Driving across Mars

From La Paz Bolivia i made my way down to a little down in the desert called Oruro where after doing my research found out that i could take a train from the town of Oruro to another town by the name of Uyuni to where i was trying to get to. After hearing horror stories of people doing the same route but via bus which is about 12 hours and on a dirt road (barely even) which is insanely bumpy the entire time, i figured it would be a better idea if i took the train which is cheaper, faster, and more convenient. I arrived in Oruro a day earlier to buy a ticket in advance cuz i heard they sell out fast. after buying my ticket i checked into my hostel which was probably the worst i have ever been in during my life. It was about the size of a large bathroom with no windows and an old rusty bed. When i was in the prison in La Paz the jail cells were alot nicer than this. I didnt want to hang out there long so i decided the wonder the streets of Oruro, where i found a cool black market thingy selling everything from clothes, electronics, food, and shoes. After relentlessly trying to convince some of the vendors that they should trade me my old shoes for some nice new ones i headed to my jail cell to sleep.

After arriving in Uyuni from the super nice train, i booked a 3 day jeep trip across the desert for the next morning. So the next morning i got up fairly early to have a shower and organize all my stuff because i was going to get dropped off at the end of the tour and hop over to Chile from the tour. As i went to have my shower i closed my door and walked to the shower only to realize i forgot something in my room. As i go to get it i realized that the door locked with the key still inside of my room, leaving me outside wearing only a towel, no shirt no shoes nothing only a towel. It being about 7:ooam the owner of the hostel was still sleeping and i had to wait around for about an hour in my towel until finally he came and opened my door. After a bad start i headed 0ff the where we were going to start our jeep journy. I soon met the other members of the group which were a few people from New Zealand and a guy from Germany and one from Isreal. We set off with our driver/guide/cook, whose name we couldnt pronounced, so we ended up just calling him Pablo. We soon realized that our new friend Pablo didnt speak any english, and me being the only one in our group that could speak spanish, i got to act as a sort of second guide/ translator which was actually really fun.

The first day of the tour we first stopped in an old train cemetery located just outside of town where we stopped to take some photos and mill around. Then we set out for the salar de uyuni or salt flats, which Bolivia is most known for. The salt flats were actually really stunning and alot of fun. For miles as far as the eye can see is just white salt for the ground, it is the biggest salt flat in the world. After taking alot of cool photos in the salar we headed through the desert into a little area called isla de los pescados where there were giant cacti and really cool terrain where we trekked around for a bit before heading to our hostel for the night which is a building almost entirely made of salt, where we had a nice sleep and awesome food from our man Pablo.

The second day we headed through the desert more, where the landscape started to change dramatically and in my opinion and mind is what i think Mars would look like. I was just stunning landscapes of redish dirt and volcanos, with lagoons the colour of greens and reds, with mountains that were greenish blues and whites. It was really cool. After driving through the Mars terrain for a few hours we arrived to this really cool rock tree thingy where we got out to take some photos. Photos for me just werent enough and although it was well posted saying please dont climb, I just had to climb it. After a very tricky climb, my rockclimbing skills prevailed as i reached the summit which was an amazing 15 feet from the ground. I know, i am amazing. Ok, and then we stopped at a couple cool lagoon with a ton of flamingos just loungin around where i got to practice m awesome photography skills. After a really cool day of exploring Mars we arrived at the place where we slept but this time it wasnt made of salt it was only concrete, how boring. After meeting a couple really cool Israeli people (one whose name is DOOR which i thought was hilarious) i hung out playing cards with them for most of the night, and after a few hours i finally learned how to count to 10 in hebrew. For the next morning we had to get up at about 4 am to catch these really cool geysers in the morning, and after Pablo relentlessly explaing to us that we NEED to get up and its super important blah blah blah we headed to bed.

Being the super morning person i am i was the first up and dressed and had the role of waking everyone up. After hanging around for a bit with everything it soon became 430 and no sign of Pablo. Me and my friend Lincoln headed for Pablos room where we could hear probably the loudest snoring i have ever heard in my life. We gently knocked on his window, "Pablo", no answer so i knocked a little louder, " amigo!" Still no answer. So i knocked really loud, " Illadion!!" (which was actually his REAL name) and still no answer. It was like a bear in hibernation, this guy just couldnt wake up. So finally we banged super loud on his door and we could here him stumble up and mumble something and ask what time it is. after 5 minutes he came out smiling and we were off. We started at these really cool geysers for a bit and then arrived at thes really nice hot springs where we hung out for abit because it was insanly cold in the morning in the desert. after that we cheked out some more lagoons nothing too exciting and then we got transfered to a buss where we headed for the Chilean border.

After arriving in a little desert town in Chile by the name of San Pedro de Atacama we soon realized that everything is insanly expensive in Chile, this was definetly not cool. We basically hung out a little for the first day, got some food that was really overpriced, and slept in our hostel which was super overpriced. My friend Nick from Germany said he had a friend that lived here and she said me and Nick could spend the night at her place which would be awesome and save us some money. So after we called her she said that she was gonna be back tommorow morning and we can call her then and it was no problem that we slept there, and maybe she could show us around. The next morning came and we got some breakfast, then called her but no answer. We thought maybe it was busy or she was in the shower so we figured we would call her back later. Couple hours later still no answer. Couple more hours still no answer. So we came to the conclusion that this girl was gonna be a no show and figured we should just go on with our day. Me Nick and our friends from new zealand rented some mountain bikes and headed out for a nearby oasis into the desert, where we could have a nice swim. After heading out into the desert with the blazing hot sun on us we rode for about 45 minutes only to realize we were heading in the complete opposite direction. Coming to the conclusion that once we found thsi oasis, it was going to be well worth the effort. So a bunch of kilometers later we finally arrived, exhausted to this oasis, which turned out more like a well developed pool, rather than an oasis. It was still nice but just not what we pictured. After heading back me and Nick tried "Ms. says we can sleep there than ignore our calls" once more and what a surprise, still no answer. Nick and I really did not want to pay for another night at our hostel especially because i am starting to run really low on my cash. So we decided that we would just stash our bags there and take our sleeping bags and just camp in a random alley or behind a building or anywhere. We found a good spot behind a hostel and set our sleeping bags up ( with no tent might i add) and just slept there for the night which surpisingly wasnt that bad at all.

Tonight i have a night bus up to a little beach town right buy the peruvian border, because i am gonna get the heck out of Chile because it is waay too expensive and i really need to preserve my money. So thank you all for reading about my stories and i will update as soon as possible thanks!

- Justen Ortiz