To get from San Pedro de Aatacama to Sucre, I took a 3-day trip over Salar de Uyuni, end up in the small town of Uyuni. The trip was really amazing, and Salar de Uyuni is one of the most amazing things I’ve ever seen. We went with a bus from San Pedro to the Bolivian border, which is just a little house in the middle of nowhere. From the Bolivian border, the trip started with 4WD Toyota Land Cruisers – a car I really got a great respect from on the trip. In my car there were 3 Brazilians, a man from France, and guy from Spain, our local driver Juan and me. The car had a stereo where you could connect your IPod, so most of the trip we were listening to soft rock like Nirvana, Red Hot Chili Pepper and a lot of other music in that genre. It was really great, and gave the trip a special feeling.
The view of a tomato!
On the way to the Salar, we stopped at so many lagoons, that they don’t feel so amazing at the end. I almost got sick of seeing flamingos and Llama’s, because they were everywhere. The first time I took a lot of pictures of the flamingos, but the next 5-6 times didn’t amaze me that much.
The Salar de Uyuni was amazing though! Almost a week before I went to Salar de Atacama outside of San Pedro – and compared to Salar de Uyuni it was nothing! The salar was so big and amazing! Everywhere you looked, it was just this white salt plain. Even more amazing was the Island of Cactus, in the middle of this big salt plain. As of out of nowhere, this great hill rises with lots and lots of cactuses, like a Island in the middle of the sea. There where cactuses over 1200 years old, growing about one centimeter a year. While this of course was a very touristic attraction, I was amazed that there weren’t more people there. Most of the time, you would find yourself wandering alone in all the cactuses, in the short hour we had there.
Cactus from Salar de Uyuni
Chilling in Uyuni
We arrived to Uyuni Wednesday afternoon, and together with the Spanish guy from our car, I bought a ticket with the bus, going to Sucre with a change of bus in PotosÃ. Our bus left around 7 in the evening, so we had some hours to wait in Uyuni. We used the time drinking some beers with a couple of Swiss guys, who had also done the 3-day trip. In the Plaza we met some musical people, so the hours quickly passed as we were playing music and singing. More and more people came, and right before we left, there was about 12 people sitting in this place, enjoying the time, chatting and drinking wine and beer. I was so amazed of how easy it is to talk to people, and just enjoy the company of each other. Compared to Denmark where everybody is in their own “tiny squareâ€, where nobody else is allowed…
I also met a Columbian girl there, who lives in Bogota. As soon as she heard I was going to Columbia, she offered me to show me around town when I get there, so hopefully I’m going to meet up with her and her friends in Bogota when I get there.
I started studying Spanish at Acadamia Latinoamaricana de Español here in Sucre this Monday, and already met a lot of fellow students – even a Danish girl! Its quite rare to meet other Danish people here in South America, so its nice with a fellow traveler. It was her birthday Tuesday, so we went out drinking with a lot of the students. It was really nice, even though there weren’t many people drinking on a Tuesday. Expect some crazy pictures on facebook!
I’m really looking forward to a nice month here in Sucre, and I’m already learning a lot of Spanish.
Hasta luego chicos!
