Saltflats of Bolivia

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We arrived in Uyuni from La Paz after getting no sleep on an overnight bus and went straight out on a three day tour of the area and it's salt flats. The first stop was was a train “graveyard” where lots of old trains were left to rust. Because the climate is so dry the trains had been sitting there for seventy years and will undoubtedly be there for another seventy at least.

Then we drove out of town to the salt flats. They were amazing. All you could see from the bottom of your feet to the horizon was brilliant white salt. As it had dried it had formed hexagonal patterns on the ground and was as hard as concert. In the salt, which was three to seven meters thick, were rocky islands covered in cactus.

We spent a number hours walking in this otherworldly salt land and took some great pictures which played with perspective, before driving off to our accommodation. Having heard stories about freezing cold nights and icy showers we were pleasantly surprised to have hot showers that evening.

The next day we drove off to see desert, rock formations and a few different lakes. The heat of the sun was biting but gave off little heat, so we were all warmly dressed whist exploring the wind swept landscape. These winds had created surreal sculptures out of any exposed rocks. The lakes we visited were quite beautiful but highly toxic and corrosive due to the exotically named minerals absorbed from the earth. The flamingos didn't seem to mind though and were seen happily eating the tiny crustaceans that managed to live in such a forboding environment.

Our accommodation for the second night was the freezing horror story we had been told about. I went to bed wearing all my clothes, hat and gloves and was just warm enough. Waking up in the morning our bottles of water, which were by our beds, had frozen over night.

The last day of our tour involved lots of driving through stunning landscape. We visited a beautiful lake near the Chile/Bolivian border that felt like the loneliest place on earth and then drove back to the town of Uyuni where the tour had begun.

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