Sucre and Salar

The following morning, we headed to Sucre - the other capital of Bolivia. Apparently, Bolivia has a political capital and a judicial capital. La Paz is the governmental one and Sucre, the judicial one. Sucre, a very colonial and white washed city was mostly dead due to the referendum. Just like Ecuador, when there is an election, the entire country is dry of liqour and it is mandatory to vote. So there wasn't much to do other than wait around for the election to pass. Unfortunately, the city of Sucre is a bit more conservative than its partner La Paz and so the manifests Janury 25th were all for NO. But we headed to the main plaza anyway and watched the mayor of the region, an indigenous woman, speak on behalf of all the people for NO.

We ate a good dinner afterwards and headed back to the hostel. The band was going to separate, since Lucho and Andres wanted to head back to Argentina to get back to work, and Manu and I wanted to see Salar de Uyuni before we left Bolivia.

In the aftermath of Sucre, Manu and I seemed to run across an endless amount of bad luck - travelling wise, that is. So, if you're not looking at a map of Bolivia, which I am sure you are not, it is a bit difficult to explain. But here goes...

Travelling Hell: So we had gone north from Potosi to get to Sucre, so we obviously had to retrace our steps. We left on a bus, first thing at 7 to get to Uyuni at around 7 at night, but when you're in Bolivia, you can never know for sure. We went from Sucre, down south three hours to Potosi, where we stopped for two hours to eat and change buses. Luckily, we knew where to go to get a good breakfast and pass the time, since we had already been there. And eventually after a torturous 12 hours, it was during the day, we got to Uyuni.

In Uyuni, the plan was to immediately, get a hostel, get a tour agency to take us for a one day trip to Salar and also to get some type of transport - either bus or train, to Villazon that night. The hostel, we figured out quickly and after a bit of haggling, we also got a secure and cheap tour agency to take us from 10:30 am until about 6pm to Salar. And of course, getting to Villazon, where we would cross the border into Argentina, was a bit more laborious.

There was a train that leaves at 10:30 pm on tuesday night - much more comfortable, cheaper, and of course, only a mere 9 hours, which would have been perfect to take. Unfortunately, though, that night the office was already closed. So they informed us that to get a ticket the following morning, we should wake up at 6:30 to get in line until the ticket office opened at 9 am, still leaving us with time to get breakfast before our tour to Salar.

So we hung around the plaza, got some food from the lovely Comedor. God, I wish you could detect my sarcasm through the blog...if you didn't get it, the Comedor was less than lovely. And we headed to bed in our 'lovely' hostel. We got up at 6:30 and headed to the line at the train station, which was already quite full when we got there. Eventually after passing the hours reading and drinking some fresh juice, the office finally opened.

And of course, there were no tickets, and even if there were, there was about 20 or more in front of us. Luckily, I was with an Argentinian, since they LOVE to band together, because in about the span of two seconds...25 Argentinians had gotten together to rent a bus to leave at 9:30 pm to get to Villazon the next morning. So we bought tickets, got a quick coffee and headed to our tour agency.

Salar. The world´s largest salt flat sitting at the altitude of 3653 meters and covers 12,000 sq km. It was once the Lake Minchin and when it dried up, it became Salar de Uyuni. And if you saw the article in the New York Times yesterday, under Salar is the half the world's Lithium reserve - which of course, Evo is unrelenting to give up to his neighbors of the North. In general, it was quite a site and definitely worth all the hell that came before and after it. there is a salt hotel, rooms running for $50 US a night, - the entire hotel is made of salt..walls, tables, chairs, floor, ceiling...everything. the tour stopped also at a salt museum, and a lovely midday stop in la Isla de los Pescadores, which is an island in the middle of the salt flats with giant cactus all over and a great view of the flats. Incredible - the only word coming to me to explain it. A desert of salt where anyone could disappear by walking a few meters away from the group.

Eventually the tour ended and we headed back to Uyuni to get some food before the 12 hour bus ride to Villazon.

Oh I think somewhere in the midst of this, I forgot to mention that after a few days on antibiotics and losing a few extra kilos, I finally got better and got rid of the Bolivian bug that was eating me alive for about 10 days. And thank god, it left my system, I don't think I would have lasted through border crossing and the LOOONG trek into Argentina if I was still sick....