Version francaise de Louis

Uyuni, Notre chauffeur bolivien s'appelle RENALDO, je m'en souviendria de se pr'enom... il parle peu, on lui pose des questions sur l'environnement il ne sais nous répondre. Tout se passe bien les 2 premiers jours jusqu'a la derniere nuit: il fixe le réveil a 4 heures du mat en me disant que si on est pas réveiller il se barre sans nous, sympa le gars! A 4 heures du mat tt le monde est reveiller sauf Renaldo le guide, Louise s'occupe du reveil brutal!

Vamos, il fait nuit noir et cet abruti conduit a toute pompe, on lui dit de se calmer on est chahuté dans tous les sens...il ne veut rien entendre. Premiere sorti de route, j'ai cru qu'on allais se retourner, je flippe. On lui dit de faire gaffe, 1 km plus loin le mec ferme les yeux, il est fatigué et a bu la veille. Je lui tape l'epaule pour qu'il s'eveille... 

Pause dejeuner, on est toujours pas rassuré par notre conducteur qui n'en fait qu'a sa tete, il est completement indifferent et c meme de la provocation.

Je retrouve Renaldo pdt la pause une canette de biere a la main et un grand sourire provocateur. Andrea, notre compagnon de route italien, est furieux, lui arrache la canette des mains, pousse un hurlement et lui decolle une gifle. A ce moment les ennuis vont commence. 

Renaldo commence a sortir tout nos sacs de la voiture et veut nous laisser au milieu du desert. L'americaine chope la clé, il essai de la reprendre, je commence a m'énerver et a deux doigt de lui en coller une, des suédois d'une autre voiture nous separe. 

Personne ne veut monter avec le chauffeur bourré mais la seul solution est qu'il nous depose a la frontiere du Chili et de la on trouvera une autre voiture. Ca se calme, silence de mort dans la voiture. Renaldo mous depose a la frontiere , les argentines et le couples italo americains passent la frontiere, l'italien est apprehendé par les douaniers a cause de la gifle, je ne peux pas rester nous avons trouvé une voiture pour Uyuni. 

Ah quel bonheur un conducteur normal mais 20 km plus loin, le chauffeur nous dit qu'il ne peux pas nous ramener a Uyuni, il nous depose a une sorte de douane dans le desert pour entrer dans le parque naturelle. 

On veut appeller la compagnie mais les douaniers n'ont pas l'air de vouloir nous aider, ils preferent raconter des conneries au talkie walkie. J'ai vraiment a ce moment la une sale image des boliviens (contrairement aux argentins qui feraient tout pour t'aider). On a plus qu'a attendre que des voitures passent par ce poste sachant qu'il est 12h et que les passages se font tot le matin... On attend 2 heures au soleil aavec Louise et Stian avec pas un grand moral. Je commence a reflechir a passer egalement la frontiere pour le Chili qui n'est qu'a une demi heure (alors que Uyuni est a 8 heures de pistes), mais ca veut dire que je change completement mon trip et que pas de Bolivie apres, mais pkoi pas? je voyage seul, je suis libre et j'ai sur moi mon passeport, le seul probleme est que je n'ai que 50 bolivianos en poche, l'équivalent de 6 euros... 

Mais je vois une bagnole au loin, je l'arrete et qui est ce? notre chauffeur bourré, il ne veut pas nous prendre, je lui fout un coup de pression, il est obligé.

Nous voila parti pour 9 heures avec un conducteur désagréable, bourré et fatigué. On se relaie a l'avant pour lui foutre des tapes des qu'il ferme les yeux. Stian lui propose de conduire, Renaldo accepte et fait une sieste a l'arriere. Stian conduit comme un chef, c'est reposant. Louise, avec beucoup de sang froid (comme sa maman me dit elle) le filme pour montrer a la police ou a la compagnie. Mais Renaldo se reveille au moment ou l'appareil est pile en face de lui. Il est furieux et reprends le volant, il demande d'effacer le film. On essaie de recréer un contact avec le mec, c'est difficile...Il sait que j'ai un bus de nuit pour Potosi mais on va etre juste, il met les gaz, je vois la ville au loin mais mon bus est dans 10 min...Tout d'un coup panne, la voiture s'arrete le chauffeur saute sous la voiture avec une bouteille en plastique recupere de la gazoline puis il branche un tube dans la bouteille qu'il met dans le capot, on fait un km, on entre dans la ville et la voiture s'arrete a nouveau. Renaldo courre a la station service avec la bouteille et meme operation, on repart. Le bus est deja parti mais je reusi a arreter le bus 
J'entre dans le bus pour 6 heures de trajet, arrivé a 3 h du matin a Potosi, je suis epuise...

Voila mes dernieres aventures, c'etait pas marrant mais au moins je m'en rappellerai!!!!

Our story which were reported and signed.

We, Stian Mjølhus and Louise-Marie Holst, bought a 3 days tour package to Salar de Uyuni at the travel agency Adolfo Andino in La Paz. It was bought the 11.02.2009. We payed in total 180$ for two persons.

We were promised: an english speaking guide, all costs included except from water, maximum 4 tourists in the car.

Unfortunately it was very different. We arrived in Uyuni the 12.02.2009, the same morning the tour started. Sandra Travels were in charge of us from now on, a partner of Adolfo Andino.

We were 7 tourists in the car, instead of the promised 4. The car was a Toyota Landcruiser with platenumbers 501HNF.

We had to pay ourselves for the national park entrance fee, 15Bolivianos and 35 Bolivianos each.

The ”guide” Reynaldo could not speak english. He did not provide any information of the tourists attractions, no departure times or other imortant information were given. Reynaldo was very unpleasant, during the three days he did not even say Hello once.

The third day, we were supposed to be ready at 4.00 in the morning, if not, the guide said he would leave without us. At 4.30 the guide was nowhere to be seen. We took the initiative to look for the guide. He was found sleeping, clearly intoxicated by alcohol. We finally left at 5.00. No apologises were made from Reynaldo. During this 1,5 hour drive to the geysirs, Reynaldo fell asleep several times while driving. Two times he drove off the road, because of this. All the seven passengers were terrified and asked him repetedly to be more careful and drive slower. Reynaldo ignored our requests and continued driving too fast and unappropriatly. A passenger Andrea Olivieri, tolded him very severely to stop this nonsense. Reynaldo’s ”answered” by driving exageretly slow, as to mock us.

During the drive to Aguas Thermales, Reynaldo fell asleep while driving several times, and we had to wake him up by shaking him. We were scared that we would end up in an accident. At Aguas Thermales we were given 5 minutes to explore instead of the earlier promised 20 minutes. This unabled us from bathing as we had hoped for. The breakfast was given at the back of the truck instead of inside the warm cabin, were all the other groups were. As we knew this was included, we marched in the cabin to eat there. Reynaldo then paid the fee for us to be there. We believe that Reynaldo, would have taken this money for himself if not.

After breakfast all the passengers were ready in the car. As the guide was missing again, two of the boys in the group went to look after the guide. The guide was found drinking a can of beer. This led to a heated argument, because it infuriated us that Reynaldo was drinking alcohol while being our driver. This was unacceptable. It ended with Reynaldo being slapped by one of the passengers in the heat of the moment. Then, Reynaldo, through all our luggage off the car, and wanted to drive off by himself. Fortunately for us, we had confiscated the car keyunabeling him to do so. After yet another argument, we were all back in the car with Reynaldo, ready to drive to Laguna Verde and the Chilean boarder, as no other solution was possible.

At the border, 4 of the passengers left to Chile, while three including Louise and Stian were supposed to head back to Uyuni. As we did not feel safe driving with Reynaldo, we arranged to drive with another car from another tour operator. Reynaldo agreed. We did so for 10 minutes, and then this new driver changed his mind and left us at the National Park office. We were stuck here for three hours without any cars being able to give us a ride back to Uyuni.

Around midday, Reynaldo drove pass the national park office. He had been sleeping at the border. We stopped him and forced him to drive us back to Uyuni, as he was our one and only possibility to get back to Uyuni that day.

During the two first hours of the drive back, Reynaldo repetedly fell asleep behind the wheel. We felt we had to stand guard, to wake him up to avoid a terrible accident. After lunch, Reynaldo agreed with us, that Stian Mjølhus would drive parts of the way home, as we did not feel safe with Reynaldo driving. Reynaldo would drive the first two hours after lunch, then Stian would take over.

After only 30 minutes, Reynaldo started falling asleep again behind the wheel. We decided that he should rest while Stian drove. Stian drove for one hour, Reynaldo slept heavily (this is when we took the opportunity to film him). After ine hour,  Reynaldo insisted that he would drive again, he was angry at us because he noticed we had filmed him. Reynaldo fell asleep again while driving. Stian took over the driving once again. In total Stian drove for 2,5 hours.

On the road, we picked up a hitch hiker, which also is not in the contract.

During the drive, Reynaldo told us that he was only 21 years old, making him an illegal driver in the national park. The reason is that you need a class C drivers license because of the difficult roads, and to be able to get this type of driverslicense one have to be 27 years of age by Bolivian Law.

Finally in Uyuni, we took up the case with Sandra Travels and Sandra herself. Her solution was a compensation in the form of one pizza for us or 10$ each, against that we would sign a form of silence towards the police. We found this very unproffesional and left.

We went straight to the police in Uyuni to report the incident. Senior Juan Cruz was the officer in charge. We arranged with the police a meeting with Sandra Travels the following morning. The next morning, Reynaldo was arrested by the police for drunk driving. We did not come to an agreement with Sandra Travels for a compensation. We deciced, with the recommendation of the Uyuni police, that it as for the best to report the case in LaPaz with Direction de turismo and Policia Turistica.

Back in La Paz, we talked to Adolfo Andino and told them what happened. They apologized for the incident, but were unwilling to refund our expenses. We told them we would go to the police and they said they did not care.

We strongly feel that this agency is a danger to tourism. Thay did not take any responsibility for what happened. They even told us that Reynaldo had a drinking problem and that this had happened before. Further more they told us that they had bribed customers so that they would not tell the police. 

NEWS!!! (17.02.2009)

After talking to the police in Uyuni, we decided that Sandra Travels´ solution was too lame. You should have seen Sandra´s face when we told the police we would report the case in La Paz to Ministerio de Cultura, the most powerfull institution within culture and tourism in Bolivia.

Well, yesterday we reported the incident to the Tourism Police in La Paz, and we had a meeting with lawyers and other powerfull people in Ministerio de Cultura today. Papers were signed and everybody agreed that Sandra Travels in La Paz, Sandra Travels in Uyuni and Adolfo Andino in La Paz would pay for the things that happened to us.

Papers will be sent further to Potossi to handle the case in Uyuni, because the organization here in La Paz can´t do anything with Sandra Travels in Uyuni. However, things are in motion already:

Sandra Travels in La Paz were closed down this afternoon, and possibly Adolfo Andino aswell. Adolfo Andino is the company where we bought our tickets for the tour. They wouldn´t take any responsability for what happened, that´s why we reported them. They are just as bad as the family in Uyuni.

We will upload signed papers when we have the time.

Reynaldo sleeping of the alcohol, the driver of Sandra Travels

SANDRA TRAVELS IN UYUNI IS NOT RECOMMENDED

We were promised

1. an english speaking guide
2. maximum 4 turists in the car
3. everything included

We got/ didn´t get

1. We were 7 tourists in the car. By Bolivian Law the maximum is 6.
2. Did not include park entrance or water.
3. Did not get a guide, just a 21 year old driver. Did not talk or tell us anything.
4. Old and bad car compared to the other companies
5. A driver that fell asleep several times while driving, which ended with us driving of the road 3 times.
6. A drunk driver
7. I had to drive the car for the guide for several hours because he had to sleep.
8. He did not have a legal license
9. Did not visit all the places promised

So when we told the agency about the things that happened on the three day trip, their sollution was:

WE CAN BUY YOU GUYS A PIZZA! ¿ESTA BIEN?

We wanted the total sum of money back, of course, and since they were so dangerous and did not care about our safety, we will do everything to bring the agency down!

¿Experience something similar?
Post your story as a comment, or send me an e-mail and I´ll publish it!

Report the company at the Tourist Information, report the driver to the police and if you´re going to La Paz, report it to El Minesterio de Turismo.