May 182014
 

Originally when I’d booked the trip, my flight back from Uyuni to La Paz was scheduled for 9:35a, which would allow me to sleep in slightly, and still get to La Paz in time to have a nice relaxing day to see the city. Unfortunately, once again, Amaszonas had other ideas. Points to them for communications, but 48 hours before my flight I got an email that the flight had been moved to 6:45am. Are you KIDDING me people? UGH.

This meant instead of getting breakfast and leaving for the airport at the sane hour of 7:45 or so, I would have to leave for the airport no later than 5am. Yes, this meant another 4:15am wakeup call. UGH.

I went out front at 5:15a as agreed with my driver, and he was there…sleeping in his car….with heavy metal music blaring. I was slightly disturbed, but after knocking on the windows to wake him up, we had a safe 30-40 minute drive to the airport. All the stars were out, and it was gorgeous in the complete darkness.

There was already quite a long queue to check in which took 15 minutes or so in the semi-open air terminal, and I was stuck in the back of the plane this time. No big deal. The problem was, after security, we were in a waiting room that was semi-open to the elements and it was -5C outside. It was absolutely freezing, and I hadn’t brought a jacket. I sat hunched up in a little ball for about 30 minutes and ran for the plane the minute they let us board. There was absolutely zero to see or do in the airport, except freeze and wait for the plane.

Amaszonas flight 301
Uyuni, Bolivia (UYU) to La Paz, Bolivia (LPB)
Depart 6:45, Arrive 7:35, Flight Time 50 minutes
Canadair CRJ-200, Registration CP-2733, Manufactured 1998, Seat 11D

This flight was completely full, and I had the pleasure of an overly chatty Indian seatmate from Mumbai who insisted on talking for the entire 50 minutes. Even when I put in my earbuds, he prattled on and on. Ugh. Not at this hour, please. Impressively, for a full flight of 50 people and only 40 minutes in the air, the flight attendants made two full passes with drinks. I was impressed! The Coke Zero was the only thing keeping me going.

Landed in La Paz right on time, but there was one problem.   It was rush hour, and it took nearly 90 minutes to get to the Radisson.  Fortunately I knew the fair price this time, and the taxi driver was happy to accept it.  Got to the hotel just after 9, but my room wasn’t ready yet…so they invited me to go up to the executive lounge for breakfast.  Well, that was nice!  Had a small breakfast, and by the time I was done my room was ready.

They’d upgraded me to the executive floor for some reason, which was slightly nicer in furnishings than my previous room.  I collapsed on the bed, and caught an hour nap to try and feel somewhat human.

After I woke up, I headed out to walk the city.  My first stop was the office of Crillon Tours, where I had to pay for my trip to Lake Titicaca the next day.  The walk there was about 15 minutes, and it was a good chance to watch the city going about its business on a week day.  There was, once again, nearly no English spoken in the office when I got there, but eventually I found the person I needed, got the tour paid by credit card, and I was off to walk some more.

I was headed to the old part of the city where some colonial buildings still stood, but on the way I ran into a group of…zebras?  I have no idea what this was all about….

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Just ten minutes further along, I ran into a chain gang of prisoners doing some hard manual labour repairing a road.  And being supervised by….a police dog?  I was beginning to wonder about Bolivians and animal costumes….

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Finally, after a 20 minute walk uphill, and stopping frequently to catch my breath, I reached Calle Jaen, where some old colonial buildings stood.  The streets were narrow, and the angle of the sun made it hard to get a good pic, but this was my best attempt:

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I kept walking back through the city, and my next stop was the Mercado de las Brujas – the witches’ market.  You could by all sorts of interesting “ingredients here” including dried llama fetuses.  Supposedly when you’re building a new building, be it a house, office, or whatever, you bury one of these dried llama fetuses in the foundation for good luck.  Go figure….

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May 162014
 

When I’d originally booked this trip, the flight from Bolivia to Uyuni was at the annoying hour of 6:30am.  That would mean getting up around 4:30a at the latest to head to the airport on my second day in Bolivia.  UGH.  Just as I was leaving DC I got an email…the flight had been retimed to 5:35am, and the reason was given as “due to a maintenance service in the International Airport EL ALTO in La Paz city and will be closed at about 4 hours, from 12:00 pm to 16:00 pm during all month MAY.”  Uh, exactly how does that affect a 6:30 flight?  No clue.  However, I resigned myself to a 3am wakeup call to get to the airport no later than 4:30…an hour before my flight, and hopefully a little sooner.

Woke up, out the door in about 20 minutes, and soon I was queued up to check in at El Alto.  I can’t say I’ve ever seen an airline bragging that they fly a “new fleet of CRJ-200s.”

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Check in was super quick, although I was kicked out of the bulkhead I’d reserved online, because I was told my Spanish wasn’t good enough to be sitting in an exit row.  Boo hiss.  It was still about 1:15 before the flight, so I had time for a quick (and pretty awful) coffee in the check in area, with a much better chocolate muffin.

Security was completely painless and took maybe two minutes, and soon I was in the rather decent departures area:

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Boarding was called about 30 minutes before the flight, and we walked probably 300 meters across the tarmac to our plane:

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Upon boarding, the flight attendant handed each passenger a goody bag:

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Amaszonas flight 300
La Paz, Bolivia (LPB) to Uyuni, Bolivia (UYU)
Depart 5:35, Arrive 6:35, Flight Time 1 hour
Canadair CRJ-200, Registration CP-2742, Manufactured 1997, Seat 2F

Upon boarding, for some reason, the seats on this plane looked and felt really familiar.  Only when I pulled up my phone to check out its history did I see why…it was a former United Express plane, and still had the United Express seats.  So, this is hell.  My least favourite aircraft (the CRJ) with vestiges of United Express.  Great.  Door closed about 5 minutes early with the seat next to me empty…and we started to taxi….a few minutes later, we headed back to our parking position and opened the door.

A rapid stream of spanish followed from the cockpit, with the simple english translation of “something wrong with the plane.”  Great!  Well, ten minutes later “something” was fixed and we were off!  The flight was a quick 45 minutes or so, and the flight attendants did do a quick beverage service from the trolley.  Can’t really complain…beats United Express!

Landing in Uyuni, it was cold.  Really cold.  -4C or about 26F according to my phone, and I was just in jeans and a lightweight pullover.  Brilliant planning Jason, brilliant.  I’d prebooked a driver/tourguide for the day, since I’d been told there were essentially two options in Uyuni:  hang around town for one of the 6-people-packed-into-a-Landrover backpacker trips for about $50 a person, or book a private driver.  Since I only had one day and no clue when I’d come back, I opted for my own driver so I could do what I wanted and stop however long I wanted.

My driver was waiting in the arrivals area as the sun rose, and we threw my backs in the vehicle and were off.  He waid we had to wait for a permit from the police in town, so we had about an hour to kill before we could head out.  We headed into a small restaurant/cafe for coffee and a light breakfast, and slowly after us it began to fill up with backpackers who’d taken the 10+ hour overnight bus from La Paz.  They all looked like death, and I was beginning to think the extra money I’d paid was well well worth it.

Permit obtained, we headed out to the “train cemetery” at the edge of town.  Not much to see, but since it was featured in just about every travel article I read on the town, I figured we should stop.  At least it was a cool contrast with the brilliant blue skies:

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Stopped in town to pick up some snacks and waters, and in the centre of town was this…unique…sculpture:

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Next stop was my hotel, the Hotel Luna Salada.  It’s a good 30 minutes out of town, right on the edge of the saltflats.  The hallways/common areas are open to the elements, so it got very very cold.  This was the walkway to my room…note the floors, which are made entirely of crushed salt:

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We were set to head out on the tour at 10, so I had an hour nap which made me feel much better after having gotten up at 3am!  The hotel was cold…quite cold….since the salt walls don’t really insulate things much and it drops below freezing at night.  There were electric blankets on all the beds (a first for me) and they kept me nice and toasty warm!

The drive to the salt flats (with the obligatory 15 minute stop at a local craft market along the way) was pretty good…and upon entering the salt flats the driver really gunned it.  It felt weird to be speeding across the salt with no roads, no markings, just a sense of direction.

I’d told my driver I wanted to see an area where water had gathered, to get a pic of the salt with the reflection.  He knew right where to go, and we found an area where water was a few inches deep.  We had to drive very slowly in this area, because supposedly if you drive too quickly the water splashes up on the car’s undercarriage, and will corrode things, shorting out the electrical systems due to its high salt content and stranding you:

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Apr 232014
 

I’d been thinking about this trip for a long time. For about a year, I’ve had only two countries remaining to visit in South America, Bolivia and Ecuador. I’d always planned on doing it with American, but earlier this year when United seriously devalued miles I wanted to burn every last one. I started looking for weeks I could get away, and possible routings. Getting into La Paz and out of Quito were pretty easy, but getting between them was harder.

I could have done the easy thing and just buy it, but I had some more miles left, and United was giving me all sorts of exotic routings that would allow 23 hour connections in cities I hadn’t been to before. In the end, I decided on Medellin as it sounded the most interesting and exotic. I’ll admit, I didn’t do much research when putting this together. I had over 500,000 United miles to burn, and under a week to get things done, so I planned the in and out flights…and left the middle to chance a bit. That said, I leave in barely a week and still don’t have everything booked. It’ll all come together I suspect.

…any last minute “musts” or advice are certainly welcome.

The planned itinerary, and rough plans for this report:

Part I: Washington DC to La Paz, Bolivia on US Airways and Avianca (via Charlotte, Miami, Bogota)
Part II: La Paz, Bolivia
Part III: La Paz to Uyuni, Bolivia and the Hotel Luna Salada
Part IV: Salar de Uyuni – the Salt Flats
Part V: Uyuni to La Paz, and daytrip to Lake Titicaca
Part VI: La Paz to Medellin, Colombia on TACA Peru (via Lima)
Part VII: Short Stay in Medellin
Part VIII: Medellin to Quito, Ecuador on Aero Republica and COPA (via Panama)
Part IX: Quito, Ecuador
Part X: Quito to Washington DC on COPA and US Airways (via Panama, Cancun, and Philadelphia)

Routing:

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I promise this won’t be one of those post and run trip reports….it’ll go live in just over a week with the first update! I also can’t resist sharing, as a teaser, the BIG trip I’m planning in October/November. Suiffice to say with a trip report name like “From Bula to Shalom!” I hope it will be epic…four weeks in the south pacific, a couple days in DC for laundry, and then Israel and Palestine.