Salar de Uyuni, Cold Nights, Trains, and a Bus Ride from Hell!

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We left La Paz in the morning by a three hour public bus to the town of Ororu. In the town of Ororu we caught the eight hour train that would take the group to small town of Uyuni that would be our jumping off point for the Salt Flats of Bolivia or Salar de Uyuni. I boarded the train and found my seat which was was comfortable. The left the town of Ororu and headed thru the desert of Bolivia to the small town of Uyuni. The train ride would have been comfortable but our train car got massive amounts of desiel fumes from the train engine. Coughing and hacking from the fumes we finally arrived at 11:00pm at night to the small town of Uyuni.

The next morning we gathered our stuff and met our 4x4 vehicles and drivers and began the three day journey to the salt flats. We first stopped at the Train Cemetery which is just a bunch of old rusty trains left in the dirt. We reboarded our 4x4´s and traveled to the the Salt Flats. There is miles and miles of flat salt ground to drive over. We stopped at fish island in the middle of the Salt Flats for lunch and to walk around this originally coral reef which now contains a restaurant and cactuses. We headed further out into the salt flats to take pictures. With all that white ground there is no perspective so you can make funny pictures like people being held in the hand of another person. In reality the pictures are very hard to get right but they are fun to do. We headed the a few more hours on the salt flats and then left them for our dormitory for the evening. The dorm had no heating and only had electricity from 6:30 pm to 10:30pm or other wise you have to use your flash light. It is below freezing out in the desert but we were warm under five wool blankets. The salt flats make you feel like you are in another world.

The second day we had left the salt flats behind and traveled thru the high altitude desert. Crossing miles and miles of desert we came across colorful lagoons, Llama herds, Vicuna herds, active volcanoes, and flocks of Flamingos on Laguna Colorado. We spent the night in a small dorm at the coldest and highest place at 4300 meters elevation. The night was below freezing and we all had on all our layers of clothes to figth the cold away.

The third mornign we awoke at 5:00am to drive to the geyers and hot springs for sun rise. Making our way in the dark we arrived at the Geyers at just about sunrise. It was absolutely freezing tempeture but we made our way out of the vehicle to see the Geyers spew water and steam into the air. We got back into the 4x4´s and headed to the hot springs were some ventured out into the cold to get into the extremely hot natural hot springs. We left the hot springs and passed some more lagoons in different colors till we arrived seven hours later thru the desert back to our hotel in Uyuni. The salt flats and desert had been spectactular.

Today we awoke to have a six hour bus ride from Uyuni to the highest city of its size in the world to Potosi, Bolivia. This was the worst bus ride I have been in my life. It was an old run down bus that smelled and had no bathroom. The seats were all full and even the asile was completely full with people standing up for the entire six hour trip to Potosi. Luckily the bus driver gave us one ten minute bathroom break in an area that did not have a bathroom, Thank god I am a guy. The bus also traveled over unpaved gravel roads winding thru the mountains. The bus shook and rocked the whole way to we finally got to the city of Potosi which I am spending the night. Bolivia must have some of the worst buses in the world. I say goodnight from Potosi as tomorrow I am going on a silver mine tour and then we are heading to the town of Sucre, Bolivia.

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Photos

Sunrise in the Desert over the hot Springs
The temperture was below freezing while people were in the hot springs

Comments

[Troy]

Bus Ride from Hell
well at least it was only 7 hours. Try taking greyhound from chicago to san antonio for 29 hours next to a dude named pepe who just got ouut of prison and wants to open a tattoo shop. not bollivia but sucked all the way. socks for hiking $20 new hiking boots $80 shots and visa too travel $700 guided tour through S. AM. $6500 sitting next smellly locals on nasty broke down bus in Bolivia...priceless for the rest you could have stayed home. Have fun and take lots of pictures. Hint: stay warmer at night by putting on clean dry close(not sweated in) and a winter hat. you will be toasty warm and sleep great.