More Salt Please: Chile & Bolivia

April, 2018

It’s been a helluva journey. I am currently sitting on a bus, covered in salt, next to a Bolivian woman in authentic garb (flat hat in full swing!) and feeling pretty guuuudd (Salty, but good nonetheless).

Let me back track to recap on the past few weeks. After leaving Brazil (miss you already bae), I flew to Chile to meet up with my friends Ellen and Honor. We met in Valparaiso, a beautiful city on the coast of Chile, just two hours out of Santiago. Valparaiso, known for its artists and poets and is covered in colorful vibrant street art. Everywhere you turn is another mural/masterpiece and since the city is pretty much a canvas, art is accessible to everyone! The phrase painting the town red never rang so true.

After lovely Valparaiso, we headed north to the Chilean desert, San Pedro da Atacama, which is a hub for travelers trying to cross the Bolivian border. Being the backpackers that we, are we decided to save a little dinero and take a 24 hour bus to the desert. Little did we know the bus doubled as a sauna and I woke up 10 hours into the journey with my body pressed against the window so I could feel the cool glass (may or may not have stayed like that for a few hours #class). The rest of the journey was spent driving through Chile’s beautiful Andes mountains, never seen so much sand in my life but then again could have all been a mirage because after hour 20 I was going a bit CRAY.

When we finally made it to San Pedro I did a little victory twerk because 24 hours on a bus is an accomplishment in itself and we headed to our hostel. San Pedro is a small town LITERALLY placed in the middle of the desert as a hub for tourists. Most of the buildings are terracota colored, basically blending into the mountains and because we were in the middle of nowhere with no light pollution, the stars at night were incredible.

After exploring San Pedro we booked a tour to take us into Bolivia, through the southwest circuit. The tour was incredible and it’s safe to say that some of the sights QUITE LITERALLY took our breath away (as we reached a peak altitude of 5,200 meters, the air was thin AF). Once we got across the Bolivian border we met our tour guide Arcedus (such a legend), who asked us to pass him our backpacks so he could tie them to the top of the Jeep. All I did was lift my backpack over my head to hand it to him and I immediately felt like I was going to faint. Altitude sickness is no joke pals. Until we got used to it, walking 10 steps felt like I was running the mile in high-school (and that was never pretty).

Once we got our packs on the Jeep and these lovely French girls on our tour gave me some altitude sickness meds (bless them), we were ready to ROLL. We spent three days driving through the expansive desert, which went from barren, to wet, to colorful, to volcanic, to freezing, to boiling, to VERY SALTY in three days. Basically we had all the feels.

Some of the highlights that assisted the altitude in leaving us breathless:

1. Laguna Blanca (white lagoon): Literally a white lagoon in the middle of the desert that is so clear it reflects all of the mountains around it. A BEAUT!

2. Laguna Colorida (colorful lagoon): one of those “what is this world?” moments, when you’re just baffled and confused by how beautiful something is. This lagoon is a mixture of colors due to the minerals and crustation that live in the water. Kind of how I imagine the first plague in Egypt, blood, to look like (getting biblical on ya), but it was an insane sight. Also home to many flamingos!

3. The Laguna Negra (black lagoon): why there are so many lagoons in the desert, who knows...but surrounded by llamas and greenery the black lagoon was one for the books.

4. Natural hot springs: semi-active volcanos made the water in this lagoon MUY CALIENTE and we took a little dip. Kind of like a large bathtub with a view!

5. * One of my favorites* the geysers: apparently the US has 60% of the worlds geysers but I have never seen one before. We got out of the Jeep to find pools of BOILING hot lava, bubbling and smoking from the 180 degree heat beneath the ground, heated by nearby semi- active volcanos. Incredible.

6. Last but not least, the famous salt flats! We woke up at 5am to watch the sunrise over the salt flats which expand a massive 4,086 square miles, the largest salt flats in the world. The salt flats have wet and dry areas but its a tourist dream to catch the wet areas because when the flats are wet they act as a mirror and reflect everything around them (aka its doubly beautiful). The only catch was that we reached the wet portion of the flats just before sunrise and therefore the water was absolutely FREEZING. We put on our flip flops and trudged through the wet flats (not even ankle deep in water) and all I could think about was whether this water was as cold as the titanic water after it sunk (where my mind goes). But hey, mind over matter? We pushed through and although I was in fetal position hugging my toes for 30 minutes after, it was an incredible morning that I don’t think I will ever forget.

My feet post freeze fest- potential frost bite?

So here we are, it has been an amazing adventure which brings me back to my current bus ride, salty, could definitely use a good shower but feeling pretty accomplished! We now have an 8 hour ride to Sucre, the capitol of Bolivia, and I kid you not, a Bolivian man just got on the bus and is trying to sell laxatives. He is walking down the aisle giving out free samples, so were all in for a TREAT! #wheninbolivia #8morehourstogo