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Published: September 5th 2006
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We had to walk to the place we had pizza the night before to start our trip. we were leaving our large rucksacks there and just taking our day bags but still had to look silly walking along the streets carrying all our bags and wearing pretty much all our clothes as it was cold! there was an advantage to this though as it meant we could have breakfast in the restaurant so both me and heath enjoyed american style pancakes with maple syrup! got to be one of the best ways to start the day!
we were meet there by the two guys who would be our drivers, Bryan had assigned us into cars and so me and heath were together in a car with Nic, Caz and Katie. we also had the cook in our car. our driver seemed to be more in charge, but he also seemed to be more crazy and drove really fast. he didn't slow down very much for the bump cos of the change in road surface going out of town but instead rammed the breaks on at the last moment! not that much fun when theres no seatbelts and one of the back
seats didn't lock fully into place and so would move forward!
the first thing we visited was the train cemetery which is just outside Uyuni. it is a collection of rusting railway engines, not quite sure why they decided to abandon them all there, or why they think it is such a good place to visit! we all got out anyway and as it is in a desert area the wind was pretty strong making it quite cold. we went over and climbed aboard to take photos of us in the trains.
we then got back into the land cruisers and picked up our cook who didn't come to see the trains with us, before heading out onto the salt flats.
driving onto the salt flats is weird, its hard not to just think your on snow, the salt is actually pretty hard, but i think there are softer areas as we saw a car that had got stuck in mud that was under the layer of salt and our driver stopped to shout at him before just driving off and leaving him stuck!
our first stop was at a little village where they had a little place to process
Jo and Heath driving the train!
its still stationary by the way!!! the salt. salt is the major trade for people living there. we had a tour of the plant, but as the woman only spoke spanish, Bryan made Caz translate for everyone, dont quite know why he didn't do it as that was what he was supposed to be there for! there was a massive pile of salt ready to be packaged so we tried a bit but it was really nasty!
after that we drove on and saw a salt hotel, we thought we were supposed to be staying in one but turns out that we didn't. we were all looking forward to it but Bryan said that it was prob that there was no spaces in one.
our next stop was at fish island which was where we had lunch. round the edge there are lots of big stones (tables) with little stones round them (chairs!). there were loads of other land cruisers there with other poeple on tours. our cook got out and spread table cloths on the tables and set about getting lunch ready. lunch was cucumber and tomato slices, bread and a chicken pasta thing with pepers, green beans and potatos in, still kinda warm so
Katie and Caz on a trailer
this is only just outside uyuni but its in the middle of the desert! i guess she had made it while we were looking at trains, then just brought it along. it tasted good anyway and she shouted at us for not finishing it. this became a common thing and everytime we were in the car after a meal both her and the driver would complain to us that we didn't eat enough and that we should have finished the food she had made!
round the island its amazing. there is nothing just big expanses of white and that makes the sky look an amazing blue. the island is absolutly full of cactus, we climbed up to the top after we had finished lunch and took some cool photos off the top. after coming back down we headed onto the salt to take some cool photos. tim took the photos and arranged it so it looks like we are standing on Jos hand. will add the photos when tim adds them to the internet so we can steal them!!!
we stopped a few more times on the salt before we got to the place where we were staying which was a simple lodge place. one of the places we stopped the driver pointed out
that the salt was arranged in hexagons, and it occurs naturally. looks really cool, photo kinda doesn't do it justice. kim and heath both decided to lie on the floor doing snow angels which abviously doesn't work as the floor is solid! i did also lay on the floor for a comedy photo which Rhian took after climbing onto the top of the land cruiser, really hope she saved it onto cd before her camera was stolen!
we all stayed in one room which luckly had 9 beds in. tim was offered to stay in the room with bryan but decided he would rather take the bed next to the toilet in our room!!! we had a toilet and shower, but none of us wanted to get undressed and even try the shower to see if it was hot! our toilet was also a bit amusing as the flush didn't work so you had to put your hand in the cistern and push the ballcock down to make it flush!
the place where we stayed was actually off the salt flats and we were heading into the desert the following day. the place had a dining area with a table
huge pile of salt
it is salt, we checked and it actually tastes quite nasty! where we could all sit, our cook was making all the food for us here as well and gave us hot drinks while she was making it. we sat playing card games and reading books till our fingers felt too cold!
we got gradually colder and put on more and more clothes while waiting! the place only had a generator for power for a few hours to run lights after it went dark so we all decided to set up our beds before the lights went off as we didn't fancy trying to do it in the dark! when the lights did go out they lit an lamp thing so we could stay with lights for a short amount of time. we all decided to go to bed though as it was getting really cold!
This was where kim started feeling really ill and after the meal she was sick. she then spend most of the night sitting on the shower step next to the toilet!!! poor kim, we didn't fully know it at the time but she was sick cos she wasn;t coping with the altitude well and so unfortuantly wouldn't improve till we got lower down! altutude sickness
kim
she was supposed to be lying on the salt bench behind but got scared! is really horrible as it can attack anyone regardless of how fit and healthy they are! coca tea helps but its not the nicest thing to drink, with all the leaves still floating in it!!!
anyway each of our beds had four blankets on and we had a sleeping bag each as well. some of the others had all their clothes on when they went to bed including thermals and still felt cold. i only slept in trousers and a vest top under my blankets and felt fine!!! i did start off the night with a sleeping bag opened out onto as well but that fell off at some point and i didn't notice! Heath slept in a similar amount of clothes and was also ok. think its cos we're hard and northern!!!!
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