It all started with a tour... and ended with a great story. 3 days after everything began, one of the girls from the group said: "What do you get when you put 3 Deutsh, 2 Canadians, a French girl, and an Israeli guy together? Bad Luck!!!" Go have a look at the pics at www.transamericatrek.org to have a full idea of what hapenned

THE SALAR DE UYUNI

One of the places I was most looking forward to see was the Salar of Uyuni, a vast desert salt located in Bolivia where the traditional crazy pics, marvelous lakes, volcanoes, flamingos and various islands fill a typical 3-4 day tour. Opted for a tour for this one, reason being that I've been drving almsot nonstop for the last 2 weeks, and that being in a desert, with no GPS waypoints to guide me... well... I opted for the easy life for once and let someone else do the hardwork!!

And that's when the fun began!!!!!

Maybe it was the fact that the agency guy told me the morning that we were suppose to leave that he didn't have gas for the Landcruiser to start the tour. Or maybe it was when they decided to change Landcruisers because there was a problem with the original one, and that when they brought the second one it made not too healthy noises, and was rattling from everywhere. Definetily I should've lighten up when the night before leaving the wind outside was deafening, and electricity in town vanished. But by then, something should have made my spidey sense tingle, and make me realize that I should've shopped a bit more for the tour.

But at that time, when I met the people that soon became the Best Tour Group Ever, I didn't have a care in the world, I was going to spend 3 days and 2 nights in a desert, seeing amazing scenery, and sleep in hotels made of salt!!

So we set off, me, Nicky, Celine, Maida, Hans, Eran, Lucie, and the now legendery tour guide HECTOR to meet the PERFECT STORM!!! To say it was windy when we started would be an understatement. To give you an idea, when we stopped for pictures of small mounts if salt, the wind was so fierce, that, since I was wearing shorts, the salt that was blown ravaged the back of my legs and left me with a multitude of cuts that I am still tending to almost a week after. When we stopped at the cactus island, the wind was so strong that we had to fight it hard to get up the small mountain. Well you get it, IT WAS WINDY!!!!

But still good, a chemistry installed itself in the group, starting to know eachother, and having a blast. Later that night, the group tightened up, playing shithead around a bottle of rhum, enjoying the food and our night in a hotel made entirely out of salt. By then we even started making fun of the fact that the Landcruiser was stalling a lot, and had trouble to start everytime, obliging HECTOR to step outside, open the hood, and suck fuel out of the engine fuel line to somehow jumpstart it.

Then came the days of days... It all started round noon, by then we had left the saltr desert and were advancing in the sand desert, and somehow the wind hadn't stopped. And the sand went up, and the wind built up, and the sand became denser and denser, until we couldn't see 3 feet in front of the truck and that we lost sight of the path... and them we stopped. I've never been in a sandstorm, and all I can compare this too is a massive snowstorm. So imagine this, drving in an open field without any real tracks, and suddenly it starts blowing wind and snowing so you can't see anything but snow and hear nothing but wind, with no visable landmarks or way to oriente yourself. Now change that snow for sand, tiny grains of them, that do not melt but accumulate... and on top of that a shitty Landcruiserr full of holes, that would let sand in, not a little bit, but a shitload of it!!!!

So we are there, no visibility, nowhere to go, sand coming in from the cracks in the doors... and we are still laughing and making jokes. One after the other it's non stop, we are enjoying ourselves, probably not appreciating the full gravity of the situation. But at some point, a decision needed to be made, and actions taken fast. So HECTOR give us 2 options: keep on going, which would be tremendously foolis or dangerous, or try to backtrack, which involves missing out on lakes, volcanoes and all the 3rd day as well.

So we chose the first option... but had no way of finding the way back. So HECTOR asked me if I could drive the truck, while he walked outside in the storm, so he could find a path, and me follow him. So we did... it all went good for 5 minutes, until I faile t give enough gas and the engine stalled. Now, remeber that process of sucking gas t start the engine, well HECTOR had to do it in the full storm, while me and Hans were holding the hood so it wouldn't blow away with the wind. By then another decision was made, me and Hans would walk outside trying to find a path, while HECTOR drove. The sand cut through my face, I could't breathe}, the sound was deafening, and I had no way of finding any path, but we somehow managed, after 4 hours stuck in the middle of nowhere, how, I don't know, but we did. Bac at the hotle, one of the guides said he never seen anything like that in 17 years in the business. Later in town, someone said that it was the worse storm in history... and we survived it!!

I must say that at one point, after 3 hours in the storm, me, or someone else said (but I was definetely thinking it) "ok, the fun is over, I'n starting to be a bit concerned". But what made the entire situation bareble, was the people I was with, no one panicked (and it would have been easy to), no one cmplained, and everyone pinched in with help, ideas, but most of all good jokes and a good laugh... but what made it even more bareble was Hector, the tour guide for the folowing reasons:

1. Hector driving in the open flats and opening his door (while driving) to see if the wheels were still holding... and then asking Hans to do the same on his side.

2. While driving, turning back and having full on, long conversations with the people in the back, without even glancing at the road.... for a very long time.

3. While getting out of the storm, I heard one of the girls let out a mini scream, when I looked up front I couldn't see a thing, thinking it was the storm, until I realised that the hood pooped open, and Hector didn't have a worry in the world, continuing driving WITH THE HOOD FULL UP!!!!

4. Hector, when realising we were deffo stuck, just holding the driuing wheel, and laughing, laughing, laughing!!!!

5. Hector telling us to meet him in 45 minutes after we are done taking pictures and realise we can't find him. We finally found him in one of the huts at the island, after screeming is name... he was having a bit of a drink with a friend!!!

6. Hector having to step out of the car and suck gas from the engine.... many times!!!

7. Hector realising that his drivers mirror fell of frantically stopped and searched for it... but when our drinking water fell off of the roof... he didn't flinch and kept on going...

OK that's long enough for now... hope all is good... am back home on the 23rd of August!

cheers

JF