There are so many ways I could have started this blog I didn't know where to begin. I could tell you how in our first morning in Bolivia we woke up to an army of 80's series Landcruiser tours passing us or I could explain how we never could have navigated Reserva de Fauna Andina E. Avaroa without the detailed notes given to us by our friends Brenton and Shannon. A special thanks to Brenton for writing it all down and in the correct order despite them having driven it in the opposite direction. But I should just get on with it and tell you about the amazing field of individual towering rocks we saw called Dali's Rocks, closely followed by the magical hot pool swim we had that same morning. The natural thermal pool is surrounded by mountains and grazing Flamingos, we had it to ourselves for a few blissful minutes until the hordes of Landcruisers arrived unloading their payload of tourists. Next we needed to find the somewhat hidden Bolivian customs office or aduana located a crazy 80km from the border. We had our passports stamped into the country but the Dodge was not yet officially in. Following our detailed directions and photos we found it and left soon after hassle free! That afternoon we drove past the breath taking Laguna Colorado. It's salt caked shores, blue waters and red algae made for quite a sight and I took a few hundred photos to remember it by.
We were making good progress on our first day in Bolivia using everything we had to ensure we didn't get lost in the signless desert maze of highly corrugated tracks. This was until our notorious radiator struck again, the temperature shot up as the rough road tore another hole in our recently repaired radiator. We pushed on to the next tourist stop and after parking into the cooling wind we were soon overwhelmed by a group of English speaking Bolivian tour guides who offered to help. Luckily we had another pack of lifesaving Poxilina so everyone helped Will to apply it over the hole as best he could and after topping up the water we were back on the umm "track".
Heartbroken at yet another problem we camped for the night and watched a movie to take our minds off everything. Next morning we found the main track leading to the road and bulldozed our way to the pavement as the Dodges belly is a tad lower than the solid front axel Landcruisers. Next on the agenda was a fuel stop… our first in Bolivia. For those who don't know the subsidised local fuel price is just 3.74bs per litre ($0.54us) for gasoline, while foreign plated vehicles must pay 9.25bs per litre ($1.33us). This is an effort by the government to stop people from neighbouring countries coming across the border just for cheap fuel. To overlanders who are spending their tourist money in Bolivia this seems a bit unfair, so armed with a pre written guide for a typical fuel negotiation conversation we had from the Internet we tried our luck. Eventually after the 45minute wait in line we bartered ourselves a midway price of 6bs per litre and left happily for the town of Uyuni.
Arriving in Uyuni we immediately discovered we had a puncture in one of our brand new tyres. However after bumping into Alastair a friend from NZ we checked into the car park of Hostal Marith and decided to leave the Dodge on the jack while we went out for dinner with Alastair and co. Will discovered his love for Llama meat in the traditional Bolivian dish Pique macho while I stuck with boring old pizza. Unfortunately for us there was no alcohol to be had that night as it was also Easter. Apparently in Bolivia they don't drink alcohol over the Easter week.
The following morning we got the tyre fixed and incidentally it was the same wheel that had been squeaking a bit so Will got to it and pulled off the brake calliper for an inspection but to no avail, the dam squeak persists. Then it was off to the car wash for a coat of used oil across the underside of the Dodge to protect it from the rusting effects of the salt.
Heartbroken at yet another problem we camped for the night and watched a movie to take our minds off everything. Next morning we found the main track leading to the road and bulldozed our way to the pavement as the Dodges belly is a tad lower than the solid front axel Landcruisers. Next on the agenda was a fuel stop… our first in Bolivia. For those who don't know the subsidised local fuel price is just 3.74bs per litre ($0.54us) for gasoline, while foreign plated vehicles must pay 9.25bs per litre ($1.33us). This is an effort by the government to stop people from neighbouring countries coming across the border just for cheap fuel. To overlanders who are spending their tourist money in Bolivia this seems a bit unfair, so armed with a pre written guide for a typical fuel negotiation conversation we had from the Internet we tried our luck. Eventually after the 45minute wait in line we bartered ourselves a midway price of 6bs per litre and left happily for the town of Uyuni.
Arriving in Uyuni we immediately discovered we had a puncture in one of our brand new tyres. However after bumping into Alastair a friend from NZ we checked into the car park of Hostal Marith and decided to leave the Dodge on the jack while we went out for dinner with Alastair and co. Will discovered his love for Llama meat in the traditional Bolivian dish Pique macho while I stuck with boring old pizza. Unfortunately for us there was no alcohol to be had that night as it was also Easter. Apparently in Bolivia they don't drink alcohol over the Easter week.
The following morning we got the tyre fixed and incidentally it was the same wheel that had been squeaking a bit so Will got to it and pulled off the brake calliper for an inspection but to no avail, the dam squeak persists. Then it was off to the car wash for a coat of used oil across the underside of the Dodge to protect it from the rusting effects of the salt.
Later with everything sorted and the radiator repair holding we drove north to the town of Colchani which is also the entrance to the worlds biggest salt flats called the Salar de Uyuni. Entering the salt flats claimed what was left of our dodgy plastic bash plate but no bother we headed out for three stunning days on the Salar. Highlights included the ever popular scale defying photo taking, some beautiful sunsets and an isolated Cactus filled island complete with no less than fifty Landcruiser tours lunching, here it became obvious every person but us was on a tour! Also we had some fun driving through surface water left over from the rainy season, we did almost get stuck in a soft area but we managed to crawl out using the full rev's of the Dodges V8 engine. Then right on queue just as we were leaving the Salar the engine temperature red lined once again and a hasty inspection revealed our epoxy repair job had now failed as a steady flow of water was pouring from our radiator. But don't worry it only took 28 litres of water and three hours to drive the 21km back to Uyuni. After another wash and oil we returned to the hostel where Will applied yet more poxilina and in a last ditch attempt to get us to the next town we cracked seven eggs in to the radiator! Yes chicken eggs. And they bloody well worked. The next morning we drove the 200km on beautiful paved road to Potosi problem free!!
In an effort to make our blogs shorter and more fun to read I'll stop here that way we can include more photos too.
Rochelle & Will
Rochelle & Will