Bienvenue au pays des chapeaux melon - part 01

TUPIZA

We arrived in Bolivia on May 13th by crossing the border on foot from La Quiaca, Argentina to Villazon, Bolivia. Hana already had a visa for Bolivia, but Miko tried to get in on his French passport instead of American to avoid paying $135. But at the Bolivian side they would not stamp his French passport without the exit stamp from Argentina in it, and on the Argentinean side they would not stamp it because his entry stamp was in the American passport. Anyway, after many back and forts between the two sides the Argentinean police officer got tired of seeing Miko and stamped it for free (when Miko was about to bribe him :)

Except that the border crossing was surprisingly easy. Then we took a 2.5 hour train to Tupiza, where they played bad movies. We found a room at "El Gran de Oro Hostal", which cost double the price listed in the Lonely Planet. The LP guide books are always off, but this time it was way off.

Most tourists stop in Tupiza just for a day, before going on the "Salar de Uyuni" tour. We decided to stay three days and enjoy this cute and dusty city surrounded by a Western movie looking landscape. It is definitely different here from the Northern Argentina. It is more poor and underdeveloped. Women dress differently: wide, pleaded skirts, and funny hats (like a "chapeau melon") that sit on top of their heads. They all wear two long braids in the back, have skinny legs and wide hips. At least those skirts make them look that way. The women dressed in this fashion are called "cholas" or "cholitas".



































The local people have been very friendly. Not cold, like some tourists told us before. Often we were the ones saying hello but they always respond with a big smile. On our first day we entered a small chicken & fries restaurant (very popular dish here), where the manager greeted us loudly and another guest came to our table to welcome us to Tupiza.
Miko picked a random hair salon to have his hair trimmed. The ladies there obviously never cut gringo's hair before and she ended up drawing an interesting wave in the back of his head and making a fashionable hole in the beard. Another disaster haircut, but a fun time where the hairdresser made us all laugh by repeating "Pobre tourista" (poor tourist). Our first impression of Bolivia was very good :)

During our stay in Tupiza we went horseback riding (so, so) and hiking in a canyon (nice). We also hiked to a view point, Cerro la Cruz, to enjoy the view of the city and the surrounding mountains at sunset. Most people don't bother going up there and miss out.
We also enjoyed going to the main market, where we constantly had to watch our heads, not to get stabbed in the eye by the low stand poles. In general, people here are shorter than in Argentina.
There we noticed a circus show. On our last night in Tupiza, Miko went to see it:
~It was so much fun to watch the circus show among the locals, carefully seated on benches separated by a huge 2 meter drop the size of a person. Like when I was a kid, there was a classic clown show, poor ponies jumping through a ring of fire, and the family of acrobats, but also a horrible dance opening with the music by Cher, a car driving over some guy's chest, a trapezist missing his grab after a flip and falling flat in the net, Bart and Maggie Simpson dancing with kids... and the Power Rangers kicking the shit out of a midget Monster.
People in line, waiting for the second performance of the evening, kept starring, smiling and laughing at the lonely Gringo sticking out of the crowd (by 2 feet).




SALAR DE UYUNI

We left Tupiza on the 17th of May to go on the 4 day jeep tour of the Salt Flats (Salar). The tour was great. We are very glad we did it from Tupiza (one day longer than from Uyuni) and with the agency "El Gran de Oro". They took care of us really well and we loved our driver Jonar and the cook Carmen. Both very sweet and patient. Thank you very much for the great experience.
Before this tour we thought we have seen enough of beautiful landscapes but Salar de Uyuni literary blew us away. C'etait genial!!!
For four days drove on the Moon with each day being better than the previous, finishing with the most amazing one - Salar itself. It was incredible to be there and watch the sunrise in an endless sea of salt. The second highlight was the Laguna Colorada, a red color lagoon full of pink and white flamingoes.


We also saw many animals: lamas, vicunas (wild lamas), a zorro (desert fox) with a broken leg, ostrich (!!!) and rabbits with short ears and long fluffy tails (like squirrel).
We drove in a caravan of three jeeps and met a lot nice travelers from all over the world: Israel, Ireland, Belgium, UK, Holland and France. Some of these people we kept seeing on the "gringo trail" all the way to Peru.






















Most of the time we were on a really high altitude, between 4000 and 4500m, and even drove over a 5000m pass. The altitude affected our sleeping, we would wake up with an intense pressure in the chest (for Hana) and Miko would get out of breath just tossing in the bed. We had headaches, and learned that chewing coca leaves really helps. In the beginning we saw many locals with a big bump in the cheek (I thought they had a toothache), but quickly we found out that they were all chewing coca leaves, men and women. It is like drinking mate in Argentina, a daily social routine, like having tea or coffee for us.





























































The Salar de Uyuni tour was the best time ever! We remembered our friend Herve, who did around the world trip before and could not stop raving about the Salar. You were absolutely right. Just look at the photos.
Oh, and we even slept in a hotel all made out of salt!

























Pepe au Salar de Uyuni