San pedro a Potosi

---

Well, I was going to take the train to Bolivia, to Uyuni, as it was something a little different to what every one else was doing, but everyone kept on recommending to go via the Salar, so I gave in and followed the pack.
And I am quite glad I did.

I had heard it was cheaper to go to Bolivia and organize a trip from there, but now only Bolivian companies work the route, so it´s the same either way.
So I left early Tuesday morning with a crew called Estrella de Sur, for Bolivia.
There was a German, Two Israelis, and two English in the same jeep, for which I got translation duties.

The trip took three days and went through some of the most spectacular vistas that I have ever seen.

We left the dry, dusty desert of San Pedro de Atacama, and headed up the Andes, where it got very cold very quick. It turned into mountains and rocks by midmorning, as we crossed the boarder into Bolivia.

For the rest of the day a series of mountians and mountain lakes passed by. And it is faily high, around 3500 to 4500 meters above sea level. Towards night we saw Flamingos and Llamas.

The second day was more of the same, but many more flamingos, untill the afternoon we started desending a bit into the desert. We visit a few small villages on the way, which aren´t in the tour normally, but our driver lived in one of them, so we stoped at each for a look-see.

We had barely got out of the jeep at the last village when we were pounched upon by the local school teacher, who wanted us to fix his computer. So being nice chaps, we spent neally an hour fixing the school computer, and playing basketball with the students.
That night we stayed in the Salt Hotel, (which is a tourist gimmick, if ever there was one), which is a hotel made nearly entirely out of salt.

The next morning we left the out tourists sleeping in the Salt Hotel and headed into the Salar de Uyuni to catch the sunrise. It was a nice sunrise, with perfect sky, but was so darn cold it was hard to enjoy.
So we booked it from nowhere in the Salar to Fish island, and watched the remainder of the sun rise over breakfast. After a peaceful few hours at the Island (we were the only people there) we left for Uyuni.

Well, Uyuni was not much so I left the trip there and shot of on an over night bus trip on a road with more corigatains than a peice of corigated cardboard.

---

Photos

typical scene
just over the boarder from chile

Chilling in the hot pools where
everything was traquil-until the German dropped his camera in the pool
and discovered it was not waterproof.

boiling mud pools
at 4300 mbs and without the Rotorua smell.

Laguna Colorada
and I think the white stuff on the side is mainly Borax.

The arbol de piedra
I had to include the standard tourist shot that is always advertised on this trip

A Vizcacha enjoying the sun
in this freezing desert.

More Flamingos
Apparently during summer there are 70 odd thousand of these critters on this lake, but at the moment only maybe 4 or 5 thousand.

Mobile trouble shooters
The German at the machine, with the Isreali giving advice. We reinstalled a driver and she was good to go.

Some kiddies
from the school we got roped into helping solve their computer worries

View of the Salar de Uyuni
from fish island

Unscheduled stop
in the Salar when we ran out of gas. 10 ten minutes later, and after draining the remainder out of the spare fuel tank we where of to Uyuni.

Trabajador hard a work
shoveling new salt into piles. This guy had a bit of a go at me for taking his photo. I politely told him to get over it.

Some salt being transported
to uyuni for sale.

Temporary view from the
original Salt Hotel. Normally, I´m not in the vista.

Something steamy at the Train graveyard
the only thing of interest at Uyuni, as far as I ccould tell, was a train grave yard for old steam engines. So I left for Potosi.