This is the Rhythm of the Night

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Oh yeah.

I always thought a nice cup of tea is quintessentially British. The Argentinians, however, have their own opinions on this, and it was Edwardo, a native of said country, that introduced us to Mate. It is very different experience indeed, no sitting around a beautifully laid table drinking the finest Ceylon from china cups. The first big difference, is no matter how many of you there are there is only one cup. This cup is filled to the brim, expertly, with your tea of choice. It can be herbal or scented with citrus peal, we drank a straight up green tea. You then insert a curved ornate metal pipe with a filter at the bottom to stop you sucking up the leaves. Then from his Thermos the Mate Master fills one side of the cup with a little water and drinks the tea through the straw. He then refills and passes to his first drinking buddy, who then drinks and passes the Mate back to the master, who tops up and passes on. It is an amazingly social process and the tea isn´t bad either.

It was witnessing and then partaking in the experience on a cold morning at the Bolivian border that Marissa and I found our crew for our four day tour of the Bolivian Salt Flats. Yes, only a week into our South American journey and we realised San Pedro, Chile was extremely close to the Salar-de-Uyuni, Bolivia. It was time for a minor route change. The only way to see this part of the country is by 4x4 and since we don´t own one, it was time for another tour. It starts with a minibus to the border with a whole load of other tourists doing the same thing, you do the necessary paperwork and then get into groups of six and meet your Bolivian guide. That´s it, like it or lump it it is the 7 of you in a Toyota Land Cruiser for 4 days. The Mate served us incredibly well, we travelled with 4 ace people which really was the basis for a fantastic 4 days.

Needless to say the landscape was incredible. The border post itself was a sight to behold. Situated at 4400m above sea level, this small shack with a scraggy flag, surrounded by snow covered volcanoes was our gateway to Bolivia. It was a 2 day journey before we made it to the salt flats, but there was plenty to see on the way. Green lakes, white lakes, red lakes, flamingos, plenty of Volcanoes and some more thermal springs, all witnessed with a healthy measure of banter, Spanish lessons and some Australian and English politics.

It wasn´t all plane sailing, sightseeing at this altitude is not easy. The first night was the highest (4500m) and the worst. Despite sleeping in ALL of our clothes (including hats and gloves) it was ridiculously cold. So cold that the 2 litre bottle of water in our rucksack froze solid. Yes, solid - we were sleeping in a freezer. I say sleeping, in fact the combination of the cold and the altitude meant that 5 out of the 6 of us didn´t sleep a wink. Not only that, but Ediz, one of our travelling companions developed an extremely high fever. It was lucky that Mate Master, Edwardo was a trained Doctor with a bag full of medicine. That wasn´t the only problem. By day two all of the iPods in the truck were out of batteries, so we were stuck for the rest of the day with our driver, Walter´s music collection. I say collection, it was actually one tape. An album by Italian dance act Corona, the "band" responsible for "This is the Rhythm of the Night" that early 90s one hit wonder. I was surprised they had managed to make an entire album, but they did and now I have heard it, a lot. So often in fact that neither of us will be able to hear that Italian beauty´s belter of a voice again, without thinking of this trip. Not altogether a bad thing though ...

The climax to the trip was the arrival at the Salt flats themselves. At over 3600m above sea level it is the largest salt flat in the world measuring a colossal 10,000 square kilometers. It was formed many many moons ago when a giant prehistoric lake dried up. It is estimated to contain 10 billion tons of salt of which 25,000 tons is extracted annually. All these impressive stats make for vast white planes of beautifly textured salt. Salt that goes as far as you can see until it meets the horizon and the clear blue sky. The only disruption to this simple view is an old coral Island, packed with cacti, which made a terrific spot for a pancake breakfast after sunrise. The views were phenomenal and this has to be up there as one of the finest landscapes we have seen so far.

Spanish Word of the Week: Césped, meaning grass. No keep off signs required.

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This Weeks Likes

• Free Spanish Lessons! With 3 fluent speakers in the car, Marissa´s capacity for learning overcame her capacity to sleep. Yes really.
  
• Edwardo and Karen had been tour guides in Chile before starting on this trip. It was a blessing in disguise as our man Walter didn´t say much, instead they were able to teach us everything we needed to know. "There are 4 types of Vicuña ..."
  
• 3 days of amazing views and great company.
  
  
  

This Weeks Dislikes
* The cold. All these spectacular views have their price. Although we slept better after the first night, the weather did take its toll on us. Cracked lips, dry skin ... you get the picture. It was nice to return to a lower altitude to warm up.
* The Salt Hotel floor. Our 2nd night of the tour was at a lodge made (almost) entirely of salt. Problem was the floor was covered in a ton of loose grains. A nice idea, until you walk out of the shower at get salt stuck to your feet.


* Going to a bar in Uyuni and seeing their Salt Flat pictures on the wall. We really were lacking in creative energy when taking our "perspective shots"

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Photos

Mate - The drink that got us talking
What ever you do, don´t say thank you!

Lago Verde
The first sight of the tour and a great sign of what was to come

Start of the Tour
James, Dieter and Karen ready for some adventure

Group Photo
Edwardo, Marissa, Deiter, James, Ediz and Karen (Nicely Composed by Walter)

Sunset over the red lake
¿Perdido? Está Bien!

Thermal Baths
James did make it into the water after a French lady kindy turned round to him and said "That´s the problem with you English, you have no courage". Three words come to mind: red, rag, bull.

The Trusty Land Cruiser
Well only as trusty as the driver, who when we ran out of fuel in the middle of the salt flats had to syphon some out of another vehicles tank.

Picture Time
James seems to be lacking something

Ediz had James and Edwardo...
...in the palms of his hands

Bolivian Border Crossing
It wins so many border crossing prizes. The coldest, the most spectacular, the highest ... Did I mention coldest?

The Spaghetti Incident
Kinda reminds me of the picture on the wall of Del Pontes on the Kilburn High Road

Comments

[Joools]

Love the imagination ...
Guys - v impressed by your perspective pictures - it sounds like that is "the done thing" when you have a 10,000 sq km salt flat to play with! They will look awesome blown up! Just had some of my Utah photos blown up and it goes to prove my point - any photo looks awesome if you blow it up big enough!!! Really sorry about your lost blogs - I followed the instructions but alas there was no blog at the end of my rainbow. Keep 'em coming though :-)

[Sarah]

oye!
Dudes! Brings back so many memories, the salares are a truly awesome experience aren't they? I remember the high altitude night, we had one beer, had instant hangovers. I also was wearing every single item of clothing I had, but still had numb feet, tried covering my icy nose with my hat and sleeping bag, but then had no oxygen left to breathe with so decided frostbitten nose was preferable to death! We were basically sleeping in a cow shed with windows made of cling film. Did you break through the salt to see the water underneath, v weird but brilliant!! xxxx