La Paz, Uyuni... and our run in with Bolivian authority!

The last time we spoke I was in La Paz and what a city it was.  La Paz is HUGE.  It is actually the second largest city in Bolivia, and also the capital.  Overlooking La Paz are the triple towering peaks of a large Bolivian mountain called Lllimani.  La Paz is actually the world's highest capital city.  AMAZING. 

We stayed in La Paz for 3 days total in a hotel called Hotel Brisas.  It was exactly what we needed after a long journey from Copacobana.  What I did notice about Bolivia was that the people weren't as friendly as in Peru.  We always managed, but didn't get a lot of help from the locals.  In one incident, a lady selling oranges decided she didn't want to sell to tourists and flat our denied us.  I picked up a bag to start putting oranges in it, and she grabbed the bag and just kept saying "no".  We were a little put off and confused but went on our way.  One GREAT thing in La Paz was the food.  It was fantastic, and you could pretty much get anything you wanted in this city.  We ate great for the full three days we were here. 

One the second day, we decided to visit the infamous "witches market".  Now I'm sure you're all wondering why they call it the witches market.  Well, not only do they sell an array of alpaca sweaters, scarves, jewelery, all the average tourist merchandise but they also sell black market items such as llama teeth, bones of endangered animals, hooves etc.  This market specializes in medicinal healing herbs, spices as well.  One thing we did see alot of but unfortunately couldn't take pictures of was all the llama fetuses.  In most if not all shanty stores you found dried out llama fetuses, or new born llama's hanging.  Apparently this was something the locals buy when they are building their homes.  They are supposed to build the fetus into their walls encouraging good luck and protection of the home.  It was interesting to say the least, and something you have to respect and try to understand.

We left La Paz and headed towards Uyuni, where we were going to take a day tour to the incredible salt flats.  Uyuni is primarily geared towards tourists, and acts as a gateway for those heading into the salt flats.  This town was cold, dark and very unfriendly.  Luckily at the bus station in La Paz we made friends with a great Chilean guy named Egardo.  He owned a tour company in Chile, and gave us a ton of advice.  Our hostal in Uyuni was something you would expect to find in a horror movie.  There were stains on the walls, it was freezing cold in the room.  I'm talking about 0 degrees.  We couldn't even get a double bed, we had to squeeze into a twin, which I was kind of glad for only because it was that cold.  The bathroom had no running water, just a huge plastic bucket where people washed their hands after going to the bathroom.  We knew that as much as we wanted to be in Bolivia we wanted to get far far away from this town as fast as possible so we booked the day trip the morning we arrived.  The salt flat tour costed us 16 US dollars and it was by far worth it.  

We started at an abandoned train station, which was actually pretty cool.  The backdrop was desert like with moutains in the distance.  Apparently after talking with our driver (who looked like he should have been in a south american boy band at some point in his life) I figured out that after newer, more modern trains were built they actually just abandoned this old train yard, not disposing of the ruins.

We then took a long drive out to the beginning of the slat flats.  It was amazing just driving up to it, let alone being right smack dab in the middle of it.  Also known as the "salar de Uyuni", these flats are the largest in the world scaling more than 10,000 square km.  The salt was formed as a result of transformations between several prehistoric lakes.  AMAZING RIGHT?  It is covered by a few meters of salt crust, which has an extraordinary flatness with the average altitude variations within one meter over the entire area of the Salar.  Now that is what I call flat.  The crust serves as a source of salt and covers a pool of brine, which is exceptionally rich in lithium. It contains 50 to 70% of the world's lithium reserves, which has yet to be extracted. 

Honestly speaking my pictures do NO justice to what we saw.  This sea of salt, it was just mind blowing.  In between were mountain peaks, which were apparently the peaks of volcanoes during prehistoric times.  We stopped at local market area where tourists could buy little memorabilia of the salt flats.  Everything there was made of salt, the buildings, the ash trays, the chairs.. it was spectacular.  We were given some time to check out the salt piles which the locals make up.  They actually gather the salt into piles and sell it.  Not sure if they export it, but there is definitely enough to go around.

The next stop was Incahuasi Island, also known as "fish island", because it's in the shape of a fish from a bird's eye.  This island was located in the middle of the salt flats.  It was covered in large cacti and was made mainly of rocks.  You could climb to the top and get an amazing view of the sea around you.  You could even see that there was a bit of a beach area where the salt formed what looked like the tide.  How incredible.  You had to wear your sunglasses here, because the whiteness was just too much on the eyes. 

Mark and I took our time, checking out the island and walking everywhere, snapping pics and just playing!  We took some pretty cool pictures out on the salt flats and just had such a blast.  Our next stop was the volcano.  Again in the middle of this sea of salt was a huge volcano which could be climbed, if we had the time.  It was quite the sight.  Of course, this was an inactive volcano, but just seeing it was quite breath taking.

Our last stop on our tour was what they call "the eyes of the flats".  A small watering hole in the middle of the flats where the sulpher bubbled up and created a pond of bubbling water.  It was less than spectacular but pretty cool. 

WOW.. the salt flats were worth the trip to Uyuni, the cold hostal room and the long 11 hour journey from La Paz.

When we left Uyuni we were relieved but only because of the hostal situation.  We really enjoyed the salt flats and the tour, and would definitely recommend it to anyone traveling throughout Bolivia.  We arrived at the border crossing at about 8am after a long journey from Uyuni through the desert.  When it came time to show our immigration cards, the gentleman at the border took one look at our passports and said very sternly "NO".  Then he told us to stand to the side.  The look on my face must have been priceless.  What could possibly be wrong.  After the long line had finally ended he said to us that we didn't have a Bolivia stamp on our passport.  It turns out, when we crossed the border from Peru to Bolivia, the two men working on the bus helped us get through immigration/policia on the Peru side of the border, but Mark and I were unaware that we had to go through another immigration/policia station located just a few feet from that on the Bolivian side.  We were naive and we didn't know any better.  We just expected that the guys on the bus would have told us if we needed to do anything else.  Silly silly us.  Since we didn't have a stamp from Bolivia the guard told us we were going to be DEPORTED back to Canada.  Proving that we were in South America, he did give us another option - pay 50 US dollars or 300 Bolivianos each and they would back date our passports and let us through.  The problem was that we didn't have quite that much on us and there was not ATM in sight.  We would have to travel back to cold and bitter Uyuni.... NO WAY.  We had previously made friends with a Canadian girl and her Chilean boyfriend and they offered us the money just to get through the border.  When I was about to hand over the 100 US dollars, all of a sudden the man looked at us and said "no, I will take only 300 Bolivianos total for both of you".  The change of mind startled me as I tried to hide the 100 dollar bill in my hand.  It was like an angel was watching over us and had changed his mind.  Our Chilean friend, said this never happens.  That when these guys say a price they NEVER change their mind.  But something changed his mind.  So yeah, we were out roughly the equivalent of 30 US dollars, 30 not 100.  I was so relieved, and baffled.  What changed his mind in the matter of two minutes?  Why did he take it easy on us at the last minute.  Instead of asking questions, I boarded the bus and got the heck out of Bolivia, no questions asked.  This was the scariest situation I've been in to date and I'm so glad we got out of it alive..

On to CHILE!!!