we took a long long long time trying to figure out which tour company to take for the tour. papa actually spent 2 and a half weeks trying to figure out which tour to take. On the first day we had arrived in san pedro de atacama we went in search for tours. we were going to do it with Clint and Maree ( i have written there names about ten times in the diary ), so we were getting information for them. Our hostel owner gave us a small map with the agency's area on the map and the names. He recommended 2. One which was called Estrella del sur, and papa had checked them on the net and they had good reviews. The next one was called Cordilleria, papa had seen the name before but i am not sure. In the end we chose Cordilleria because the lady who explained the tour was really confident and papa and mamma liked her.
On the bus to the Bolivian imigration office there was an American called Ken, an Isreali named Dallia and a South African named jack...later i found out that it was jacque (pron. jackh). And last of all Clint and Maree. At the border the guy told us that we had to get stamped in, in uyuni, at the end of our tour. We met three other people who were joining the other 4X4. First there was a spanish couple whose names were Ion ( pron. yon or jon ) and susana who by the end of the tour ( and during ) mamma and papa really liked. The third one was a Belgian guy named Henric. he was really quiet and nice..I didn't even see him until we got together for lunch. After the border and before lunch we saw 3 different lakes: the white lake, the red lake and the green lake. In spanish Lago blanco (lago=lake, Blanco=white), Lago Colorado( colorado does not even mean red so i dont know the reason for the name) and Lago Verde( verde=green). White was, i think, the coolest. It was called white lake cos most of it is covered by a thin layer of ice and was full of a mineral called Borax which is white, so from far it looked white. It was PERFECT for skimming flat stones and the stone would stop and keep sliding on the ice. But the best was the ice on ice. I broke a piece of ice and held it in the air and then let it fly... the air speed and force was so much that it would land on ice and keep going until it hit water.
The green lake smelled really bad...like rotten egg. Later i realised that sulphur was what gave the lake its amazing colour and horrendous stench.
The red lake got its colour because of the algae in it. All the other lakes did not have a single animal in it...but the red lake was filled with flamingos. The walk from one side to the other next to the lake was not fun...not fun at all. It was not a long walk...but we did not see a flamingo in the path ( cause they were all at the starting and ending point) and the wind was blowing so hard that i had to bend my head down to cut the wind...and when i got tired of bending i would sit behind a rock. That was the end of the first day and we headed to the refugio.
We were 5000 meters above sea level, and so i got a really really bad altitude sickness. It was also like -10 degrees and I have not experienced something as cold as that…and I don’t want to experience It again. I had a tablet, i vomitted and uggggghhh. but by the morning i was compeletely fine.
Ohhh ya…before the red lake we went to a thermal pool and it was really really hot..but the problem was that mamma did not allow me to put my head into the water, so my head was freezing and my body was warm so that gave me a small head ache.
The next day we left for the rock tree, Arbola de something. Basically that was supposed to be a rock that looked like a tree. It was a volcanic rock which is basically a rock that has landed where it has due to a volcanic eruption. Once we reached there I had still not recovered compeletly from my sickness and it was cold so I did not stay out for too long.
After that we saw a million more lakes which were not impressive after seeing the other main lakes. After that we were going to a view point. The view point was supposed to be of a volcano…but nobody was interested in that as one of the tourists from another company found a cave kind of formation in the rock and so everybody took pictures of everybody sitting in it.
The day was done and we were going to a salt hotel. Hotel is not at all the right word for it… I was expecting a 3 floor building with 40 large rooms on each floor or something like that. There were 10 or 11 rooms…just enough to fit 28 people in it. There was one bathroom with a shower and the other with only a pot. But the place was really cool cause there was salt everywhere: on the ground, the walls were made out of it…the only place which was not salt was the bathroom floor. That days dinner was amazing: a huge steak. We had an early morning so I slept at about 10 pm.
The last day had arrived. Today the plan was to go to the salt flats, watch the sunrise, go to fish island or Isla de Pescadore, and be gone to Uyuni town. I was really tired cause we had to get up and be in the 4X4 at 5…. but I got to sleep till 4:55 cause I had all the clothes I needed on me. The salt flats were covered in water when we reached. We were driving on the part which was not covered by water and whenever I saw a piece of salt that was big enough to stick out of the water.. it looked like the rock was floating in midair. ( I thought it was floating cause I did not know that there was water hehe). When the sun rose we could see a double sun because the sun was getting reflected of the water….. and it looked A-M-A-Z-I-N-G. We took pictures of the sun in our hand and stuff like that it was really good fun. Then we drove on and reached a dry part and stopped at a mountain kind of thing with cactus all over it. We climbed to the top and came back down. ( was a really small hill) when we were having breakfast I asked the driver when we were going to fish island. He told me that we were on the island. I was confused, but I did not ask more. Then it struck me… since the water had gone the place was dry and the water was around it..it was an island….but “fish” island. I did not understand. After Breakfast we were going to take perspective pictures. Perspective pictures are basically when you take an object and put it right in front of the camera so it looks big and put the person far away so it looks like the object is bigger. Then you make the bigger thing do something to the smaller. We took THOUSANDS of those pictures…some of which were useless but we got some good ones.
The tour was done and they were going to take us to Uyuni. But before dropping us of they took us to a train graveyard. It was where there were many broken down trains. I thought it would be cool if I got a picture of me on top of a train. So I climbed on top of a train and suddenly I look around and everybody was climbing a train…. Copycats. We got more good pics and that was the end of a great great great tour.
yannick
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