Wild and Hairy

Wild and Hairy …..

The title refers to the huge herds of llamas that we’ve seen over the past couple of weeks …… and to our experiences as well!

We crossed into Bolivia over the Ollague pass (4200m) with no problems. The trail runs right next to the Ollague volcano; which is still very active. Clouds of dense smoke pour from a vent on the nearest slope, and the ground is covered in a thick layer of yellow sulphur. Lots of wildlife around …. Vicunas, rheas, and huge herds of llamas ….plus lagoons covered with flamingos. We stayed in Uyuni, a bustling backpacker-type town. The local Bolivians are very friendly and trustworthy. We stayed in a new hotel …..very cheap because it isn’t finished ….only cold water, and the toilet kept breaking. We left the car on the street outside ….amidst crowds of locals madly pushing handcarts everywhere, filled with huge mounds of fruit and vegetables for sale at ridiculously low prices; you can do your whole week’s shopping for about 10 euros (£7). And every day seems to be carnival day, with people dancing in the streets and a band marching up and down for hours. Unfortunately they only seemed to know one piece of music, so it got a bit monotonous after a while! We visited the Salar d’Uyuni, a huge (120km by 100km), beautiful, dry, blinding white salt lake. We drove across it on several different trails, and managed to get lost of course ….fortunately our trusty GPS saved us yet again. You have to be careful where you go, because if you stray off the trails, you can break through the salt crust and end up buried in thick mud! After Uyuni we drove to Potosi, then Chaqui, a beautiful little village in a long fertile valley, with thermal baths just outside the village. All the local women wash their clothes in the hot water and lay them out to dry on a hillside … a real party atmosphere. We continued further, and found a perfect camping spot beside a river. What we didn’t know was that we were on the main footpath between several villages, and the path to the local school. So over a couple of days we met just about everybody who lived in the area, including hordes of curious children. Our washroom was the river; cold but clean, complete with a bathing pool (Very cold!!)

Now we started our serious off-road mountain driving ….paved roads are virtually non-existent in Bolivia, plus the country is 80% mountain ….and add to that the fact that all existing roadmaps are virtually useless ….and you start to get the picture! We travelled 100’s of kilometres over breathtaking mountain ranges at altitudes between 3000 and 4500metres. There are no road signs either, so most of the time you have no idea where you are. The « roads » are rocky, dusty trails that cling to precipitous cliffs …just wide enough for one vehicle, with the odd passing place now and then. Fortunately nobody has a car, so the worst that can happen to you is to meet a school bus, or a truck …..which happened to us! It took some time to get past …fortunately we were on the inside! Ann is very brave; she doesn’t like going down steep mountain roads, but she covers her eyes when we go round each hairpin bend! We are currently in a town called Oruro, south-east of La Paz. It took over 12 hours to get here; when you ask a local if you are on the right trail, he always replies « Si », even if you’re going the wrong way!! Most of the people in the mountains live very isolated lives ….and have no idea where other towns or villages are!

Today is a day of forced rest; a local motorcycle race involved closing the main (and only) road from here to La Paz ….incredible! So nobody can leave town. It’s just as well because I had to repair a puncture, and the compressor as well.

Tomorrow we’re off to the Amazon …..

Dust, dust, and more dust ....

Dust, dust, and more dust …..

The climate here in the Atacama takes some getting used to. The days are very hot ….25 to 30°C, but as soon as the sun sets the temperature plunges to below freezing. Humidity is 0%, absolutely as dry as a bone; it never rains here at all …and there is a fine cloud of dust that floats permanently in the air …I’ve never sneezed so much in all my life!

We spent several days sightseeing. The mountains around are very arid ….a real lunar landscape. We trekked over enormous sand dunes, along parched canyons …even through cave systems where we could only get through on hands and knees; luckily we had our headlamps. One day we drove up to a geyser system called El Tatio. The trail was extremely bumpy, 100km of the worst corrugations I have ever experienced. At one moment we had a little « excitement » ….I braked for a bend ….and the brake pedal went straight to the floor!! …..Oooops ….No brakes!! Fortunately after pumping the pedal a few times the pressure came back. This happened several times during the trip ….guaranteed to keep you awake while you’re driving! When we got back I asked some of the tour guides if they had ever experienced the same thing …..Yes they had. Apparently sometimes he vibrations are so extreme that air bubbles form in the brake fluid! Oh what fun we have!!

Anyway, the geysers are very impressive, jets of boiling water and superheated steam gushing from holes and pools. We also visited a thermal spa situated down in a canyon. The road down was very steep, very narrow, and strewn with large rocks. It was only later that we found out that tourists normally leave their cars at the top of the canyon and walk down! Only the idiot English drive down! On the way back up I was praying we wouldn’t meet another vehicle coming down! The Atacama salt lake has a wildlife reserve and lots of flamingos, otherwise its just sort of flat, and dry and salty! The mountain lakes (at 4300m) are very beautiful, in magnificent settings with the pure blue water amidst dark volcanic cones.

After San Pedro we moved to Calama; a nice town, but the main attraction was 16km away …..the world’s largest opencast copper mine …..5,5km long, 3,5km wide, and 1000metres deep! The mine produces over 1million tons of pure copper per year ….with China the largest customer (22%!) The trucks they use to transport the ore can carry 110tons at a time, and the 1600HP engines burn 15litres of fuel per minute! …..At that rate my 4x4 would run for just 12 minutes! Our campsite was right next to a field of llamas ….with a particularly friendly black one called Sunshine.

By this time we were both missing the sea, and a slightly more humid atmosphere, so we drove to a tiny village called Pisagua on the coast northwest of Calama. It was a long drive, and the last 10km were in poor light, thick sea mist …and down a narrow mountain road that dropped 1000metres along a sheer cliff face. All I could hear from Ann was « Oh …..Oh …..Oh »

The village is tiny and quite poor. We found a municipal campsite at one end of the village …fairly primitive ….just a plastic pipe for water, but very quiet and peaceful. The village has a couple of shops, but we never managed to find out when they were open. The vllage does have a certain claim to « fame »; it was here that the dictator Pinochet brought his political prisoners from 1973 to 1978, and many of them never survived. Our campsite was on the site of the prison, and the cemetery is just next door. It is obviously still fresh in the minds of the people; we had a visit from one of the inhabitants who almost burst into tears when he was describing the terrible period. However, on a lighter note, we walked along the cliffs and found an enormous sea-lion colony; several hundred of them, and although there is a perfectly good beach nearby, they prefer to perch high on a group of huge rocks just off the coast. What is amazing is the climbing ability of these animals. Most of them were 40 to 50 metres up on the rocks, with almost sheer drops into the sea! Sea-lions have very agile and strong rear flippers that they can use as feet ….but even so ….I would need full climbing gear to get up there!

Also, we had neighbours on the pretty beach next to us ….pelicans ….dozens of them. Such huge, ungainly, comical bids. They look so clumsy and heavy that it’s a marvel they manage to take off and fly!

Well ….that’s all for now ….busy preparing for our trip up into Bolivia. It may be a while before I manage to update the blog again; the internet cafes are very rare in southern Bolivia.

PS. The picture of the truck is for Jack ….we’re buying him one for Xmas!