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The South American Odyssey
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The South American Odyssey

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  • The Craze for TravellingThe South American OdysseyThe Craze for Travelling
    On the edge of the lake. Thaua, so close, yet so far.
    Salt hotel in TahuaOur room in Tahua. Not bad for 60 b$

    Night at Tahua

    8 de outubro de 2017, Bolívia ⋅ ⛅ 15 °C

    After sunset, it became dark very quickly. It was a bit of a challenge driving on the open salt plains with no roads or signs to guide. We also didn't have any bookings for the night since the places here are not booking.com. Its mostly locals letting out rooms in their houses.
    The only place we found marked on maps.me (our gos app) was in Tahua on the edge of the Salar to the North near the Tunupa volcano.
    Trying to reach Tahua, we almost reached there before our path was blocked by a wall. We took a detour and the path this time was blocked by a lake that I managed to see just in time.
    Eventually, we found an alternate route and reached Tahua. We went to the hotel marked on the map but found that it was fully booked. The receptionist was very helpful and with some broken Spanish on our side and help from google translate, we understood there was a professor letting out rooms in the village. We managed to find the place based on her rough instructions and got ourselves a place to sleep for a total of 60 b$. No running water and shared external toilets.    Leia mais

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  • The Craze for TravellingThe South American OdysseyThe Craze for Travelling
    Tunupa Volcano
    Our room to the rightThe shared bathroom with no waterKids going to schoolSalar de Uyuni where we had been roaming the previous night

    Off to Tunupa Volcano

    9 de outubro de 2017, Bolívia ⋅ ⛅ 15 °C

    The previous evening we had arrived very late in the evening and had seen a very lovely starry night but neither of us had the energy to go out and take pics of the Milky Way.
    In the morning we woke up by 7am to a nice sunny day. The views from the room were superb. Right next to us, we saw the very colorful Tunupa Volcano and opposite, was the vast Salar.
    We freshened up as best we could without running water and were off to the Tunupa Volcano. On the way, we saw the vast Salar where we had been roaming the previous night trying to find our path between the lakes to reach the Tahua.
    We even saw the blocked road where had to turn around in the night.    Leia mais

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  • The Craze for TravellingThe South American OdysseyThe Craze for Travelling
    The entrance to the volcano park
    Pre-Inca skull and bones. Very elongated craniumExcept the top 2 bowls and the corn fobs, rest are all varieties of quinoaA stuffed pumaBlow music instruments for calling attentionPan pipes. The bigger ones below are used during spring

    Tunupa Volcano Information

    9 de outubro de 2017, Bolívia ⋅ ⛅ 15 °C

    Coqueza is the village at the base of the Tunupa Volcano. There is a nice small museum representing the lifestyle of the people around. It also has the bones of the pre-Inca mummies. One can also hire a mandatory guide for the trek to the top of the volcano (about 5400 mts). Till 4700 mts, one can go on your own. There is a beautiful viewpoint (mirador) of the colorful volcano top there.
    From the village, there is a 2.6 kms rough road up the volcano to a parking. 10 min walk from the parking, there is a cave where they found pre-Inca mummies and about 1 hour of hike from the cave is the mirador.    Leia mais

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  • The Craze for TravellingThe South American OdysseyThe Craze for Travelling
    Salt plains spread till where the eyes can see
    Tunupa Volcano

    Tunupa Volcano trek

    9 de outubro de 2017, Bolívia ⋅ ☀️ 32 °C

    From the mummy cave, it was a steep one hour trek to the Tunupa Volcano mirador. The air was very rarefied and each step was a tough task. The trek started at 3900 mts and initially when the body was not used to the low levels of oxygen, it was difficult to climb without stopping every 5 min. As the walk progressed, the breathing became easier and we were able to walk longer distances. The mirador is at 4400 mts. The view of the colorful volcano is stunning.Leia mais

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  • The Craze for TravellingThe South American OdysseyThe Craze for Travelling

    Some cool salar pics

    9 de outubro de 2017, Bolívia ⋅ 🌙 25 °C

    In the salar, there is nothing to give the eyes or the brain a perspective of depth, so one can take some very creative pictures by playing with the depth perspective. Here are some of them from my camera. One of the tricks involved is to keep the camera as low to the ground as possible.
    Since Hristo had an iPhone which has a camera at one corner instead of the middle like in my Samsung, we got better pics from that camera.
    I'll post more of them later when I get them from him.    Leia mais

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  • The Craze for TravellingThe South American OdysseyThe Craze for Travelling
    How the hell did it get there
    Hristo starts digging

    The disaster

    9 de outubro de 2017, Bolívia ⋅ ⛅ 19 °C

    As with every trip of ours, things just have to go wrong somewhere, just a matter of when 😆
    As I started to turn the vehicle to go find the Galaxias Cave, we felt the car suddenly lower on all 4 wheels and then it just stopped moving.
    Hristo went out to check what happened and the expressions on his face told me something was seriously wrong. I too got out and what I saw shocked even me.
    All the 4 wheels of the vehicle were half inside what looked like quicksand covered with salt on top which was why we never saw this coming.
    Irrespective of whether we tried front or reverse gear, the wheels just spun and the vehicle didn't move even a single mm.
    There was no other vehicle nearby. So, the only option was to try and dig the vehicle out of muck. Hristo started digging with the spade while I started collecting stones and roots to put below the tyres.
    After about an hour and a half of intense work, we managed to dig channels for all the 4 wheels and line them with roots and stones.
    We tried to start the vehicle but still didn't move a single cm. The wheels would start spinning and the muck would cover the wheels providing zero grip.
    By now, it was getting towards sunset and there still was no one around to help us. To top that, the nearest town was about 100 kms across the desolate salar salt plains with no roads marked.
    We more or less prepared to continue digging and sleep in the car or the cave if things didn't work out till sunset.
    Continued in the next post...    Leia mais

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  • The Craze for TravellingThe South American OdysseyThe Craze for Travelling

    The disaster fixed

    9 de outubro de 2017, Bolívia ⋅ ⛅ 18 °C

    As we continued digging and putting more stones, nothing seemed to work. The quicksand was just pasted all over the wheels and would get plastered over the stones and roots.
    At that moment one vehicle came by to the cave. We went to ask for help. All the passengers were very helpful and came to help in digging further and collect more stones. Pretty soon we had ditches about as deep as the wheels inside the sand and piles of stones around every wheel.
    Still, the vehicle didn't move a single cm either front or back. The wheels would start spinning and nothing would happen.
    Then came 3 more vehicles. The guide in one of them saw us and came straight to us explaining that he's been in similar situations on the salar and putting stones etc wouldn't work because of the quicksand. He suggested digging till below the wheels, raising tgem on the jack and put salt crystals below. That would provide friction and the salt would dry up the water from the quicksand.
    That sounded like a sensible advice so Hristo started to raise one of the wheels and the whole gang had collected a huge mound of salt crystals in no time.
    At that point in time, we saw one of the vehicle come over to near where our vehicle was.
    The driver was also an experienced person from the area. He told that what we were trying would take hours. He offered to pull our vehicle using his vehicles superior power and off road tyres. This we readily accepted.
    We connected the vehicles with the tow roap and in one pull our vehicle was out, to our immense relief.
    We were freeeeeee...
    Our guardian angel had dug us out of our troubles again 😁    Leia mais

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  • The Craze for TravellingThe South American OdysseyThe Craze for Travelling
    Everything made of salt
    Our room with bricks of salt. Hristo tired after all that diggingHaving dinnerThe vegetarian meal was vegetable soup and potato egg pancakes

    Salt hotel stay

    9 de outubro de 2017, Bolívia ⋅ ⛅ 18 °C

    Riding the luck wave.. Here we go...
    Just at the exit of the salt plains where the other vehicle left us, we found a place to stay.
    Hold your breath!!
    It was a salt hotel (Hostal Don Carlos). Everything made out of salt. Also, it wasn't like one of those fancy places charging hundreds of USDs for a night. We paid 260 b$ for the room, the dinner and the breakfast.Leia mais

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  • The Craze for TravellingThe South American OdysseyThe Craze for Travelling
    Our vehicle in front of Don Carlos hostel
    Cueva InfiernoClosed gate of the cave2Don Anastasio's flying horseThe front windshield was half broken where he had attached a normal glass with brown tape 😁The cave open to us

    Cueva Diablo? Infierno? or Galaxias?

    10 de outubro de 2017, Bolívia ⋅ ⛅ 25 °C

    Over dinner, when we had told the people at the hostel that we had gone to the Cueva Diablo, tgey were surprised and told us that the Cueva Diablo was just around the corner from the hostel about 50 mts away.
    We didn't know what to make of it but still decided to go and check it out. The cave is generally locked and the keys are with Don Anastasio (one of the neighbors).
    We went to ask for the keys after the breakfast but were told by his wife that he was away to Uyuni for some camp and will be coming in the evening only. We still decided to go to the cave and see if something could be done. Sure enough, it was locked with no alternate way to enter. We were very disappointed at not being able to enter.
    We decided to go back to the barrier to ask about the Galaxias Cave or if there was any alternate way to enter the cave nearby which actually had the sign (Cueva Infierno) outside.
    Our lucky angel strikes again... 😇😇😇
    As we were talking to the guards at the barrier, we head a most amazing rattling noise followed by what sounded like a steam engine chugging towards the barrier. The guards informed that the car coming was of Don Anastasio's and that we would be able to visit the case.
    The car was an amazing piece of engineering. It was really a surprise it was moving at all. We were shocked at even thinking that this moving piece of car parts could even travel to Uyuni. The front windshield was half broken and he had taped a normal glass to the rest of it.
    We were happy to been provided the opportunity to visit the cave just in time. Another min or so and we would have missed Don Anastasio and would have been on our way to Cueva Galaxias.
    He opened the cave for us.    Leia mais

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  • The Craze for TravellingThe South American OdysseyThe Craze for Travelling
    Steps in the 1st chamber
    Crawling into the inner chamberFossilized coralGoing deeper

    Cueva Infierno

    10 de outubro de 2017, Bolívia ⋅ ⛅ 25 °C

    Inside the cueva Infierno, there was a board saying Cueva Galaxias. This was damn confusing now. Everyone at the hostel called it Cueva Diablo, the board outside said Cueva Infierno and inside was the board Cueva Galaxias.
    In any case, it was a beautiful cave with amazing fossilized corals and under sea formations.
    Many places, we had to go down on our fours to crawl through to the inner chambers.    Leia mais

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