any pepper to go with all that salt

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Hello all

On the border with chile Bolivia has the worlds largest salt flat, for those of you that arenot familiar with them, basically the ground is covered with salt- from a dried out sea/lake. We arrived at the town of Uyuni at 6am we walked about for a bit before finding a hostel to crash at. We left our belonings at the hostel and went for breakfast. On the way to breakfast a lady with no teeth (dental hygine is not a massive concern in bolivia) told us about the tour her company was offering and we decided to book it with her, we left later that day on a 4 day trip. As most people do 3 day trips it was oing to be just us three for the first afternoon.

DAY1

Started with getting picked up about 30 mins late, we were picked up by a guy and his 4by4. He took us to a train cemetry first which was quite errie as we were the only ones there with a load of rusty old trains, turned out the trains and railway were built by the british. Next on the agenda was a trip to a village which was an excuse to show us some souviner shops. Then to the salt flats. They were amazing white as far as we could see; looked like snow. We were then dropped off at are nights accomidation which was a hotel made of salt. We setteled down and played some frisbee. It was also call as we were the only guests that night so it was us three and the family that run it. In the night we watched the sunset drank some wine and played some cards.

DAY2

The driver once again was late in picking us up, so we just played some football while waiting. The car now had a driver a cook (and her daughter) and three other traverlers. We were lucky as we were put with a sound bunch of guys; well 2 guys and a girl. Next stop was an island in the salt flat that was coverd by cacti. Planted by the Incas apparently oldest one was over 1200 years old. at the top of the rocky island was soe great views over the salt flats. We had some lunch here and then moved on, which meant leaving the salt flas and moving into a national park. Didnt do much just drove alot and stoped at scenic places.

DAY3

Most of today was spent visiting lakes which due to the minerals within had made the water go differnet colours ie red and green. The lake was inhabited by thousands of flamingos which made it quite photo worthy, although the lakes dont smell the best with hundreds of birds crapping in them. The evening consisted of buying some alchohol and sitting under the best night sky that I have seen, playing cards and listening to music with some of the other cars.

DAY4

A horrible early morning and the extreme cold did not help; about minus 15 i reckon. Anyway we went to see some geysers in the morning which was quite incredible to see, they did smell like sulphur though and if you stayed near the fumes for too long they did make you feel a bit sick. After that we dropped off the three guys that were traveling with us as they were making there way to chilie, so it was just the three of us and the random old man that we picked up on the way. On the way back to Uyuni we saw some intresting rock formations and a church before getting back during the sun set.


That night we started our decent through South America starting with an overnight train down to the border with Argentina. We then borded a bus to Juyjuy in northen Argentina where we watched the chealsea man utd premship game before getting on an overnight bus back to Mendoza, wher i could finally have a shower, i had not had one since before the salt lake trip- I was not pleasent. We spent the night back at the largres hostel before getting our bus over the border to Santiago.

lots of love pete xx

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