Hey guys, I just arrived into my hotel right here in La Paz, Bolivia.
Now La Paz is the capital city of Bolivia and I'm gonna be spending a quick night here
before flying off in the morning to Uyuni to check out the salt flats.
The reason why I'm in Bolivia is because whenever I was doing my research for Latin America,
Uyuni salt flats just kept popping up in my search.
So I got a bit curious and I started to Google it and see what the big deal is.
Oh my god the pictures were stunning!
And I knew I just had to make a pit stop here.
And I read that the best time to visit the Uyuni salt flats is during the rainy season
this is about January - Feb.
That is because the salt flats will be covered with rain, creating a natural mirror that
reflects the sky.
Of course, I had to plan my entire Latin America trip around the rainy season and make a pit stop in Bolivia.
I don't know much about Bolivia and it sounds dangerous, exotic and very unexplored.
And I honestly wouldn't have made a pit stop if it weren't for the Uyuni salt flats so...
Here I am!
Bumped into a fellow tourist who gave me an insight on the best way to see the city and
that is by cable car.
Pretty much takes you kinda like across the city.
It's about probably an hour return, that's how far this cable car stretches.
It's almost like a public transport system.
To go one way is 3 BOB, two ways it's 6 - that's a great, great steal if you ask me and the
view is stunning.
And there's air conditioning which is great because right now the temperature is just
as hot as it is in Singapore.
I'm not enjoying it.
Okay so I'm here at kind of like the top of the world in La Paz city and behind me is
this crazy stunning view of the snow-capped mountain ranges.
If you ask me, this is priceless.
And I don't see any tourists you know, on this cable car system.
It's so strange.
In Bolivia, the public transport is so... backward, if I may say.
Like the car that took me from the airport to the hotel nearly knocked down and killed
a motorcyclist and the Uber just couldn't find their way here but what's new,
Uber is like that all around the world.
And then you get this sophisticated cable car system that just connects from one end
of the city to another and soon probably to the airport as well.
This is crazy and it costs nothing.
And I feel like I'm intruding on...
Just arrived in Uyuni.
Temperature is really cold right now, I think it's about 10 degree celsius?
And it's just gonna get colder out there in the salt flats.
We're going to have breakfast first and after that we will start with the trip.
Oh my god, sounds like a great idea.
Is it just me?
Just you.
Just you, driver Dennis and me.
Okay so I'm here at the train graveyard, this is usually the first stop of the Uyuni salt flats tour.
Back in 1879, trains were first built to pretty much transport minerals all the way to the
coast so they can be sent to the rest of the world.
So it's kinda like a reminder of how Bolivia used to be so rich in minerals and trade and all that.
This vast landscape is what you'll never see in Singapore because you're gonna get a HDB flat.
This is what I love about being out in nature.
It's just like a lot of tourists trying to climb to the top to take a photo.
Question is, should I join in?
Okay I'm gonna be a tourist and climb.
As far as the eye can see!
So we're driving into the salt flats right now, it's really wet because it's the rainy
season so the water is really quite deep.
But look at the beautiful mirror effect, oh my god.
I've got these boots on, they belong to Al, the guide, and it's like 5 sizes too big for me.
The water here is really salty, it's saltier than the sea so it would probably damage my leather.
This is the biggest salt flat at the highest altitude in the whole wide world,
look at how gorgeous this is.
We're trying to go to the middle part where it's less dirty.
That's where you get the beauty shot.
Apparently, this is really really toxic water.
They never used to have this landscape.
It only started occurring 25 years ago when too many cars drive over the salt flat and
therefore adding pressure to the ground, driving air bubbles to the subterranean rivers and
it's now just all bubbling up.
The local people will just wash their feet in them.
You can totally do that, but you shouldn't drink it unless you really hate yourself.
Wow.
So now we're gonna drive deeper into the salt flats.
So people from all over the world bring their flags and stick it here.
I was gonna bring the Singapore flag but totally forgot, 'cause I left all the packing to the last minute.
What are you looking for?
For salt crystals.
Oh my god!
Wow so nice!
Perfect.
So I'm here in paradise.
I don't know where the sky stops and the land starts.
Unboliviable!
The white is just so blinding, plus it's reflecting the sky right now so bring shades and sunscreen man.
You don't feel it yet, but this burns.
See I forgot to bring my sunglasses so I had to buy this cheap one at the tourist shop.
I think we're gonna be setting up for lunch here.
This is probably the most unreal place on earth to have lunch.
Lunch is served.
Salad of all my favourite things and this is a very dubious meat.
Just checked into my hotel, this is beautiful - this entire hotel made of salt.
And this is a sitting area and I'm walking to my room right now.
Okay so kinda left the salt flats and the salt hotel.
Now in the town of Uyuni just picking up some stuff because it's gonna be a long drive to
the next town.
So this is just regular daily life.
Cafes, and this is the main shopping street.
Some pretty bold architecture here, this is actually a fountain.
I kinda like it, it's so kitschy and so '70s.
I cannot believe I just found Shin Ramyun right here in Bolivia.
This is how the Bolivians keep in touch with pop culture cinema.
Pirated DVDs.
They don't have cinemas here.
Oh my god guys, look at what I found, a hair salon!
Badly in need of a hair wash.
Unfortunately guys, it's closed.
Meh.
Okay we're here at the lunch place in San Cristobal.
This is a mining town so there's a lot of zinc and silver that's mined here.
And of course they fashioned a bar out of all the materials that they get from the mine.
This restaurant also doubles up as a hotel.
Very industrial.
This is a Bolivian typical dish.
It's Pique Macho.
With beef, french fries, eggs, sausages, tomato, chilli and onions.
Wow.
Okay this thing is called Pique Macho because it's spicy and only macho people can eat it
and it's kinda like a hangover food right?
Yes.
So I just tried some Bolivian chilli sauce and I was like "Please.
You guys have no idea what spicy is.
We eat spicy in Singapore."
And then I had some sauce and I'm like fuck, it's spicy as hell.
This is the thing.
I took one tiny dab.
Oh my god.
Let's just say I'll stick to my tabasco sauce.
This entire rock formation is pretty much petrified lava that kinda seeped up from the
ground during the ice age and it stretches for 200km across the Bolivian countryside.
This is the first time I'm seeing anything like this.
A reminder of what a speck we are in this grand scheme of the universe.
So much has happened before humans inhabited the earth.
This is just a sobering reminder.
Okay so a little bit of a change of plans.
We're supposed to go visit deserts and lagoons today but on the way to our destinations,
we encountered a stranded car.
There were 6 girls in there and their driver went to get help on foot.
And when we drove away from the car, we couldn't see the driver at all.
Apparently he's been walking for 2.5 hours.
Al here is gonna save the day.
What do you have in your hands?
Cable.
Because you're gonna fix the car?
We will try.
This guy's a good guy.
He's like "We're the last car on the road, we have to help them."
And here's the car.
We're back for you, girls.
The guys are trying to fix the car right now in the middle of a hailstorm.
The landscape has changed drastically ever since we drive past here the first time.
This was like about an hour ago and we're back on the same road to these girls.
Hello!
We came back for you, say hello!
These girls just knew each other yesterday.
She's from Peru, what's your name?
Aida.
And are you travelling alone?
Yes.
Oh my god high five!
I'm travelling alone too!
This is part of the experience.
This is totally part of the experience.
Hello!
They're freezing.
The car has absolutely no electricity.
So we're gonna check on the boys right now.
Ah, fuck!
Ah!
Are you okay?
I think so.
The windscreen just came down on my fucking wrist!
You see that log over there?
It came crashing down and my wrist...
You know what, I'm just gonna stay in the fucking car.
This is too much.
Okay so I'm safe back in the car with music.
This is not what I signed up for honestly.
But you know what, I'm so glad that I hired a guide and a driver who are super fucking reliable.
So reliable that in an emergency situation they can even help another car.
And I think first and foremost... they're just good people at heart.
You know, I think it's so important as a solo traveller to do your research to find reliable people.
I mean we're in the middle of nowhere in Bolivia right now.
I tried to activate my emergency call function on the iPhone, no signal whatsoever.
Out here, it's human versus nature and we never win.
Humans never win.
Oh my god, as we were driving away from that stranded car I was just so worried about the girls.
I mean at least there were 6 of them but you never know what might happen, you know?
I would trade going to see deserts and lagoons for helping them.
I mean I wouldn't even enjoy the ride knowing that 6 people are stranded in the middle of nowhere.
Just to give you an idea of how cold it is, can you just see the ice just building up?
You just came back!
How was it?
It's good, it's good.
It's working?
They could make it, yes.
Is it working?
Yay!
Because we rescued the car we lost a lot of daylight hours trying to get back to our hotel
in the middle of nowhere.
Just imagine - 360 degrees around you, as far as your eyes can see, it's just snow.
There are no roads, only dirt tracks that are slowly getting covered by snow so we're
just trying to navigate our way out of there but I'm glad we came out alive.
So this is Day 3 right now, driving into the desert.
This is what Al means by 'fine'.
As long as you can see tracks.
This is the importance of getting a good guide because no human being on earth will be able
to navigate this.
As you can see, I'm not bothered with makeup today.
Last night was pretty terrible.
There's no hot water, there was no heater and all the rooms are solar powered.
We're in the national park, we're on a proper road but I still can't see shit.
Al: Me neither!
Just casually walking in the snow.
Checking out the most famous installation here at this park - well it's not really an
installation, it's made by nature.
It's like one of the pieces that was blown out the crater of a volcano when it erupted
and these pieces are scattered all around this park right now, and carved by the wind and stone.
This is the most famous structure here - the tree of stone.
And these are all remains of that volcanic crater that erupted.
Oh my god, we're in Mars.
We're walking on a geothermal landscape.
I'm literally walking next to geysers.
Are you sure this is safe?
You said it'll be safe!
Oh my god it's so freaking slippery, you can see how red the mud is.
Look at that, we are on Mars.
Just when I thought I've seen it all.
I don't think we're meant to walk on these lands, look at my boots.
Shit.
I'm literally just 5m away from that boiling cauldron of the earth... coming from the earth's core.
It smells real bad.
So I'm back in my hotel in La Paz in Bolivia, I gotta say though the Uyuni salt flats exceeded my expectations.
It was unboliviably stunning.
I would 100 percent recommend the Uyuni salt flats.
Photos and videos just doesn't do it any justice.
You just gotta be there to see it for yourself.
I wouldn't recommend a trip just to go to the salt flats because that's all there is.
I mean there's so much more in Latin America to see and to fly from Singapore all the way
to Bolivia just to see the salt flats, I feel is a waste of a journey.
So it should be part of a bigger journey.
I didn't have any expectations for food so I wasn't expecting to eat very well and that
pretty much was met.
I feel that there's no food culture there.
People there eat to fill up their stomachs.
A lot of food means good meal.
And it's just a lot of beef and llama.
My experience in Bolivia has taught me that no matter how much work you put in to prepare
a perfect trip, life has a funny way of throwing you on an unplanned path.
I think one of my highlights was rescuing a stranded vehicle in the middle of a Bolivian desert.
I guess that adds to the whole experience of travel.
You just gotta roll with the punches and find humour in every situation.
And speaking of that, I feel like I'm so well-equipped right now to leave Bolivia to head into Cuba.
So that's it for this episode, don't forget to hit subscribe.
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And don't forget to follow me on Instagram at @heyrozz if you wanna check out my Instagram photos.
Till then, bye!
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