El Salar de Uyuni
Trip Start
Jul 02, 2003
1
27
33
Trip End
Jan 17, 2004
San Pedro de Atacama,
Chile
Friday, December 19, 2003
San Pedro is not much of a town - it's a collection of Adobe huts round a couple of streets. The reason to come here is to see the scenery of the surrounding mountains and Altiplano. So on the monday evening I went on a tour to the Valley of the Moon - I suspect that each country in South America has a Valley of the Moon - a valley that looks pretty desolate with odd rock formations etc. etc. It was interesting to see and was particularly pretty at sunset but nothing compared to what was to come.
On Tuesday morning I set off on a 4 day tour to the Altiplano region between Chile and Bolivia and in particular the Salar of Uyuni. After Chilean passport control we seemed to just drive up and up the side of the valley - not doubling back on ourselves as you might going round some hairpin bends in Europe but instead just driving straight up! Before long we were at an altitude of around 3,600 metres - I've only ever been that high on a chair lift. But that was nothing compared to what was to come - later that day we climbed to 4,600 metres - at this altitude, altitude sickness is a real danger, especially after spending 3 months just a few metres above sea level like I have! Fortunately all I had to contend with was some serious headaches and a bit of diziness and being shattered after just walking a few metres! Some others were not so lucky and were sent off to hospital!
Anyway, after clearing Bolivian passport controls - a guy in a hut at the top of the mountain we went on to a lake called the Laguna Blanca (white lake). Then it was another lake, the laguna verde (green lake), some thermal springs and the laguna colorado (coloured lake which was in fact red). All the lakes had flamingoes wading around although the Laguna Colorado was by far the most spectacular and must have had thousands of flamingoes. The scenery all the time was amazing with huge towering volcanos either side or desolate plains dotted with a few llamas and vicunas (relatives of llamas) here and there. That first night was pretty cold though - we stayed at an altitude of 3,600m and in the winter the temperature can drop to minus 35 at night - we were lucky, I think it only dropped to around minus 5 for us - this after it hits around plus 30 during the day!
Day two took us to some more lakes, a view of a smouldering volcano and a small salt pan - the salt pans round here were formed by ancient seas drying out and leaving the salt behind as the water evaporates. They're strange places as all you can see is white for miles and miles ahead. On the third day we arrived at our ultimate destination, the Salar de Uyuni (salt pan of Uyuni) - I think this is the 2nd or 3rd largest in the world and it covers an enormous area. We drove to a little 'island' in the middle - a drive of 56 kms across the salt - this funny little island was covered in cactus plants - some as old as 1200 years old apparently. Then after a few hours in Uyuni it was time to head back to Chile with an overnight in the middle of nowhere!
All in all, words can't do justice to the scenery we saw - I'll have to put some photos up for you it was a really stunning place. I hadn't planned on going but everyone I spoke to and mentioned that I was going up north in Chile said I had to do this trip and they were right.
No chance of loading any photos here though, San Pedro itself is a bit of a dump. Am stuck here until tomorrow night when my bus leaves so hopefully I can update soon.
I hope everyone's enjoying the run up to Christmas and hope you have a fantastic Christmas break. I'll be in Buenos Aires from the 22nd to 26th December so will celebrate Christmas there.
Apologies to everyone I owe emails to - I haven't replied to any for about 3 weeks now but I promise I'll find time in the next few days!
