Dreaming In White

Salar De Uyuni

We returned to the ordinary capital city of La Paz after our trek through the Amazon Basin on the same tiny plane we flew up there on. After both experiencing the joys of food poisoning, we both pretty much became vegos to avoid at all costs of going through it all again!!

From La Paz we jumped on an overnight bus bound for Uyuni, it took ten hours to get there and the bus itself was decked out nice and comfy, and we even got fed though we had to agree it was the worse ride of our lives. For about the last four and a half hours of the journey we travelled over the bumpiest and rockiest of roads you can imagine (if you can call them roads) not much sleep was had and you develop a lovely headache from all the constant shakin. Though I guess its to be expected when you´re in the middle of nowhere - never travelled any roads quite like the ones in Bolivia!!

Uyuni is a really basic little town with little to do there except book yourself a tour to the largest body of salt in the world, the Salar De Uyuni. At an altitude of 3650m above sea level, it stretches out to an amazing 12000sq km (thats half the size of Wales!!). Unlucky for us though, we booked our tour back in La Paz and were told by our trusty agent that the guide spoke basic English. We got to our tour company in Uyuni and of course our guide didn´t speak a word of it (not even hello) and we felt pretty pissed about it because there were actual companies that did provide basic English speaking guides!! Oh well, a little disheartened there wasn´t much we could do about it and luckily the tour itself is a real visual one anyway.

The first day of the tour was actually my 29th birthday so I was looking forward to getting some great pics of the salt flats and other scenery we were to encounter that day. There was six of us in the tour, one French couple and another Spanish couple, and they had to be the geekiest four people we could have possibly got stuck with!! he he!! Well, we knew it was bound to happen sooner or later - we have made some pretty good mates in all the tours we have been on so far.

So everyone spoke Spanish (we know about enough to order food in a restaurant and get a room for the night) and Sam and I sat like a couple of dumbshits pretty much throughout the whole tour (Our bad for not taking Spanish classes whilst living in Ireland!!). So after our 4WD breaking down and being stuck just outside of Uyuni for an hour and a half (Happy Birthday Sal!!) we finally made our way out to the phenomenal salt flats. Hours of fun to be had doing silly illusions and tricks as you can see by our pics. That night, we stayed in a hotel completely made of blocks of salt (like besser blocks) and found a local hotel that luckily sold red wine so I could still get a little celebration in for my birthday.....all good!!

Bolivia has some absolutely breathtaking landscape. From red and green lagoons surrounded by hundreds of pink flamenco birds to volcanic rock formations amidst many extinct and active volcanoes, we´ve never seen anything like it. The desert, also dusty and vast.....you just had to cross your fingers and pray our forby wouldn´t break down again!!

The last day of the tour we arose at 5am and headed to the Sol de Manaña (Place of the Morning Sun) where the natural geisers are located and apparently more active really early. At the highest we have ever been, 4800m above sea level, it was also the coldest (I don´t remember being this cold in the snow!!) The geisers were amazing.....all smokin and bubbling, it felt like we were trekking around on Mars. Later that morning we got to strip down and jump into some natural hot springs and at 28 degrees were welcomed after two days of not being able to shower due to hot water being non existent in the Salar!!

So food poisoning, bad bus trips, non English speaking guides and geeky tour buddies aside, Bolivia was well worth travelling for sure.....I just hope our piccys do the place justice!!

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