Revisiting the Lost Days

I´m making some progess about losing my 10 GB of photos, memories, art, me... I´m trying to think of it as a project on perspective: gathering photos from everyone, so I can see the trip through other people´s eyes.  What do other people see when they look at the same thing?

I´m trying not to let my memories of the altiplano become sad just because of what happened at the end.  But it´s hard. I can´t hear the name of the town Uyuni without getting angry.  And I find it hard not to feel suspicious of everyone who tries to talk to me (Are they trying to distract me so they can steal my bag?).  I suddenly feel much more vulnerable traveling alone, especially since my route going forward is not so well travelled.

So those lost days that I never had a chance to write about? Here I reclaim them.

The five or so days from San Pedro de Atacama in Chile through the altiplano to the Salares (Salt Flats) of Uyuni in Bolivia were some of the most amazing days of my trip so far. So perhaps it's fitting that there are no photos for them.  Maybe some things are too beautiful to be captured on film.  Or maybe this is how I can keep those memories pristine. Sometimes I find that my photographs are so powerful to me that they end up becoming my memories instead of just triggering my memories. 

My last day in San Pedro de Atacama in Chile, I went sandboarding and stargazing.  Considering the last (and first) time I went snowboarding I ended up in the emergency room, I was a little anxious.  But it turned out to be a lot of fun.  We rode on real snowboards that we waxed with a candle after each run.  The ride is much slower than on snow and the falls are a whole lot softer. I couldn't quite master turning, but I got pretty good at riding my back edge all the way down. The hardest part was climbing up the big sand dune each time for another run.  The sand gets everywhere.  I found sand in my ears and clothes for the next couple of days.

Preparing for our first descent at Valle de la Muerte

(I´m the last one on the right, I think)

Photo courtesy of Jaakko Korhonen

The stargazing was amazing in the Atacama desert.  Apparently, conditions make it an ideal place to look at the sky.  Through telescopes, we saw nebula, Saturn, and other galaxies.  I was even able to take a photo of the Milky Way and of Saturn through the telescopes (which of course I no longer have).  I´ve always wanted to know the stars better, and this really inspired me.  There have been a lot of clear night skies since then for practice, so I now can identify the Southern Cross, Gemini, Alpha Centauri, Orion, and Sirius in a snap. I find it comforting.  It´s like I have friends above wherever I go.

The very next day, I started my three-day excursion from the Atacama Desert to Uyuni, Bolivia.  As I´ve said before, this was some of the most delicious scenery I´ve ever seen. We visited some beautiful rock formations in the Valle de la Rocas and the Desert of Salvador Dali and some striking, stinky geysers, but my favorite by far were the altiplano lakes.


The lakes surrounded by cinammon-colored volcanos, the color of the water ranging from white (from borax) to green to red (from red algae), the edges green from tufty plants and white from borax, the water dotted with pink flamingoes, against a deep blue sky.  Breathtaking. We drove straight through the desert, no paved road, just straight into the horizon. 

Everyone says the group you´re with makes the trip because quite a bit of time is spent in a car bumping over desert sand.  We had a really fun, relaxed group made up of a Danish guy, a Danish girl, a Dutch girl, a French guy, a British guy, and me.  We all sang along to the bad music we were stuck in the car with and laughed at the overwrought Spanish love song lyrics.

 Photo courtesy of Lene Jonsson

The last day, we arrived at the Salar de Uyuni (Uyuni Salt Flats), which is the largest salt flat in the world.  The second largest is in Utah and the third largest I just visited in the Atacama Desert in Chile.  One of the fun things to do there is to take a whole bunch of silly pictures because of the lack of depth of field.  We were like little kids, experimenting, posing and mugging for the camera.  The salt flat stretched out as far as we could see- white and blue.  Somehow the lack of any point of reference seemed to free us.

My Life Is Good water bottle (which ironically was stolen) starred prominently in many photos.  My favorites were of me on a banana, me blowing our 4x4 jeep out of the palm of my hand, me doing tree pose on top of my water bottle, and me standing on the Bolivia Lonely Planet.  I also took some great ones of my fellow travelers, which makes it especially sad.  I took a great one of Debbie holding one of us in each hand with another perched on her shoulder, and one of Julian walking like an Egyptian on his sunglasses. I haven´t had so much fun with a camera in a long time!  

 Photo courtesy of Michael Villadsen

Onwards...