Weeks 21 & 22: The Atacama and Bolivia with the Murphs
“Oh, and we still wanna come visit. We just need to stay out of zika territory.”
These were the very next words from our adventurous friends’ Shane and Julie Murphy after letting us in on the exciting news they were pregnant!
Zika (pronounced zEEkah unless you are super-gringo, in which case zIYkah) is an elaborate yet compelling conspiracy theory perpetuated by the CDC in a vie for increased federal funding. As the story goes, zika mosquitos hover in a giant swarm over the South American continent looking for unsuspecting tourists to infect.
According to the CDC (and most doctors everywhere), zika is a mosquito-borne ailment which generally just gives you flu-like symptoms, but has some pretty scary complications for expectant mothers. However, zika mosquitos have an FAA-designated, CDC-certified ‘no-fly zone’ above 6,500 feet.
So — weird intro aside — we set out to find a fun 10-day high altitude stretch on our gradual journey north to share with the Murphys. What we landed on was a (mostly) overland trek across Northern Chile and through Bolivia.
To start our journey, we spent a night in Antofagasta, Chile in an effort to sort our Bolivian visas. Bolivia and the US have a tense diplomatic relationship which results in Bolivia being the most notoriously complex country in the western hemisphere for US citizens to visit. According to both the State Department and the Bolivian Embassy in DC it is only possible to do so by first obtaining a visa stateside.
Shane and I uncovered this fact approximately 5 days prior to our trip (with average processing times exceeding a month). With a little research, #murphyatlas discovered that there was a far less certain process to accomplish the visa hurdle on the ground. Color passport copies, multiple passport photos, printed itineraries in Spanish, proof of funds in a US bank account, $160 in ‘crisp non B-Series $20 bills’ and rights to first borne children were amongst the items other travelers cited as necessary to obtain the elusive visa on the ground.
With encouraging yet unclear direction from the Lonely Planet travel forum, we decided it best to spend our first morning camped out in the Bolivian Consulate in Antofagasta for some clarity. After being skipped over in line until there was no one left in front of us, we were ushered into a back room where we met His Excellency Consulate General Juan Ramirez. CG Ramirez informed us that all we needed was cash and our passports in order to obtain visas at the Chilean border. He also kindly provided us his official business card (his name and phone number on a sticky note) in case we encountered any trouble.
With this somewhat official assurance in-hand, we proceeded on the 3ish hour drive to San Pedro Atacama at 8,700ft and safely out of reach of the low flying zika horde. The Atacama Desert is officially the ‘driest place on earth’ seeing less than 3 inches of rain per year. As we drove into this otherworldly locale we were struck by the magnificent array of colors which paint this desert.
San Pedro itself sits in a bit of an oasis (meaning there are shrubs instead of just sand) and serves as the major outpost for all things deserty and touristy in the region. During our three days in San Pedro, we visited small villages, the world’s highest geyser field, and the stunning Valle de la Luna — all of which Rachel chronicles beautifully in her recent photo blog.
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Shane and I also made an experimental border run in an effort to test out our Bolivian visa assurances from CG Ramirez. To do so, we drove about 45 minutes out from San Pedro to the Chilean side of the Portezuelo Hito Cajon — one of the world’s highest altitude official border crossings — located in the lonely, stunning altiplano 15,125ft above sea level.
We parked the car, went up to the confused looking Chilean border guard and informed him that we simply wanted to wander over to the Bolivian side and make an inquiry regarding our visas for a trip across the border the next day. He shrugged and stamped our passports out of Chile. Only then did he inform us that it was a 5-kilometer walk across no man’s land to the Bolivian side. He also gave us three specific ‘tips’ as we set out:
- Don’t give the Bolivians any money. They will try to trick you.
- Don’t step off the path. There are landmines still buried from the days of Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet.
- If the Bolivians threaten you, make sure they know that the Chileans are expecting you back in an hour or so.
Shane had been doing pretty well with Spanish up to this point, so I took his nod and grin as an ‘ok this is pretty standard border advice, let’s go.’ And with this mutual understanding, we walked into the apparently corrupt, violent, mine-ridden no man’s land.
A few hundred feet down the road, I decided to confirm and realized Shane had, in fact, not understood fully. We quickly agreed it best to walk a mile or so and then turn around and get back to Chile. It was a beautiful walk and we did chuck a few large rocks off the path into the minefield, sadly to no effect.
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Eventually, it was time to cross into Bolivia for real. We did so as part of a lengthy, beautiful bus-ride across the Atacama. Upon arrival at Portezuelo Ollague, we four Americans were separated from the rest of the passengers. The visa processors tried to pull an ad-hoc $10 premium on our visa prices. However, with the info from CG Ramirez, we were able to deflect and — after all the uncertainty — made it into Bolivia with minimal hassle.
Our first destination in Bolivia was Salar de Uyuni (12,050 ft), the world’s largest salt flats and a cool place to take perspective photos.
We spent a full day in the flats with Bolivian Salt Tours and our trusty guide Johnny. None of the four of us really love taking tours, but this is a place where it is definitely worth doing so and Johnny showed us an excellent time.
Check out some of Rachel’s photos here. Also, Shane and Julie smoothly wore matching outfits which were the same color as the sand and made Bolivian Salt’s facebook page. **Sadly, after penning this classy joke, Shane informed me that Bolivian Salt has two facebook pages and we are on the other one :( Go gringo marketing!
From Salar, we headed to La Paz (11,491 ft) and wandered the streets and markets for a day. We originally had two nights in the city but felt we’d seen enough after one.
Our last stop with the Murphys was Copacabana (12,687 ft), a lovely little town on the shores of Lake Titicaca. Besides having an awesome name, Lake Titicaca is renowned as the world’s largest navigable lake and does a mean sunset.
We rode dirt bikes up and down the shore our first day in town.
Day two, we all got a little under the weather and didn’t do much except lounge around our hotel (which was trippily designed in the shape of a snail) and provoke the two alpacas which lived on the property into attacking us (videos forthcoming).
Finally, it was time to part ways. Shane, Julie, and baby Murph headed back to La Paz and flew home. Rachel and I spent the day hiking Isla del Sol (a carless island in the middle of Lake Titicaca where locals sell really expensive Pringles cans to tourists who are trapped and hungry) before taking a painful overnight bus to Peru, our last major stop en route back to the US.
