Advertisement
Hola from the coldest place on Earth!! haha
I arrived in Uyuni, with a really sore knee and what felt like a slightly sprained wrist. I felt like I was maybe hurt worse than I thought when I fell off the bike but tried to forget about it as I was sure the more I thought about it the worse it would feel!
I went in search for a Salar de Uyuni tour with Camille and an American guy, Nick, that Camille had met in her Hostel. All the top rated tour companies were sold out but Camille had found the name of another Tour group, Tito Tours, in her travel book. They had space so we put our names down and paid. I was dying for a shower after the bus journey and I was told I could take a shower in the local public showers down the road for 10 Bolivianos (about 1 pound!) I felt refreshed and waited for our car to set off. The guy at the tour company was really creepy and kept on staring at me and telling people I was pretty. It made me feel really uncomfortable I couldn´t wait to get
out of there!!
Finally, our 4x4 arrived and we all jumped in, six of us in total. There was me, Nick, Camille as well as Suzanne from Spain and two ladies, Trisha and Nina from Ireland. Trisha and Nina had booked with another tour company but because there was only two of them, we all got grouped together.
Our first stop was the train cemetary!! A piece of land, where old, rusty trains had been dumped. It looked and felt like a playground, with people climbing in, out,over and under the train and parts of trains. Some of the parts of the train had even been turned into a swing! It was a strange place but was charming all the same. Like a live piece of art!
We drove for a while and came to a village where we had lunch (Llama-yum!) and got chance to look around some stalls. I decided to buy some wooly socks as it felt more cold than I had anticipated.
We set off again for the infamous salt flats, a huge expanse of land covered in salt. We arrived and it was true- the salt flats looked strangely like snow!
The salt was formed from the transformations of severeal prehistoric lakes, that no longer exist. We had fun taking photos with the stunning, white background but didn´t stick around for long as it was getting really cold.
Our next stop was an island on the salt flats covered with cacti. It was a really strange site to see. Looking from above, it looked like the island of cacti was surrounded by snow! Walking around the island it was very windy, I felt like I was back home in England! Around the island was also natural formations of coral rocks! Beautful!
Back in the 4x4, we set off to our home for the night - a salt hotel! EVERYTHING was made of salt (except for my matress and blankets!! We arrived in the dark and cold and was welcomed with tea and bisuits (not quite English tea but I didn´t care- it was hot!) We had a lovely dinner - soup, chicken and peaches for afters. I couldn´t wait to get to bed as I hadn´t slept properly on the bus the night before and I was absolutely freezing! I was so cold I didn´t even want to take
my clothes off- so I didn´t! It felt a bit weird sleeping in all of my clothes but I was warm so I didn´t care!
The next morning, we woke up early for breakfast of bread and cake and then then set off to our next destination . An hour up the road, we stopped at a shop to buy some treats for that evening. Suddenly, it started to snow! I couldn´t believe what I seeing! When I set off on my travels, I was convinced that I was going to have sun, sun, sun!! No such luck! Out driver looked a bit worried but we carried on with all the other tours that were also in the same area.
We stopped at a lagoon where there were pink flamingos! I have never seen flamingos in their natural habitat so I was really excited. Such beautiful creatures and I couldn´t believe how they could withstand the horrible cold. I didn´t stay outside for long as I was soooo cold, it was snowing and windy- not a good combination! We carried on further and stopped at a place to have our lunch. It seemed that because of the wetaher
the 4x4´s weren´t moving fast enough so we had to stop and have our lunch inside the car! The drivers from the other tour companies got together and decided it was safer to turn back and find a nearby hostel, as the snow seemed to be getting worse. I didn´t think the snow was that bad until one of the 4x4´s got stuck going up a hill! Some people had to dig it out and help push it up the hill! Crazy! We travelled to a deserted city out of the snow and took refuge there for the night. All I had seen that day was flamingos so I was a little disappointed as I had paid for a trip that also incuded seeing a red lake 😞 We spent the night playing cards and went to bed early again to escape the cold.
The next day, we set off to the lost city which was an area filled with weird and wonderful rock formations, that had been shaped into crazy shapes from the wind. They were really fun to climb and spot shapes of faces and animals. Again, it was an absolutely freezing day so I was happy
to get back in the car!
Along the way back to Uyuni, we saw packs of Llama. They had coloured ribbons pinned to their ears that identified which family they belonged to. They looked really pretty but we were warned to not go too close or they may spit at us!!
Finally, we arrived back in Uyuni and went in search for a bus out of there to a warmer Sucre. Walking around, we soon started to realise that no one had electricity! Because the winds had been so bad, the town had cut off its supply of electricity to prevent the wind from causing any dangerous damage. Thank goodness we could book ourselves on a bus out of there but had to wait until 10pm. Almost everywhere was shut so it was hard to find anywhere that sold food! Finally, we found somewhere and had a feast by candle light!
After food, myself and Camille set off to the bus stop, not realising how dark it was! I had my head torch but it was still really scary walking through the empty streets with minimal light from my torch! Dogs were following us and from out
of nowhere came a creak in an iron gate. I ran! Camille shouted to me to stop running as she had her heavy suitcase. I don´t know what I was thinking! We had a good laugh about it afterwards.
All in all, my trip to Solar de Uyuni was really fun and I saw some fascinating things. I was disappointed that I didn´t see the red lake...another day I suppose! Not long until I am home! Hope you are all having lovely weather back home. I am looking forward to getting out of the cold!!
Lots of love xxx
Advertisement
Tot: 0.062s; Tpl: 0.012s; cc: 11; qc: 18; dbt: 0.0402s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb