Trains, planes, & automobiles

The night ride from Oruro to Uyuni is one for the ages. There were only two buses that were going to Uyuni and I was going back and forth pitting one against the other price-wise and finally we decided on the one that said "we have heat". So we got on the bus late that night and met three Argentines who were traveling together throughout Bolivia. It was really good for Rachael because two of them spoke perfect English. They of course found out for us that there was in fact NO heat on the bus and basically said we were going to freeze. At this point we had already packed our bags and we were only wearing light jackets. We figured we could take our sleeping pills and not even notice the cold. Did I mention this has been a learning process for the both of us?? Four hours into the trip we were dying from the cold and for some reason there was at least one person who kept opening the window, guess it wasn't cold enough for them. The three Argentines had compassion for us and let us borrow one of their sleeping bags, pretty much saving our lives.

We finally got to the grand ol' dump of Uyuni at 4am only to find that NOTHING was open and nothing would until 8am. Since we weren't going to stay there more than just that day, we couldn't go into any hotel, so we were lucky to find that the train station doors were unlocked. Of course, there was no heat, the bathrooms were locked and there wasn't anybody there besides us. We kept warm by standing up by a small florescent light and by doing jumping jacks and laps around the small station.

Finally, the town came to life and the five of us (Me, Rachael, Fernando, Fernanda, and Marina) had a small breakfast and got a tour to see the biggest salt flat in the world.

Just to give you a frame of reference, there are about 15 different tour companies that do the same exact tour; they all leave at the same time and they all go in SUVs. Now, when our driver pulled up I knew we were in for a long day. He had to have been at least 70 years old, but I guess you never can tell in Bolivia, and his Toyota had seen better days. The shocks were completely blown and he never went faster than 20 MPH but after we were passed up by everyone else, we finally got to the middle of the salt flat and an "island" where everybody stopped to have lunch. Once again, they surprised us: to go to the top of the island you have to pay...again! Needless to say we weren't compelled to pay another few dollars just to hike to the top of a little hill and go to the bathroom. Our lunch was prepared by our driver and it consisted of quinua (some sort of wheat that grows only in Bolivia, supposed to be very rich in nutrients), tomatoes, cucumbers, and the very special mystery meat which he described as llama but tasted a lot like lamb.

We spent the rest of the day with our new friends and for some reason me and Fernando suffered from stomach aches. I didn't eat anything that night but at least I took comfort in knowing that our trip south to Tupiza would be in the "executive" class on the train, and this time there would be heat for sure. We got on the train late that night and had the best travel-sleep of our whole trip.

Again, we arrived in our destination at 4am, and I decided that we would wait a little bit before knocking on the door of one of my friends. Luckily, we found a hotel that would let us stay in their foyer and watch TV for a few hours. At 6am, we left to go and knock the door of my dear friend. We knocked three separate times and finally someone poked his head out of the second floor; I was informed that my dear friend no longer lived there nor did he even know such a person. Tired and a little sick, we decided to go back to the hotel where we watched TV and get a room for the day. We slept for a few hours, watched some TV and then went walking around the "jewel of Bolivia". The best description I can give of how Tupiza looks is a small little town in a valley with red rocks much like St. George.

We walked by the chapel and found out that the branch was going to have a Talent Show and everyone from the ward was going to be there. Of course, they told us it would start at 6 or 6:30 but in reality it wouldn't start until 8pm, the same time that our bus was leaving for Tarija. Some people did get there early and we talked a bit, but with little hope of seeing people that I knew, I wrote out a few notes and gave it to the branch president and we were off again!

I had sufficiently prepared Rachael for what I deemed the worst bus ride in all of Bolivia, and weren't disappointed. After 11 hours of being catapulted from our seats several times, and having one of the bus windows break in half, we arrived in Tarija. By this time my cold/cough had climaxed and Rachael started to feel a little of the same. I called the Contreras family and they came and picked us up. We only had a little over an hour to get ready for church and I finally got to see the inside of the chapel that they were building eight years ago. I hardly recognized anyone but we felt welcome anyway. We were both pretty tired and now very sick and decided not to stay past Sacrament Meeting. We ate the best food yet of the whole trip and talked for a good long time with my favorite family in all of Tarija and then went to bed at 8pm. Twelve hours later we woke up, took a much needed shower and hand-washed our clothes. Never before had we hand-washed ANYTHING, so this was quite the venture.

We then went into the center of town and bought plane tickets for our trip to Cochabamba and since it is Mother's Day tomorrow, there was a lot of different things for sell in the plazas. We bought a little dress for a future Lippmannita and a real pearl bracelet for the mother of the Contreras family (authenticity verified by Rachael's infallible "scratch test"). The weather here has been great, I even unzipped the bottom portion of my pants and got into my super-tourist mode. Tarija "la linda" has been great for us and now we're rested a ready to tackle the last leg of our journey.