Beyond These Words
Never mind struggling for superlatives, there are just no words to describe our latest experience - I think it would have been a challenge even for Shakespeare! We´ve seen loads of photos of the Bolivian altiplano and Salar de Uyuni and none of them have come close to capturing what it is to be there so ours don´t have a hope. Therefore as any description is beyond these words all we can say is go and see it for yourself!
Still, I have to try to give some idea of our experience with the inadequate words at my disposal so here goes. Even the first stop on the five day tour, Laguna Blanca, had us at a loss for words - the best efforts were surreal, ethereal, unwordly, translucent - a combination of all of these. It felt like if I reached my hand out in front of me, the entire view would ripple like water.The colours of the landscape are beautifully subtle pinks, beiges, silvers and whites, added to by the flamingos on the lake. It was a landscape version of Cinderella´s ball dress in "The Slipper and the Rose" (only girls who watched that film as I did at age 8 - before cynicism set in! - will appreciate how beautiful that could be!).
We had arrived one week into the rainy season which in some ways is unlucky - we had to change our route and couldn´t spend a night in a salt hotel. Plus they aren´t kidding when they say the roads get washed away in the rain which meant some interesting manoeuvres for the jeep. But our Bolivian driver, David, was brilliant and handled all manner of obstacles. No complaints from us though, as we had hoped to see the salar (salt flat) with water on it having heard amazing things about it. In the end we only had 3 hours on the salar, in order to leave enough time to face the washed out roads to get to our next refugio. But for me they were the best 3 hours of our travels so far hands down.
We did get to visit a salt hotel in the middle of the salar that people no longer stay in - and rightly so as the associated sanitation issues are damaging to such a fragile environment (the new salt hotels are now being built on the edges of the salar). It was cool to see walls, chairs, tables, everything made out of blocks of salt - but rubbing chips on the walls is not allowed.
Even before you get onto the salar, as you drive towards it from Uyuni, you can see the surroundings reflected in it, and where the islands rise out of the salt flat, it just looks like there are hills floating in the sky. Then as you drive out into the middle the horizon gets totally lost. Watching the local bus drive seemingly into the sky was the most surreal moment! If there is such a place as heaven it must look like the Salar de Uyuni in rainy season. And I stress again, our photos don´t even come close. We want to come back and see it when it is dry as it is supposed to be stunning then too, in a different way, but with water on it is a truly magical place.
There is so much else to see on the tour but it does get overshadowed by the salar. We went in hot springs at 4500m, played hide and seek in the Dali-esque rocks around "the rock tree" (getting very out of breathe in the process as it at nearly 5000m), saw the fumaroles at Sol de Mañana, watched Laguna Verde change from a sheet of glass to a deep turquoise as the sun came onto it and saw thousands upon thousands of beautiful flamingos among the reds, greens, whites and blues of Laguna Colorado.
We also climbed most of Volcan Licancabur where we really did feel the brunt of being there in rainy season as it snowed heavily the night we went up, and not having our gear for snow with us (as we were told Licancabur very rarely has more than a dusting of snow!) and not being acclimatised above 5000m (Licancabur is 5920m), we were massively slowed down and as more bad weather came in we had to turn round 200m from the top (first time our adherence to the "safety before summit" principle has truly been tested - it was a tough decision!). Consequently we didn´t see the lake in the crater where NASA have been experimenting, but some people ahead of us who did go to the summit didn´t see it either because of the weather! So rain, snow, sunshine - it was an incredible trip and we wouldn´t have had the weather any other way because those 3 hours on the salt lake were so beyond words.
P.S. My shoes are still covered in salt from walking in the water on the salar and I´m determined to keep them that way for as long as possible. How determined was demonstrated on our return when we were caught in a full on tropical storm in San Pedro de Atacama centre. I ran back to our hotel through the stones, mud and don´t want to think about what else, barefoot, with my shoes in a plastic bag to protect them - I think Steve would say my craziness is beyond words too!
Mandi
Still, I have to try to give some idea of our experience with the inadequate words at my disposal so here goes. Even the first stop on the five day tour, Laguna Blanca, had us at a loss for words - the best efforts were surreal, ethereal, unwordly, translucent - a combination of all of these. It felt like if I reached my hand out in front of me, the entire view would ripple like water.The colours of the landscape are beautifully subtle pinks, beiges, silvers and whites, added to by the flamingos on the lake. It was a landscape version of Cinderella´s ball dress in "The Slipper and the Rose" (only girls who watched that film as I did at age 8 - before cynicism set in! - will appreciate how beautiful that could be!).
We had arrived one week into the rainy season which in some ways is unlucky - we had to change our route and couldn´t spend a night in a salt hotel. Plus they aren´t kidding when they say the roads get washed away in the rain which meant some interesting manoeuvres for the jeep. But our Bolivian driver, David, was brilliant and handled all manner of obstacles. No complaints from us though, as we had hoped to see the salar (salt flat) with water on it having heard amazing things about it. In the end we only had 3 hours on the salar, in order to leave enough time to face the washed out roads to get to our next refugio. But for me they were the best 3 hours of our travels so far hands down.
We did get to visit a salt hotel in the middle of the salar that people no longer stay in - and rightly so as the associated sanitation issues are damaging to such a fragile environment (the new salt hotels are now being built on the edges of the salar). It was cool to see walls, chairs, tables, everything made out of blocks of salt - but rubbing chips on the walls is not allowed.
Even before you get onto the salar, as you drive towards it from Uyuni, you can see the surroundings reflected in it, and where the islands rise out of the salt flat, it just looks like there are hills floating in the sky. Then as you drive out into the middle the horizon gets totally lost. Watching the local bus drive seemingly into the sky was the most surreal moment! If there is such a place as heaven it must look like the Salar de Uyuni in rainy season. And I stress again, our photos don´t even come close. We want to come back and see it when it is dry as it is supposed to be stunning then too, in a different way, but with water on it is a truly magical place.
There is so much else to see on the tour but it does get overshadowed by the salar. We went in hot springs at 4500m, played hide and seek in the Dali-esque rocks around "the rock tree" (getting very out of breathe in the process as it at nearly 5000m), saw the fumaroles at Sol de Mañana, watched Laguna Verde change from a sheet of glass to a deep turquoise as the sun came onto it and saw thousands upon thousands of beautiful flamingos among the reds, greens, whites and blues of Laguna Colorado.
We also climbed most of Volcan Licancabur where we really did feel the brunt of being there in rainy season as it snowed heavily the night we went up, and not having our gear for snow with us (as we were told Licancabur very rarely has more than a dusting of snow!) and not being acclimatised above 5000m (Licancabur is 5920m), we were massively slowed down and as more bad weather came in we had to turn round 200m from the top (first time our adherence to the "safety before summit" principle has truly been tested - it was a tough decision!). Consequently we didn´t see the lake in the crater where NASA have been experimenting, but some people ahead of us who did go to the summit didn´t see it either because of the weather! So rain, snow, sunshine - it was an incredible trip and we wouldn´t have had the weather any other way because those 3 hours on the salt lake were so beyond words.
P.S. My shoes are still covered in salt from walking in the water on the salar and I´m determined to keep them that way for as long as possible. How determined was demonstrated on our return when we were caught in a full on tropical storm in San Pedro de Atacama centre. I ran back to our hotel through the stones, mud and don´t want to think about what else, barefoot, with my shoes in a plastic bag to protect them - I think Steve would say my craziness is beyond words too!
Mandi
Labels: "around the world", "salar de uyuni", bolivia, south america, travel, trip, uyuni
posted by MandiB at
07:03
1 Comments:
Well written article.
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