After 2 exciting weeks of hard work we found ourselves on vacation, again. Cochambamba was an amazing experience, one that we will never forget.
We left early morning to catch a train a few hours south in Oururo. In usual form, we had no reservations. We stood in front of a blank face employee for 10 minutes while he typed into his computer to be told that the train was full. There was another couple in our same position so the 4 of us sat around waiting to see if any spots would open up. The heavens parted and 4 seats were at last given to us, in ¨fancy¨ class.
The train rambled down to the town of Uyuni at a pleasant speed. The views were nice and the food car (although steaming hot) was a nice place to pass the 6 hour ride chatting with our new (french) friends.
On arrival the 4 of us found a cheap place to stay and decided to meet in the morning to find a tour together. We left the very next morning on a 4 day trip to see the various sights around Uyuni and of course, visit the salt flats. The tour is usually 3 days, but we extended it to 4, cut out 2 other passengers and did the trip inversed. This worked great because we had plenty of space in the 4x4 truck, plenty of time to see everything, and less tourists in our photo shoots. Our guide was also the driver, mechanic and cook, which was interesting at times....
We saw endless desert landscape sprinkled with random volcanic rocks and lagoons. Flamingos
flock to this area because of the rich soil and shallow lagoons. The hospedajes we stayed in were basic and on the last night we stayed in a hotel made of salt.
The last day was by far the most breathtaking as we tumbled out of bed at 5am to watch the sunset over the salt flats. The salt flats reach far and the vision is impressive. Once we had some coffee in us, we spent a good 45 minutes trying to capture funny pictures.......
By the 4th day we were professional Uno players, discovered the limi
ts of Bolivian wine and had made 2 new friends.
We left early morning to catch a train a few hours south in Oururo. In usual form, we had no reservations. We stood in front of a blank face employee for 10 minutes while he typed into his computer to be told that the train was full. There was another couple in our same position so the 4 of us sat around waiting to see if any spots would open up. The heavens parted and 4 seats were at last given to us, in ¨fancy¨ class.
The train rambled down to the town of Uyuni at a pleasant speed. The views were nice and the food car (although steaming hot) was a nice place to pass the 6 hour ride chatting with our new (french) friends.
On arrival the 4 of us found a cheap place to stay and decided to meet in the morning to find a tour together. We left the very next morning on a 4 day trip to see the various sights around Uyuni and of course, visit the salt flats. The tour is usually 3 days, but we extended it to 4, cut out 2 other passengers and did the trip inversed. This worked great because we had plenty of space in the 4x4 truck, plenty of time to see everything, and less tourists in our photo shoots. Our guide was also the driver, mechanic and cook, which was interesting at times....
We saw endless desert landscape sprinkled with random volcanic rocks and lagoons. Flamingos
flock to this area because of the rich soil and shallow lagoons. The hospedajes we stayed in were basic and on the last night we stayed in a hotel made of salt.The last day was by far the most breathtaking as we tumbled out of bed at 5am to watch the sunset over the salt flats. The salt flats reach far and the vision is impressive. Once we had some coffee in us, we spent a good 45 minutes trying to capture funny pictures.......
By the 4th day we were professional Uno players, discovered the limi
ts of Bolivian wine and had made 2 new friends.
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