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Published: September 12th 2008
We had been looking forward to our latest tour since leaving the UK and after being recommended a good tour company we booked ourselves on our trip to Salar de Uyuni for Friday 5th September along with 3 Germans (Sebastian, Basti and Fabian) and 1 Israeli (Danny).
Day 1 As with all of these tours we set off in our 4x4 to first visit the train cemetery just outside the town of Uyuni. This is such a funny sight with lots and lots of rusting trains sadly neglected and left to the elements of the wind, dust and rain. We were told that there were plans to make this into a proper museum but as with lots of things in Bolivia the intentions are there but the funding isn´t.
After a quick stop in a souvenir village that sold salt related items that funnily enough noone seemed to be buying we made our way to the long awaited salt flats themselves. Even after seeing so many photos of them the vast expanse of white takes your breath away when you first see it. There is just white as far as you can see in all directions and sunglasses are
an essential to avoid being blinded! Towards the edge of the flats is where they mine the salt, this involves them digging it up and placing it in 1m high piles to be loaded onto a truck. We were told that pretty much anyone can come along and set up their own salt mining company and take advantage of the huge quantities of natural salt that are there for the taking.
It´s quite strange driving across the flats because there is just nothing, you could literally take your hands off the wheel and you wouldn´t hit anything all day apart from the odd 4x4 tour group that pass you every now and again. It is easy to see why so many tour companies suffer from bad drivers who fall asleep becuase it would be so boring driving across nothing each and every day.
We drove for about 2 hours across the salt until we reached Fish Island, so called because it is fish shaped not because fish live there! This island is the only thing that breaks up the white landscape and it's quite odd that it is virtually smack bang in the middle of the 112,000km2 expanse.
The island is actually an old coral reef and it's quite clear to see the evidence of the coral that now forms the rocks which are covered in hundreds of huge cacti. We had a great time walking across it taking in the landscape ahead of us and had our lunch served to us at the side of the island.
We spent a few hours at the island with all the groups splitting off to take their various funny perspective photos that we had all looked forward to doing. At this point Dale chose to do his own alternative photo so we sneaked off round the other side of the island so he could strip off and have the naked photo he had been so keen to do! We were a bit scared that someone would come round the corner at any second but we managed to get the photo ok without being discovered.
Our final stop of the day was our Salt Hotel which is found just behind the mountains that surround the flats, about another 2 hours of driving was first and we stopped again in the middle of the whiteness to take yet more photos
of the group. The Salt Hotel was quite a sight, it is built from salt bricks, has a salt bar, salt chairs, salt tables and even salt beds! Oh and it also had a salt floor that we all thought resembled cat litter a bit too much! It was very basic but as we were the only ones staying there we made the most of the 3 hours electricity by playing our music and enjoying the yummy meal cooked for us, washing it all down with glass of wine.. not too basic then!
Day 2 An early start in the freezing cold got our second day off to a slow start. We headed off round the mountains until we reached the altiplano desert, a vast expanse of nothing surrounded by volcanoes and with a railway line running across the middle of it. Our guide pointed out that just over the other side of the volcanoes was Chile so there is a military base there just for good measure but when we found out that the Bolivian military only have 2 helicopters (they did have 4 but smashed up 2 of them!) we weren´t too sure what they would do
in the event of an invasion!
Day 2 involves a lot of desert landscapes broken up by beautiful lagoons with pink flamingo flocks on them. We made a stop at a couple of lagoons complete with flamingos on our way to Lago Canapa, the most spectacular of them all. This lagoon is fantastic shades of turquoise, blues and green, completely surrounded by huge volcanos and has the biggest flock of flamingos we had seen. We all agreed that the view of this was probably one of the best we are likely to see in our lifetimes and it really did take our breath away. We even had lunch on the shores and got to enjoy the scenery for quite a while before we had to move on. Sophie made friends with a wild fox that had made the shores his home, the reason being that one of his back legs was really badly broken so he had the intelligence to stay where the tourists came every day and he´d get a good feed.. and he got fed a lot!
Onwards we went through various rock formations, including the famous stone tree. A rock that has been eroded over
time to make a cool tree shape. We also saw some funny rabbit animals here which were coaxed out with fresh strawberries so everyone could get a photo.
Our final stop of the day was Laguna Colorada, probably the most unique of all the lagoons becuase of it's bright red colour. Again flamingos make this place their home alongside many llamas in all colours we´d not seen before on our trip. This lake is surrounded by volcanic ash and rocks from where the nearby volcanoes had once exploded making this fantastic landscape.
Our hostel for this evening was really basic to say the least! Again we all shared a room after enjoying the best meal we´d had yet. This evening was the coldest by a long long way though. We had been warned that it would be cold but it was freezing.. down to -10 degrees and it sure felt like it. Becuase of this and combined with the 5am start the next day Sophie decided to sleep in all her clothes.. all 5 layers!!
Day 3 As we said an even earlier start this morning as we had to get up at 5am to reach our
first stop by sunrise. None of us were fully prepared for how cold it would be outside so we all snuggled together in the car to keep warm. We were so glad when we got to our first stop though, the Geysers sol de Manana. As with most of Bolivia there are no restrictions on what you can do here so we were all able to walk up to and over the geysers and take advantage of the warm steam they were all pumping out. It wasn´t quite so good when we got back in the car though with a distinct eggy aroma all around us!
Onwards we went for about 1 hour and we reached our much awaited breakfast stop.. the hot springs! These are natural hot springs next to a lagoon. We were all invited to get in but neither Sophie or Dale could face getting undressed at the side of the lake in freezing conditions so declined and Dale just dipped his feet in! The springs are 30 degrees though so everyone who did brave it and get it loved the experience which was just like being in a nice hot bath.. their first wash
for 2 days! After breakfast by the springs we ventured on through the Dali desert... this is so called because the landscape looks just like it´s been lifted from one of his paintings and is really amazing to see.
Our final stop for the day was the Laguna Verde. Funnily enough called becuase it is bright green in colour with another backdrop of volcanos. No flamingos here though as the water is toxic so you can just appreciate the beautiful greens of the water.
Dale & I were then to be dropped off at the Bolivian border to continue to San Pedro de Atacama in Chile while the rest of the group made the 7 hour journey back to Uyuni.. we weren´t sad to miss that one as the fun of sitting in a 4x4 for hours on end had worn off by the end of day 1!
What we didn´t realise was that you have to pay a fee of 21Bs to leave Bolivia... agghhh... we´d worked out our money so we didn´t have any Bolivianos left when leaving Bolivia so we didn´t have any cash.. no US dollars either and the immigration officials and our
tour guide were less than sympathetic to our plight. Thankfully our group were stars and grouped together to give us the money we needed to get out of there... thanks guys!
So we left Bolivia on a minibus bound for San Pedro de Atacama and were instantly amazed at the change in the road conditions immediatley over the border. The border control is in the middle of nowhere with dirt tracks leading up to in.. over the border it changes to tarmac road complete with white lines and everything! So funny and we are told it is because Chile wanted everyone to know that they had reached a much richer country so did it on purpose...
We loved every second of Bolivia if you exclude the bus rides and this trip was such a highlight for us and a great way to end our 6 weeks in Bolivia...
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mum edwards
non-member comment
quite different
You said how much you both enjoyed the trip and I can now see why. Glad I opened this at night as the photos would not have looked as good in th sunlight. It is 11.00 pm and I am sitting on the balcony outside our bedroom. Not long now to N Z. xx mum