After much trepidation and many committee meetings, we decided to sign up for a Lagunas y Salares Tour, exploring the high desert (altiplano) of southern Bolivia, starting in Tupiza and ending at the Salar de Uyuni. The standard program involves hiring a jeep, a driver, a cook, and to save costs, teaming up with unknown compadres for a four day, three night adventure. The brochure promised: Shapes like a moon landscape; the Dali Desert, a fantastic landcape and forests of erosion stones of ignimbritas and petrified lava (huh?); craters of lava which are always in volcanic activity, burning and smoking at 5000 m; many geysers; three kinds of flamingos (small ones and bog ones); lagoons with internal ice and borax islands; and the world's largest salt flat, Salar de Uyuni, with amazing 'eatersheds' (never figured that one out...) in the salt bed. We signed up.
Early Sunday morning, Marco (our driver) hoisted our backpacks on top of the jeep, tiny Celia (our cook) climbed into the jump seat way in the back, surrounded by coolers and cookware, and Aurélie, Nicolas (our wonderful French companions), Mark and I settled into our respective seats. We drove off wondering what lay ahead, and as we climbed 4100' up a bumpy dusty track into the altiplano, the adventure began.
We quickly realized the program involved driving, driving, and driving, a few quick stops, then more driving, driving and driving, up and over rocky passes, through dusty deserts, past a-m-a-z-i-n-g landscapes, to another quick stop, then back in the bouncy jeep for more driving. We did indeed see everything promised -- brilliantly colored lagoons filled with flamingos feeding while a freezing wind whipped by; gently rolling multicolored hills set against a blue, blue sky; geysers that roared like giant steam engines; and finally, the brilliant white Salar de Uyuni -- so bright I could never figure out whether I had my sunglasses on or not. What was completely unexpected and absolutely delightful, were the on-going, wide-ranging conversations with Aurélie and Nicolas, where we discovered our common interests in art, music, and film. Each night, as the temperature dropped below freezing, we bundled up and stood together beneath the Milky Way, arcing from horizon to horizon, and for the first time in many months, gazed at the Big Dipper, hanging upside down, low in the northern sky.
