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1 additional video(s) currently being processed This was one of the best trips we have ever done to an incredible place in Bolivia called the Salar De Uyuni. It’s a place that everyone should visit it was so good we uploaded 3 videos so try to watch them.
Anyway we booked a 3 day 4x4 trip through Southern Bolivia from San Pedro de Atacama, we headed to the Bolivian border from San Pedro in a bus but just before the border (which was just a tiny hut in the middle of nowhere) the road ran out and we would not see another for the next 3 days. Southern Bolivia is incredibly beautiful but a very isolated area which because of the bleakness nothing grows here so it is pretty much uninhabited. It is also incredibly high here with the altitude being between 4000m and 5000m, this means that it is incredibly cold and as there are no clouds as it never rains here you can be freezing to death whilst getting sun burnt, it’s a strange place
The 4x4 was waiting for us at the border it was a crappy Land Cruiser that had seen better days (not a patch on our landrover) we were
in a group of 10 people going in 2 4x4´s. It was a great group, a mix of nationalities with a couple of German girls and 5 crazy French Israeli guys that had just finished there national service and were a really good laugh. After transferring to the land cruiser we set of for our first stop the Laguna Verde (green lake). The area is incredible with volcanoes, mountains and frozen lakes everywhere. Because of the high mineral concentration in the area all the lakes are a different colour; you have green, brown, white, red and blue lakes in the area which are stunning to look at. On the first day we also stopped at a sol de manana geyser basin which has boiling mud pots and sulphurous vents of steam, it is also the highest geyser in the world at 4950m it is an incredible sight.
We stayed at hut in the middle of nowhere for the first night, the Israelis had a football so we had a kick about. At 5000m playing football is incredibly hard and I must admit I thought I was going to have a heart attack. As the sun goes down so does
the temperature it freezes every night and its strange driving through a desert that has patches of ice in it. The hostel has no heating so we kept warm playing drinking games, everyone sat round a table wearing all of their clothes as it is soo cold, it drops to minus 27 outside.
Next day we were up early but no-one went outside until the sun was up because of the cold. We spent the day heading towards the salt flats through valleys of weird rock formations and colourful lakes stopping at every opportunity to take photos. Our guide who is a local Bolivian called Noel is a massive Bob Marley fan (although he speaks no English) so we spent a surreal day listening to Bob’s greatest hits driving through a landscape that belongs on another planet, it was a cool day. We spent the night on the edge of the salt pans, in a salt hotel. The entire place was made of salt, the walls, the tables, the seats, the beds even the floors are all made from salt block it’s a crazy place. Another evening is spent playing drinking games and quick trips outside to stargaze for
as long as you could stand the cold for. Due to the lack of clouds here the stars are amazing. Everyone was excited as the next day we hit Salar De Uyuni.
Salar De Uyuni is the world largest salt flat at 10,582 square kilometres (4,086 sq mi) in southwest Bolivia, near the crest of the Andes, and is elevated 3,656 meters It’s is up to 20 meters thick and is incredibly flat, there is less than 1 meter of variation in the entire place. Its stunningly white and has a other worldly feel to the place, we drove out onto it and all around you all you can see is white stretching as far as the eye can see its incredible. The Salar has one big surprise for you, there is an island in the centre called Incahuasi Island which has giant cacti growing on it. The cacti are beautiful and all different colours the oldest one has been dated to 1203 years old!!!
You can climb up to the summit of the island and the view of the salt flats 360 degrees around you is breathtaking, I really don’t think I have ever seen anything as
beautiful.
We had lunch by the island (and had a quick game of footy) then spent our time taking depth perception photos. Because the salt flats are so flat and vast you have no feel for distances, it impossible to judge how far things are and it makes for some pretty cool photo’s. After spending most of the day on the salt flats we drove to the nearby town via the salt processing area, where they mine the salt for export. On the way to the town we passed a train graveyard where I think Thomas the Tank engine is buried. It felt like a dream hitting the town after 3 days in the wilderness and the incredible Salar De Uyuni, we both agreed that it was probably one of the best trips we have ever done, although I wish I could have done that drive in the landrover.
We were brought back to earth with a bump when we hit the town (which was a dump)as we found out that we needed to wait around until 2am in the freezing cold to get a 12 hour train to the border of Bolivia and Argentina then a 8
hour bus to our next destination which is a beautiful town in Argentina called Salta.
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Rachel Baldwin
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Poor Thomas
Hi, It does look like a really good place to visit. I love the perspective phots - they're really good. Who took them, and how far back were you?