Salt flats and into Chile!

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La Paz-Uyuni-SanPedro (Chile)well we are in chile now and on our way back to peru tonight... we got in to san pedro de atacama chile at about noon today aftere finishing our tour of the salar de uyuni...
so back to la Paz...

we took the always relaxing night bus to uyuni which got us in there early enough that all the tour operator were closed so hid from the cold in a sketchy place for a mate de coca...
after killing as much time as possible we went out into the gaunlet of ´tour´ operators on the street and made our way to the one we had picked bought our three day tour of the salar for a grand total of 60 bones including all meals hostals and a ticket into chile at the end... so not bad...
killed time until 1030 and left in our 80´s land cruser filled with 8 and all our gear.. a little tight...
on our tour were us a korean girl and two former la paz-ians who currently live in barcelona our driver and our cook... a bit of a random mix but it all worked out...
first day out we made a stop at the train museo/boneyard which was cool but a bit wierd seeing all the trains rusted in the middle of frickin´nowhere...
next stop was the famous salt flats... an amazing sight and great staging for stupid photos (will post when we find a faster computer)... and was amazing t see that there was people still harvesting/mining? the salt by hand...
that night was ending up in a tiny town of san juan... we ate dinner and then decided to dip into the singali (bolivia grape alcohol) as it was my birthday... one led to two and the night ended up with us (our tour group minus the guides) closing out the only bar in town...
all in all a fun night of dancing fun and chiliean wines...

well the next morning was great... we got going at about 8 and who knew that bumpy off roads small spaces and the smell of gas weren´t the best thing the day after your birthday...
well the 22nd was filled with rough roads and beautiful scenery including a sluphurous smelling lake half frozen with white flamingos... definatly differnt then any where else on earth...
that night we spent in a chilly uninsulated place at -15 ish which was a bit rough but with enough blankets and sleeping in all on our clothes it was fine...
the next morning atarted at 430 and it was pitch dark as we drove out... the drive was going ok not too bumpy and then we approached a streem which was frozen over not too deep so we drove over it... well we actually just drove into it and then the jeep died...
yeah so it was -10 outside we were in the middle of no where it was dark and no one was around... shoot...
so after a few failed attempts to start the car the driver got us all out to push... which would have been fine but remember we´re on a frozen streem so not too much traction but the ice broke and we got some grip on the streem bottem and got the jeep out... and jump started... a very eventful day and it was only 5 in the morning...
we went to see giesers(remeber i can´t spell) and a hot springs... none of us went in because it was still below freezing outside and so getting out didn´t look like fun...
we were then dropped off at the chiliean boarder and said our goodbyes and got on a bus to san pedro atacama... where we are now wasting time until 845 when our bus leaves for an over night to arica near the peru boarder a stepping point to our final destination of arequipa...

well thanks all for the birthday greetings on facebook (you filled my inbox and made it a lot of fun to check on slow interenet) and will send out some real emails when we get into arequipa...

salute

Lyle

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