The Salar de Uyuni and around

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These four days were among the best spent on this hoiday so far. We saw diverse landscapes and wildlife, sufferred from the extremes of temperature and altitude and generally had a really good time in spite of the "hardships". We started off from Tupiza taking in the wild west like scenery around Tupiza, continued on through a massive national park and finally hit the Salt Flats. We were on the Antiplano, the high plateau between the eastern and western ridges of the Andes mountains. We drove in an only slightly battered Toyota landcruiser and had a driver/guide and a cook, travelling with a buddy land cruiser whcih was a real pain because it kept breaking down.

Day 1 was mostly travelling through high mountain ranges with more deep red rock formations carved by wind and water and cacti everywhere. It was like the setting for a wild west film. The higher pastures were filled with domesticated llama and wild vicuna. Very difficult to photogrpph. We climbed higher and higher and all started to feel worse and worse, breathless, headachey, sick. Spending more and more time at over 4000 metres. Our first night was spent at that alltitude. no shower or hot water, toilet over the courtyard with a candle. Still we were warned. The food was good though and it was worth it for the sight of the Milky Way and other stars. Perfect.

Days 2 and 3 merge in my mind. More headaches and nausea, early morning starts to catch sun rises which we just kept missing and frequent stops to look at wildlife, lagoons, distant volcanoes and wierd rock formations, sleepig n your clothes and not showering or shaving. The lagoons were full of minerals and were coloured bright green or red. There were flamingoes in all of the lagoons except one which was full of salt. The highlight of these two days was the dip in the hot springs. The second night{s accomodation was a bit better than the first but was higher and even colder. We ate dinner in our coats. More star gazing.

Our last night. Another early morning start to catch the sun rise. We were a bit sceptical as we had missed all of the other sun rises, but this was magic. We drove out along a causeway onto the salt flats. Up to our hub caps in water we sped out towards the middle of the flats (the largest in the world). There were about a dozen land cruisers speeding towards the rising sun. We stopped just before sun rise to take pictures. Then sped on to an island in the middle of the lake filled with ancient, tall cacti, where we had breakfast. By this time the sun was fully up and we sped on further into the middle of the flats. Apart from the guys in the other land cruiser there did not seem to be any one for miles. We took loads of photos, playing on the optical illusions caused by the salt, sun and the blue sky. It was so much fun we almost forgot about the altitude sickness for a while.

We were dropped off in Uyuni. A depressing dry and dusty mining town, and kicked our heels for a bit. We went out to the train cemetary, took some pictures got very hot and came back. Then the group was plit up. I went on to Potosi with Daiel and Cassandra, Jen and Lee went off to La Paz. The journey to Potosi is the subject of the next blog.

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