So here we are back in la paz after rough riding in the south of bolivia. Endless isolated mountain plains, cactus, rock monuments, dried up ancient lakes, and ghost towns where towns should have never existed. This is the arizona, the southern colorado of bolivia where some of the worlds worst bandits were caught and killed and the spirit of the wild west is preserved. We started off in Tupiza, one of the last towns before the argentinian border a 10 hour bus ride from potosi. Anna had healed up just about the time that i had the urge to grab a quick lunch in the central market. Up front i saved about $4 but after being horribly sick with food poisoning for 3 days, i dont think it was worth it. We did get a chance to do some horseback riding though the day before i got sick and it was good to feel a bit like butch cassidy and his secret love riding through red rock canyons. I also learned that my initial plan to see both the last robbery site and subsequent last shoot out town of sundance and the kid was a bit far fetched. 110 km (65 mi) on a map looks short, but it is 4 1/2 hours by all terrain jeep to get to only one place.(and expensive) so, no horse riding their last route and no car. We did get lucky though and saw that our 5 day salt flat tour would be crossing near san vincente, the resting place of sundance and butch. Opportunity.
We booked our tour of the salt flats with la torre tours for 5 days through the bolivian highland. 3 days and countless hours by jeep through the scrubby plains and multicolored lakes, then two days in the salar de uyuni with an ascent to the top of the --------- volcano. We were very lucky to find a great couple to join us. Sidonie and Didier are a french swiss couple that have been traveling for 11 months now. They have been all over the world and loved traveling so much that if they found they missed something or didnt get a chance to visit somewhere they would always say " next time, next time." it also turns out that Sidonie and Anna know many people in common. Sidonie even worked as a secretary at Anna's university while she was studying. Well they made great traveling companions and good competition for our nightly card games in our chilly hostels.
The tour itself was great. We saw wild flamingos in stinking sulfur lakes, stayed in a hotel made entirely from salt, had great food, took crazy pictures on the salt flats, swam in hot springs, and froze in our sleeping bags at night. The driver wasn't an honest man, but his wife was always greeting us with a smile and hot tea. The car was a toyota four runner with two sets of bench seats in the back. Each morning we would wake up, pack up our bags, have a breakfast of coffee and bread of the day ( cake, fry bread, rolls). We would hand our bags then up to Franco and he would store them on the roof rack along with the gas and tools. Then off we would go, sometimes seeing the sunrise over the mountains. We would stop frequently at different places and have a great lunch in the outdoors sitting on rocks, the ground, wherever. The days were longer or shorter, but all were beautiful. At night we would post up in a new hostel and have tea and cookies. There wasnt much to do, no showers (except one night) and too cold to be outside, so we would rest, chat or play cards. After a hot dinner we were pretty quick to hop under the covers and turn in for the night to rest for the next day.
