4/29/15
I am a city person. I love a city, (I mean a metropolitan city, similar to Gotham or Meteopolis) and am at home in the urban setting. The hustle and bustle, easy access to everything, even the “street arts/tags” – they make me feel at home. At the same time, I do love nature. The outdoors provides the escape I need from everyday life. Smell of pine forest, sounds of rivers, the sweet aroma of wild games (hmm…guess my Chinese heritage is showing.). I am truly blessed to have seen some amazing sceneries and experienced some close calls, and continue to be able to do so.
Andy, Anita, Simon and I woke up around 6:30am to get ready for out 3 days Uyuni Salt Flats tour. Pooling resources, we bought 18 liters of water, fruits, lots of unhealthy snacks (chocolates, local imitation Oreos, “fruit” flavored biscuits), 4 toilet rolls (because Bolivia bathrooms do not provide TP. They also cost money to enter, and you throw all used TP into trash cans-yes, even those you wiped your rear with). We budded goodbye to the hostel owner, and got into a car with all our luggage, ready for adventure.
Only to stop 10 minutes later and were told to wait in the car. Eventually, we found out we all had to get an exit stamp from Chile. Stamped, we were then transported (if only they can beam us like startrek) to the Bolivian border for entry stamp. Since we were at much higher altitude, we were Ll freezing while waiting. Sucrssful accomplished the stamp collection process, we ate some lunch provided by the tour agency and were then re-divided into 2 cars. The four of us were joined by Tobias, a fellow German.
We paid the entrance fee to the national park ( and spent time looking and paying for bathroom – a standard procedure of this trip), and started out tour. The scenery was breath taking. If Grand Canyon is impressive, the views here are 10 times better. We saw White Lake, Green Lake, paid 10 Bolivianos for hot spring soak, saw geysers (with bubbling mud that probably cost thousands as face masks), Dali desert (where stones look like Dali drawing- or is it the other way round?)and flamingos. We were shown one grand sights after another, and my brain was in scenery overload. Well, that might also be due to altitude sickness, since we were at 4400 km above sea level most of the time. I started having headaches, shortness of breath, and could feel my heart pumping extra hard (heh. Extra hard.).
At evening, we were shown to out lodging of the night- a stone/straw building that only had lights from 7pm to 9:30pm. It was a basic facility, with 6 beds in a room. I would like to say I slept like a rock, but I actually slept on a rock – the mattress that rested on raised concrete was so used that it sank all the way to the concrete when I laid on it. In addition, the altitude sickness came back in full force, along with bitter chill that literally “take my breath away”.
As I slept in the bed listening to my own heartbeat, I replayed the images of landscapes I saw, while wondering if my altitude sickness would get worse. I guess in the wild, having close calls is sometimes necessary to see great views. With scenery this grand, I think it is worth every risk (well, within reasons) I have taken thus far. Sometimes, the city guy has to experience the wild to know what nature is all about.
(But can nature also provide me with some extra oxygen and heat? I mean, we should meet in the middle ground, right?!)
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