Uyuni tour day 1: Rio San Pablo

I waited for quite a while in the morning for the tour company to pick me up. It was the second time in just two days that I had waited an hour for a pickup. I had previously brushed it off, attributing it to Bolivia’s reputed timeliness. However, later that day I realised the actual reason: Bolivia is an hour behind Argentina..🤦‍♂️ A lot of puzzling events over the last two days made a bit more sense. 

Despite the hour I had waited, the tour jeep actually arrived on time. Meeting the rest of the tour group, I found them all to be really nice. Interestingly, the guy I was told is from the US, Ian, is originally from South Africa. Currently in his late 60s, he left South Africa a long time ago, yet retained his accent with no trace of the American twang.

I was the last guest to be collected, and once we had my bags tied to the roofrack, we set off on the tour. It wasn’t far out of town before we were entirely immersed in the desert’s mountainous landscapes. These landscapes felt oddly familiar, reminiscent of the desert regions in South Africa. However, the altitude was a different story. We quickly found ourselves hovering around 4000m. Although the sun was shining, stepping out of the jeep for sightseeing or to greet some llamas proved to be quite a chilly experience.

We soon pulled in at lunch stop, an otherworldly sand and rock formation. A mixture of excitement filled the air and we all set off to explore the maze of rock formations while lunch was being prepared. About 30 minutes later we met back at the jeep to eat. We shared the lunch location with another jeep tour and we all had lunch together. With the other jeep was  a French family of four on a four-month South America journey. They were pleasant, but with their arrival, French vastly outnumbered the English. Fortunately, Ian and I got along well, so whenever the Frenching was happening, we’d make our own conversation.

After a full day of traversing breathtaking high-altitude desert mountains, we reached our accommodation for the night in a tiny village. The day was nearly dark, offering us a preview of the cold that awaited us after sunset.

As we unloaded our luggage and got shown our shared room, I noticed that everyone had thick sleeping bags. I clearly missed the memo and got a bit nervous since it was already quite uncomfortably cold. Luckily my roommates donated a blanket or two as their sleeping bags would have provided adequate warmth. I piled up at least four thick blankets, resulting in a considerable weight. During the night I wasn’t exactly warm, but I didn’t die either. However, at one point I woke up being suffocated from the weight of the 4 or so blankets smothering me. I decided that for the following evening, I would opt for fewer blankets in favour of some blood circulation, even if it meant sacrificing a bit of warmth.

Maybe I’d just cuddle up with this little cutie. He handled the icy morning way better than we did as we packed up for day 2 of our adventure.

Here are additional pictures of the day: