3 Day Uyuni Salt Flat Trip - Bolivia

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20/3/12

We met our group at 7:45am in San Pedro and headed for the Bolivian border which was just an hour away. The Bolivian immigration office was at 4300m above sea level and absoluetly freezing. It was the strangest border crossing we have ever been to as it was a small hut in the middle of the desert, anyway our passports were stamped and we had breakfast with the group on our minibus. After breakfast we were split into groups of six and designated a 4x4 jeep and a driver for the rest of the tour. We were very lucky with our group as we had another English couple from London, an airhostess from Holland and a half Chilean plumber from Norway. Everyone was lovely and we all got on great, making our 3 day experience even better.

On our first day we saw lots of lagoons (each varying in colour) with 3 different types of flamingos around the national park. We also bathed in 40 degree hot springs with a gorgeous view over one of the lagoons. We were driving through the deserted and surrounded by volcanoes, some dorment and some active but all were snow capped. We visited some volcanic geysers with steam spewing out of them. Inside them you could see the mud bubbling and we were advised not to go too close as the temperature inside them was 80degrees and many people have burnt themselves from the fumes, they also smelt of rotten eggs due to the sulphur!

After a day of driving we arrived at our accommodation for the night which was literally in the middle of nowhere, with no running hot water or showers. It was a freezing cold night but the views of the stars were stunning.

21/3/12

We visited rock formations including one in the shape of a tree. and drove through more desert, visited more lagoons and our driver took us to a special secret flamingo viewing point. We stayed in a mud hut house with a straw roof and freezing cold showers, we were also served cold llama steaks (which were mostly bone) and cold chips for dinner which left a lot to be desired! However, the building was a lot warmer as we had descended a bit in altitude so we slept better than the previous night.

22/3/12

We had an early start to drive the rest of the way to the town of Uyuni. On the way we stopped off at a train cemetary which housed old rusty steam trains, rather strange in the middle of a desert. We then arrived at the town of Uyuni where we had a quick stop and were off again to Salar de Uyuni to visit the famous salt flats which are 4,000 square miles and at 3500m above sea level and are the biggest salt flats in the world. They were created from many prehistoric lakes which have overtime dried up to form the salt flats, however, they still flood today and our timing was perfect as only 2 weeks previously trips had been cancelled due to the heavy rainfall. The sun's reflection off the surface was so bright we had to wear sunglasses at all times to prevent snow blindness. We spent a few hours there taking photos and then returned to Uyuni to have dinner with the group, before heading off in our seperate directions in the evening.

We caught the bus overnight to the Argentine border, where we had heard stories of people being stuck for hours, luckily we arrived at 5am and the border opened at 6am and we were through by 7am. We then caught another bus to Salta in Argentina which is where we are now. We have spent two days here, in a nice hostel resting and recharging our batteries ready to move onto Mendoza tonight (a 19hour bus ride away and a major wine region).

From mendoza we will then head back into Chile as we are flying out of Santiago on the 1st of April to Auckland in NZ! We have loved our time in South America but are very excited for the next stage of our travels, we can't believe it's been nearly 2 months already! If we have time we will blog from Santiago but if not we will speak to you next from New Zealand!

Lots of love,

Jess and Josh xxxxxxxxx

p.s. don't forget to check the photos at the bottom of the page

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