The South American Odyssey

A 147-day adventure by The Craze for Travelling Read more

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The South American Odyssey The Craze for Travelling
Sunset on the Salar de Uyuni
October 8, 2017 in Bolivia ⋅ ⛅ 24 °C
From the worldwide flags monument, we drove towards Tunupa Volcano to find a place to sleep for the night.
It was getting late and we were still an hour or so to our destination when the sunset happened. It looked really beautiful on the flat salt surface.
Once the sun set, it got dark very quickly.Read more
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The South American Odyssey The Craze for Travelling
Night at Tahua
October 8, 2017 in Bolivia ⋅ ⛅ 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.Read more
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The South American Odyssey The Craze for Travelling
Off to Tunupa Volcano
October 9, 2017 in Bolivia ⋅ ⛅ 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.Read more
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Tunupa Volcano Information
October 9, 2017 in Bolivia ⋅ ⛅ 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.Read more
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To the mummy cave
October 9, 2017 in Bolivia ⋅ ☀️ 22 °C
We drove up the volcano to the parking area. The views of the salt desert from the parking were amazing. There were many violet colored flowers on the path near the parking giving a colorful contrast to the bleak salt desert.Read more
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Chullpa Cemetery
October 9, 2017 in Bolivia ⋅ ☀️ 10 °C
The Chullpas were a race from before the Incas. A cemetery from that era was found here. Inside the cave, there are well preserved mummies that were buried there.
From what we understood from the little Spanish we knew, it seems that the whole family froze to death and were later brought and buried here.Read more
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Tunupa Volcano trek
October 9, 2017 in Bolivia ⋅ ☀️ 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.Read more
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Into the Salar again
October 9, 2017 in Bolivia ⋅ ☀️ 32 °C
After the trek, we drove into the Salar once again. We stopped by at the lagoon near the volcano base to see the flamingos.
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The South American Odyssey The Craze for Travelling
Some cool salar pics
October 9, 2017 in Bolivia ⋅ 🌙 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.Read more
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The South American Odyssey The Craze for Travelling
More pics in the Salar
October 9, 2017 in Bolivia ⋅ 🌙 25 °C
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Yet some more in the Salar
October 9, 2017 in Bolivia ⋅ ⛅ 19 °C
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The South American Odyssey The Craze for Travelling
Devil's Cave (Cueva del Diablo)
October 9, 2017 in Bolivia ⋅ ☀️ 18 °C
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The South American Odyssey The Craze for Travelling
Views from Devil's Cave
October 9, 2017 in Bolivia ⋅ ⛅ 19 °C
Some more views from the Devil's Cave
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The South American Odyssey The Craze for Travelling
The disaster
October 9, 2017 in Bolivia ⋅ ⛅ 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...Read more
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The disaster fixed
October 9, 2017 in Bolivia ⋅ ⛅ 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 😁Read more
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Yet another tequila sunset
October 9, 2017 in Bolivia ⋅ ⛅ 18 °C
Having freed us from the muck, one of the vehicles offered to guide us to the nearest village where we 'might' find a place to stay.
We readily accepted the offer and after driving for about an hour over the salar we exited the salt plains. Not before seeing some beautiful views of the sun setting over the salt plains.Read more
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The South American Odyssey The Craze for Travelling
Salt hotel stay
October 9, 2017 in Bolivia ⋅ ⛅ 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.Read more
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Potosi - views at sunset
October 9, 2017 in Bolivia ⋅ ☀️ 28 °C
We just couldn't have enough of it. We were there at the tower for more than 30 min running around from one direction to the other enjoying every moment of the stunning views.
Traveler Happiness!!!
10/14/17Reply
The Craze for Travelling Absolute and complete 😀
10/14/17Reply
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Potosi Main Square at night
October 9, 2017 in Bolivia ⋅ ⛅ 15 °C
The main square of Potosi is a magical place at night. All the buildings around the square are beautifully lit with many colors.
Traveler Lovely lighting !
10/15/17Reply
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The South American Odyssey The Craze for Travelling
Hostal Don Carlos
October 10, 2017 in Bolivia ⋅ ⛅ 18 °C
We were up and ready for breakfast bu 8 pm. It was a hearty breakfast of corn bread (almost like a cake), yogurt, rice flakes and coffee.
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Cueva Diablo? Infierno? or Galaxias?
October 10, 2017 in Bolivia ⋅ ⛅ 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.Read more
Traveler what is the story about Don Anastasio ?
10/16/17Reply
The Craze for Travelling He's the one with the cave keys
10/16/17Reply
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Cueva Infierno
October 10, 2017 in Bolivia ⋅ ⛅ 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.Read more
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Cueva Infierno - inner chambers
October 10, 2017 in Bolivia ⋅ ⛅ 20 °C
Inside the inner chambers of the cave, there were some very beautiful, fine and delicate fossilized corals. That had been formed under the water when the salar had still been an ocean. It really was breath taking. Something that neither of us had ever seen beforeRead more
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Fossilized sub aquatic corals
October 10, 2017 in Bolivia ⋅ ⛅ 20 °C
It really was a beautiful cave to visit. In the innermost chamber, there were very delicate fossilized corals.
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Off to Cueva Galaxias
October 10, 2017 in Bolivia ⋅ ⛅ 18 °C
From the Cueva Infierno, we drove about 20 kms to the Cueva Galaxias. I had it marked on the maps.me app and the guards had also told us the nearest village so it wasn't hard to find it.
The road though was very isolated and there was only one more vehicle there besides ours.Read more
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