6:40am: Waking up after a fairly good night of sleep! One of the Chinese girls made some weird sounds during the night.
7am: Breakfast: tea, toasts, and cereals. The three Chinese don't say a word to us, as usual.
7:20am: We pack our stuff and load them in the 4x4. As planned we ask the Chinese girls if we can switch seats with them. After a couple of second of heavy silence, they said "Sure!".
7:30am: We are on our way to the "Laguna Verde" which is pretty much the only thing to see today.
8:00am: We are at the lagoon. Ruben our driver/guide explains that when it's very windy (usually in the afternoon, the lagoon appears green). Unfortunately, no wind in the morning, so we don't get to see it!
8:20am: we drive around the lagoon and another view with pink flamingoes opens up to us... We had to explicitly ask our driver to stop otherwise he would have driven away. The view is absolutely awesome, the waters are still and reflect the mountains, it's absolutely gorgeous.
8:45am: we are at the Chile border to drop off two of the Chinese girls (the two from Seattle). They exit the car, picked up their bags and leave without even saying goodbye. Max, Camille and I are completely baffled.
9am: we drove....
10am: we drove...
11am: we drove some more...
11:45am: Lunch time. We stop at a small village along the way. Other 4x4 full of tourists are parked for lunch as well. Lunch is actually really good: Tomatoes, corn, tuna, eggs, all chopped up in a big salad with rice. We finished the whole thing.
12:45pm: back in the car
2pm: we drove...
3pm: we drove...
3:30pm: we stop at a small town for ice-cream. Good timing as we thought Ruben was falling asleep at the wheel.
4pm: we drove... and finally made it back to Uyuni! As soon as we parked, the third chinese girl shot out of the car, not a "thank you" for the driver, not a "see ya" for us... just vanished! Great!
We thank Ruben, and give him a tip. He wasn't much of a guide, but he was a nice guy and did pretty well as a driver!
We have to wait for the tour agency to open so that Max and Camille can get their bags back. We have a drink on the main Uyuni plaza in the meantime, and I go through all the shops to buy an adaptator for my laptop.
5pm: We hop on a bus to Potosi. We are pretty tired after a whole day in the 4x4 and we stink. The idea of spending 3h in another bus doesn't exactly excite us. The bus is pretty new though, so that's always better than an old rusty thing with no shock absorbers! :)
9pm: we made it to Potosi. As usual, the bus was supposed to take 3h, but it took 4h. The bus driver drove quite fast actually, so I wonder why we took so long... They really should advertise the actual driving time... Is it a sales tactic to get people onboard?
9:15pm: we took a cab to our hotel. All triple rooms are taken, but they have a 8 ppl dormitory available, with no-one in it. We take 3 beds out of 8 hoping no-one would rock up. As soon as we sign, a big group of backpackers walk in... We look at each other: "No way..."... Fortunately, they are 6, and only 5 beds are left in our dormitory! The night is saved, Hurray!!
9:30pm: we pick a random restaurant in downtown Potosi, order some beers and food. Max and Camille suggest that I try the typical Bolivian dish "Pique de Macho". It's a plate of french fries heaped with beef, chicken, sausage, eggs, tomatoes in gravvy. They have both tried it in La Paz and thought it was a pretty ridiculous dish. I'm feeling adventurous, so I gave it a go. Max and Camille ordered grilled beef.
The plate arrives, it's just massive... The taste isn't bad, but not great either. I eat about 2/3 of it.
10:30pm: In bed, we are all exhausted!
7am: Breakfast: tea, toasts, and cereals. The three Chinese don't say a word to us, as usual.
7:20am: We pack our stuff and load them in the 4x4. As planned we ask the Chinese girls if we can switch seats with them. After a couple of second of heavy silence, they said "Sure!".
7:30am: We are on our way to the "Laguna Verde" which is pretty much the only thing to see today.
8:00am: We are at the lagoon. Ruben our driver/guide explains that when it's very windy (usually in the afternoon, the lagoon appears green). Unfortunately, no wind in the morning, so we don't get to see it!
8:20am: we drive around the lagoon and another view with pink flamingoes opens up to us... We had to explicitly ask our driver to stop otherwise he would have driven away. The view is absolutely awesome, the waters are still and reflect the mountains, it's absolutely gorgeous.
8:45am: we are at the Chile border to drop off two of the Chinese girls (the two from Seattle). They exit the car, picked up their bags and leave without even saying goodbye. Max, Camille and I are completely baffled.
9am: we drove....
10am: we drove...
11am: we drove some more...
11:45am: Lunch time. We stop at a small village along the way. Other 4x4 full of tourists are parked for lunch as well. Lunch is actually really good: Tomatoes, corn, tuna, eggs, all chopped up in a big salad with rice. We finished the whole thing.
12:45pm: back in the car
2pm: we drove...
3pm: we drove...
3:30pm: we stop at a small town for ice-cream. Good timing as we thought Ruben was falling asleep at the wheel.
4pm: we drove... and finally made it back to Uyuni! As soon as we parked, the third chinese girl shot out of the car, not a "thank you" for the driver, not a "see ya" for us... just vanished! Great!
We thank Ruben, and give him a tip. He wasn't much of a guide, but he was a nice guy and did pretty well as a driver!
We have to wait for the tour agency to open so that Max and Camille can get their bags back. We have a drink on the main Uyuni plaza in the meantime, and I go through all the shops to buy an adaptator for my laptop.
5pm: We hop on a bus to Potosi. We are pretty tired after a whole day in the 4x4 and we stink. The idea of spending 3h in another bus doesn't exactly excite us. The bus is pretty new though, so that's always better than an old rusty thing with no shock absorbers! :)
9pm: we made it to Potosi. As usual, the bus was supposed to take 3h, but it took 4h. The bus driver drove quite fast actually, so I wonder why we took so long... They really should advertise the actual driving time... Is it a sales tactic to get people onboard?
9:15pm: we took a cab to our hotel. All triple rooms are taken, but they have a 8 ppl dormitory available, with no-one in it. We take 3 beds out of 8 hoping no-one would rock up. As soon as we sign, a big group of backpackers walk in... We look at each other: "No way..."... Fortunately, they are 6, and only 5 beds are left in our dormitory! The night is saved, Hurray!!
9:30pm: we pick a random restaurant in downtown Potosi, order some beers and food. Max and Camille suggest that I try the typical Bolivian dish "Pique de Macho". It's a plate of french fries heaped with beef, chicken, sausage, eggs, tomatoes in gravvy. They have both tried it in La Paz and thought it was a pretty ridiculous dish. I'm feeling adventurous, so I gave it a go. Max and Camille ordered grilled beef.
The plate arrives, it's just massive... The taste isn't bad, but not great either. I eat about 2/3 of it.
10:30pm: In bed, we are all exhausted!
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