The Salt Flats
Trip Start
Feb 25, 2009
1
37
44
Trip End
Jul 24, 2009
Loading Map
Uyuni,
Bolivia
Friday, June 26, 2009
We had 3 days in a 4x4, driven by our local driver, Tomotei. Me, Nathan, Lloyd, Max, James and Mikey were in our car.
We stopped at some piles of salt for photos, jumping on and around them. By this point, it was just white salt, surrounded by mountains. We drove a bit longer to a rocky island in the middle of the salt. We climbed up the island and walked amongst the cacti all over it.
Then it was time for lunch, which we ate at tables made of salt, sitting on chairs made of salt. After lunch was photo time.
We took a photo in a lollipop orchard, with finger puppets, with Pringles, in a cup, on a cup, being squashed by a boot. We'd bought Bolivia shirts so had one with 5 of us in our kits, very small, and Mikey in the foreground, very big. I would have liked to have stayed longer but we had to leave. We stayed in a hotel made of salt. It was pretty cold and after dinner we played cards by candle light and were in bed by 9/9.30. They only have about 3 hours of electricity each day, so the lights go out quite early.
We got up at about 7 or 8 the next day and drove to a little town where we had a kick about with a local kid. Then we stopped at a volcano but I had no idea it was a volcano until afterwards. No magma, no lava, just a bunch of rocks. We had lunch at the flamingo lagoon. There were a few flamingos but apparently in the summer, it's totally full of flamingos.
We drove into the desert and stopped at some very cool rock formations (a paradox, I know, but true). It was freezing and very windy so we took photos and got straight back into the car. We got to our hostel for the night and the temperature dropped. We were tucked up in our sleeping bags shortly after dinner.
We had a 5.30 am start. It was absolutely freezing, way below zero. We were as wrapped up as we could be. First stop were some geysers shooting out the ground and some geothermal pools.
We stopped for our breakfast near to a hot spring, which some of the others went in. After breakfast, we drove to the green lagoon then began our looooong drive back to Uyuni. The scenery was spectacular. At first, it was a red desert and looked like mars (probably). Then it became more grey and felt like driving on the moon (I suspect). The shrubs and llamas began to pop up and the land was backed by huge colourful mountains.
Our last stop was at a rusty old train wreck just outside Uyuni. We took loads of photos then took a short drive back to our hotel.
When we got back, Lindsey got a text that said Michael Jackson had died. So that's where I was when I found out. Huge news, couldn't believe it.
