‘Salt of the Earth’

Around the World with the Most Travelled Indian

By Nitin Gairola

From La Paz, the highest capital city in the world, we took our overnight bus to Uyuni towards the south of Bolivia, not fully sure of what to expect. In those days, the internet was not so widely used and smart phones had not really arrived for the common person, and so we didn’t have a clear ‘picture’ of what the salty desert of Uyuni would actually be like. With that, the bus dropped us off the next morning and we saw a small, semi ‘deserted’ town that was nothing spectacular and we were told that it was one of the main starting points for the adventure into the driest hot desert in the world – The Atacama and to the second highest plateau – The Altiplano. Being budget conscious, we started asking the rates for the Land Cruiser & driver combo that would take us into the barren lands for the next four days and bring us back safely (that was the hope).

What we never could have guessed was the price of this tour. At that time, we were used to paying around 1200 – 1800 USD for two for such 3 or 4-day jeep adventures into the wild (or the remote). Do remember that it took a lot less INR to buy USD back then. But at Uyuni, my jaw dropped (in a good way) when they quoted a price of just 200 USD for two. Besides the jaw dropping, I nearly fell off my chair when I heard the price and grabbed the offer with both hands. One of the reasons for this ridiculously low price was that we had four other budget conscious passengers in our Land Cruiser i.e. it wasn’t a private vehicle. But the good part was that we became friends with some of them, especially a fellow world traveller called Sasha from Quebec, Canada. There was a lady from Colombia too called Kathrine and then there was a young German couple who wasn’t that communicative, since they were busy communicating between themselves (fair choice over us travel strangers).

The best however was the driver and since I don’t clearly remember his name now, I will refer to him as Carlos (safe bet for these parts and I actually do think his name was Carlos). I was told that the drivers here take to the bottle since the desert scenery can be and is very bleak, barren and bare and not to mention – utterly unchanging. To add to that, the horizon is endless and the road is nowhere and everywhere. So, the risk of drunk driving is also very limited as there are no cliffs to fall off from and no vehicles are coming from the opposite side of the road, nor are there any signals to look at and road rules to follow. That’s why you will do just fine if you booze, snooze and even if your brakes fail. That’s why a drunk man behind the wheel, who doesn’t know the horizon from hallucination, is not a serious cause for concern.

Our good man Carlos spoke only Spanish and said ‘Si’ to everything we said or asked, the Germans said ‘Ja’ all the time and the only ones left who could have a proper conversation amongst themselves were Sasha, Kathrine, Richa and I. And there we were, all 7 of us packed like a can of sardines for the next 4 days and off to some very strange lands. On the first day itself we were hit by the sheer insanity of it all, in a place referred to as a train boneyard. Just imagine entire trains on rails, left in the open desert to rust (since they can’t rot). These rusted trains had sort of become the marker for the drivers to make their early pit stop when taking their vehicles out from the town of Uyuni and into the empty lands bereft of any real landmarks.

The boneyard was very interesting to say the least and the best part was that it was unexpected. You see, there was no formal itinerary in these parts and in those days. After that we drove further in towards the desert and reached a point from where I started noticing just white in front of us and nothing else. The salt had taken over the barren land and after that we stopped the vehicle for some trick photography, just as most do in all such places where the perspective of distance is lost (again due to there being no real markers such as houses, shops or trees). Basically, one person can stand far behind and appear small and the other person or object can be up front and appear oversized in comparison. Then you can hold that little someone in your big hands and do your own version of Gulliver’s Travels or your own David & Goliath. Luckily our two Germans had brought a very colourful Tyrannosaurus Rex Dino and we got some cartoonish Jurassic Park images. We also did our ‘hat-trick’ with Richa inside my faithful pale-green safari hat.

We were also taken to a lovely place with many world flags blowing in the wind and this was the perfect DP (display picture) photo-op at a time where there was no concept of the mobile DP. This snap of mine with the world flags has often been published in my features on Garhwal Post and that’s why this particular feature has Richa’s image with the flags. Then another strange place came up on the horizon, again as a complete surprise, called ‘Isla Incahuasi’ or ‘house of the Incas’. This was actually a sort of a ‘cactus island’ in the middle of the salt flats. This rocky little cactus hill, which is the top of an ancient volcano, used to be beneath a prehistoric lake. That’s why there were coral deposits all around the ‘island’. Here I must add that their human like cactus were a bit fatter and thornier than the giant Saguaro cactus found in western USA. These might have been as tall too.

With a day as disorientating as this, the biggest surprise was kept for the end. We were taken to a hotel made of – you guessed it – salt. The tables and chairs were made of salt, the bed was made of salt. Heck, even the walls were made of salt. Keeping in mind that tightly packed salt is not too movable, thankfully the doors and windows were spared and were of good old wood. Else it would have been sort of a ‘Hotel California’ in the Bolivian desert, in which ‘you could check out any time you’d like but could never leave’ (any Eagles fans out there?).

This overall was one hell of a salty experience and we remember it to this day. The night sky outside was clear and starry and we could feel the altitude. But nothing could prepare us for the altitude that was in store for us in the coming days, with our vehicle crossing 5,000 metres at one point. That’s over 55% of the height of Mount Everest’s summit and almost the height of its famous base camp. We had little idea that the next day we were heading into a land full of volcanoes, acid lakes and geysers – such was the lack of information back then and in any case, there was no wi-fi. We were just happy to count the stars outside and then sleep on our salt beds. Just the novelty of it was enough for us. And then Carlos came and gave us some hot soup, hot food and later some blankets for the night. We thanked him for his tireless driving from early morning till now and for his kindness and concern. He simply smiled and said ‘Si’. Carlos really was the salt of the Earth and I wish we had exchanged numbers or sent a Facebook friends request at least. Such were those travel days – of hellos, goodbyes and memories.

(Nitin Gairola is from Dehradun and has travelled the natural world extensively and is often referred to as the ‘Most Travelled Indian’. He is on a quest to become the first person to travel to every major desert, forest, grassland, tundra & ice biome on Earth, besides every country. Nitin has set world travel records certified by India Book of Records, has written for Lonely Planet and holds National Geographic conservation certifications. He is also a senior corporate executive in an MNC and in his early days, used to be a published poet as well. www.facebook.com/ MostTravelledIndian/ www.instagram.com/ MostTravelledIndian/)