Blogs from Salar de Uyuni, Potosí Department, Bolivia, South America - page 13

On the 8th March we headed to Uyuni for the great Bolivian road trip - the journey across the salt flats (Salar de Uyuni) and desert in the southwest. The journey from Oruro to Uyuni was brilliant; instead of taking a bumpy bus ride for seven hours we took the train, which was very comfortable and offered some great views of the altiplano (flatlands at very high altitude). The only problem with getting the train was buying the tickets. Instead of simply forming a queue and purchasing tickets we had to take a number and wait to be called; unfortunately most of the Bolivians seemed to ignore this system and the ticket office became one huge scramble to the front. It took the presence of a pretty mean looking police officer to calm things down! After ... read more

As we traveled along, people kept asking us if we were headed to the "Salar de Uyuni". It was relatively on the way so we decided to take a peek. It is the biggest salt flat/lake in the world. With all the trouble we have had with the car lately, you would think I would not try to drive through the lake to a tiny island nearby to have a picnic lunch. Well, other cars, buses and salt trucks were driving along the shallow lake bottom so I gave it a shot. It was beautiful. Afterward, I had the underside of the car washed (to get rid of the corrosive salt water) and they asked if I wanted to have the car fumigated. "Fumigated?" I figured they had some kind of local pest that needed to ... read more

Imagine being thrown into a Salvador painting that had been mushed with a Luna landscape on acid and you’ll have some idea of our tour around Uyuni. At every turn there would be surreal coloured lagoons, sparkling salt flats that defied belief, smoking volcanos, deserts and fantastic rock formations that looked like they belonged in either a set from ‘Lost in Space’ or the Flintstones neighbourhood. We had a three day tour that began in Uyuni, a one horse town with dusty streets and barren fields littered with rubbish. We jumped in an old beat up Toyoto 4x4 with four Brazilians and our guide – ‘Placido Domingo’ (no kidding). In three jam packed days we saw a lot, some of our highlights: Salar de Uyuni The famous salt plains of Bolivia. An incredible expanse of salt ... read more

First of all, Happy Valentine´s Day to Mr. Kerry Parsons. Sappy, yes. Get over it! So after getting back to La Paz from the Amazon, we jumped on a night bus down to Uyuni, which was the worst bus in the history of buses. It was a dirt road, which made it extremely bumpy and almost impossible to sleep. It was also freezing cold. I thought I had prepared with enough warm clothes, but alas my female circulation failed me and my feet froze. We also had to get out in the morning and ford a river by foot so that there was less weight on the bus so it wouldn´t bottom out (apparently bridges don´t really exist here). Despite the delay we did manage to meet up with our Salar de Uyuni (salt flats) tour ... read more

Hola todos, this is one of the most amazing trip I´ve done in my life. So, it all started the day before, when we left Potosi. Let´s say that we wanted to leave this place as quick as we could to reach Potosi. We took a bus at 19.30, and I can tell you it was one of the worst trip I had. The bus was promoted as a 5-stars bus. Well, I guess they were not talking about the comfort but the number of stars painted on the bodyside.... But inside was even worse. The smell was equal to the farm, and not the one growing vegetables, rather growing pigs. And I have to mention the road, or rather the "gonna a be a road is few years time", because it was like a riding ... read more