Torotoro, Chapare (failed), Uyuni
Torotoro (7/2–7/3):
During our second weekend, we took a trip to Torotoro. The bus ride itself was four hours and the last three hours were on cobble stone. Not the most pleasant, but I didn’t mind it after a while and was actually able to get a lot of reading done. The drive into Torotoro national park was mesmerizing. It seemed like we seamlessly drove uphill, but once we got into the province of Potosi, the landscape immediately changed into gigantic beautifully formed mountains that seemed Jurassic.
We spent three hours exploring Caverna Umajalanta with a helmet and a head lamp. Although I have been to many different caves in Asia, I have never been to cave that was not commercialized and left to be natural. Our guide, Gabriel, said that he has gone into this cave 4 times a day for the past 6 years. He claims he can do it with no light, which seems absolutely absurd. Gabriel showed us this little lagoon that had fish with no eyes caused by an evolutionary adaptation. We turned off all our lights to experience what darkness would be like and I have never felt so lost. My favorite part of this experience was getting through several meters of tight space where it was paramount to climb on all fours. Rugby bear crawl punishments are actually paying off. Once we reemerged from the cave, there was a storm brewing that created a beautiful skyline for us to photograph. Unfortunately, this storm knocked out the electricity in our hostel. This meant that none of us showered that night, because Bolivia still uses electric shower heads and obviously no lights!
In the morning, we left to see more of the national park. We had the opportunity to see dinosaur tracks, something I would have loved to see as a kid. The tracks ranged from ankylosaurus to brachiosaurus! Eventually we walked to a sight seeing point overlooking a canyon with a spectacular view. Took our first Santa Clara flag photo here. Following this, we began our descent of 750 steps down to a waterfall. Upon arriving to the water fall, we noticed no one was in the water. Our group was to first to jump in the water, and following us, many other Bolivians eventually jumped in the water. This wouldn’t be Bolivia of course if people didn’t ask us for pictures after getting out of the water. Torotoro was magnificent.
Chapare (lol jk) (7/9–7/10):
Saturday morning, we were all ecstatic to go to Chapare. Drove one hour in and I was still all ears listening to Carlos’ stories. This is where we met our first blockade. When we tried to pass, a man picked up a several stones and placed it in front of our car. No biggie though, we drove around the blockade by going through the town. After driving for a little more, there was a point where the landscape immediately changed from dry to rain forest. This change was immediate and the smell of the moist air was so refreshing. However, upon driving another hour, we reached another blockade. This time, a policeman told us to turn around because the blockade wasn’t letting anyone through. Sadly, we had to turn back the way we came but lucky enough we hit the same blockade that we did the first time around. It turned out that the blockade escalated and got bigger, not allowing any cars to get through even through the town. We abandoned the car and most of our American identities to walk a couple kilometers past the blockade. Despite the situation seeming pretty tense, I never felt endangered at any point. We eventually found a van that would drive us back to Cochabamba. Despite not having gone to Chapare this weekend, we made the most out of it by hiking the Cristo de Concordia. Luckily, we did not get mugged! Angus the dog was our guardian.
Salar de Uyuni (7/16–7/17):
After getting off work on Friday, we immediately left for the bus terminal to head to Uyuni. The bus terminal was one of the most chaotic places I have been, with people belching different Bolivian cities advertising for their bus companies. Once we finally settled in on the bus and began our 12-hour ride, we had to make a pit stop. Turns out, the bus driver was fed up with the smell of the stale urine and released the latch to projectile all bathroom storage. Lovely. Despite the crappy situation, I managed to sleep pretty well, only to be woken up by the freezing cold air of Uyuni. It was -7°C when we arrived and I was most definitely not prepared for the cold. We were easily convinced by Betto, an English speaking guide, to go into a café that had heat, food and WiFi. Following a quick meal, we hired Betto tours to be our tour guide for the next two days on the salt flats. Upon hearing horror stories, we made sure that our jeep driver would not be drinking and driving. We spent some time walking around the soviet era city of Uyuni before heading out sharply at 10:30. Our first stop was at the train cemetery. This was just a bunch of different rusty deserted trains for people to take pictures at. Following this, we drove into the salt flats for lunch. Upon entering the actual salt flats, it was amazing to see that the mountains from far away looked like they were floating because of the reflection. The salt flats just seemed to never end! Apparently (according to a brochure) Salar de Uyuni is larger than Belgium which is pretty unbelievable. As expected, we took many photos because of the sheer beauty of the landscape. We also got to check out Colchani (island of cacti), where we took some more of Schuyler’s clothes to take pictures with. Ended our first day on the flats at the lake near Tunupa Vulcan. Despite Bolivia being in dry season, there was still a little lake where we could take reflection photos. At night, we went out to take star pictures where our Serbian friend (Sasha) taught me how to take long exposure!
The next day, we woke up at 5:45 AM to chase the sunrise out in the salt flats. Watching the sky and landscape change color as the sun rose on the salt flats was beautiful! Following breakfast, we started hiking Tunupa Vulcan. This hike was pretty difficult not only because of the 700m ascension but also due to the altitude. Tunupa Vulcan was at 5000m and we started at around 4300m. However, once we got over the main ridge to get a better view of the volcano, it was all worth it. Seeing the Salar from the volcano was also surreal. We returned to the little village for lunch and saw a man being carried home at noon from being too drunk; because Bolivia. In the afternoon, we got a chance to see Blocks of Salt, Ojos de Salar and salt piles. At this point, we’ve seen enough salt for a long time. We made it back into the town of Uyuni to wait for our bus. Everyone was exhausted and sun burnt and was time to go back to Cochabamba.
