 million years ago, over the course of time got pushed up by tectonic plate movement to be the vertical wall it is today. It had the longest rail of continuous Dino footprints ever discovered at 581m until a slab of the wall fell off and they lost part of the trail. Sadly, the wall is deteriorating due to environmental factors and also because they’re still mining cement right next door. The up side is that when parts of the wall fall, they reveal even older prints and now they are working on a project to protect them with silicon and water diversion.

Most of the prints are elephant like ones from herbivores, up to 80cm in diameter, but there are also 3-toed prints from carnivores like the T-Rex. It’s pretty cool to imagine old T-Rex and the big long-necked Titanosaurus wandering around there!

After Sucre, we took a short bus journey to Potosí, one of the highest cities in the world at 4,090m and home to Cerro Rico (rich mountain), the main source of Spain’s silver supply during the 1500s and hence, the first most important city of the New World. The Potosí mine tour is one of the growing number of highlights on the trip!

Cerro Rico – after so many years of mining it has shrunk a few hundred metres!

Beautiful streets, the remnants of what was once a very wealthy city.

Casa de la moneda – the first royal Spanish mint

The legends say that back in the times of the Incas when they were about to start extracting silver from the mountain, a god appeared warning them that the treasure inside was not meant for them, so they abandoned it. However when the Spanish arrived, they had no hesitation in enslaving the local population and even importing African slaves to work in the mines. It is a place of very tragic history, mine conditions and the resulting life expectancy were and still are incredibly low. Meeting miners and seeing the current working conditions first hand was a very humbling experience.

Empty cart on the way in

Nowadays the official state mines have all shut down, and only local co-operatives are left. In the co-ops, the miners form groups and buy all their own equipment and maintain their tunnels, sharing the earnings from the material extracted (no insurance or regular pay). Most of the silver is gone, but apart from zinc and lower grade minerals, they still have the possibility to find a silver vein and get rich!

A vein of some of the good stuff… pity it’s in a structural tunnel so off limits

We started the day by gearing up with gum boots, overalls, helmets, lights and belts in a small shed near the miners market. Then after a decent chat with the coca leaf lady (unfortunately for the miners, prices of their essential leaves are being inflated by the “white” market), we bought coca leaves and juice as obligatory gifts for the miners we were about to visit. Without exception, every miner we met in the mine was sucking at least a golf ball size worth of coca leaves in his cheek to sustain him for the day!

Miner Xavi

We also ducked into another shop on the way to see all the mining equipment on sale. Among other things they sell dynamite sticks, fuses, shovels, lights, clothing, beer, cigarettes and 96% alcohol which believe it or not is for drinking!

Julio giving us the low down on how to attach a fuse to a dynamite stick

Beers and the seriously hard stuff 96%

As we were visiting a working mine, Co-op 27 de Marzo, we were given strict instructions by our affable guide Julio…when I run, you run etc, the full carts the guys push out of the mines weigh around 1000kg so they can’t stop for you if you get in the way! So after timing the entry to avoid full carts exiting,we entered the mine, running, hunched over (tunnels weren’t made for tall people) in muddy slush between little rail tracks and we started to navigate the rabbit warren of tunnels.

The ominous hole in the hill, entry to the mine

It was tough just getting in there, especially at altitude, so we were puffing hard and looking forward to a rest when we climbed up to visit a guy shovelling. He stopped for a quick chat, before we were joined by another miner out of the darkness who had just lit some dynamite further up the tunnel. Mildly worried about getting trapped about 800m into the mountain, we were relieved the explosion was just a small boom and work continued as usual.

Minerals with shiny stuff… Hard to see what’s what in this light!

When we asked about the engineers or extra fuse to make the explosions safer they looked at us as if we were crazy. They don’t trust the expensive engineers over their experienced blastmen and an extra length of fuse used every day means less food on the table for their families.

We passed a few side passages with locked gates at the ends and found out that about 4 or 5 times a year they break into other co-ops tunnel and depending on the value of the vein, the co-ops either discuss nicely or have fights over how to proceed. Usually they block off the tunnel with a locked gate and then both leave a 5m distance before starting to tunnel again; however, some discussions ended up with co-ops throwing dynamite down each other’s tunnels… Crazy!

Another really interesting part of the mines, is that once inside, the miners no longer pray to God, but instead to el Tío (the Devil himself, God of the underworld). Every mine has a Tío statue, and the miners regularly give him offerings of coca leaves, cigarettes and alcohol in order for him to keep them safe.

El Tío covered in celebratory decoration from a recent party

After exiting we shared some beers with miners who were finished for the day in a hut nearby. Each time we were passed the cup, we had to remember to slop a little splash of beer on the ground as they did, as a gift for Pachamama. They spoke of mine disasters like when the tunnel caved in, poked fun at us for not having had children yet (they were about our age and had 4 each) and were totally shocked when Xavi told them Iaia Sita (his grandma) is 96 (average life expectancy of the miners little over 50)!

Glad to see the light of day again!

From Potosí, we moved on to Uyuni in the south of Bolívia for a few days. We had quite an adventure there so we’ve decided to cover it separately in the next post! Finally, we visited Tupiza, a small mining town surrounded by dry, red, grand canyon like terrain and our last stop in Bolívia. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance kid (subjects of a 1969 film) were American outlaws living in exile in South America, and continuing robbing banks and trains in the early 1900s. After a heist of the payroll from a local Bolivian silvermine, they went on the run in the area around Tupiza before finally meeting their end at the hands of the Bolivian police!

We decided to get into the spirit and go on horseriding expedition to check out the canyons and rock formations. Our trusty steeds, Linda and Gieppetto showed us around some spectacular and particularly different dry and dusty landscapes.

Cañón del duende (goblin’s canyon) – so named because women used to throw their aborted babies there, which turned into goblins, lovely story!

Tasty llama tamal for lunch

Storm on the way

La Puerta del Diablo

From Tupiza, we crossed over into Argentina, land of the asado and Xavi’s lovely relatives! We’ll get to that soon, but stay tuned for the next post on our search for the Joyas de los Andes (Andean Jewels) from Uyuni!

Lots of love,

Xavi and Sal

Bolívia I – Lake Titicaca & La Paz

We were really excited to enter Bolívia, as our book-guide  puts it, a country of superlatives: one of the coldest, warmest, windiest and steamiest, with some of the driest and saltiest places in the world.

Lake Titicaca

It’s also the cheapest and poorest in South America, despite being one of the richest in natural resources. It has the highest indigenous population at around 60%…it has everything but coast, the only South-American country together with Paraguay with no access to the ocean.

However, they don’t lack water in the sacred Lake Titicaca, our first destination. This lake is the largest in volume of water in South America and the highest navigable in the world at 3,812m.

Barge crossing at Lake Titicaca – Our bus looked so unstable on it!

Accompanied by two Italian brothers, Francesco and Fede, we took the ferry to Challapampa, a small comunity at the north side of Isla del Sol, the biggest island in the lake. We hiked together, shared wine and trout meals and had a good laugh, it was really nice to meet you guys!

The small community of Challapampa – Isla del Sol

Isla del Sol is also very rich in Incan culture as it was a major pilgrimage destination. The name of the lake derives from the sacred rock Titikala which we found in the ruins on our hike the next day.

Offerings on the Titikala Rock

A truly mystical place

Quechua and Aymaras believe that the god Viracocha created human kind and the Sun where the rock is. A few metres down the track lies Chinkana (labyrinth), a huge stone complex thought be a training center for Inca priests. We loved getting lost in their maze-like corridors!

Lake Titicaca from the Chinkana ruins

On our way back we witnessed something really special: an iridescent cloud! When we were starting to believe that weird things really happened on the island, a local confirmed that is a well known sign for upcoming rains.

Happy times with Francesco and Fede!

Finishing the hike with a swim in the lake.

And the rains were caught by the many hills on the island containing agricultural terraces, which adapt steep and rocky terrain to make the most of precipitations.

The next day we went to Yumani, a larger community in the south, home to the Inca Staircase, 206 steps that you have to endure with your heavy backpacks – or a water pipe if you decide to help an old local fellow carrying it by himself – to get to the town and your accommodation.

The Incan Staircase

More incan ruins, close to Yumani

There’s also a sacred fountain with 3 different spouts. We were told that each one is believed to give its drinker the ability to speak a language, Quechua, Aymara or Spanish. I tried the 2 that had water that day and it kind of worked, I can speak Spanish!!

Quechuan kids want to learn languages too!

Isla del Sol gave us some of the best sunsets of this trip

Back to the mainland we said goodbyes to Fede and Francesco and took a turn from the main touristic path to Sorata, a little town nestled in the Andes and crowned by el Nevado de Illampu, over 6,300m high. Can you believe that the clouds didn’t allow us to take a single decent picture!?

But we found a crazy goat that wanted to pick a fight…

Still tired from the Salkantay trek, we enjoyed the calmed atmosphere of the town and opted for a half day hike to las Grutas de San Pedro, a beautiful cave very well maintained by the small community. The cave even has a lake that you can navigate by pedal-boat.

Multicoloured hills on the way to the Grutas

From peaceful Sorata we moved to bustling La Paz, the highest capital city in the world. The city is shaped as a bowl and its elevation goes from 3,200 to 4,100 at the altiplano (average altitude is 3,660m).

La Paz and Mt Illimani (6,402m)

Plaza Murillo, Government house and Cathedral – La Paz

The arms of the clock in Plaza Murillo run anti-clockwise. The Government wants Bolivians to treasure their cultural differences and challenge themselves to think differently

To visit the city we followed a self-guided map, starting in Plaza San Pedro, where apart from your usual church, a block is occupied by the famous San Pedro prison. Sal passed up the chance to visit it 9 years ago when prisoners were allowed to make money by giving tourists a prison tour. It became such an attraction that some guests even stayed overnight!

Luckily Sal didn’t go in because, as you can imagine, one of this tours didn’t end up nicely and now it’s totally forbidden (a backpacker wrote a book called “Marching Powder” about his voluntary 4 month stay in the prison).

Too many inmates and plenty of stories in just a city block

The prison is famous for hosting 2,500 inmates and their families (it was built to hold around 400!). Inmates have to pay for everything and are able to buy real estate. The poorest cells hold many inmates and have no toilets. The best cells are duplex apartments with wifi, cable TV and even jacuzzi that go for around AU$900/EUR640 per month. Inmates run businesses in there (hairdressers, tailors, grocery stores,…) and even Coke has negotiated an exclusivity deal with the prisoners to be the only soft drink sold in the prison. Inmates even have to pay to get into prison!! (AU$3.6/EUR2.5).

Los “Lustrabotas” are another sign of identity of the city. Each one of the estimated 3,000 in La Paz treasures and defends (often fights for) their space on the footpath. They cover their faces to protect their identity and, unfortunately, lots of kids miss school to try to make money this way.

Lustrabotas in Plaza Murillo

Street art in the Paseo de los limpiabotas

If you like markets, this is your city. Apart from the typical artisanal stuff, the Witches Market is probably the oddest and most fascinating one.

Market stall at the Witches Market – La Paz

Despite its central location and colourful set-up it’s not meant for tourists, locals buy there all the time.

There you can find all sorts of potions, counter-curses, dried llama fetuses (you’re supposed to offer it to Pachamama by burying one in the foundations of your place for good luck and protection – of course) or dried toucan beaks, intended to cure ills and protect supplicants from bad spirits.

Dried llama fetuses

Crazy traffic and maze-like streets made public transport a nightmare until they built the super-modern Teleférico (cable-car) in May 2014, connecting far sections of the city in a few minutes ride. The Teleférico took us to El Alto, a neighbourhood at the top of the bowl, which hosts La Feria del 16 de Julio on Sundays.

The 10min ride to El Alto used to take more than 1hr by car

This is the biggest market we have ever seen, as most of the streets of this suburb are packed with different stalls. Each street specialises in different goods, from hardware, toys, food, furniture, shoes, mountain gear, animals, there’s even a roundabout dedicated to vehicles!

Feria del 16 de Julio

Sal and I couldn’t miss the food market, Mercado Lanza. The busiest place with locals was our choice and we had to wait and fight for a spot but we were rewarded with a massive “Plato Paceño”  which combines cob of corn, fried cheese, bean pods, chicharrón,  potatoes and hot sauce. No cutlery needed.

Plato Paceño – make sure you’re hungry before ordering it!

You can rarely find a supermarket in La Paz and all the big fast-food chains that tried to enter the Bolivian market failed. Almost everyone buys fresh produce and have US$3 meals at the local eateries from the markets.

Plaza Santo Domingo – no McDonalds and KFCs here!

Cholitas are the local indigenous women, famous for their attire. The bowler hat was introduced by British Rail workers when the mining industry was booming. A large shipment of these hats arrived from Italy in the 1920’s; Italians figured since people are smaller in Bolivia, their heads would be too…but they wouldn’t fit their normal-sized heads and they had to convince women that small hats were the latest fashion for women in Europe.

Cholita chilling at Plaza Murillo – La Paz

100 years later the trend continues… A designer hat can cost up to US$1,000 and, apart from being used as a social status symbol, it also functions as a relationship status: wearing the hat on the side means she’s single or widowed;  if on the top, she’s married or taken.

Beautiful Calle Jaen

Bolívia also holds another World Guinness Record for having the most political leaders in the shortest amount of time, between 1825 to 1982 there were 188 coups d’etat.

However, Bolívia has found stability with Evo Morales, the first indigenous president. While he has helped to diminish poverty, illiteracy and racism drastically (the indigenous flag “whipala” is now the second flag of Bolivia), he also has a reputation for enjoying his position of power…he put himself in the starting 11 of the national soccer team for a game!

Whipala, the indigenous flag

One of the activities in my bucket list for this trip was riding the Carretera Yungas, best known as the “Death Road“. This gravel/dirt track covers 69km stretch between La Cumbre (4,650m) and Coroico (1,200m).

Starting our descent from La Cumbre (around 5°C). This is a paved section of the excursion, not the Death Road yet.

Celebrating we were still in one piece!

This road is legendary for its extreme danger. Based on the ratio of death per mile, on an average, 26 vehicles plummet over the edge each year, claiming more than 100 lives.

Sal geared up and ready for more!

The estimation is that 200 to 300 travellers were killed yearly along the road. With these numbers, in 1995, the Inter American Development Bank christened this highway “The Most Dangerous Road in the World”. 

One of the famous cliff-turns

Closer to the end – around 30°C

The road is way safer now with the opening of a paved road 10 years ago reducing the vehicle traffic, but we still enjoyed the thrill. So much fun and another dream coming true!

Great views of Coroico from the road

We have more adventures in Bolívia to tell you but we’ll wait to the next post, this one might hold the record for the longest so far!

Love, Sal & Xavi