Note: this is taken from emails sent in 2001. Hemi
hi amigos!
anyone who has ever arrived at las vegas after a long drive in the desert
must know what i mean by city of lights.
well uyuni is also a “city” at the end of a “road” in the desert.
but forget the lights.
located in the south of Bolivia with 13000 population, it looks like an
abandoned set of an old western movie. there are no trees or plants – just
dusty streets, unpaved, and unattractive.
unlike american deserts – at 4000 meters this is a cold city – at night well
below 0 celcius.
there is nothing really intereseting in town but everyone comes here to
depart to the SALAR – a four day jeep excursion to various salt deserts,
geysers, volcanoes and other geological anomalies in a small area bordering
with chile on the west.
i arrived early this morning and planned to go on tour today by noon.
unfortunately the agencies here are quite poor at organization so i am
waiting for the tour starting tommorow.
On the bus from la paz i met some new friends and we will be doing the trip
together – 6 gringos in a toyota landcruiser driven by a local guide who
doubles as a cook, nanny and what have you…
temperatures in the Salar at night are minus 20 degrees celcius – a great
opportunity to see if my sleeping bag really retains heat at that temp, or
the guys at the store cheated me. (for those faint at heart dont worry – we
will be sleeping in tents that are supposed to have some source of heat).
Before coming to uyuni i walked around la paz for a day and a half and it
was enough.
although situated in a beautiful place – the downtown area is pretty filthy
and reminds me of gaza. I was all too happy to leave…
The way to uyuni is twofold –
first leg – a good bus on a good road for a short 4 hour ride to a place
called orruru.
the next leg is an all nighter starting at 8pm and ending at 5am in uyuni.
the transfer at orruru was quite a mess, we put our stuff on the bus and
then were told its the wrong one, nobody can really help you out there even
if you speak spanish they mumble things to you like “over there…” , “just
one minute…”, etc…
the fun part of the night ride was not the old dilapitaded bus, nor was it
the dirt road (unpaved – just like for jeeps in the desert in israel)
nor the freezing cold temperature in the bus.
the real action started at 3am when the driver somehow managed to get the
bus stuck in the way. we all had to exit the bus so he and friends could dig
up under the bus and try to get it out.
we spent the next 3 hours freezing our butts off in the 4000m desert,
waiting for the messiah.
someone lit up a bush and we added shrubs from nearby to keep the fire
going while we wait.
finally, with the aid of a passing truck and some rope we managed to get
back on the road and on to uyuni.
tommorow is bolivias independence day so there is a lot of partying going on
outside now, people are dressed fine and there are firecrackers and
fireworks. i guess this is the liveliest evening of the year here in uyuni,
i think i will go join the fun…
good thing i bought a llama sweater today because it is freezing cold
outside.
will write after the return from the salar
hold on in israel
bye
hemi