Day 34

Sunday 5^th December 2010

The alarms went off at 4.30am – yes 4.30am – and we’re supposed to be on holiday!!! We were up and dressed and in the jeeps for 4.45am. It was cold and dark and breakfast wasn’t being served til we were a couple of hours down the road.

The sun soon rose in the sky and we began to warm up – especially as first stop of the day was the geysers. Plumes of boiling hot steam rose up from the rocks.  More of the sulphur stench to contend with as the evidence of volcanic activity could now be seen with our very own eyes.

There were also bubbling mud pools and ponds. Yet again we got up close and personal with this feat of nature – no health and safety laws in Bolivia to prevent us from doing so. Surely this is natural selection? If we had been stupid enough to put our head in the bubbling mud pool then we deserved the consequences of almost certain death – the UK government would do well to relax the health and safety laws a bit and let us get rid of the stupid people!!!

After the geysers it was onto another lagoon – this one filled with natural hot springs with water heated by the rocks. A purpose built pool has been constructed at the edge of the lagoon – we were only too happy to strip off and jump into the lovely warm water – not least because we’d been travelling across the desert for 2 days and not had a shower!!!

It was amazing – I’ve missed baths in a big way and this was perfect – perfect depth and perfect temperature. Now I’ve never had a Bolivian jeep driver in his under crackers jump into one of my baths before but hey – travelling ois all about new experiences right? We stayed in the water for ages – enough time to go all wrinkly!

After the bath it was breakfast time. Then the two groups were parting to go our separate ways. 9 of the guys were heading across the Atacama desert into Chile to continue their tour and the 5 of us were headed back to Uyuni. For the record the ‘good’ jeeps were Chile bound which left us with Pablo ‘ I like the bumpy slow roads’ and the red jeep that should have been condemned. We were told that the trip back to Uyuni usually took around 9 hours from Lago Verde but that given the state of the red jeep it wasn’t advisable to head to the green lake as this was further away from our ultimate destination. We were also informed that the green lake was mostly white like the red lake so we wouldn’t be missing much and all agreed that heading back to Uyuni asap was the better plan.

As Andrew and Kerry were going to Chile we now had the back of the jeep to ourselves. This meant I could actually sit on the back seat next to Franky and not be squeezed into the boot where I had spent the previous 2 days. Luxury!!! I promptly fell asleep despite the bumpy ride – much to Franky’s annoyance!

Pablo was exerting his authority again by child locking my door so I couldn’t get out each time we stopped – not sure why!?

Fortunately the red jeep held up and it was a long but fairly uneventful drive back. We had a few stop offs for leg stretching and visits to ecological toilets. We also had a number of random stops when Pablo sat and waited until he could see the red jeep trundling along in the distance and then we would be off again. These stops seemed pretty pointless as we never actually waited for the red jeep to see if they were OK!

We stopped for lunch in a small town, A plane had crashed here in 1998 on it’s way to Potosi – which is weird because it was completely off path. What is even stranger is that when the locals reached the wreckage there was not one of the 8 passengers on board. Their bodies have never been found. The only remnants of the plane left in the town is the tail perched high up on a rock where it came to rest on that fateful day. Further evidence of lack of health and safety regs - if you want to climb up for a look you are more than welcome!

Last stop of the day was the valley or rocks – more rocks in the desert with an unimaginative name!

As we ate up the final miles to Uyuni the weather was closing in fast and we had a spectacular show of lightning forking through the dull grey skies to watch for the final leg of our journey.

Pabs and the cook had one last surprise for us. We entered Uyuni town. We were literally minutes from the hotel when they pulled over AGAIN! They then both got out of the jeep and had a wee IN THE STREET!!!!!!

To say we were glad to get back to the hotel was an understatement. I’m sure I will look back on this trip and see the funny side but after 3 days of dealing with Pablo, the constant breaking of the red jeep and the endless bumpy driving I was delighted to get out!

We were able to have a shower at the hotel (all be it cold because the power was off) and get our bags in order for the next stage of our journey – the overnight bus to La Paz.

We headed back to the pizza restaurant for some tea. Stephanie and Teresa weren’t coming back to la Paz with us as they were heading South to Argentina on the train so it was the final meal for the group. As we left the restaurant the storm that had been threatening us all afternoon finally caught up with us and the heavens opened. JJ, Iris, Franky and I were exceedingly soggy by the time we climbed aboard the bus at 8.00pm for our 12 hour overnight journey to la Paz – as if we hadn’t travelled far enough in the last few days?!?

The bus wasn’t the greatest but we settled into our seats with the complementary blankets and our books. The driver promptly turned all the lights off – it seems that 8pm is also bedtime of you’re on the night bus! Fortunately we had our head torches to hand – ha ha!