Salar tour day 1

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Got up earlyish and dashed out to get supplies.

Arrived at the tour office and met the rest of the group that would be traveling with me. 6 in total 3 brits and 3 dutch.

We got going on time in our Toyota 4x4 and went to see an old train graveyard.

At first as we were driving up to the grave yard I was thinking how rubbish, why would I want to go and see aloud of crappy rusted trains. I dont even like trains!! But once arriving, I have to say there is something quite beautiful about the old steam engines, and there was quite a few at this grave yard. Fact is these were the first trains to operate in Bolivia and they were all originally built in Britain.

Afterwards we arived at the outskirts of the the Salar. It was wet in this area which produced a magnificent view. Essentially the layer of water on the salt bed greats a sort of giant mirror, which is incredible.

We traveled further in and the water layer dried up. We were completely surrounded by a salt plain that stretched as far as the eye could see. You could just make out the moutains in the distance. If it wasn´t so bloody hot you could be fooled into believing you were surrounded by snow.

On our way through we visited the salt hotel (which some tours, if they havent double booked, allow you to spend the first night in) to be honest I wasnt particularly bothered by not staying in it as it was nothing special.

We continued onwards and after an hour we arrived at an Island (fishermans island) which is quite an impressive sight in itself as it is covered with giant cacti. We had a late lunch, which was really good considering I had heard some bad stories about the food on other tours.

After lunch we walked up to the peak of the island to sample the great view.

Afterwards we made our way to the outskirts of the Salar and the hoastel. The Hoastel had a tabel tennis table. Unfortunatly Tim (Dutch bloke on our tour) beat me every time. But fortunatly Helena (Dutch girl on our tour) beat him and absolutely everyone else despite not having played for 5 years!!.

After another great dinner we all played cards. We played a dutch game called 'Toupen¨. Very good if a little unusal in its setup. Fortunatly I managed to win this every time.

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Photos

Giant Cactus
Olly, You call yours a Cactus!! Now thats a Cactus!!