Returning to Cochabamba, by way of the Salar

Good news, everyone! We have a new tent! The director of my study abroad program returned to Cochabamba on Monday and brought with her the tent that we had sent to her in the US. We managed to get back to Cochabamba on the same day, spent a morning seam sealing it, and now are ready to take off on the next leg of our Bolivia tour!

In the end, we decided to travel from Tupiza to Cochabamba mostly by bus. We did buy a 3x3m tarp in Tupiza, but it was really more of an emergency shelter, as we weren't entirely confident that it would protect us from the strong winds and rain of the altiplano. 

Nevertheless, we wanted to take advantage of the fact that our route would take us right past the Salar de Uyuni, the largest salt flat of Bolivia, so we wanted to be prepared to camp. On Tuesday evening we loaded our bikes on top of a bus and set off for Uyuni!

     Watching nervously during the bike loading process. 

Arriving at 3am in an unfamiliar city is never particularly enjoyable, though we'd done it once before in Sweden!, but we climbed on our bikes and set off in search of a hostel. We found one with a space after a few laps around the bus arrival area and soon collapsed into bed. 

The next morning, when I (Lucy) went to get my spoon to eat a breakfast watermelon, I discovered that it was no longer in my handlebar bag! Immediately distraught, I searched all my bags, but it, like the tent, was gone. Though I'd managed to keep it together when we lost the tent, somehow the disappearance of my spoon tipped me over the edge. The little world that we are trying to create for ourselves on the road felt like it was crumbling around us, and I felt my will to go on sapping out of me. I said in the last post that losing our tent was like losing our home, but until losing my spoon too, I hadn't really grasped the emotional toll that that would have on me. Our trip had started to feel very purposeless - taking buses and staying in hostels isn't what we came here for! And though we could be biking and camping with our tarp, the insecurity of traveling without a trustworthy shelter made that option not very attractive. 

Despite the emotional challenges, we had come to Uyuni to see the Salar and we couldn't miss it! So we set off on our bikes at about midday in search of salt. After about 25km on a flat, paved road, we reached the so-called entrance to the Salar!

Of course, this actually meant that we had about 10km on bumpy dirt or gravel with a strong headwind before actually reaching the salt flat. 

   Even on dirt, the landscape was incredibly flat and open!

We made it to what we thought was the Salar, but it turned out not to be what we were expecting! For one, it wasn't white! And though all the cycle tourist blogs we'd read raved about how flat and smooth the salt was, we actually found it to be more like bad, bumpy, cracked pavement. 

       One of the many sections covered with lots of tiny bumps!

We rode a few kilometers but, given that it was already late afternoon, decided to turn back and camp on the dirt. Rather than returning to the entrance town to stay in a hostel, we wanted to test out the tarp to see what it was capable of. 

The tarp stood up to the strong altiplano wind pretty well, though we were lucky it didn't rain! The next morning we set off toward the Volcano Thunupa on the other side of the Salar, which we thought to be about 80-90km away. Our main lesson of the morning was that riding on the Salar is, frankly, very boring. With the sun beating down above and reflecting up from below, an endlessly flat, never-changing view, and continual hexagonal cracks making the riding always a bit rough, by 25km we were doubting whether we could actually bear to make it to the other side. 

      Adie found his best bored riding position!

But a friend had strongly recommended visiting the volcano, so, after a deliberative snack break, we decided to push on. 

       Can't we just be there already?!

In the end, the volcano was worth the boredom of riding on the Salar. We slept in a hostel built of salt, then hiked up to about 4400m the next day on the volcano. Both the views down to the Salar and up to the colorful crater were incredible.

     Adie's back was not used to carrying a backpack!

 And, we happened to run into someone I knew from Cochabamba while on the hike, who later passed us again while we were riding that afternoon! She took the following photo, a rarity with both of us in it...

After the day hike, we headed back out to the salt and crossed to the Isla Incahuasi. It is one of the major tourist stops, and was crowded with jeeps when we got there!

       Everyone hanging out at the salt beach. 

 After buying our entrance tickets, we cycled around to the back side and found a somewhat secluded spot to pitch the tarp. Unfortunately the wind changed direction during the night, so we endured a lot of tarp flapping, but overall it was a fairly successful night of camping. 

The following morning, we set out for our final day on the Salar, woohoo! We were very much ready for a change of scenery. There are very few times/places when we think it would be better to be traveling in a car, but the Salar was definitely one of them. It is just too big and monotonous for bikes. A day might be okay, but 200km was too much. We survived the last morning by telling stories to each other, one story from every year of our lives. We only got to about age 8, but it occupied us for quite a few hours! 

Transitioning from the Salar back to washboard managed to make me wish for the salt, but soon we reached pavement and were able to breathe a sigh of relief! We headed back to Uyuni, planning to catch one of the very infrequent trains that was to pass through that night. We discovered that the ticket office wasn't going to open until 11pm, so we chilled outside the station all afternoon. After cooking dinner, we discovered the waiting room had been opened, so we moved our stuff inside to wait the last few hours. Unfortunately, upon doing so, we noticed a board with ticket availability that was covered with the word "agotado"- sold out! No! All that waiting, only to find out there wasn't any space left on the train. Dejected, we rushed over to the bus area to see if there was anything we could catch to Oruro. Luckily, there was a bus leaving ten minutes later. We hurriedly consolidated our belongings, then shoved our bikes into a bottom compartment and hopped on. Unfortunately, in the chaos, we left Adie's Platypus water bag at the train station...yet another item lost for good.

We arrived in Ouruo at 2:30am and biked to the house of a couple that I had met during one of my  trips with the study abroad program. They were gracious enough to take us in at 3am, give us a bed, and feed us delicious food the next day. We left the bikes with them when we went to Cochabamba to pick up the tent, and now are back at their house readying ourselves for a two-week trip before coming back to experience Carnaval. 

Our plan is to head west to Chile over the next few days, cross the border at Pisiga, then head north through some Chilean national parks before crossing back at Tambo Quemado. It is an area of volcanoes and lots of geothermal activity. We are looking forward to (hopefully) celebrating Lucy's birthday in a hot spring! Then we will check out the highest mountain in Bolivia, the volcano Sajama, 6500ish meters, before finishing the loop back to Oruro. We are very excited to be getting out on the road again!