This has been so far the most challenging and interesting part of my entire South America trip. To start with, when we crossed the border of Bolovia, everyone got through fine but I couldn´t get away not getting a $135 Bolivian visa, not just that, I am the only one (I was the only US citizen in the team) who had to show yellow fever vaccine related papers ( I had a waiver from my doctor and also got it translated into Spanish from back home!). The way it felt, as if only the American citizens can get or bring yellow fever to Bolivia. The decision by the immigration was such that, our driver would hold on to my passport sealed in an envelop for two days while we cross the desert and when we get to the town, Uyuni after the desert, I have to go to the police department and immigration office to get stamped for the Bolivian visa, pay for the visa and the entrance fee and possibly sign a waiver to agree that I won´t get any public care treatment if I get yellow fever in Bolivia and the Govt of Bolivia would be no way responsible for me and my yellow fever situation even if I am dying in yellow fever! How rude and discriminative to the US citizens, as if no other nation can get it! But then........ Well, we (the US immigration) probably make it quite difficult for the Bolivians to get to the US, so it is kind of a reciprocity revenge as I can see it as!
Apart from the entrance issue to Bolivia, the experience has been stunning for me in Bolivia. I heard many rough and crude things about this poorest country in South America. But, quite honestly, the country in many ways have impressed me during my journey. Let´s get little detail here.
The day one in the desert was 6-8 hours of driving with breaks for restrooms and photo sessions and to see the amazing lagunas and flemingos. The shadow of the mountains on the laguna and the iced water with clouds reflecting on the ice, it is astonishing to me, I have never seen anything like that before. Obviously I took a million pics of these unbelievable beauty of nature. (all pictures will be sorted and posted after my trip is over and when I am back to NYC. Until then patience please!)
We went through lots of dry mountaineous roads, they were so rocky that we had to get down from the four-wheelers a few times to get through those portions of the roads. I have no idea how these drivers of the four wheelers drive through these roads, simply impressive and award-winning skills are those! We picked up our cooks on the way who are few ladies and most of them were somehow related to the drivers, in fact one of the drivers was the leader and he owns this company who does all the arrangement for traveling, four-wheelers, living arrangements in the deserts for two nights, cooking, catering, tea breaks and what not! They even got good music and lolly pops for the entire journey in the fourwheelers. We were four in our four wheelers at the back, the driver and his sister was the cook sitting in the front next to him. His name was Mirang and his sister was Sandra, he was a great driver and very careful, no issues at all through out the 2.5 days driving not even a flat tire or anything similar! They all take care of the four-wheelers so well, everything gets so dusty but the moment they get a break they clean the glasses even if they get dusty again in no time.
The very first meal that we had for lunch was so good. We had rice, fresh cooked vegetables, salads, corns boiled nicely, those were different types of corns than what we get in the US. Ther4e was some fried meat with bone and no one knew what was that and i kept asking if anyone knew. unfortunately, none knew but all finished their food and I tasted the new type of the meat and guess what, it tasted very good, I only like to eat vegetarian animals, that is my kinda rule, not sure, how I got to that idea but it works for me fine. Later on, we found out that it was Llama meat and yes, they are most likely vegetarian, te meat was nice and tender, somewhat like veal meat but no fat at all, at least that is what it tasted like!
The accomodation was supposed to be very basic and I really though it would be like a shade and a sleeping bag underneath, but no, I was totally wrong and the arrangement was quite nice, basic but had all that we needed to get some good sleep. We reached 5000M above sealevel so altitude was a big issue, throats were drying up, we were all feeling the altitude in different ways. I had many cups of tea with mate, the coca leaves, it is the unprocessed leave from which after lots of alteration coccaine is made but it is not coccaine by any means. Please note my point here! I felt thirsty every moment and could not sleep the first night much, felt very cold, so I covered my face with blankets and it was my first time using a sleeping back along with the blankets and I kept rolling myself inside and still could not get any sleep it was too clostophobic for some reason and I had to breath with my mouth, therefore my throat got dry, it was too complicated, finally, got may be 1-1.5 hours of sleep. At night we had one of the team members throwing up and his widfe screamed so loud that I through there was some kind of stabbing or attack! Oh! that drove me crazy more than the altitude. Luckily, they both slept for the rest of the night after waking up te rest and leave them wandering how to get some sleep!
The second day was tougher driving for the drivers but we had good times anyway. We played few different word games among myself, Steph and Margaret. This one game of not letting others complete the word was quite fun for me and I really loved it. We played another game , not sure what you call it but one of us would think of a famous person and others will guess who that is by asking questions, not more than 20 questions though! Helen came up with some fictitous famous character who is a singer and it really tricked all of us so much that I completely gave up and she had to finally tell us who that was. Anyway, we four got to know each other even better in this trip and we really had a good bonding. Steph and I discovered that we share the same birthday, how strange! But I was happy that it was her and no one else from the team! The back two seats had less legroom and the front two seats were little more roomy for the legs, so we switched both days to get everyone a chance to relax better.
Our accomodation on the second night was better than the first night and we had an option of 5 minute hot shower but I and most others did not really care for that shower as we would still be wearing the same dirty clothes anyway, so what is the pint of the shower! It was so cold that we did not feel so dirty and everyone was dirty, that was the good part! No one could any better than the others!
The food for lunch and dinner were good both the days and we had nice tea breaks as well. The 2nd night, it was a huge room with 6 beds but Steph, Margaret and I shared that room and each of us had two beds for ourselves, one to unpack our bags and the other to sleep on! The place was quite pretty looking, they created the building out of salt slabs and it was very impressive to look at. (I look pics and will post them later after my trip is over!)
We all had decent sleep and it was lower altitude than the previous night and also was not that cold either. Looking forward to the White Salt flats in next day´s driving!!!
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