Salar de Uyuni and Amazon - two extremes

The last two weeks couldn't have been more different: from Salar de Uyuni in Bolivia at over 4000 meters altitude and nighttime temperatures around 10 degrees below zero to the Amazon region at sea level and daytime temperatures around 30 degrees. Our cold is now gone, but at least I am covered in mosquito bites.

But let's start at the beginning. Our three-day tour in the salt flats started at 11:00 am, after having breakfast in freezing cold temperatures (you could see our breath when we spoke). First, we visited a train cemetery with lots of rusty locomotives and wagons, then a former hotel made of salt blocks. Finally, we reached the center of the endless salt flats: as far as the eye could see, there was only a "white sea" and blue sky. The salt layer in the middle of the 12,000 square kilometer Salar is about 5 meters thick! We took some fun photos and then drove to the cactus island 'Inkahuasi', translated as 'Home of the Inca'. This island in the middle of Salar de Uyuni is made of coral (in ancient times, the salt flats were a lake) and is covered with cacti, some of which are a thousand years old. It was very interesting to see that dead cacti become woody and are processed into things like doors or trash cans. On the way to our accommodation, we enjoyed the beautiful sunset. Our first overnight stay was in a salt hotel on the edge of the Salar; the walls were made of salt blocks, even the floor was made of salt pebbles. At 5:30 in the morning, we gathered for a 'cozy' breakfast with hats and gloves in what felt like minus 10 degrees, and then headed into the sunrise. Today, we visited the volcanic area on the Chilean-Bolivian border. We passed by red, yellow, and blue lakes with many flamingos, huge plains, and bizarre rock formations. By now, we were at an altitude of well over 4000 meters, and there was snow several meters high in some places. In the evening, we arrived at our 'hotel', which was still under construction, but had thin windows and electricity from 6:00 pm to 9:00 pm. Upon arrival, they asked who was a couple, as there was a double room available next to the four-bed rooms. We were three couples and three singles, but Torsten and I, as the oldest couple, were practically forced to take the double room. Yes, sometimes it's an advantage to be old 😉.

The next day, the 'Green Lake' was originally on the agenda, but since it was completely frozen and the color was not visible, we went back to Uyuni. Once again, we passed through lonely areas, past impressive rock formations (formed by the wind), active volcanoes, geysers, and gradually also through more people-friendly areas.

In Uyuni, we had time for dinner in a warm restaurant and then continued on the night bus to La Paz. The day in our 'favorite city' went surprisingly fast, and in the evening we got back on the bus, this time heading to Cusco, Peru. There was quite a chaos at the border crossing, and the night was one of the coldest of our entire trip. Sleep was impossible without warm blankets. We warmed ourselves during breakfast and then strolled through sunny Cusco before flying to Iquitos, a city in the Peruvian Amazon region, on the same day. This place can only be reached by plane or ship; it is surrounded by water and jungle.

Stepping out of the plane immediately threw us into a different extreme. Humid, warm air hit us, and we immediately started sweating (finally😉).

Already the next day, we took a rickety wooden boat to our lodge in the jungle. On the way to the port, we passed through a street with many stands offering unusual and exotic things like skewers of maggots, grilled alligator meat, piranhas, turtle eggs, and various unknown fruits.

Our accommodation in the jungle was very basic: huts made of untreated wooden planks, windows and ceilings made of mosquito nets. We even had our own (quite dirty) bathroom. On the same day, we went on our first jungle hike, and Pedro, our guide, explained a lot about the animal and plant life. The staff was very, very friendly and helpful, the groups consisted of only two to four people, and all in all, our stay here was very pleasant.

Each day, we had three simple meals, and in between, we went on various tours: fishing for piranhas (I caught two!), canoeing on the tributaries of the Amazon, visiting an indigenous village with dancing and blowgun shooting, swimming in the Amazon (without piranhas, but with a free mud pack), dolphin watching, visiting a sugar cane processing plant with tasting and getting a little tipsy. We saw many animals, although not the spectacular ones like alligators, anacondas, etc., which we fortunately only saw in the nature reserve. However, one evening, a baby tarantula visited us, crawling along the mosquito net of our 'dining room'.

It was a beautiful and very interesting time in the jungle, but considering the simplicity of the accommodation, three nights/four days were enough for us. The bed was damp and musty because of the high humidity, despite the mosquito nets, undefinable stuff kept falling on us from the palm roof, and the food was not very varied but sufficient. We are already used to simplicity and little luxury, but the return to our hotel in Iquitos was a dream: clean white sheets, a hot shower, air conditioning - simply fantastic!

The last four weeks of our trip are planned for Ecuador, possibly with another week of beach vacation on the coast.