On the morning of our Uyuni tour, we packed up our things, bought some extra snacks and water and headed over to meet our tour operator, Hodaka, at the office. It turns out that the British couple we were scheduled to tour with had to postpone their trip a day due to stomach trouble (that was almost us!). We would be passed off to another operator to make an even six. I was nervous that this might happen and that we would be stuck with a lousy or corner-cutting operator. When we jumped into a jeep, I didn't even realize that we had been passed to another operator. I guess you can do everything in your power to find a good one and it's still all in the luck of the draw. Turns out we got lucky after all.
Our group consisted of a Brit, a Kiwi and a Brazilian couple. I was happy that everyone felt comfortable speaking in English, though the Brazilians would be burdened with speaking in their second language for the duration of the trip. We didn't gel immediately, but all became good friends by the end of the trip.
Our driver was a smiling silent guy. He was friendly and took good care of us, he was a pretty careful driver and we never experienced any road trouble, though flats and stalls are pretty common.
There was a cook in our group too. Many operators told us that we wouldn't have a cook, but the other groups that shared our accommodation had one too, so I guess some companies still do this. She mostly served meals that she had prepared in advance, but the food was pretty good and we always had enough. The snacks we brought helped with the long ride in between meals.
私たちのツアーのグループ構成は、イギリス人のサラ、サラが旅途中出会ったニュージーランド人のカリマー、ブラジル人カップルのリオン＆ダニエルの全部で6人。サラ、カリマーはもちろんだけどリオン＆ダニエルも英語がしゃべれるのでみんな問題なくコミュニケーション取れ、みんな気が合って仲良くなれました(^^)
ツアー初日はさっそくウユニ塩湖へ！ほんとーーに真っ白で真っ平ら！！地面がクリスタルのようにキラキラ光っていました。そして雲一つない真っ青な空とのコントラストがまたなんとも言えず綺麗。
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| 今はホテルとして使われてないけど塩湖内に建つ唯一の塩ホテルPlaya Blanca |
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| Right by the salt hotel |
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| Isla del Pescado - The island of fish |
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| Stepping on Mike !! |
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| Ju---mp ! |
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| The dining hall |
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| ベッドが塩でできてるーー！ ベッドの頭の部分はサボテン・・★ - All the beds are made out of salt |
Day one: Our first stop was the train graveyard (just a few minutes out of town, we could have totally walked there). Next was the salt factory, where they grind up and bag salt straight out of the flat lake. Then we saw the famous playa blanka salt hotel / museum. Then we stopped for lunch and a hike around "fish island" - an incredible island (more like a hill) rising up out of the middle of the flat, white expanse of the Salar. Somehow, at 3600 meters above sea level and in the middle of this weird lake, there is an island of fossilized coral - and it's covered in giant cactuses! This was an amazing sight, a totally surreal landscape and totally one of a kind.
On our first night, we stayed at a fantastic salt hotel. The walls were made out of salt blocks, the tables were carved out of slat, even the floor was covered in clean, soft salt. We had a private room with a big, warm bed and a private bathroom. I think we must have out-paced the other 4x4's because we clearly had choice accommodation where many would stay in basic 6-bed rooms. We had dinner with our group around salt table and went to bed early. It was cold, but manageable.
8月16日 - Aug. 16
ツアー2日目。
塩湖の周辺も見どころ満載◎日本ではウユニ=塩湖という感じでウユニ塩湖しかしられていないけど塩湖の周辺は火山と赤い砂の砂漠に囲まれていて、色々なところで絶景が楽しめます(^^)
所々にあるLagoon(Laguna = 湖/池)にはフラミンゴが！動物園では見たことあったけど野生は初めて・・＊
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| Framingos! - まだらの薄いピンク色をしたフラミンゴがコバルトブルーのLagoonに鏡張りに反映していて幻想的な風景を作り出している |
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| 赤砂の砂漠Siloli Desert - 倒れそうな奇岩 |
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| Laguna Colorada - 血の池のような真っ赤なLagoon |
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| Laguna Coloradoを見に行って帰る途中下真っ平らな場所があったので再びトリック写真に挑戦！ |
夕飯は野菜スープ＆トマトソースパスタそしてワイン・・なんだ！ワイン買わなくてよかったじゃん！・・まぁボリビアワインなんてめったに飲めないし昼から飲めたし(o^^o)それにしてもやっぱ標高4300mで飲むとやっぱ酔いが回りやすい・・けど体が温まりました。
Day two: We got an early start, had a basic breakfast and left before sunrise. We stopped many times and to take pictures of a wide variety of unearthly landscapes. We saw several lagoons inhabited by flamingos! We reached our second night's accommodation in time for lunch. After a good, hot meal, we piled back into the truck for a quick tour of the nearby red lagoon. The striking blood-orange color is from the algae that live in the lake. The white mineral deposits around the edges give it an alien look. We made one more stop on a windy plane to take some crazy perspective photos.
We had lots of time to bond with our group and drink wine in the afternoon and over dinner. We probably blew our tour budget on the first night, because we shared a 6-bed dorm and a few toilets with another group. Even the common area was cold and had intermittent electricity.
8月17日 - Aug. 17
翌日朝4時半起き。すごく眠かったし外暗くて超寒かったけど空を見上げると満天の星が☆★流れ星も2つ見れました☆=
まずは夜も明けない内にGeyser(火山地帯で地面から水蒸気が噴射しているとこ)を見に行きました。・・が外は超寒かったので車から見ることに。ダニエルだけはがんばって写真撮りに行ってたけど・・
日が登ってきたころには温泉があるところで朝食。その後温泉へ浸りに！
Mikeは水着になって浸ってたけど私は足だけで。。(水温30℃だし外超寒いし着替えるとこないし・・(;_;)
着替える時特に隠れるところもない温泉の周りで裸になってるおばちゃんいたし・・(´Д` )せめて車で着替えればいいのに・・いやなものを見てしまった・・。しかもその後同じおばちゃんをチリのサンペドロで3度も目撃することに・・(´Д` )(´Д` )(´Д` )笑
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| Sunrise and the hotspring |
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| Hotspring at 30 dgrees - 湯は温かいけど外は超寒い(>_<) |
そして9時半にボリビアとチリの国境に到着。チリに行くうちらとサラはウユニに帰る残りの3人とお別れ。。インカハイクの時と同じく良いメンバーに恵まれました(^^)
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| Our team! |
移民局で出国手続きを取ってチリに行くバスを1時間待つ。移民局も待つ所もちょっとボロい小屋って感じで砂漠のど真ん中にあるので砂嵐がすごい・・(´Д` ;)小屋吹き飛ばされそうな感じ。。
1時間後バス(というかバン)到着。ボリビア、Googbye！そしてチリへ！
・・・ん・・！？チリに入ったとたん舗装されたコンクリート道路が！ちゃんと標識が！ボリビアは車が通るところが道になってたという感じ。インフラ整備の差が極端に見えた瞬間でした。
チリについては次のブログで～◎
Day three: We had a 4:30 wake-up call and piled into the 4x4 under the most incredible start sky. We raced to the hot-springs, stoping only once or twice for a quick look at steaming geysers in the headlights (it was still pitch black outside). We arrived at the hot-springs ahead of all the other groups, but opted for a quick breakfast before getting in. After some cold pancakes and hot tea, we stopped down to our swim suites in the freezing air and took a dip. It felt really good.. I think the water was only 30 degrees C, but it felt toasty warm. We watched the sun climb up over the thermal lake and soon shared the spring with 4 or 5 other truck-loads of excited travelers.
After a quick dip, we had to race to the Chilean border for our 9:30 transfer to San Pedro. We stood in a shelter with fresh passport stamps as the wind whipped sand and rocks against the windows. We didn't see much the third day, but it was a good end to our trip. We said goodbye to half of our group, heading out on an eight-hour return trip to Uyuni. We did the right thing transferring to the Chilean side, we would be sitting pretty with beers over lunch in just a few hours.
本当にきれい！
返信削除最高な景色！
ウユニ塩湖以外にも綺麗な景色が見れると思わなかった！フラミンゴはほんとに綺麗だったよ(*^^*)
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