Bolivia, Uyuni and the High Andes

Last I wrote, I believe I was on my way to Bolivia. Well, lets just say that it's been quite a ride from then till now.
I'll start with getting to Bolivia. I caught the bus in Salta around 10pm. The bus, which was supposed to be 7 hours, was in fact 9. This ended up being a good thing because it allowed me extra time to sleep, which I needed because they played Preditors (in Spanish) at full volume starting at about 11pm. For those unfamiliar with the movie, it is the most recent shitty installment and 60% of the movie is yelling and gunfire. So, you may be able to imagine the difficulty a light sleeper may have had, even with earplugs. We did finally make it by 6:30 ish and it was a good thing I wore my warmest clothes cause it was freezing and drizzling.
I opted to walk to the border hoping to cross paths with a ATM on the way to pay for the Bolivian visa. Nope. Fortunately, every Argentine (including border officials) I asked said that there is no cost, which is incorrect by the way. I arrived exactly at opening of the border 6AM. I know, timing seems wrong, but Bolivia and the border are 1 hour behind. The wait was 1 hour to get stamped out of Argentina. I found out that yes, you need to pay for the visa from a border agent, so I headed into town with directions to a cajero de cambio (ATM). That's right, I just walked into Bolivia without any hasle of getting stamped in, similar to what the border was like between Costa Rica and Panama. Naturally, these directions were way off. So, I asked around. Some people had no idea what a bank or cash machine was??? A very helpful bus official pointed me to the nearest one that of course didn't know what an ATM card was. So, I wandered some more. Finally, at the second hotel I stopped by, the manager gave me directions to the only working one in town. Turns out there aren't any banks in Villazon, just a couple ATMs and a million casa de cambios (cash exchanges). By this time I had burned about 2 hours and having heard stories about train tickets, decided it was in my best interest to buy a ticket before attempting the visa back at the border.

Thankfully, the guy at the ticket booth did not check the visa page on my passport and gave me one of the last tickets on the 3:30 PM (I wanted plenty of time for border hold-ups) train to Uyuni. I took a 50 cent cab ride back to the border and looked at the line in dismay. It was a block long, which equaled 3 hours. Again, thankfully, that ended up being the line to get out of Bolivia and the line to get in was about 30 min. After making it all the way up to the booth and going through a short list of the usual questions, the guy gives me a visa application to fill out and get back in the inside line (5-10 min). After I fill it out, he required payment of $135. No, the equivalent in anyother currency, including Bolivianos, would not work. So, I had to leave and go to a casa de cambio and switch out my Bolivianos for US $ and get back in the inside line again. After all this was over I still had about 3 hours till I had to be at the train station. I didn't really know what to do with myself, so I walked the shops, bought a decent sized bag of coca leaves, and got some food. The whole siesta thing is kills me by the way.
The train was of course late getting into Uyuni, so I arrived at 12:30 AM. Let me tell you, Uyuni is a ghost town at night. I got off the train and walked to the nearest "hostel", and they wanted 60 Bs (about $8), which is outrageous. So, I got out my Lonely Planet, which I hate to do, and used it to find a better priced "hostel". You'll notice the qoutes around hostel, that's because they aren't. In Uyuni, and other small towns, I suspect a hostel is what they call a cheap hotel. All they had were double rooms, so I got one for $5. I was nice not having to share a dorm with 6 or 10 people, but the point of the hostel was to find some people to do the Salar de Uyuni with and with a hotel that is nearly impossible. I might as well just wander the street asking people who look English speaking if they want to (which I came really close to doing). Anyway, the hotel was a few blocks from the station and it was dark and creepy. There were 3 people out, some tumbleweeds of garbage, and dogs howling somewhere in the distance. Oh yeah, and still freezing. There was a food stand still open, on the way, which I needed since I hadn't eaten enough. There was also a guy in a poncho standing in the shadows under a lookout tower watching me. I hauled it to the hotel immediately on seeing that.
The next day was quite the contrast. The town was bustling. It was Sunday market time and the main drag was set up with shops of various goods. I found out at 9 AM that there is a military base in the middle of the town and adjacent to my hotel. It turned out that the dude in the poncho was military and was posted at one of the entrances to the base. The town has hints that it is trying to move more upscale with a couple contemporarily designed buildings. However, like many of the towns I have seen, the rest of the town is falling to rubble.
I spent the day wandering the town, looking at the stands, and checking out agencies for the salt flat. . Uyuni is odd. It´s either the start or end of the salt flat tour; no one stays there for any other reason. I eventually went with one that had a couple US people scheduled for the next day so that I'd at least have some people who spoke English along. Then, I bought a day pack, a sweater cause my light jacket wasn't going to cut it, and a bus ticket to La Paz for Wednesday night at 8 PM. I want to point out that I hate buying or booking things in advance and I'll give an example of why later. While buying the ticket I ran into a couple guys, Matt (US) and another dude, from Mendoza who were bording it that night, so I stuck around and shot the shit with them for a bit. Turns out that they, and others, had bad experiences with their guides when leaving from San Pedro, Chile. In his case, the guide got so drunk while driving that he had to drive the last part of it after the police pulled them over. I said goodbye to them and went to get some dinner. I found out that most restaurants close around 8 PM. So, the only thing open was this 1 tourist restaurant. This happened to be a good thing because I ran into a girl from Mendoza, Jess (UK), who went on the wine tour, thus saving me from asking to eat with random people. Also, I was able to exchange information with her this time. I bought a specialty beer at a shop and called it any early night.

The tour was supposed to leave at 10:30 AM, but naturally there was quite the change of plans. They decided to put two people in my car and put me in one from another agency. Not sure how that works, but they did. I was with 4 Brazilians, Fabio, Beta, Maura, and Luis, and a German, David. I´m getting good at remembering names. It turned out to be a blessing though because the American´s, who were from Seattle, were hooking up with 2 Colombians, so it would have been a bit weird. The Brazilians were, as normal, crazy (in a good way). I decided that I am going to try to write traveller profiles of people that I find very interesting and/or that have a unique way that they found that enables them to travel. David will be my first.
The tour started in the Salar de Uyuni. I´m going to try to stick with the highlights and ignore the boring parts like the salt hotel or what not. The salt flat is awesome. I honestly can´t describe it and do it justice, I will post some pictures and a video or two to my FB. When you get done with the salt flat, they take you to your hostel, which is made up of salt blocks, salt beds with a matress over it, and salt floors and furniture. We had a good dinner and played uno for about 3 hours as people from other groups kept joining in. That night it rained hard.
You can probably imagine what a good hard rain does in the desert. We were in the high desert, so there were basically shallow lakes everywhere. Sometimes we´d get stuck, but thanks to our guide using the buddy system, help was always there... like when we got a flat tire. The desert began to climb in altitude till we were at about 4,500 meters. At this point we began to drive over patches of snow. There was one spot we stopped to look at a volcano, which was unfortunately covered in clouds, and ended up getting in a snowball fight. Next, were the alpine lagoons. These lagoons had flamingos. I always thought flamingos were tropical, but nope, here they were in the freazing high Andes. At one lake, if you walked out to the shore and sat still enough, the flamingos would stop caring that you are there and get within a few meters of you. It was awesome. From there you cover many different types of terrain till you get to Lagoona Colorado. You are supposed to stay a hostel right next to the lake, but it was booked so we had to drive further out. The lake is supposed to be deep red, but it was near dusk and all clouds so it wasn´t much to look at. The hostel was shitty. Mainly because the people running it acted really rudely to us. How dare we stay at their hostel. Anyway, the night was clear and we spent a good chunk looking at the stars. It was freazing, but I think it may have been colder in the hostel. In fact, that night was in the top 5 of the coldest sleeps I´ve ever had to endure.
The next day we went to some geysers, but if you´ve been to Yellowstone, it won´t impress you. Thankfully, we got to spend about 30 minutes in some hotsprings. After which, David split off from us to go to Chile. This allowed me to have some indepth convos with the Brazilians about Brazil, which was quite facinating. They have many of the same problems that we do in the US. Anyway, on the way back as we were making lunch, Gustavo, our driver, had to assist a stranded other driver and was gone for quite some time. And here is where that example I mentioned earlier comes into play. The bus was scheduled to leave at 8, the tour is supposed to end at 6. Him being gone starts you thinking if you are going to make it or not. We also had to help get gas for one of his buddies from another tour, which added to the problem. From lunch on, I couldn´t enjoy the trip because I was preoccupied with making my bus. Having deadlines like this, or flights home, do that to you. You become proccupied and loose some of the care free magic that you had prior.
Thankfully, he made good timing otherwise and I was able to see the train graveyard and reflect on the villages that we saw on the way.
This area of Bolivia has little villages that I swear are straight out of a western movie. I can´t be anymore literal than that. Seriously, with the exception of llamas everywhere, this area of Bolivia is exactly like the movies of the wild west in the southern part of the US. Not to mention that there are ruins randomly scattered everywhere. Not ancient ruins, but ruins none the less. I honestly felt like I needed a horse, hat, and gun.

Anyway, I´ve been on the computer too long and am also getting a headache from it, so I am going to leave off here: I made my bus and am in La Paz at the moment.

P.S. I continued my never ending quest to find good flip flops to no avail. They are impossible to find, unless you want to punch throughs. I take mine hiking and in rivers and everywhere, so the punch throughs won´t work. Anyone know where to find some reef like ones at South American prices?