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Published: December 4th 2005
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Sunrise over Laguna Colorado
One of the joys of waking up early and not being able to go back to sleep We have just completed the 4x4 Salar trip from San Pedro to Uyuni in Bolivia and it certainly lived up to the very high expectations we had from numerous recommendations.
Our journey started early in San Pedro but shortly after starting we came to an abrupt halt at the Chilean exit point with a long queue to get out of Chile (we didn´t think it so bad that people would queue to leave...). Once we finally got our passports stamped it was back into the bus for the hour journey to the Bolivian entry point. At over 4300m this border control was little more than a shed with a flag flying outside. We paid the entry fee which we are told is necessary but a complete scam to extract money from tourists - scam or not they issued us with a nice stamp to indicate that we had paid. At this point we changed into a 4x4 and headed off into the Altiplano.
The first day of this tour was incredible. We passed the white, green and red lakes within a few hours of each other - each coloured by chalk, copper and another mineral which evaded our Spanish
Laguna Colorado
Laguna Colorado with flamingos and volcano translation. Each lake was surrounded by volcanos that stretched to 6000m high. The flamingos that inhabited each lake kept us mesmerised for quite a while at each one.
At the highest altitude we reached (around 5000m) were the Sol de Manana geysers. The mud bubbled ferociously firing splatters for meters around. In many ways we thought that these geysers were more spectacular than those at El Tatio but the seeing the El Tatio geysers at sunrise was very special. Like El Tatio there were nearby pools where we could stop for a quick bath in 35degree water (an interesting experience at 5000m). This time Andy took a full dip.
We arrived at our accommodation (Laguna Colorado) around 2pm. This allowed some time for a short walk. Short was good as at 4300m our hearts were pounding just standing still. However, other than Andy getting a slight headache when he lay down, we seemed to adjust to the altitude reasonably well. One benefit of Andy´s headache was his early rise and fantastic view of the sunrise over the lake.
The community at Laguna Colorado was small with only 3 families living in the area. The accommodation was very
basic with no running water and lights only from 7pm to 10pm. We found it incredibly remote and struggled to understand how children could grow up in such an environment. The little girl who came out to talk to us at dinner could not have been more than 7 but her face was weathered more than anyone I have met before. The climate is harsh with strong sun and punishing wind. Apart from the tourists passing through this community it is difficult to imagine how they could scratch a living out of the land - the few llama grazing by the lake could hardly suffice.
The second day of this trip was not as inspiring as the first. Early in the day we stopped at a few more small lakes before arriving at the Stone Tree. Here we met a Japanese girl who had been travelling around the world for 4 years on a motor bike. Her map amused us as scarcely more than a list of places and the distances between them. In an area such as this with no roads we thought it ambitious but I guess she had time to spare to go back if she
missed something. From here it was a long drive (although through amazing terrain) to the second night´s accommodation on the edge of the Salar de Uyuni (a massive flat salt pan covering an area of approximately 12,000 sq. km. at an altitude of 3600m). On arrival we were glad to see that the ´hotel´ was a lot better than the previous night´s accommodation with the luxury not only of running water but hot as well.
With a bit of time to kill before dinner we took a stroll up the hill behind the hotel. It was great to be able to actually walk up a hill without having to stop every minute to get our breath back although it was still noticeably hard work. The view from the top was unlike anything we had ever seen before - a vast white expanse that went on for as far as the eye could see.
Dinner was very similar to (and equally uninspired as) our earlier lunch and the meals the previous day and our thoughts began to turn to our forthcoming pizza feast at ´MinuteMan' in Uyuni.
The third day of our trip took us across the salar.
Isla de Pescado
Toni on the cactus island in the salt planes First stop was Isla de Pescara about 50km away along a ´road´ consisting of black 4x4 tyre tracks accross the concrete hard salt. The Island was around 50m high, covered in all manner of unusual shaped Cactii and afforded superb views of the salar and other nearby islands.
From here we headed towards east (ish) towards Uyuni, stopping en route right in the middle of the salt pan where we were surrounded by flat salt in every direction (great for unusual photos), at the salt hotel built entirely from salt (even down to the tables, chairs and beds) and finally at a strange spring from which cold water was bubbling up. As we left the salar we saw the salt harvesting process in action which appeared to be an incredibly manual process involving many men using just picks and shovels. 30km later we arrived in the town of Uyuni...
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