We arrived in the small town of Tupiza, in Bolivia, and it was just as pretty as Northern Argentina had been. The town was surrounded by big red rock walls that reminded us of the red rock canyons in Utah. We had read up a little on the history of Tupiza and one of the things that it is famous for is being a hideout of Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid. With this information and a day to kill before our jeep tour started we decided to do a horseback riding trip through some of the canyons near Tupiza.
Neither of us had been horseback riding in quite some time (I think I was probably eight the last time I went) so it was a little bit of an adventure. Our guide, Carlos, was great and gave us horses that were commiserate with our experience. Gina's horse was always out in the lead, even though it stopped every 30 seconds to eat. Because she ended up being the leader, I thought I had a good nickname for Gina, but she didn't particularly like me calling her "Butch" all day. My horse was a bit of a clunker that I affectionately named Clip Clop. I was consistently yelling "Yah!" just to get Clip Clop to putter along well behind Gina and Carlos.
Bryce and Clip Clop lagging behind
Horse selfie
The ride was really beautiful as we went through Valle Del Macho and Canyon Del Inca. Beautiful red rock canyons, lots of cactus and very tall mountains surrounding the area.
Canyon Del Inca
Butch and Sundance pose
The next morning we started our four day jeep tour through the Bolivian mountains. We had a wonderful guide/cook named Ellie and a great driver, Santos. We were also joined on the tour by a French couple, Regis and Clarisse. The first day we immediately started climbing further up into the mountains, which gave us great views looking down the canyons. We visited an old silver mining town that was at 15,000 feet and got lots of great views of the mountains (some up to 20,000 feet high) and the lakes below them.
Looking down the valley back towards Tupiza
Highest point on day one, for you Americans that's 15,925 feet
The old mining town of San Antonio De Lipez
The next day our trip continued into Reserva Nacional de Fauna Andina Eduardo Avaroa. The great views of the mountains continued and we got to see a lot of wildlife including llamas, ostriches, flamingoes, partridges and an Andean fox. We stopped at a natural hot spring, which was glorious since the air at 14,000 feet is a little chilly. One of our favorite spots on the trip was Laguna Verde, which is a lake that is very green due to the naturally occurring copper and arsenic. It is also set right below Licancanbur Volcano, which provides a really nice back drop.
"What are you looking at, you know I spit at people, right?"
Laguna Hedionda Sur
Flamingo trying to take flight
Gina trying to take flight
Laguna Verde and Licancabur Volcano
Us with our driver Santos and our trusy Landcruiser
We visited the geysers of Sol De Mañana, which was also our highest point on trip at 16,400 feet. Being at such high altitude was an interesting experience for both of us, as we think Lake Tahoe is pretty high and we were 10,000 feet above that. The first two nights we slept at over 14,000 feet, which is a challenge in itself as you wake up a lot, out of breath from not getting enough oxygen. And if you are lucky enough to be sleeping soundly you occasionally get woken up by other people's strange noises as they are trying to get enough oxygen. We ended the second day at Laguna Colorado, which was home to many many flamingos.
Geysers Sol de Mañana at 5,000 meters (16,400 ft)
Boiling mud pool
More geysers
Flamingos hanging out in the lagoon
Morning at Laguna Colorado
Our cosy hostel at 4300 meters
Our third day we visited the Arbol De Piedra, which is an area with many giant boulders that made for really good exploring and climbing. We visited several more lakes with flamingos and saw Ollague Volcano, which is an active Volcano on the border of Bolivia and Chile. That night we stayed in the Salt Hotel, which is a hotel that is made completely out of salt. The structure is made from salt bricks and the beds, tables and chairs are all made of salt as well.
Bryce having fun climbing at Arbol de Pierda (in the Bolivian side of the Atacama Desert)
Laguna Honda
Andean fox checking us out
Laguna Hedionda
Volcanoe Ollague
Our third night's accommodation (a hotel made out of salt!)
Regis and I ended up playing in a soccer game with some of the locals, which was really fun even though I haven't played soccer in at least ten years. In my competitiveness I also forgot that we were still at 12,000 feet and ran around like a mad man for about 30 seconds before almost passing out. Our team ended up winning, 10-8 and I scored two goals and pulled four muscles. Gina watched while playing with some small Bolivian children. As it turns out all of the Bolivian children love Gina. Every time I turn around she is holding, dancing with or posing for pictures with another Bolivian child. I think she might steal one.
Our last day we woke up early to see the sunrise on the Salar De Uyuni, which is the biggest and highest salt flat in the world. After some quick sunrise photos we hiked up an island on the salt flat for some great views. We then spent the next couple hours taking ridiculous pictures on the Salar.
Ellie and Santos (our amazing guide and driver)
View of the Salar from Isla Incahuasi
Gina's favorite part of the trip
Summing up our trip in one panorama
After visiting some more salt related attractions and a train cemetery our trip ended in the city of Uyuni. We'd heard some not so great things about Uyuni so we took a flight out that night to La Paz. La Paz is the highest capital city in the world at about 12,000 feet. It seemed like a really cool city and we enjoyed the views from our hotel, but didn't get to spend much time exploring the city since we flew out the next morning to Cusco.
We met our friend Ashely in Cusco, as well as our friends Pete and Christina, whom our loyal blog readers might remember from Pete's epic proposal in Torres Del Paine. We've been relaxing in Cusco and gearing up for our hike to Machu Picchu.
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