We made a slight detour out of Uyuni but corrected ourselves and made our way to the Salar on a newly constructed road of tarseal that we had to ourselves as it was not yet open to cars.
We stopped off at the new feng shui salt hotel to have a look and take some photos. Pretty flash, and pretty pricy too. We think it was $US150 a night.
We joined the many tourists taking photos of the piles of salt and were asked many times if people could take photos with our bikes and also where we were going-come from. It was nice to leave the crouds and head across to the original Hotel de Sal - which is no longer in operation but a good spot for lunch.
We loved the surface! The Salt lake was huge and the natural formations of thousands of hexagonal shapes were beautiful. The crunching under our tyres as we crossed the tiny lines was unique and more than once we mistook the salt for ice. Jeeps passed us in the distance, and again we were so pleased with our choice of transport-holiday, as it is so nice to go our own pace and enjoy the vastness and peacefulness of the lake. The Salt became whiter as we rode on and we found a quiet place to do the obligatory photo shoot on salt. We must have spent an hour there, taking photos, and having a lot of fun and laughs.
At 5pm we stopped and set up camp. Well... where do we choose. Miles and miles of empty campspots surrounded us. We chose a spot with no visable jeep marks and set up our tents. What an amazing evening. There was no wind, a beautiful sunset, and we were entertained by electrical storms in the surrounding hills. Once it got dark we enjoyed the unspoilt stars - they really were the clearest we´d seen. Its funny but also so nice to plan your day by the sun. We had all enjoyed our dinner, prepared for the morning and were in bed by 7.30pm.
The night was warm and in the morning our tent had no condensation or ice.... a first for us. We were woken by an amazing sunrise and were pleasantly surprised by the warm morning. It was a pretty special feeling waking up on the Salt.
We were excited about reaching Isla Incahuasi, which is an island covered in cacti in the middle of the salt lake. We had been using it as a navigational tool the previous day so it was neat seeing it get closer and closer and eventually arrive at it.
We got off our bikes, paid the 30BO entrance fee and enjoyed walking over the island and seeing the views of the salt lake from above. We wanted to reach the town of Salina de Garci Mendoza that night, so after a second breakfast-morning tea and filling our waterbottles, we headed for Volcano Thunupa. The salt surface varied a lot on this section and some parts were quite lumpy. We laughed as we scraped off salt from the lake and sprinkled it over our hard boiled eggs for lunch.
After looking at our maps at lunchtime, we realised we could stay on the salt for longer and avoid some bad roads and hills. We altered our course and headed right to ride around a couple of headlands. We were following our noses and were a bit apprehensive when the dry hard salt became softer and wet. We could always ride but got a little wet and very salty!
We came off the salt and onto mudflats and weaved our way across Quinoa fields and Llamas grazing. The mudflats were pretty fast and very dry - lucky for us. We talked to some locals and passed lots of ruins - very sad to see how much work has been done constructing houses and fences of stones... all just left to ruin.
Salina de Garci Mendoza was a nice little village. We rolled in about 5 and found a nice hotel, cheap and clean and with a hot shower and breakfast inc. We were on the 3rd floor and were amazed that we are still puffing a lot when we go up the stairs! We met 2 Italian cyclists heading to where we had just come from, and enjoyed chatting over dinner.
We gave the bikes a quick wash in the morning after a big breakfast and headed out of town. The first 20km were gravel but then again, we found a road under construction and spent most of the day on that. We would have to push our bikes around barriers occationally but there was no dust, no traffic and a lovely smooth surface. Again we passed ruins, Llamas and quinoa fields. We spent the day with the Philtrons and worked together as a bunch as we had a headwind. We had intended to stay in Quillacas but after inspecting the only accomodation of the town, we decided it was too grotty, and we decided to fill up with water and head out of town a few km. We found a nice spot by the river so gave our bikes a really good wash to make sure all of the salt was gone. We had another light show - electric storms in the distance.
How do you like the little troll heads .......
Brr, we woke to a frost but were on the road by 8;30. We rode alone today but met the Philtrons along the way for lunch and to retock in a village. We joined a main road today so had to deal with numerous trucks, buses and cars who tooted and waved. What we found very difficult was the diesel smoke- wow, it was bad. Black and thick out of about every 2nd vehicle. We used our Buff´s face masks which helped a bit.
Lots to see today. We biked through a town called Huari which had it´s own beer plant. We noticed the plants had changed from quinoa to barley. We saw sheep, very skinny cows, chooks and no more llamas. It was quite disconcerting to see how many shrines-memorials to mark where people had died on the road. With so much traffic we both decided that after Oruro we were better off taking a bus to La Paz. Busy roads are not our cup of tea!
We arrived in the town of Poopo at 4 and found a flash looking hotel. We rang the door bell and waited outside. The Philtrons arrived shortly after us and we waited some more. A friendly local rang the hotel and was told the owners were out and would be back in an hour. We waited some more. Another local rang and got the same message. By this stage it was getting close to dark and we were a bit anxious about staying on the streets with no real confirmation when we´d be able to get into this hotel. We made a group descision to buy some water and head out of town, even though it was dark. We put our headlights on (which aren´t that strong) and felt nervous and vulnerable as we make our way through the dark streets and back onto the busy main road. Luckily within 500m Debbie spotted a small track off the road and we pushed our bikes across the fields to find a suitable camping spot. We were so pleased to have the Philtrons alongside us, as they were for us. It was a bit of a restless night with noisy traffic but uneventful. We were happy when morning finally arrived. We got on the road early to try and beat the traffic and wind but alas we were beaten by both. It was pretty much head down, bum up for the 58km into Oruro. The road was busy and reconfirmed our descision to take a bus to La Paz.
Oruro is an interesting town. Not particularly pretty. Pretty much no tourists but pleasant enough. We found a nice hotel, and have spent 2 nights doing some washing, researching our next route and chilling...... and eating.
Heading off to La Paz and Copacobana tomorrow by bus. Lets see how that goes....
No comments:
Post a Comment