Mucho Sal in Uyuni
Trip Start
Mar 25, 2007
1
62
72
Trip End
Feb 16, 2008
Uyuni,
Bolivia
Friday, December 14, 2007
Luckily by about 7.30pm we were all sorted, then got the last cheap room in the gringo hotel, where we met up with the dutch guys from our mine tour again. bugger, it would have been good to get on a tour with them again. nevermind.
The next day we set out, we had a nice jeep, but unfortunately because the driver brought his wife along we were a bit pushed for space with 6 of us in the back (us, 2 english and 2 aussies - all english speakers! yay!). Luckily one of the english girls had quite good spanish because the driver didnīt speak english and his wife didnīt speak at all!
First stop was the train graveyard outside Uyuni itself where there are a collection of trains and carriages sitting there rusting out.
Then we headed to the edge of the Salar (salt plain) where we saw how they treated and packaged the salt for table salt.
Then we were driving out on the salar through streams of water. Iīm guessing these jeeps rust out quite often! They make piles of salt by raking them by hand, then shovel them onto the back of trucks to be taken back to the village for processing. For as far as you can see it is flat and very very white, awesome to see and really good for some crazy perspective photos!
Then we headed to an 'ísland', an old coral reef in the middle of the salar, which was covered in cool cactuses and gave an amazing view of the salar.
That night we stayed in aī' salt hotel' not quite as cool as the ice hotel, but still kind of interesting, with the whole thing including the chairs and tables made of blocks of salt!
The next day was a big drive through the desert, passing lots of volcanoes and lakes on the way. Long day in the car, then we stayed the night in a very cold refugio, but they gave us pizza and wine for tea so it was all good!
The last day they take us to some geysirs which were more like mud pools and some hot springs that weren't quite hot enough to take the chill out of the air! Then we were at the border with Chile (a single hut!) and the bus was there to take us to San Pedro de Atacama, where we had all our bags searched for fruit and vege. Then the hunt was on for cheap accomodation in this much more expensive country!
