November 6th to 12th
(A lot of my pictures were lost because of an SD card accident, I’ll publish this post like this (only a few photos, most of them borrowed -Thanks Lise) and add photos later if I manage to get them back)
I arrived in Tupiza on Monday the 6th in the morning, that day I chilled and walked around the city, waiting for the arrival of Lise, that I met in Colca and saw again in Coroico. On the 7th, we visited the surroundings. Still above 3000m, we were a bit out of breath! But we did a good walk and saw various huge and impressive rock formations.
Puerta del Diablo
Cañon del Duende
Cañon del Duende
Around Tupiza
Around Tupiza
On Wednesday the 8th, we left early for a 4-days tour in the region, in the Eduardo Avaroa reserve and its lakes, and finishing in the famous Uyuni salt flat. We were a group of 4, Lise, myself, and Tifenn & Olivier, a French couple. Our guide and driver, Pedro, was very kind, enthusiast and always in a good mood.
On the first day, we did a lot of driving, stopping at times, to admire strange rock formations, llamas, and a ghost town where we were given weird information by a local student: the Spanish would have arrived there in 1450, so 42 years before Christopher Columbus discovered the American continent. The 24 churches of the town were used for the many weddings, everybody getting married three times. An epidemic killed the majority of the people, probably a punishment from the gods for such behavior, according to the young man. Despite our doubts and questions, he kept his version of the story.
On the second day, we did more breaks on the way; to see flamingos, bathe in thermal waters, enjoy lakes of every shade of blue, and geysers.
On the third day, we saw new rock formations, a nice canyon, and ended at the famous salt flat, where we went for a bit before the real visit on the next day.
(Lise for scale)
Camel shaped rock
On the last day then, we visited the salt flat! We started by the sunrise from the Incahuasi Island, and its cactuses. Then we went and took crazy pictures, playing with perspective. It’s very cliché and touristy, but a lot of fun!
Lever de soleil
Fotos locas
Fotos locas
Fotos locas
Fotos locas
Fotos locas
Fotos locas
We then passed by a place with lots of flags, but not the French one… And ended by the visit of a train cemetery.
Then, Pedro dropped us in Uyuni where we said goodbye to Tifenn & Olivier, who went back to Tupiza. We were a good team; we had good laughs, talks, card games… Thanks to all!
There ended my Bolivian adventure. Lise and I took a bus on the 12th to San Pedro de Atacama in Chile… It will be the topic of a future post.