General map of the route (source: Las Torres Tour ) |
After our guide/driver, Victor, packed everyone's backpacks and all the rest of the gear end provisions on the top of the jeep we were good to go, unaware of all the great things we would see in the next 4 days. As explained in a previous post, instead of going directly to Uyuni to see the Salar, we've decided to take this four day tour that started in Tupiza and made a circuit along all the southwest planalto of Bolivia, finally ending in Uyuni. Only afterwards did we realize how good of a choice it was to take a now very popular tour!
Immediately after leaving the city we had the first taste of dirt road which was not so bad, not forgetting that we were in an off-road vehicle. It would be a long way until we had our 4x4 tires on a paved road again. Our first stop, just a few kilometres from Tupiza was "El Sillar" and "Valle de la Luna", named after its landscapes. The first means "The Saddle" for its mounts in a shape of an horse saddle, and the second means "Moon Valley" for the resemble of the moon's surface.
This first day was mostly spent inside the car as we had many kilometres of off-road to make. Nonetheless, we had the first views of the amazing scenario of southwest Bolivia. The Bolivian Altiplano, that occupies most of the west of Bolivia, is the second largest high plateau after the Tibetan plateau. Although it is very dry and arid place, there are still places humid enough for vegetation to grow. We had a stop-over at Aguanapampa, which is a small plain to where water flows creating the perfect set-up for llamas grazing. All over this plain llamas from different owners were scattered around. The colourful marks of fabric attached on their hears is the way different shepherds distinguish their lamas from the others.
All throughout our trip we could see the evasive vicuñas which are a relative of the llama, but instead of being domesticated they are wild. The vicuña can produce a very fine wool, the reason why they have been hunted down through history at the point of endangerment. They are now a protected species.
All throughout our trip we could see the evasive vicuñas which are a relative of the llama, but instead of being domesticated they are wild. The vicuña can produce a very fine wool, the reason why they have been hunted down through history at the point of endangerment. They are now a protected species.
At lunch time we did a stop in a small settlement basically in the middle of nowhere. We understood that some inhabitants rented some space with tables and chairs for tours like us having a place to eat. The food was already prepared by our cook, Dona Maura, and the same would happen in the next days.
In the afternoon we made our way in bumpy roads, through San Antonio de Lipez and the ruins of the "Pueblo Fantasma" (ghost town). Founded by the Spanish, this settlement was the base of a big mineral exploration nearby. Now abandoned, the partially destroyed village shows through the quality of its construction that the profits from the mineral mines was great at the time. Local people believe that the place is hunted due to the many souls of native people that were forced to work in the mines and so have perished! We ended the day entering the Eduardo Avaroa Andean Fauna National Reserve, created to protect its unique fauna and flora, where we slept in a basic shelter but quite warm and dry.
In the afternoon we made our way in bumpy roads, through San Antonio de Lipez and the ruins of the "Pueblo Fantasma" (ghost town). Founded by the Spanish, this settlement was the base of a big mineral exploration nearby. Now abandoned, the partially destroyed village shows through the quality of its construction that the profits from the mineral mines was great at the time. Local people believe that the place is hunted due to the many souls of native people that were forced to work in the mines and so have perished! We ended the day entering the Eduardo Avaroa Andean Fauna National Reserve, created to protect its unique fauna and flora, where we slept in a basic shelter but quite warm and dry.
Check our second day in the arid southwest Bolivia in our next post.