Salt Flats of Bolivia

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From La Paz we journeyed down to the south west of Bolivia, and took the "night bus", although the journey was so incredibly unconfortable no one slept except two americans who had taken a hand full of vallium pills to help them sleep. We arrived very early in the morning but could quickly see it was a very small place that operated for one reason only - for people to pass through either to or from the Salar de Uyuni, the famous salt flats.

Uyuni was a very small and uneventful town, and we quickly booked ourselves onto a jeep leaving the next morning. The salt flats we created when a large lake dried out leaving miles and miles of salt, that in a way resembles a desert, only salt and not sand.
As we were taking a three day tour from Uyuni to San Pedro de Atacama in Chile we visited the Salar on the first day. On route to the flats we stopped at a strange train "graveyard" where many old steam locomotives have been abandoned in the desert and left to rust. Before long we arrived at the flats and it was a bizarre site - white salt as far as the eye can see, literally as if we were on another planet. Close to the start of the lake slat is extracted to be used, and we saw people working to dig up the salt and leave it in piles to dry and be removed. Over the day we drove across the full lake and stopped at what was once an island, and is now a strange little hill in the centre of the white salt, covered in the most amazing cacti (think wild wild west and you're there!). The views from here were amazing and not far away we left the Salar and arrived at our "hotel"....if you could call it that - more like a room with 8 beds, a cold shower and toilet, and no electricity.

Even though the tour is known as the "slat flat tour", after the first day we would never see salt again! Through the second day however, we did see a range of remarkable landscapes worth of thier own tour, including a number of stunning lakes full of flamingoes. This even included our resting place at Laguna Colorado, a lake that is strangely bright red in colour. We also saw a number of volcanoes, barren deserts, and bizarre rock formations (including a rock shaped like a tree - photos to come soon!).

Our final day was equally as impressive, and started at the ungodly hour of 4.30am, and at the altitude we were at it was painfully cold, and the windows of our van were frozen on the ourside and inside!! However this did not deter our driving on with virtually no vision. The reason for our early start was to arrive in time to catch geysers spouting, and we were not dissappointed, as the area around the geysers resembled mars and the area was full of hot bubbling mud, and steam rising from vents, holes and cracks (and it stunk of sulphur!).

At this point it was still incredibly cold and so we stopped at some natural hot springs to warm up, and it was a great experience to be sat in the desert, surrounded by mountain, with ice formed around the pool and to step into water at 35*C degrees! From here we headed towards the Chilean border and on route saw our final lakes, including Laguna Verde, a beautiful lake that appears to be different colours depending on where you look at it (green, blue, turquiose).

We finished at the border with Chile, said farewell and passed into what would be ouir fifth and final country in South America (however we would still pass into Argentina before the end!).

The tour was amazing and something neither of us will ever forget.

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Photos

Salt Flats
The salt mounds

Salt Flats
Perspective shots on the salt flats

Salt Flats
woooooooo!