Salt Flats tour - Tupiza to Uyuni

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I didn't have a camera for this part of my trip, although my jeep fellows were very kind and give me copies of theirs. I haven't uploaded them yet because there are so many lovely ones to go through, but I will!

This tour lasted 4 days and 3 nights and ended in Uyuni, the last stop of interest being the Salar de Uyuni, the giant salt flat. On the first day, we drove through the mountains getting to know each other - and our driver, Rene, a bit. We stopped for lunch somewhere and I disappeared for a pee. As I was finishing, I noticed a llama staring at me. I did up my trousers and it started to come towards me. I began to walk quickly back towards the jeeps and the llama started to run after me! It was pretty big so I was glad when it got bored of that game! And I was glad no-one could see me.

We stopped for the night at a hospedaje in a very high, very small village. There was thunder and lightning that evening as we ate and got to know the people in both jeeps in the blue dining room. The food, cooked by our cook who came along with us in the other jeep, was DELICIOUS. This was pretty surprising as we'd all heard only bad thing about Bolivian food. We all went to bed at a very sensible time - 9pm - so that we could get up before dawn - 4.30am. Most of us found it quite difficult to sleep at the altitude and woke up several times during the night needing to breathe.

The next day, I think we visited the highest spot on the trip which was just under 5000m. We saw a volcano, mountains, mountains that looked like volcanoes, lakes, flamingoes and the Salvador Dali desert and swam in hot springs, all to a soundtrack of Barry White, Eye Of The Tiger, some other '80s tunes and some Bolivian stuff. We stayed in a slightly larger village that night and managed to buy some beer and wine, although it was hard to drink much at that altitude. I had two cans of beer and that was more than enough. We played the rizla game/name game and managed to be in bed by 9.30 again.

The next day was much the same as the day before, but different, of course. I haven´t been too diligent at diary keeping so I can't remember which day we saw smelly geysers. We kept bumping into another group at meal stops who were clearly from an HI hostel. ALL that they EVER talked about was booze. "Wheres the fernet?" etc. At the end of the day, we drew up to a village on the end of the salar and our driver got us rooms in a hospedaje made of salt. This was the first place that there were showers! We passed the time until the water was turned on by having a debate about the monarchy.

The next morning we were up before dawn again, as the intention was to see the sun rise over the Salar. And what a good idea! It was beautiful. Rene drove us to a spot where we couldn't see any other jeeps (as usual) and we got out of the car to view the sun rise. There was a shallow layer of water on top of the Salar and the reflection was amazing. When we'd been driving through the water, it seemed like we were flying because you could see clouds above and below. So anyway, at the sunrise, we got out of the car, had a lollipop, and a bit of a boogie. It seemed appropriate. After the day had blossomed, we drove on to an island in the middle of the Salar which I am afraid I have forgotten the name of and I have sent the literature home. We climbed to the top before coming down for breakfast. It was tough work, given the hour and the altitude. The booze crew didn't seem too bothered by it though and were spotted drinking tequila for breakfast. And talking about fernet.

After a delicious brekkie, our two jeeps drove to a secluded spot in the salar to take lots of "fotos locas", which you may have already seen on facebook. I will upload them, promise! We had a lovely last lunch together somewhere on the outskirts of Uyuni before being dropped off by the bus agencies in town.

To anyone, thinking about doing this tour, I would definitely recommend taking the tour from Tupiza and going with Tupiza tours. Our driver was really very good - he didn't go too fast, didn't drink too much and didn't fall asleep at the wheel. We heard such horror stories!

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Comments

[Jess]

sounds lush, muchos jealouso (good espanol?) i'm glad you sound like your normal cheery self after the nasty bag snatch. food is so much better than booze, everyone knows that.