Uyuni and the Salt Flats

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We arrived in Uyuni (Bolivia) after spending overnight on a bus from La Paz. It was a first class bus and i must say i was presently surprised as we were served dinner and snacks. Aside from the few hundred kilometres on unpaved roads (eg. 4wd territory) across the desert, the drive was relatively comfortable!!!!! Just as well because the next few days of travelling in a cramped and beat up old bomb of a 4wd turned out to be a bit rough!! We spent one night in a salt hotel with very limited facilities (eg. electricity only at night), but if we thought that was bad the second night was much much worse. NO electricity or running water and below 0 degree temperatures, it was the hardest night of our trip and we struggled!!! Drinking red wine from a bottle (due to lack of glasses) managed to dull the pain of it all a little, as did some good company from a Slovenian couple we met. After the crappest night of sleep i have had in a long time we got up on day 2 in the dark to find that our 4wd had a frozen radiator and so we had to sit and freeze until somehow our driver managed to defrost it. Meanwhile my feet froze and went numb and did not come back to life for about 6hrs. It was so cold that our water bottles froze competely overnight.

Sorry for all the complaining...i think the harsh reality of the Bolivian desert was compounded by a bit of home sickness (never thought that would happen) The scenery along the way was pretty spectacular at times. The salt flats which remain from very old salt lakes were really beautiful. Fish island was also pretty damn cool, full of cacti and surrounded by salt planes. On the latter part of the trip we got to see several really cool lagoons, geysers and other volcanic rock. But i must say i was very glad when we finally arrived in Chile.

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Photos

The Salar
Despite the cold and harsh conditions, my strength seemed to improve??

Cramped in the 4wd bomb
My butt was dying by the end!!