Un poquito de nostalgia

The past few days have been a joy. Sunny, mild, springish. Café Belga put its tables outside on the square. Place Flagey has been a come-and-go of skaters and baby buggies, of street musicians and mums, of students and workers. All enjoying the springish atmosphere, the friterie, the open space and the pond to play with swans and birds. As all good things come to an end, today it started to rain again. I had to feel blue.

And then, out of the blue, I found a lovely surprise waiting for me in my mail box. The German couple we had met in Bolivia finally sent the photos made together in Uyuni! Impossible not to notice how they all look like a foto montage, but surely they have been food for memories and nostalgia! A weird feeling of happyness.

The authentic still exists

Bolivia - Titicaca Lake

 A typicality of the Americas in general seems to be that of having no middle ways. Want water? You can chose between a half a liter or a two and a half liter bottle. Same as in New York for a coca cola, a sip or a liter? I never get the logic...(capitalism ain't logical, right?!). Once happened to us that we were looking for a place to sleep and the choice was between a cheap and uncomfortable waterless kind of a hostel or a super duper expensive hotel with all possible imaginable useless comforts. I mean, why? I guess the way of thinking of the 'Americans' follows the same patter. Things are either black or white (even people, depending the place, are either black or white!). No middle way.

So, it was a relief to find a bit of a different environment around Bolivia. It is not just for Evo, who has declared the country a plurinational country recognising a place for every indigenous face and language, and who defends the coca as it has always been part of the Bolivians' life and culture. Bolivia presents itself as it is, with no gringo spot or anything made up just for them. Bolivia is just as it is, a country of pristine nature, where people work the field and weave the loom as their ancestors have probably done for centuries! No matter they can use a calendar or have internet these days, they'd still use the sky and its constellations to plant and harvest! 

The best of all this is that the tourist in Bolivia doesn't have to look for the authentic, because that is already there under his nose! Campesinas still wear the same clothes of ever forever, same colours, same drawings, same funny hat, and campesinos still carry everything on their shoulders and the donkey is their best friend. Bolivia is still pure and totally cool.

W H I T E

Salar de Uyuni, Bolivia

We had no idea what was awaiting us on the way to the Salar de Uyuni, the biggest and highest salt lake in the world. We knew the 3 days tour from San Pedro de Atacama to Uyuni was full of amazing lagunes, protected fauna and rare flora...and of course, once at the salar, the white desert.

Our guide/choffeur/chef/enterteinment accompanied us for three unforgettable days. We could learn that he wasn't much of a guide, but he definitely liked to spise up our jouney! Not happy with the fact that the landscape was already stunning and that we were already a nice group of people, he made our blood boiling by keeping one wheel flat and driving 100 km/h on a sandy stony road! We breathed dust and swallowed sand, went up to 4.800 mt to see flamingo's and lagunes of different colours, slept in places without water and basics toitet equipment, had some expectable headaches or stomachaches and sat on a jeep with our knees in our mouths for some hours!

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We survived all this for the last day to wake up at 4 am, direction Salar de Uyuni. The Bolivian travel company told us that it was unfortunately not possible to get into the Salar because the wet season made it unaccessible. Well, few centemeters of water did not scare our guide/choffeur in the least. So, he drove on water for about 30 min's in the middle of the dark, with a couple of stars to tell him where to go.

The sunshine we saw from the top of the Isla de Pescadores was a priceless spectacle. Only for the six of us. Then, we were surrounded by a shining white all around, walking on candid crystals of salt, with only the blue of the sky to tell where the white stopped!