Vicunas and Jeeps

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Good morning. Strangely the hostel from last night looks like a mud hut from the outside, but is actually quite nice inside, except for the occasional power-cut! There were also a family of ginger cats, a black kitten and its' mother, a huge dog and a strange bald chicken who likes to hide up in the tree. Awoke and left the hostel at 7.50am to catch our bus in order to cross the Chilean and Bolivian Border, no problems luckily.

Then we entered no mans' land for about an hour and a half whilst enjoying the scenery. At the Bolivian border we collected our jeeps to commence our journey across the Uyuni salt flats. Our driver was called Walter and the cook named Rosemary, and we shared the jeep along with another couple Becky & Gregor. Along the way we encountered a few minor problems with the vehicle, which seemed to be fixable by using a rock and hitting the engine parts, must try this technique sometime!

We stopped numerous times to view the beautiful mountains, and array of wildlife, such as alpacas and vicunas. First stop was the Laguna Colaradom which is a red lake, where we saw a few bright pink flamingoes. We also saw the Laguna Verde (green lake) overshadowed by a volcanic cone, and the beautiful Laguna Blanca, a pristine white lake, with a few patches of ice. These lakes obtain their beautiful colour due to the algae.

Then we saw some more geysers, with lots of bubbling mud and steam. We stopped for lunch, and a few people decided to swim in the natural hot thermal pool, but the outside temperature was about -20, so we decided to skip this opportunity! Eventually we ended up at our very basic hostel, which I can only describe as prehistoric, i.e. no flushing toilets, just a barrel and can, no heating, a screw as a door handle, no hand water and a few dorms, some with concrete beds. However we decided to make the most of the situation, our beds being metal framed, similar to 1940's hospital beds, as this was the only option in the middle of the desert!

Then Rosemary kindly made us plantain, rice, cold chips and herbal tea, which Nick decided to pass on, he must be ill! By the time dinner was over many people were starting to get altitude sickness, as we were about 4600 metres high. Very cold in the night, suffering with a bad headache, neck-shoulder ache, feelings of dizziness and nausea, we managed to gain about two hours sleep. Some people were lucky and suffered no effects, others were sick for a fair few hours, not a happy night. The generator automatically switches off at 9pm, leaving everyone in complete darkness, which is a good thing considering their were no curtains - an experience never to forget!

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