Finding another world amongst the salt flats of Uyuni

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Our next stop after Sajama was Oruro, once a thriving town at the centre of Bolivia´s economy, it´s now slightly run down probably a ghost of its former self; But pretty plazas and grand buildings remain, making it still worth a walk around. We spent most of our time there wandering through the chaotic and lively market, sampling food and drink from some of the many stalls. One thing that we did notice in Oruro was the poverty, something that we didn´t see as much of in Chile, but unfortunately is common across Bolivia.

A bumpy train ride brought us to Uyuni in the South of Bolivia, arriving in the early hours to this cold town. Our reason for going top Uyuni, probably like every other tourist, was for visiting the salt flats and surrounding National Park. We went on a 3 day tour, with 4 others, including two guys from Chile, who helped us practice our Spanish! Driving there in a jeep, there was nothing but white salt flats around us, stretching for miles and miles. We stopped at ´Fish Island´ which looked like something out of a Sci Fi movie, covered in cacti that could have been straight from a cartoon, some as tall as 9ft. It was like another world.

A little more driving saw us leave the salt flats for more rocky terrain, as we raced along the bumpy tracks until we reached the village of San Juan where we spent the night in a hostel constructed of salt bricks (Stu ofcourse licked the walls to clarify this). Our second day started with visits to several nearby lagoons, partly frozen over giving a foggy relection of the snowy topped volcanoes above them, and home to groups of pink flamingoes too! Although all these lagoons were beautiful, Lagoon Colorado was by far the most impressive, as it was unbelievably deep red in colour, due to the algae in the water. The combination and layers of the colours in the rocks, plants, water, mountains and sky made this a spectacular sight.

Once again the terrain changed, as we were soon driving on dessert sand, stopping by some unique and vast rock formations. Some of these also made pretty perfect bouldering spots, which lead to great excitement for Stu! Hopping in and around some of tese rocks were tiny creatures, that I can only describe as a cross between a rabbit and a mouse. The trip also involved driving passed llamas, Vicunas and ostrichs, although these were a few rare displays of lñife in some seemingly unliveable environments.

The final day of the tour started bright and early at 5:30am wit a visit to the Geyser fields; spurting high out of the ground, hissing loudly and producing clouds of hot steam in the freezing morning air. Tyhe early start was worth it when we were the first and only in the hot pools, although removing several layers of clothing to get in was a bit of a mission, and my wet hair actually froze in the cold air when we got out. But sitting in the hot water watching the sun rise was worth every icicle.

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Comments

[Jan Maughan]

Enjoying the reports
Sounds like the fun is never ending - it's pretty obvious the excitement of your experiences will remain with you for a long time. Keep the info coming it makes good reading, you could have it all published when you get back - take care more pics please. Jan xx