Now That's A Lot Of Salt

Well I know it's been a while but I've been so busy. Taken so many buses recently. I'll fill you in on Uyuni and do another blog about the rest.

Well we arrived in Uyuni after taking two buses. For some reson we stopped for a day in Potosi. Now Potosi is the highest city in the world and it is a slope. If you want to go to the main plaza you have to walk up a slope (from our hostel anyway) and it is so difficult. I got so out of breath. Basically all we did in Potosi was look for a laundrette, eat dinner and go to bed. Our hostel was horrible. We ended up going to bed at eight because there was nothing to do.

Uyuni is quite a nice little place. I'd heard from a lot of people that it's rubbish and there's nothing there. I suppose there is nothing there except hostels and pizza restaurants. We booked our tour of the salt flat, settling on a three day tour. We had to spend a day in Uyuni as it was the main day of carnival and there was nothing open. We relaxed, got water bombed and hung out with some musical Chilenos. There were so many Chilenos and Japanese people in Uyuni! Amina got majorly water bombed by one little girl, so she crept up behind her and covered her in water from her bottle. The girl looked so shocked, it was so funny. Even locals were laughing.

Our tour started on a Wednesday around midday. (Bolivian style an hour late). There were about 25 people on the tour, 6 per car. In our car was me and Amina, two French people Tiffany and Antony, a Brazilian Edson, and an Italian Alejandra. They were all really nice. Our guide Diyuni was really nice as well.

We started by going to the train graveyard. Lots of old rusty trains that we could climb around on. Amina was very happy. Saw the train line that still runs to Chile. We then moved onto a little village at the edge of the salt flat. This is where we were going to spend the night. Our hostel was made out of salt from the Salar. Had llama steak for lunch and then it was off to the salt flat.

 

I took this picture at our hostel and I love it. Does anyone know how this happens?

It was pretty amazing. Huge expanse of just white salt and a layer of water. Driving closer it looked really weird because it seemed like the land and the sky had just merged into one. We drove for a while and reached the salt pyramids. They're man-made. Apparently they attract water making the salar safer for cars. We drove on further and reached a point that had a thin layer of water covering the salar. This made some really cool reflections. It just looked so incredible. We were allowed to sit on top of the jeep while we were driving which was pretty cool. Diyuni took lots of funny photos of us. We stayed there watching the sun set and drinking tea. We had to hide in the car after a while because the sun was hidden behind some clouds and the wind picked up making it rather cold.

 

The salt pyramids

 

Can you tell where I got my inspiration for this dad?

 

I´m ontop of the world (of Bolivia)

We returned to the hostel for dinner. When it was really dark we headed back out to the edge of the salar to look at the stars. Sadly it was really cloudy so we couldn't really see anything. That didn't stop us from dancing to Michael Jackson at the edge of the biggest salt flat on the world. It was pretty weird. Some stars did end up coming out in the end and we watched lightening flashes in the distance as well.


Day two was an early start. We started driving to see some lagunas. We passed through the Valley of Rocks, which had lots of rocks in the shape of birds, animals and people. Stopped at three lagunas. The first one was really difficult to get close to because there was loads of marsh. I tried and was doing really well. Managed to get some pictures of the flamencos. Sadly on the way back I sank a little and got the really smelly mud all over my foot. The second laguna was green because of a mineral in the water.

We passed the arbol de piedra (Stone Tree) but it was really cold and hailing so we didn't hang around long. It was Edson's first time seeing hail. Crazy. I swear Amina wants to move to Brazil. The third laguna was pink because of microorganisms in the water. We stayed the night at a hostel next to the laguna. It was really nice to be able to talk to everyone else on the tour. Such a mix of people. Although for some reason there were no Chileans or Japanese people.


I'm just going to say at this point that I absolutely love my sleeping bag. Every night on the tour it was really cold but I was nice and warm and cosy. It's great.
Day three we got up even earlier to see some geysers at dawn. It was nice but really cold as we were 4800 m.a.s.l! And they weren't as impressive as the Geysers del Tatio we saw in San Pedro. We drove to some hot springs, where everyone proceeded to jump in the water to warm up. It was really hot! We had a great breakfast of pancakes and cereal before continuing to drive.

We drove to la laguna verde. We saw the same volcano we'd been able to see from our hostel in San Pedro, only the other side of it. We were right by the boarder. I kept singing the Chile song and my guide would give me these really dirty looks. Here we said goodbye to Edson and the Frenchies. They were off to San Pedro. The rest of us headed back to Uyuni. We passed the pink laguna again on the way back. On that day it was nice and sunny so we were able to see the laguna on a nice day. Really pretty. We saw loads of vicuña on the drive back.

We arrived back in Uyuni in the evening and said goodbye to Alejandra. Went out to dinner with Matilda and Andreas who are from Denmark. It was such and amazing tour. Well worth the money and time. I would recommend anyone to go with Quechua Connections who we went with. The food was great, the driving was good, and the guides knew so much.

In the eveing we took the bus to Tupiza then Villazon. It was such a bumpy road. Can't say I got too much sleep that night because this old lady sat in the isle next to me and ignored the pleas of the conductor to take a seat. She seemed very happy but she kept bumping into me all night. At one point in the middle of the night all the men were asked to get out and help fill a hole in the road with rocks, so that the bus could drive over it.

Eventually we made it to Villazon and then met the worst boarder crossing ever. We queued for about 3 and a half hours. Then we realised we were about to miss the bus we'd booked. So we pleaded to be allowed through. Eventually a guy took aour passports and came back with them stamped. We were so happy. Still missed out bus by 15 minutes but we were able to change it.