Blogs from Salar de Uyuni, Potosí Department, Bolivia, South America - page 59

An amazing day of some high altitude sights and 4x4 driving. We saw a stone tree - a rock that has been eroded by the vicious wind into a strange tree-like shape - and several lakes. We broke down for a bit, but this was fixed pretty quickly by the driver with U-HU glue (no AA up here) and, in fact, most of the other vehicles broke down or punctured too. We saw loads of flamingos and tooks loads of pictures. In the end we reached Laguna Colorada, a large lake that is bright red from some type of algae, and settled in to our new but equally basic accommodation. ... read more

From the brightly coloured parades of Villazon our train wound on through the night, passing through canyons, over rivers and across vast deserts. We rolled through the night passing the dim lights of towns in which ´Butch Cassidy´ and ´The Sundance Kid´ once sought refuge. The moon light lit mountains and molehills alike, creating a more wondrous and mysterious landscape then the sun would ever see. Beside the tracks lonesome figures stood silhoutted, watching another train pass them by, and wandering dogs howled and chased the fleet of uncatchable carriages, until the glow from our carriage windows faded into the darkness, and they were left to follow their own scents home. Several hours had passed since the final film had concluded in the carriage, and the entire travelling party had settled into a quiet slumber. The ... read more

Le fameux salar de Uyuni Notre périple commence le lundi soir la journée même où nous arrivons dans la ville chaotique de La Paz. Nous nous précipitons vers Tonito tour, compagnie reconnue dans les guides, pour réserver un tour de 4 jours pour aller au salar. Tout s'arrage à merveille, on réussi même à avoir le train 7 heures au lieu du bus 10 heures sur une route en bouette... Les trains ne sont pas à tous les jours et les heures de transport sont très tard. Donc tout est sous contrôle avec Tonito tour, on a notre tour de 4 jours all included sauf 2 entrées de parc et notre eau. Youuhoo ! On quitte donc le lendemain matin pour notre environ 10 heures de route pour Uyuni. Ça passe quand même assez vite, on ... read more

Adter visiting the silver mines in Potosí (really saddening to see the conditions that some people have to work in), we left for Uyuni by bus. I'm sure it's less than 100k between the 2 towns, but it's all on unpaved Andean roads and it took 7 hours! As with all these types of journeys, people get on the bus along the way, pay less and then sit in the aisle. The bizarre phenomenen though is that they sit on their bag or with legs crossed, and can then fall asleep bolt upright. All the people bustling past doesn't even seem to wake them. Useful technique. We went on a 3 day tour from Uyuni to Chile. We were in a jeep with 2 other couples, who were really nice and good fun, so it made ... read more

As previously mentioned after arriving in the southern Bolivian town of Tupiza we booked a four day jeep tour of the Salt Lakes in Uyuni which proved to be absolutely brilliant and probably the best thing I have done on this trip so far. Awakening nice and early we were greeted by our guide Wilf and our cook for the 4 days Julia, who couldnt speak a word of english between them. Coupled with our appauling grasp of spanish this was surely to be an entertaining few days. The fun really began however when after no more than 10 minutes Leeroy realised he needed the toilet. Rather embarrassed by his weak bladder he finally asked Wilf to stop the van and told him he needed a piss. For the next 4 days whenever one of asked ... read more