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Published: December 23rd 2009
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It is not often that we hope that a long distance bus trip will go for a bit longer, but the trip from Potosi across the rugged and largely uninhabited landscape to Uyuni on a sunny day was such a treat for our eyes that we were hoping for a few hours more. In the town of Uyuni we did little more than hang about in the plaza playing backgammon (on our newly purchased 8-in-1 magnetic travel games board!) and organised a trip across the salt flats into Chile.
The tour didn't start off too well when the company we booked with shafted us off to another company's 4WD, who in turn shafted us to somebody else. An hour of two later and we still hadn't left, but instead were waiting for our tour companions - a group of 5 from a nation whose backpackers don't exactly have the best reputation as travelling companions. In fact, these companions even joked to us what a bad situation we were in!
Finally we were off and going, with the first stop being a train cemetery on the outskirts of town. Here locomotives which once carried mining products between Bolivia and Chile,
warm sun, cold beer and 8-in-1 board games!
for the record Jeff won backgammon 3-0 and snakes and ladders 1-0. but many decades ago the feasibility of the railways ran out of steam (..sorry!).
And from there we began to enter the massive Uyuni salt flat. At a bit over 10,000km2 these aren't just any old salt flats - they are actually the biggest in the world! It is a bit hard to believe that this was once part of an ocean that covered much of South America many thousands (or is it millions?) of years ago, especially when altitude-induced headaches return from time to time. We also visited one of the several 'islands' rising out of the salt flats where the site of fossilised coral (again at an elevation of close to 4000m) gives you an appreciation of the geological forces which have raised the Andes to their current, dizzying heights!
Whilst extremely interesting to salty-place science people like myself (Jeff), after you've had a lick of the ground and walked around for a bit, the salt flats for the most part are pretty boring places. And that is where silly toys and some creative photography comes in! On the first day of our tour we spent hours amusing ourselves with props and perspective. Check out the
We originally avoided this company
but in the end were shafted into one of their cars.. oh, and no english was espoken by the guide (nor much spanish for that matter!) photos for yourself.
Time to get nerdy with some more salt flat facts:
The Uyuni salt flats comprise chloride salts of sodium, potassium, magnesium and lithium. With lithium only makes up about 0.3%!o(MISSING)f that total, the Uyuni salt flats are thought to represent more than half of the world's known lithium deposits. This, combined with the growing demand for lithium for batteries for all our electronic gadgets is big news for Bolivia. Whilst international corporations are knocking on the governments door for access to this, for the time being it seems that the Bolivian government has taken a strong lesson from the Potosi silver mines and nationalised the resources of the salt flats (yeah, they're socialists) and is currently attempting to develop the extraction industry internally. Hopefully this might keep the profits within Bolivia where they needed much more than in our first world nations - time will tell.
Calibration of Satellites - Being large, flat and incredibly reflective of light, apparently the Uyuni salt flats are the site of choice for the calibration of satellites which take images of the earth's surfaces. Interesting, huh!?
After exiting the main salt flat, we stopped every
few hours or so to visit various coloured lakes. The absolute highlight of these was Laguna Colorada (colourful lagoon) where massive areas of pink/red (caused by pigments of resident algae) is contrasted by white sodium borate blocks, and the occassional small chunks of ice...it was really, really cold up here! And making that landscape even more magical is the presence of thousands of flamingos looking all pink and white and dainty. The wind blowing across the lake was phenomenal, almost knocking us over as we walked. It was quite funny watching young flamingos turn the wrong way into the wind, then get blown 10 to 20 metres back along the ground. Thankfully none were so silly as to try and fly! And for the record Laguna Colorada is a Ramsar Wetland site, and we're going to say (based only on our altitude headaches) that this is the highest Ramsar site in the world - check that off the list...
Eventually the salty places gave way to even drier, sandy, desert places. Vicuñas (a relative of llamas and alpacas) were seen from time to time, though what they were feeding on was a mystery to us. Smoking volcanoes to the
left, crazy sand dunes and windswept valleys to the right. On the final chilly morning at around 4500m we came across geysers and hot springs. A sunrise dip in the springs was very welcoming, though none of us wanted to get back out into the cold. Foolishly we put our swimmers in the sun in an attempt to dry - call it habit.. Unfortunately we forgot to get them before leaving, so our car had to turn back for a quick return. And no, the swimmers and towel weren't dry, they were frozen stiff!
And so with one last stop at Laguna Verde (green) under a towering, active volcano our trip was over. A bus took us from there over the Chilean border to paved roads and compliance with speed limits, clean food and water, strict customs and border control and 'how much is it??? Just for a sandwich??' and 'Jen, what language are they speaking? I could understand the Spanish in Bolivia but here they speak so fast and it sounds funny!'
And so we were, confused and hungry in the middle of the driest desert in the world (rainfall less than 1mm per year!). San Pedro
de Atacama welcomes you to Chile with cold (draught!) beer and hamburgers the size of your head!
p.s. MERRY CHRISTMAS everyone!! We hope that the festive season treats you all well. We shall be spending it in the wine capital of Mendoza, Argentina! The plan at the moment is a big international lunch with new friends we've made in the hostel here. For most of them the scorching heat will be a real novelty for them on Christmas day, not so for us... Will hopefully spend tomorrow (christmas eve) touring the local vineyards picking up supplies for christmas day!! Miss you all!
p.p.s. The best way to view the photos is to click on one of them and view them all in the separate window that pops up. Otherwise click on the 'next' button to get to page 2
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Berneice
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Fantastic pics
Hi, Pics and story telling fantastic as usual. All the best for Xmas.