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Hey guys,
Well it give me great pleasure to start a blog by saying that the bus ride although long, was really awesome! Our trip from Potosi to Uyuni was probably the most visually stunning ride I´ve ever been on. The landscape through this part of Bolivia ranges from different color mountains to plains full of Llamas, really cool.
Well we arrived in Uyuni and after almost being completely screwed due to the fact the only bank machine in town was broken we were relieved when it was fixed shortly there after. I´m still convinced they have an old lady who just sits inside and hands out cash, I swear I heard that machine cough. Anyways money in hand we cruised Uyuni to look for a tour operator to book our Salt Flat tour and transfer to Chile.
Uyuni is little more than a handfull of streets with about a dozen or so tour companies and about as many restaurants, other than that not too much. We settled on Ripley´s Tour Co. Why, because the price was right and the guy who worked there was pretty hilarious, never underestimate the power of humour.
The tour.....well the
tour started the next day around 11am we loaded up into our early 90´s Toyota Landcruiser and headed off, there were six people in our group; Tony and Marcella from Sao Paulo Brasil, Karine a girl from Norway, and Camillo from Santiago, Chile (Very funny dude).
OK we´re off, first stop train grave yard. The train grave yard is just outside town and is full of old steam engine trains (or what´s left of them) from the late 1800´s and early 1900´s. Good place for pics and tetnus shots. We continued on to the Salar (Salt flats), we first arrived where companies from Uyuni were actually harvesting the salt and started the never ending salt flat pics. The Salar is crazy as it is really vast (approx 2,500km2) and the whole thing is covered in the oxagon shapes shown in the pics. I asked our driver how they are formed and he told me it was because it used to be a lake, he was very informative.
We cruised on towards the Salt Museum which is several buildings made completely from Salt Blocks, and then onto the infamous Salt Hotel. The hotel is also made from Salt
and in the past companies used to allow people to stay the night but now the building is condemmed so you just stop to visit. We decided to take funny Salt flat pics in lieu of visiting the museum so can´t say much about it hahahaha.
Afterwards we headed to Isla Pescado (fish island) for lunch. The Island was pretty cool and had some huge Cactus´s there. It used to have a 12m high cactus but it´s currently dying and the top broke off. After touring the Island we spent about 2 hours on the surrounding salt flats trying to take funny pics, they look cool but they take a really long time to get right, trust me we have about 30 outtakes for each one we got right so enjoy them!!! Anyways after the Island we were off to our first hostel, it was descent and we were the only group there that brought beers and music so we had a good night.
The next day we were off to cruise the lagoons and the mountains, the lagoons were pretty cool since the are all different colours from the minerals in the soil and they all have
flocks of Flamingos in them. Apparently the Flamingos love the cold despite usually being associated with warmer climates. We also visited the 5 color Mountain, which looks very cool and again gets its unique colour from the mineral composition of the rock. We crossed a Mt. Pass which we reached an elevation of over 5,000m !!!!! So that is our official trip record so far for elevation. The whole trip actually takes place at over 4,000m so the air is thin and cold. The second day also consisted of passing through some crazy Lava formations from the surrounding Volcanos, check out the famous rock tree photo! So after about 10hrs on the dusty & bumpy roads we stopped at the Red Lagoon for the final night. The Red Lagoon was neat and definetely had the biggest flocks of Flamingos, but it was really really cold, Tyne and I were snugglin pretty tight that night in our single bed to stay warm! (oh yeah all the accommodations were dorm rooms for the whole group so 6 single beds in one room)
The next morning we woke up at 5am to see the sun rise over the Geysers, unfortunately the only
Geyser we saw was the one spewing from our trucks radiator!!! Apparently our driver uses water instead of Anti-freeze so he can save $1 and at over 4,500m at 5am it´s well below zero and everything froze. So it took us about 4 hours to climb the Mountain with multiple breaks to avoid overheating but while also torching the ice off the front of the motor (only in Bolivia!) but we made it to the Geysers, they were cool but not that spectacular. Anyways we continued onto the Natural Hotsprings which were great since we were freezing all morning in our truck. After the Hotsprings we headed to the green lagoon, this was by far the coolest lagoon as we watched it change colour from blue to green right before our eyes! The lagoon changes colour when the wind blows and I could explain more but our tour guide was actually a mechanic so if anyone goggles this let me know. After we cruised to our final lunch destination and our bus transfer to Chile.
All in all the tour was good, our group was awesome and we definetely had lots of laughs, mostly at our drivers expense but
it was fun! This part of Bolivia is definetely worth a visit as it is so diverse and yet so unique, unfortunately you gotta do a tour to see it unless you drive yourself or bike, yes we did see people biking this route, crazy!
So enjoy the pics and until our next blog .......Chile & Stray Dogs!
Matt & Tyne
The pics are spread over 2 pages so make sure to check them all out
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