We departed from Uynui in three 4x4 vehicles for our 4 day excursion. We were to cover 1,000Km during the trip and had been warned that it was hard work with particularly unluxurious accomodation. Fortunately, we had our own cooks on board! Our first stop was at a small village with a population of around 100, who all work on the salt flats. We visited a small refinery where they dry and purify the salt. In here were 4 small kids who were packing the salt in their spare time (it was sunday and the adults generally don't work on this day). The kids were paid about 70p for the 1,500 bags they could pack in the day. We were assured that it wasn't child labour!
We then set off for the salt flats, via a salt hotel. The hotel is entirly made of salt! Salt bricks, salt floors, salt bed-bases and even salt tables and chairs. Angie asked if the toilets were also made of salt and was embarrassed by the roar of laughter (answer: no, they would melt every time the toilet was flushed!).
Salar de Uyuni is the largest, highest salt lake on earth (we´re aware that we´ve been using lots of superlatives recently, but Bolivia is a country of superlatives) and they are immense, blinding and disorentating. As far as the eye can see is a perfectly flat white sheet surrounded by mountains in the distance that look as if they are floating above the horizon, with perfect mirror images of themselves reflected in the endless mirage.
We drove through here for several hours before arriving at an island in the middle of the salt flats. The whole area used to be an inland sea, and the island is completely formed of fossilised coral. On it grow thousands of huge cactuses, at a rate of 1cm a year. The daddy of the island is a 12m high (you work out it´s ancientness!) protusion. After some comical cactus photos we got back to the trucks for our first meal. And it was lovely - large tables, with lacy table clothes and places laid out. Most bizarre dining in this way in the middle of a such a harsh environment.
In the afternoon we visited an Inca burial site and a cave. The cave was hilarious. It was very beautiful with delicate rock patterns that almost looked like the skeletons of leaves. But it had only been discovered recently by 2 former llama farmers. They, very entrepreneurally, sold their llamas and opened the cave up to tourists. And they were so proud. There was a big plaque at the entrance to the cave stating not only the date and year, but the exact time they disocvered it. On the guided tour, they managed to mention at least 5 times that it was their cave, nobody elses, they discovered it and did we know that they had found it all by themselves. Bless em and good luck to em. Apparently it´s all a bit underground (no pun intended) and the authorities don´t know they´re doing it yet.
In the evening we reached our first night´s accomodation, which was also a salt hotel, on the other side of the flats. Augusuto dragged a group of us out after dinner for a night time walk. We climbed up a small hill which felt enormous as the route up was sandy so was particularly hard work especially at this altitude. But at the top it was so peaceful - absolute silence all around and the moonlight illuminating the mountains. We picked out the Southern Cross in the sky and watched for shooting stars. It was all quite romantic really!
The next day we left the flats and travelled through the desert, again for hours on end. We stopped at a great viewpoint of an active volcano on the Chilean border. It was beautiful and snowcapped and there were cute little white puffs of smoke coming out of a side vent. It looked like it was chilling out with a post-coital smoke, rather than the meancing appearance you might expect an active volcano to have!
We then visited a spectactular rock formation. These were great but unfortunately they are also used as a convenient toilet by all the tourists that stop here, so you often find mouldy old poo and toilet paper behind the rocks (this was to become a familiar theme during the excursion). But we did get to see some super cute chinchillas jumping about between the rocks. During this day our driver played Bryan Adams and as we sped through the dusty, rocky terrain we were suddenly overcome by the feeling that we were in a 4WD advert.
When we arrived at that night´s accomodation (the highest sleeping point of the trip at 4300m) it was a very basic dorm set-up, with no flushing toilets and drafts that whistled throught the windows. Still, after a lovely dinner we played a big dice game with the whole group and it actually began to feel cosy with the candles and camaradery (the bottle of whisky we brought with us might have helped too!).
Getting up at 5am the next day was painful but worth it. As it became light, we were driving through mountains, streaked with the last of the winter´s snow, that were illuminated pink by the rising sun. Soon after sun-up we arrived at an area of geysers. These were big bubbling mud pools spitting boling mud and shooting steam in the air (Darren got a warning for getting too close when some particularly energectic hole splurted out mud onto his glasses). The geysers spew out sulphur - amongst other noxious fumes - so the whole area smelt a bit whiffy. There was snow on the ground too, so after wandering around for 30 minutes everyone had frozen toes.
Cue the next stop - some hot springs (30 degress C) at the edge of a lake. Most of us bathed in the hot water (only after Augusto took the plunge) and it was gorgeous. Our first bath in 2 months. But the air was freezing cold and it was very hard to get out of the lovely hot water. We then had breakfast next to the hot springs...which was nice.
Next stop was more weird rock formations in the middle of a red sand desert. Then it was over a high pass of 5000m and by this time travelling in the 4x4's had lost some of its appeal - the constant bumping around, altitde and lack of air conditioning was making it very hard work, especially after a few nights of minimal sleep. The views of the barren rocky scenery and sense of isolation was great though. We then stopped off to see hundreds of flamingoes at Laguna Colorada - a large high altitude lake of a deep red colour in the centre (algae) and white around the edges (salt crystals and sulphur). The delicate, slightly awkward looking pink birds seemed really out of place but beautiful nonetheless.
Finally, we visited Laguna Verde right on the Chilean border in the far South of Bolivia. This as the name suggests is a green coloured lake that perfectly reflects the conical snow capped mountain behind it - that was until some bloke threw a big stone into the lake and spoilt the reflection for everyone else - there´s always one...
More thumbnails ...
Uyuni Hotels
21 votes 
