Salar de Uyuni, Bolivia

23 April



Bad experiences always seems to make the best stories.



The other day would have to be one of the best and worst days I have had on my trip. It all the started the day before after I had entered Bolivia. I ended up taking the ´pavement´ road from Chile into Bolivia ending in the frontier town of Pisiga. This is to the North of both the Salar Coipasa and Uyuni. Salar de Uyuni, by the way is the world´s largest salt lake in the world, positioned about 3600m above sea level. The locals told of a shortcut to Llica on the western bank of the Salar which cut through Salar de Coipasa which I did. It was a bit wet in places and the bike started to grow a nice covering of salt. I met an Italian tour group in the middle of nowhere who fed me lunch - even got dessert!! From there I continued onward to Llica. The tracks (can´t call them roads) ranged from floundering in sand to bashing the bottom of the bike on rocks. Just before I got to Llica I met a local who strongly recommended me to go to Salinas de Garci-Mendoza, which was really out of my way. I got the impression that there were some awesome ruins there worth seeing (he kept mentioning Machupichu). Well, in true style, I changed plans and headed to Salinas. Nice little town to the North of the Salar Uyuni. Definitely very few tourists seem to make it this way. However I don´t think it is going to stay this way for long....



The next day I went to find the Ruinas. They were close by at Alpaya. I found a Spanish Speaking guide who showed me around. The ruins were huge and I was told they dated back 3000 BC (maybe, definitely precolumbian) and some 500000 people lived in this area. I believe it. He showed me the stone houses the people lived in and how they had to crawl through a small opening halfway up. He showed all these mummified remains and opened graves, a little macabre but truly facinating. He showed me where they stored their food in cold storage, how they farmed both plants and animals. I saw plenty of pottery fragments still scattered about. I saw all the stone walls, the river running through the valley, the pathways and in the total peace and quiet tried to imagine a thriving society. And I had the whole place to myself.

But things are a changing around here. Signposts are being erected and accomodation is being built at the bottom for the tourists who will come here once the word gets out. I bet this place is going to become really popular. I wonder what it is going to do to the little towns around it??



Well that part of my day was one of my finest moments, the rest of the day turned into a bit of a nightmare. I really thought it was the end.

With my ´detailed´ map I headed off for Uyuni. I tried to take a few short cuts across part of the Salar, since the Salar is smooth and roads are not.. All was good until I hit a patch of mud and promptly fell off with the bike sliding in front of me. No major damage but I took things a little easier from there.

Well eventually I did find a sign that said Salar de Uyuni and off I went down that road. It did seem a bit strange because it was heading East not South but I kept going. And then there was the Salar before me and it looked like it was wet. What a perfect mirage (I thought). But. It was not a mirage at all as the road disappeared into salty water. There was no way I was going that way and anyway it was heading in the wrong direction. And then I made a decision. I thought I knew where I was and thought that just around ´that´ peninsular to the South was the bit I rode yesterday (all very dry). All I had to do was cross a bit of water, hug the `coast´ and find dry ground.

Well, I was wrong. Very wrong. And it almost cost me the rest of the trip. As I went I realised I had to ride in the water a bit but the water was getting deeper. I was thinking how corrosive the salt would be for my bike and decided to try head up onto the salt bank to the edge. Unfortunately the Salt bank was soft and I didn´t ride up but rather right into it. The bike was well and truly stuck. Stuck in the most corrosive enviroment I could think of. I was far away from any road or any civilisation. There was nobody to help me.
I hit the wall of despair.
I checked around the corner, just for kicks, sinking over a metre into the salt in places, and what I saw was amazing. Unfortunately it wasn´t dry at all but the water spread right to the horizon. Actually you couldn´t see the horizon but you knew it was there by the reflection of the clouds. The whole place was so painfully beautiful but I was stuck.
However, feeling sorry for yourself doesn´t get much done. It took a couple frantic hours to dig my bike out of the salt using my small 1 litre billy can. I let the tires down and rode the bike back into the water where the ground was hard and gingerly turned it around and headed back to safety.

Ended up returning to Salinas as it was too late in the day and I wouldn´t have enough fuel. Cleaned the bike and after finding the right way headed across the dry part of the Salar to Uyuni the following day.


In between dropping the bike and getting it well and truly stuck I was thinking to myself how nothing happens by chance... We are so small. We think we have everything under control. We are king. But we are not. We are in God´s hands. We need to/ I need to/ always remember my Creator, that I am His child and I need to put my trust in Him. Doesn´t mean my life will always be smooth but it does me that I can always be at rest. "That I am not my own but belong to my faithful savior, Jesus Christ, who has bought me with His precious blood......" (LD1)
Trust, not always easy but definitely the most fulfilling. May God always lead and may I always follow.