Salar de Uyuni
A night bus from Sucre to Tupiza seemed like a good idea. The ride was ok, we got delayed and arrived in Tupiza at 06.00 am instead of 04.00 am which was nice. I was supposed to meet Judy, a wonderful lady I'd met in Sucre, to do a tour to Salar de Uyuni together. Judy already organized everything and the tour was starting the same morning I arrived in Tupiza. I had the name of the hostel and I knew it was supposed to be close to the bus station, so I figured it would be easy to find my way there by asking locals. How wrong I was. The first 3 people I asked had no idea of what I was talking about, or they just didn't care, I'm not sure. I met a couple who got help from a local guy to find their hostel and he asked if he could help me as well. "Yes! Of course!" Was my answer. After about 20 minutes of walking toward what looked like a really dodgy area, I started to realize that this guy wouldn't get me to the hostel. I stopped the first taxi passing by and tipped the driver a lot when he dropped me off at La Torre hostel.
After a nap in Judy's bed, I was good to go! Three nights, four days without Internet, just our group of 6, including the guide, another group of 6 including a guide and our cook Modesta and amazing landscape. Everything was great from the start, the landscape was amazing, we were a good group of people and our guides and cook were lovely! Modesta ended up being everybody's favorite person. She's a very typical and nontypical Bolivian woman at the same time, with her long braids, skirt and hat combined with a big personality. She always talked to everybody, in Spanish of course, and even though I didn't understand much of what she was saying, I just loved to listen to her stories.
The first three days of our tour we saw several beautiful lagoons, the Dali desert and Árbol de Piedra to name a few things. The hostels were a lot better than I thought they would be and the food was really good. As we sat in the car a lot, I was happy to have Judy. We would sing and talk and sing a bit more and tease the two Israeli guys that say in front of us, Idan (cheese) and Or (conjunction). We had such a good time there in the back seat of the Jeep!
The last night and day was the highlight of the tour. We slept in a hostel made almost entirely out of salt, even the beds and the tables were made out of salt. There we also had our first hot shower in a few days which probably was the best thing about the whole trip. After a round of bullshit, a last dinner together including wine and a very good nights sleep, we got up really early to catch the first sunlight out on the Salar. It was beautiful! We then drove to an "island" before heading out further on the Salar. When our guides found a good spot, it was time for a two hour long photo shoot. We danced our way out of a Pringles package, balanced on Modestas braids and some threw their clothes for a bit. All in all, it was a great day and a great ending to our tour.
We split in to groups in Uyuni and I went further on to La Paz with three of them, after a really good pizza and some skyping while waiting for the bus.