In travels, everything is just like in life: the most important thing is that with each new country, as well as with the past years, do not lose the ability to be surprised and admire. And also pay attention to details, do not look back, and do not compare with what has already happened.
Carpe diem, as they say.
Although, this does not apply to Bolivia. The country surprises and delights to the fullest. We spent exactly a month here and, frankly, our expectations were very high. So many people admire this country, and so many rave reviews were read before the trip. And Bolivia justified them in its entirety. I chose five places that I remember the most. And things to do, without which our journey through this mountainous country would not be so memorable :)
1. RESEARCH THE ALTIPLINE ON JEEP.
Surely, ABOUT THE UYUNI SOLANCHARK EVERYBODY Heard ALL, AND SEE THESE CRAZY PICTURES ON THE INTERNET, WHEN THE WHITE-SNOW SPACE IS SIMPLY WRAPPING FROM YOU FROM ALL THE PARTIES, AND DO NOT BE UNDERSTANDED. AND HE, OF COURSE, IS COST OF ALL THRILLES, BUT ABOUT THIS LATER. BECAUSE EXCEPT THE SALON IS HERE, ON THE BOLIVIAN ALTIPLANO, STILL BEAUTIFUL BEAUTIES - LAGUNES, VOLCANOES, THERMAL SOURCES, CANYONS, GREEN FIELDS WITH STEAMED LAMPS.
To ride the Bolivian Altiplano, we decided not to take a standard three-day tour from the town of Uyuni, but to go for 4 days and on an alternative route, from the other end, from the glorious city of Tupitsa, almost on the border with Argentina.
A lot less tourists travel from here, and in many places you find yourself in splendid isolation.
There are four people in the jeep, with us was a lovely French couple at the honeymoon stage. And our driver, and part-time - a guide and a cook. Organized everything was just perfect. Well, the people with whom you spend so much time on the road (which is about 10 hours a day), and then still sleep in the same room (yes, four-bed accommodation) is a very important component of this trip. Not very light, I admit, but very impressive and memorable for life.
Llamas are like monkeys, I think. When you see them for the first time, peacefully doing their own thing in the temples of the same Kathmandu - you get into a wild delight, you can’t step back without making at least a hundred shots. Over time, let it go, of course. Now I look at the monkeys with indifferent calm.
But I have the same obsession with llamas - for me they are the most photogenic animals on earth. I don’t know how many portraits of them were made during this trip, and how many times I was ready to literally jump out of the car, seeing the next batch of lamas, and then chasing them through the meadows.
In the valley of geysers there was a feeling that you were somewhere on the moon. Well, the truth is, it doesn’t look like our planet - such cosmic landscapes. And the weather is changing so much - they just bathed in thermal springs, and then you get out - the wind is just knocking down, terribly cold. Although now, in the off-season, temperatures are very sparing: it hardly drops to 0 at night, but in our summer, when Bolivia has winters, it can be minus 25.
Mystical Laguna Colorada. Still from afar, the overflow of colors from blue to red attracts the eye and you are afraid to blink so as not to miss a single second, because at each turn of the jeep the lagoon changes color and appears in a new look. In the ten minutes that we drive, the sky turns black and lightning flashes above the lagoon - I have never seen anything like it. Red stripes upon approach turn out to be hundreds of pink flamingos.
Well, the culmination of a four-day trip is dawn over the Uyuni solonchak.
Uyuni is a huge, dried-up salt lake located at an altitude of about 3650 meters.
In March, when the salt marsh is covered with a thin layer of water, this place acquires some kind of magical power. It seems that heaven and earth are merging here into a single whole, borders and consciousness are expanding.
That's how it all starts in the early morning.
Well, then it continues like this for another half day. It seems to me that the craziest and most unusual photographs I have ever seen in my life are from here. People even ride with props - some with great ones, some with chairs :))))
The wind in the face, height, desert landscapes and this is a miracle before our eyes. It constantly seems that you are somewhere so far away, on the edge of the earth, on another planet.
In general, Uyuni and Altiplano are simply a must see, and perhaps the most memorable event of our trip.