Salar de Uyuni / Southwestern Circuit

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After we had exhausted Pososi´s eating, drinking and sightseeing possibilities we headed 7hours southish to the town of Uyuni, dropping off point for jeep tours around the Southwest.

The journey itself was fairly uneventful by Bolivian standards, with only a couple of stops for ´problemas´(which turned out to be a driveshaft problem) but nevertheless we arrived in Uyuni relatively on time and in one piece.

The town is on the edge of the worlds highest (everywhere in Bolivia seems to be the highest something...) and largest salt lakes. Not sure of the exact proportions but they are something like 300miles across and at 3500m asl.

So we took a 3 day jeep tour over the salar and south through the volcanos and lagunas of the high andes between Chile and Bolivia.

Had a great time, if a little tiring. Our ´guide´ was really just a driver, albeit a good one who showed good stamina on the long drives (helped no doubt by the copious amounts of coca he chewed). Our ´cook´, 18yr old Elizabeth fluctuated between hugging us all and stomping around when we asked for anything (i.e a bit of salt). She also posessed only 2 cassette tapes of ´Eclipse´(woeful bolivian pop group) which was played solidly for 3 days and led to us making plans to sabotage the tapes! The songs (in particular 2 of them) now send shivers down our spines! If you can download it, get ´Cerveza´or ´Amor´by Eclipse and you will see what we mean!

Took over 550 pictures in 3 days! Scenery was amazing, a bit of an overload infact!

When we got back to Uyuni, we jumped on a night train south to Villazon for the Argentine border, which we crossed at 10am Saturday 22nd. After that we boarded a bus to Salta (8hours) where we plan to stay until Thursday.

Lots of love to all
Rach and Chris xx

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Photos

¿Problemas?
Bus rides in Bolivia are never easy.

Train Graveyard
On the way out of Uyuni to the salt flats we passed a ´cemeterio de trens´ Hundreds of trains and bits left to rust in the salty desert.

Salar de Uyuni
20mins out of Uyuni, hundreds of miles of hard, flat salt plains. The piles are part of the salt ´harvesting´process which ends up on tables and in kitchens in S.A.

Shrinkage?
Not sure if it was the salt, but rachel seemed to shrink somewhat!

Salar de Uyuni II
Chris was so excited he couldnt help it.

Isla del Pescado
After a morning driving across the flats in the truck, we stopped at an ´island´ covered in giant cacti which gave us great views of the salar. They grow only 1 cm a year and some are 10m high!

Wet salt
Parts of the salar are covered in a couple of inches of water. We drove though the water for a few miles and then, 100m short of dry land the jeep spluttered to a halt!

Pueblito One
After a day of driving, we arrive at our night stop. The beds were average but the bottle of rum we shared with our amigos helped!

Volcanos
The next morning we saw one of Bolivias active volcanos.

The truck
The view for about 3 days.

Flamingos!
AT 4000+m they seemed to be the only wildlife around. The lakes stank of sulphur from the volcanic activity.

Laguna something..
Here we are!

Jeep
in uyuni there are 60 agencies offering southwest tours. so we werent the only jeep when we stopped!

Baywatch
Rachel in baywatch mode. This time with a red-lake background!

Laguna Colorada
A better one of the red lake. The flamingos loved it.

Geysers
We left the second ´camp´at 5 am to visit geysers and watch the sun rise before the 500km drive north back to Uyuni. The steam was good to warm our freeeezing hands although it stank of eggs and was spitting hot mud.

Volcano II
We could walk all over the cratered and bubbling ground. Perhaps not that safe considering we couldnt see our footing.

Aguas Thermales
A couple of miles later we got to another lake, most of it was covered in ice, but one corner had bubbling hot springs which were great to warm our feet and hands.

Laguna Verde
The last stop before heading back. Apparently green but it was more turquoise. On the Chilean border.

Big rock
after chris climbed this, someone fell off and broke their arm. not good in the middle of the desert.

Finally Argentina!
So after the 500ks jeep ride back to Uyuni, we got on a nighttrain and eventually got to the border at Villazon. So we only have 5121km to travel in the next 4 weeks!

Comments

[Sophie]

It all looks lovely!!!!!!!
Nice to hear from you two intrepid travellers, thought that you might be cruising across those salt lakes. I think I forgot to mention to you that you spend 8hours in a jeep listening to bolivia's finest tunes...i bought a cd of all that music so ill make sure to make you a copy when you're back!! Im really excited you're in Argentina...supermarkets!!!! Kellogs cereals!!!! and all the cheap wine that you're heart desires. Sorry to go on...but its well worth getting the cable car to the top of the town for the views in Salta. Make sure you go to Mendoza for all those wine and olive testing tours. Keep sending your emails they're brightening up my days!! Take care, Sophie xxxxxxxx

[becci]

wow! just had to drop a line and say how amazin that looks, im so envious! looks like your having a wicked time - good for u!! i know this isn't a chat forum for us particulary but Soph - how are u hun?! how's the course going? be great to catch up with u when im next in brum! anyway, keep postin these beautiful pictures u two, have fun, bec xxxxxxx

[sara]

Best photos so far! Amazing! Great to hear all about your adventures. All well with us.Love S,M,M and W XXX