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Published: February 11th 2007
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Stuck in the middle of no where...
Idiots what are they looking under the hood for the fuel tank is at the back... We caught the train to Uyuni after spending a couple of drenched days (refer to previous blog) in Oruro. We arrived late at night and met three swiss people who we joined with to find a trip to the Uyuni salt flats. We found a company that was recommended to them for 4 day / 3 night trips so we decided to go with them. Little did we know that 2 south african retirees were travelling on the trip with us. The 4WD we travelled in comfortably holds about 6 passengers so with 9 (including the guide and the driver who doubled as the cook) it was a tight sqeeze as we travelled about 800km down to the Chilean boader.
Our first stop on the first day was the salt flats (Salar de Uyuni). The salt flats are 12,000sq km and are part of a pre-historic salt lake which covered most of Bolivia and when it dried up it left these amazing flats. It looks just like snow but when you look closely you can see all the crystals. We think the salt must be edible because they mine it. We had our first flat tyre at the Hotel Playa
Blanca which is a hotel made entirely of salt and in the middle of the salt flats.
Given that it is the rainy season in Bolivar, parts of the flats have pools of water which meant that we witnessed the most amazing sunset over the flats as the light reflected off the still water - a perfect mirror image.
The next day we climbed most of the way up an inactive volcano. The view from the top looked out over the flats and despite the fact that we were at about 4700km we could not see the end of the flats as they streched out in front of us.
On the third day we drove through mostly desert to visit about four lagoons in the area. The scenery whilst we were driving was out of this world with colour you would not expect to find in the desert. The most spectular thing about the lagoons was the thousands of flamingoes. There was a blacket of pink across one lagoon as it had a population of about 30,000 flamingoes. It was quite a sight and the photos do not do it justice at all!
On the
fourth and final day we got up at 4am to drive to the geyser basin. It is very similar to the geysers that are found in New Zealand but it was very eerie and mystical as we arrived there before the sun rose which meant that we could here rushing air and here the mud bubbling but couldn´t see it for about 20 minutes. We then went to the hot springs which was really just a small pool filled with tourists doing the same route as us (I counted 13 4WD at the springs) however Bryce found it refreshing as it was about 3 degrees outside.
After breakfast at the springs we had a long drive ahead of us - about 400km on unmade road travelling at about 60kph and with one real toliet stop (there were squating opportunities too). We got uncomfortably intimate with other people in our car and we both had our ipods cranking the whole way. We stopped at rock valley on the way which was one of Bryce´s favourite sites because they reminded him of the scenery out of ´Road Runner´!
We had our second flat tyre in the middle of the desert
which changed fairly quickly and without too much drama. At a petrol station one town out of Uyuni we stopped to fill up the car, but at 50 Bolivianos (about $6) we thought that petrol must be really cheap. The truth is that petrol is just as expensive here in Bolivia, but what knucklehead thinks that they can travel 100kms on $6 worth of petrol, with 9 people in a car!! Fools! As a result we ran out of petrol about 5km out of town. Being that we were so close to Uyuni, you would assume that it shouldn´t be that difficult to get the lack of petrol issue sorted out quickly, or at least send us a taxi but alas no! We waited for TWO HOURS whilst numerous other 4WD tours headed past us into Uyuni with rather large smirks on their faces. Two of the cars stopped and lent us 4 litres which did bugger nothing. We soon found out that without sun, deserts get cold very quickly at night. Eventually, when we were about to eat off our hands, we were brought a decent supply of petrol from the town and the car started - much to
The Salt Hotel
$40Us a night without power - what a rip off! It´s got a swimming pool though... our delight. Needless to say that the tip that Bryce was planning to give the guide was halved.
We spent the night in Uyuni and planned to catch the morning bus to Potosi but unfortunately we didn´t read the Lonley Planet too carefully which suggests buying the tickets the night before as the buses fill up quickly. The town itself is really very boring and we have been wandering around trying to kill 9 hours before the bus leaves tonight to Sucre.
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Jess
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Is the salt lonely??
Where's the pepper? Bryce... arent we the regular zoolander... or was that cast away? Who would have thought, such a show pony, with our little wall flower Georgie. Lots of love guys.