In the morning we waved goodbye to our Colombian friends who
had planned to start walking and hopefully catch a lift to the Migracion
office. We packed up quickly and as
Teeny put her shoes on she got more than she bargained for as a frog jumped out
of the shoe…needless to say she was jumping around the place with the customs
officers giving her a very squiff look!
The drive to the migracion office was on
beautiful tarmac and the scenery didn’t seem to change much. We walked into the office at 10:30am
impressed we were so early and prepared with our Bolivianos to buy our visa for
Bolivia. This is the one country in our
travel plans through South America that requires South Africans to get visas
and all our research had shown it would be easy enough to get at the
border. Smiling we handed over our
passports to the lady officer who asked if we had our visas. Ummm…no but we have money to buy one
here. Her reply shocked us: No you are
not able to buy a visa here you should have gone to the embassy in Mirascal,
you have to go back to get it, I can not issue you a visa here. OH! So, in broken Spanish we plead with her and
to enforce our shock and dismay at this news Teeny started crying saying the
road back to Mirascal is “muy malo” (very bad).
She doesn’t budge, saying that to issue a visa requires an ID photo,
photocopies of your passport, yellow fever certificate, credit cards, proof of
accommodation and a letter of invitation.
So we head out to the bikes trying to figure out if we were going to travel
the 300kms back to Mirascal only to return again. After 20mins of deliberation, she came out to
us with a plan. Nick can go into Bolivia
to the first town of Villamontes (about 60kms) away and get all the paperwork we
need to apply for a visa. Shew 120km
return sounds much easier than 600kms, but the fact that Nick had to go alone
was not great!! We got a list of
everything she needed from us, it all seemed easy except we weren’t sure if the
person who we needed to email for the letter of invitation would reply
today. Regardless Nick headed out while
Teeny sat at the border hoping with all her might that the endless number of
negative scenarios running through her head wouldn’t become a realisation.
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future rider in training |
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waiting for the cow to jump out of the bushes ! |
Waiting 4 hours watching people go in and out of the
migracion office with their passport stamped, explaining your story over and
over again to the curious onlookers and not being able to contact Nick was
definitely one of the worst ways to spend half a day! It was such a relief when
he arrived back again! We had everything, except of course the letter of
invitation. We went into the office and
a man now sat there. He was happy with
everything but then asked where the letter of invitation was. So we explained that we had emailed them but
we have got no reply. He then tells us
that it was “muy facil” (very easy) we just needed to write a letter inviting
ourselves into the country in Spanish.
Huh?! Still not sure what he meant he still he tells us he will call a
friend and we must wait outside.
So we sit for another 1.5hrs. Then he calls us inside, looks at all our
paperwork again closely and then looks at us and says: Its getting late and you
need to go. Give me money to buy a
gaseosa (soft drink) and I will write the letter for you and issue you a visa….ahhhh
FINALLY!! Muchas Gracias Senor! And that was how we entered Bolivia…only 8.5hrs at the
border! We laughed as we drove off thinking that of all the borders we have
ever crossed, that one corrected our track record of only easy crossings!
Turns out that 20kms of the 60kms to Villamontes is on a loose
gravel road, and in sections the road is being taken over by thick bush, not
quite the easy 60km into town that she had explained! Arriving in town we went in search of an
ATM. We found 4 but all of them would
only accept Visa cards…thank goodness one of our cards is a Visa card! We
started feeling like Bolivia didn’t want us to visit…however we found a lovely
hostal with a very friendly host, and learnt that there would be live music in
town in celebration of fathers day. What
an excellent way to end a rather trying day!
The rain started at midnight, and continued
throughout the next day, so we decided that it would be best to wait it out as
the next stretch to the town of Tarija was on a dirt road with possibly loads
of muddy sections. We wandered the
central market looking at the old singers being used to repair clothes and
shoes, fresh fruit juice stalls and all the latest American labelled clothes
and shoes for sale. A little room
Peluquerio (hairdresser) one man show…right Nick time for a haircut! All off…and
just in time for the chilly temperatures we are about to travel through!
It was super busy when we arrived and somehow
we managed to navigate the narrow streets past the plaza and on to a pleasant
hostal in the centre. We enjoyed a small
meal after our big lunch on the road and enjoyed a locally produced wine.
In the morning our visit to the tourist information office was
helpful although the map they gave us of southern Bolivia was very basic. The plan was to head towards Potosi and
depending on the road see how far we could get.
Climbing up to 3000masl we travelled slowly on the 125s, but then we hit
a valley at about 2500masl which was an exquisite red clay colour. The bikes
moved along well at this altitude and we were surprised at the good quality
road. Before we knew it we were climbing
higher again and the temperature dropped as we arrived at one of the highest
cities in the world, Potosi, at 4070masl.
A mining town at the base of Cerro Rico (mountain rich) filled with
silver that has been mined for years. The
town doesn’t seem to have been built based on a town plan as narrow roads
zigzagged all over the place and some turned into dead ends or sheer banks to
the level below. A very interesting town
but we could feel the effects of the altitude making us move a lot slower and
feel a bit sluggish.
The next morning we decided to look for an ATM that would
give us USD so we would be prepared for exchanging in Argentina (your money
goes much further if you exchange on the black market and get the ‘Blue Dollar’
rate). Unfortunately no luck, so we got
a few supplies we would need for the next week wild camping around Uyuni and
beyond.
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Cerro rico |
During a few research sessions we had found out about a
thermal pool about 20kms outside of Potosi, and decided we should spend the
rest of the day there acclimatising to the altitude. Ojo del Inca is located in such a beautiful
setting, and the temperature of the pool was much hotter than the thermal pools
we had swum in in Chile. What a
fantastic afternoon relaxing in the sun.
In the late afternoon 4 locals arrived and set up camp next to us. We were invited over to join them for a drink
and listen to them playing the guitar and singing. Under the stars, listening
to local music and chatting to these 4 interesting men was great. It was such a pity that Teeny started feeling
ill. She went to bed early and it was
about 3 hrs later that the night of hell started. She couldn’t keep anything down, not even a
sip of water and couldn’t fall asleep either.
The only good thing was seeing the sunrise the next morning! Weak and battling to sit up without wanting
to faint Nick asked the 4 guys if they could help us get back to Potosi. They were so kind and without a blink of an
eye made a bed in the back of their truck for Teeny to lie on and one of them
drove her bike back to Potosi. We were
so lucky to have met them, and when we got back to Potosi Nick went to the
chemist to describe the symptoms. Yes,
she has altitude sickness, and if you aren’t sleeping you have a slight case
too. Take these pills with food, once in
the morning and in the evening.
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Ojo del inca thermal pool |
The next 2 nights we slept and started to feel better. The pills had odd side effects making our fingertips
tingle and made soft drinks taste awful, but at least we were sleeping and
Teeny didn’t feel so nauseas.
We left for Uyuni, glad to be on the road again and heading
to a lower altitude. As we entered into
the mountains the sky got pretty dark and we decided to put our wet weather
gear on. Lucky we did because no more
than 10min later we were driving through a hail storm!! Brrrr…and wet shoes!
Thank goodness the other side was sunny!!
The rest of the drive to Uyuni was on a great road sparkling like
diamonds weaving its way through the hillside.
We turned a corner and there was Salar de Uyuni lying ahead of us!
Arriving late in the afternoon we went directly to the train cemetery 2 km
outside of town and watched the sunset and set up camp for the night.
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hail storm |
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Check the hailstones on the Alpacha's back! |
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protest on the road into Uyuni |
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Train graveyard |
What a freezing night, right we need another blanket! Back
in town we bought something to keep us warmer at night before heading into
Salar de Uyuni. The dirt road out to the
entrance of the Salar was pretty good, and when we passed the last little town
Colchani we drove out onto the Salar. Phenomenal
landscape, you drive deeper and deeper into the Salar and can not see the end
of it, only the islands that look like their floating in the middle of the
salar and the mountains far in the distance surrounding it. You cant help but stop and take picture after
picture. We were surprised to find a few
water filled holes that were quite deep, and although it is possible to travel
any which way you like on the salar we thought
the hard crust pentagon/hexagonal shapes of salt were quite rough on the tyres. So we kept to the main tracks through to Inca
Huasi island. A weird piece of land
filled with cacti that are said to be over 900yrs old. We decided to camp near the island for the
night near a pile of salt blocks after hearing that the Salar is used for
illegal trafficking of goods and for this reason people drive at night without
their lights on. We figured having a few
objects in the way would be more comfortable.
An amazing sunset, another freezing cold night and spectacular sunrise…we
were blown away by the beauty of a massive slab of salt.
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self timer no...... |
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no........ |
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GOT IT !!!! |
The next morning we drove 20kms further to Isla Pescada,
another island on the Salar. We climbed
the hill and had a slightly elevated view of the Salar.
We drove along and made a few more stops and quite
a few more pictures and just marvelled at the amazing wonder we were in. On one
stop Nick suggested that Teeny get onto the bike and he take a video of her riding
along the Slat flats, as she went to put on her gloves she found some thing in
one of them….surprise !! Yes the setting was perfect, just the two of us in the
middle of the salt flats and Nick got down on one knee, thank goodness she said
yes!! We drove back to Uyuni town and booked into a hostel for the night, and
went out for an engagement celebration dinner.
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Isla Incahuasi |
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A2A in slat bricks ! |
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Shoo she said YES !!!!! |
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Cleaning off the salt |
The
next 3 days we spent travelling across the harsh Bolivian altiplano. It is a landscape filled with the most
incredible scenery: snow capped volcanoes, colourful mountains, surreal lagunas
with red, turquoise or white shades, flamingos, alpachas the rock rabbits. It was truly magnificent to travel between
4000-5000masl through an ever persistent chilly wind, badly corrugated dirt
roads and plummeting sub zero temperatures during the nights where our water
froze in the canister. The views as we
crawled out of the tent in the morning in the beautiful setting we had found to
wild camp made the hard experiences of this section of road totally worth
it. We loved and hated every minute of
the trip and were torn when we descended the 2500m back to San Pedro de
Atacama, Chile
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The bridge we used to cross the river |
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The road through the river we managed to avoid |
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I'm taking the sheep to bed too bloody cold !!! |
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Frozen water bottle |
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Lunch break hidden from the wind trying to warm up in the sun |
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Laguna Colorado |
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Bugger that was deeper than i thought !! |
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5020m just to drop off a piece of paper at the aduana (customs) - about a 10km detour off the main road!! |
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Don't hit the sand bank on either side of the road...oh and the middle mannetjie! |
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Laguna Verde |