It is amazing how quickly plans can change. On the evening of the 28th of April, Mike and I hopped on a night-time bus headed towards Copiapo. It is so much easier to book an overnight bus than stay at a hostel. First of all, your bed is included in the price, and second when you wake up you are in a new and exotic place. Copiapo was not exactly exotic, but it was certainly new. Desert surrounded us, sucking the moisture from our skin. High mountains were visible far off through the dry blue sky and every step stirred up a small cloud of dust. We had planned to go hiking with some locals in the mountains east of Santiago but one thing led to another and we caught the last bus to this little desert town in the middle of nowhere. Our real destination was San Pedro de Atacama, a glorious little tourist trap nestled in the heart of the Atacama Desert, the driest desert in the world. Walking to the end of town we stuck out our thumbs and quickly found a ride.
Hitch hiking in the North is much easier than what we experienced in the South. There are a great deal more people, and most are happy to stop and give you a ride. Some drive by with apathetic faces looking forward, but most who are only going up the road or have a full car make some sort of sad face and gesture wildly. In only two days we make it almost 1000km to San Pedro de Atacama. The drive to this dusty little town builds excitment in itself. 6000m snow-capped volcanoes scrape the sky to the North and West, following us as we drive the last stretch of desert road. Closer to San Pedro we drive through some amazing desert terrain: massive sand dunes and colorful, convoluted canyons.
The town itself is a bit of a tourist trap. Tour operators pull you off the streets with promises of 4x4 adventure in the desert, bike rentals are in every internet cafe and hotel and local shops are filled with traditional clothes and postcards. Mike and I pick the tour operator´s brains for information and then head to the outskirts of town to set up the tent and get some weight off our backs. This is one of the reasons I like the smaller towns. You can walk until there are no more people, and then it is just you and the wilderness. Our wilderness this time was only a deserted road, but it did just fine.
The next day started early at the tour office. We all loaded up on a bus headed towards the Bolivian border which was nearly 5000m on the Altiplano. The Altiplano is a plateau in the Andes between 4000m and 5000m. It has wetlands, lakes and geo-thermal features as well as 6000m volcanoes that belch steam into the atmosphere. At the Bolivian border we changed into Toyota Land Crusiers and set off through the high desert. The distances we covered in the next few days were immense. Off road driving was combined with short, fast stretches on dusty gravel roads. Lakes and mountains were everywhere. The fauna was commanded by flamingos in the hundreds at certain lakes but we also saw a healthy amount of llamas once we descended a little bit into Bolivia. The entire area is a geo-thermal hotspot and the majority of the mountains are symetrical volcanoes. There are also gysers and steam vents with boiling mud and hot springs that smell of sulfur.
Even though the scenery was spectacular, it was not my favorite part of the trip. I had not realized how much I had missed meeting and talking to new people since we had been so isolated for so long. Many of my new friends were from England: Ellie and Nikki who we had met earlier, Sophie and Rosie who went to the same university as Ellie and Nikki in Bristol but who were traveling seperate, Dave and Bethan, Gareth and Tony who had been living in England for over a decade but was actually from Sweeden. Finally we had Errin, from Canada, and Kristian, from Norway. We were a jovial bunch, split up between two jeeps but often stops allowed a great deal of time to hang out. The first night almost everyone was feeling ill from having spent the day at altitude. We were sleeping at almost 4500m that night and even a short walk left you out of breath. Luckily, Mike and I were well acclimated from our time on Marmolejo so we did not feel ill. After that first night everyone felt much better and we really started to enjoy each others company. It was the great conversations and late night card games while consuming multiple bottles of Bolivian wine that made this trip so awesome.
After three days of amazing volcanoes, lakes and animals we were in Uyuni preparing to head out to the salt flats of Salar de Uyuni. We spent the morning at an incredible train graveyard but the real attraction of Uyuni is the salt. The salar is the largest salt flat in the world occupying over 12,000 sq km. When we arrived I immediately regretted not bringing my sunglasses. The never ending sea of salt was blinding, reflecting white light out to the far horizons. On some coasts, mountains were visible, but on others, the white expanse terminated at the bright blue horizon. The scale created a dizzying feeling of vertigo which soon passed once everyone had started taking perspective pictures. After a delicious lunch (all of the meals on the tour were amazing) we loaded back into the Land Crusiers to head back to Uyuni. In the city we all said our goodbyes, exchanged contact information, and just like that, Mike and I were alone again. It was Thursday and we soon learned that no buses to Chile left until Sunday and no passenger trains until Monday. This was too long for us to stay in Bolivia so we set out hitch hiking in the Bolivian desert.
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