Bolivia: Two Less Sets of Footsteps

Greetings to everyone! To those of you who are not vacationing somewhere down south I hope that the weather in your part of the country has been tolerable, that you have been healthy and have had a positive start to the new year.

Our trip continues to be a great success, but alas, our side excursion to Bolivia was not to be. I had been wrestling with the pros and cons of the journey from San Pedro to Uyuni for a long time. It is considered to be one of the highlights of South America. On the other hand, for many people it is a miserable few days. The extreme altitude defies all safety guidelines unless you have already slept at an altitude of over 4000 metres for a few nights. Just about everyone suffers some degree of illness. There's often very little sleep due to the early starts, the effects of the altitude, cold overnight temperatures, and inferior accommodation. Unless you're paying big bucks for a private tour there are seven people crammed into the vehicle. Legendary stories are told of drivers either falling asleep or consuming too much alcohol. Despite all of this, most people say that in the end it had been worthwhile. 

We had accepted all of these challenges and were oh-so-close to going. We were actually in the booking office one day waiting to pay. Two Brazilian clients ahead of us were taking a long time because they had to apply for visas to Bolivia as part of the process. We waited for about twenty minutes before leaving to get some other things done before our afternoon tour, agreeing to be back the next day. But as usual, timing is everything in life.

Two developments occurred. First, we received notification that our onward train trip from Uyuni to Villaron was cancelled because heavy rains in Bolivian had washed out the tracks. The alternative was another day of gruelling travel, a minimum of a twelve hour bus trip over mainly Bolivian roads which are notoriously bad. Secondly, on our tour that afternoon we encountered a group which had just completed the salt flat trip in the reverse direction. A young man had hurt his knee by landing awkwardly while doing one of the staged group photos where everyone jumps in the air simultaneously. Even though he was permitted to sit in the front seat for the rest of the journey it was so rough that he was "in agony the whole way". 

The terrain is extremely rugged. Much of the driving is done over a highly corrugated and rocky track. The level of discomfort and risk of injury to Nancy's back was just too great.  She has to avoid such high impact activities. I had previously discussed this with experienced travellers on the Lonely Planet travel forum (Thorntree). Most of them thought it would be okay if she had a front seat but we now had more reason to be doubtful. There would have been no turning back.  
            
Truth be told, although we'd had a very exciting first ten days we were running on adrenaline with little rest. I had picked up a cold and subsequent chest infection while in transit from home and we hadn't had a single night of good sleep. I had chosen our bed and breakfast accommodation in Santiago because it was advertised as one of the "few in the area with air conditioning" but this turned out to be just a small standing fan which did little to offset the heat of the westward facing room. We had to open the windows to the perpetually busy street below. Although the days in San Pedro were tolerable, the small climbs in thin air that we did as part of our tours stressed my lungs and the coughing was keeping both of us awake at night. It wouldn't have been responsible for me to expose the other people on the Uyuni adventure to my germs. On top of that I had cut my head on the corner of a poorly placed wall shelf (Latin America is not built for tall people). There had been a lot of blood so we both thought I should go to a clinic to get it properly disinfected and patched up. We were both ready for some down time.  

When I started planning this trip four years ago I quickly realized that were just too many fantastic places to visit in this part of the world in three months. We'd need at least another four weeks to do it any sort of justice. A whistle stop tour would be a mistake so we had agreed to be satisfied with experiencing eight or nine of the best places in each of Chile and Argentina. We both feel good about our decision to forego Bolivia. The Atacama Desert had exceeded our expectations. After you've had a deliciously satisfying meal why ruin it by speculating about what the neighbours might have been having that was better?     

I am writing this blog not to advertise our travel resume but in response to the people who asked us to share our experiences so that they could learn about this part of South America . Secondly, it is intended as a means of keeping in touch with those who expressed concern  for our safety and well-being. Although this posting has little interest value it can still achieve these goals if I demonstrate through the photos of others what are generally considered to be the highlights of the San Pedro to Uyuni (or reverse) trip: Laguna Colorado because of its pinkish/red water and bird life, especially the flamingos. Some of the unique formations such as the Salvador Dali rock. Fish Island (inaccessible at this time of the year) that offers a stark contrast in the middle of the salt flats. Finally, the salt flats themselves which have a honeycombed appearance in the dry weather and can provide stunning watery reflections during the wet season. 

Thanks to those of you who are committed to reading the blog thus making it worth the time and effort that is required and sometimes hard to manage. A few people have left comments and I tried to respond to these using the software program but they didn't save properly. It would be nice to hear some news from home and I would respond as time permits. Bye for now!