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We only spent about a week in Chile as it was so expensive, and after La Serena we headed straight to San Pedro de Atacama to meet our friends for a 4x4 tour. We were a bit worried about the tour as we´d heard mixed reviews, but all accommodation and food was included which sounded good. The next morning we were picked up at 7.45 and driven to the Bolivian border in a mini bus, we thought it would be a pretty long drive but about an hour later we arrived to a tiny hut in the middle of the desert which was apparently migration! We quickly got our passports stamped, were given a sandwich and some tea, and the 6 of us were transferred to our own private 4x4. We weren´t too sure of the itinerary and our driver spoke no english (it was an extra $120US per day for a translator!) but within half an hour we´d stopped off at an amazing lake, it was all frozen over so there were amazing reflections from the mountains. We spent half an hour there taking touristy photos of us 6 all jumping infront of the lake.
We then drove
for another couple of hours to reach the natural hot springs. It was so cool driving through the middle of the desert, there didnt seem to be any clear path to follow during the whole 3 days we were in the jeep! The springs were extremely warm and the landscape was incredible again. when we first got there it was really busy and touristy but after about half an hour most people had left and we stayed there about an hour! We headed off again and assumed that was it for the day as we´d already seen so much but we then stopped at some geysers, you could get so close and walk between them which was pretty scary as you could look down and see the water bubbling. Steam billowed through cracks in the ground with tremendous force!
Our driver then informed us that the next stop was lunch at the hostel, which we thought we´d already had (the sandwich). It was a pretty long drive from there, but it really helped being us 6 in the car as we played loads of games. The drive to the hostel was a steep climb as the hostel was
at about 4200m & our ears started popping on the way. We were very pleasantly surprised by the hostel, we had a 6 person dorm with a single bed each, although we could already tell it was going to be freezing! The only downside was the two toilets to be shared by the 18 of us at the hostel! It was about 3 and we were told that we were stopping here until the morning, we were so spoiled with food; bolivian spicy sausage, mash and salad for lunch, and vegetable soup followed by spaghetti bolognese for dinner!
All of us had headaches from the altitude by dinner so we decided to try the coca sweets and leaves that we had bought from Atacama, you chew on them to stop altitude sickness and feel more alert, but ours definitely didnt work. You can usually just get them in Bolivia and ours must have been poor quality as the leaves were dry and horrible. We all played cards and uno for the rest of the night and went on to have the worst sleep ever! It was freezing, I had suddenly developed a cold so struggled to get to
sleep, James was snoring so loud, and then Jacks alarms went off at 5am, he went to find his phone, tripped over a bottle of water and slammed into the wall which definitely woke everyone up. We all woke up with headaches!
On the second day we went straight to the ´red lake´ which was probably my favourite thing! It´s a red coloured salt lake, the colour caused by microorganisms in the water. There are also hundreds of flamingoes adding to the magnificant aray of colours. We got some great photos and could have stayed there for hours as the view of the whole lake was incredible! That day we also stopped to see some cool 'Salvador Dali style' rock formations and another lake where we stopped for lunch. This time lunch was out of the back of the jeep but it turned out to be really good again! Tuna, sweetcorn, rice, tomato, cucumber, cheese and an orange each. That afternoon we got stuck for about an hour waiting for the rest of our convoy as one had broken down and then it was about a 3 hour drive to the supposed ´hotel´ we were staying in. After
lots of long rounds of the alphabet game we reached our accommodation which was a bit disappointing, we had nicer beds but it was a half finished building with toilets and showers outside, but at least we had showers this time and the rooms were warmer! That night dinner we were treated to another great meal; vegetable soup, followed by chips and llama steak! We were also given wine 😊
We spent most of our final day on the salt flats which were amazing!! We bought a few souveneirs made from salt, ate lunch sat in the middle of the huge salt flats, and took an hours worth of silly perspective photos! We finished the trip in Uyuni and could then choose where to go from there, we ended up splitting up as the others had to head to La Paz and Cusco the next day to made their Machu Picchu treks, but me and Hayden have longer in Bolivia. We had a very cheap dinner out together and were sad to say goodbye after such a great trip.
Tips:
- We would definitely reccommend Cordillera Travels for the Uyuni tour. The two night, three day,
tour was $160US each which included the accommodation and the generous amount of lovely food that we recieved!
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rrruss
Russ Pearce
Such memories!
Uyuni has to be one of the best places on Earth (except for the altitude sickness, bitter cold and intense dryness!) so thanks for reviving some great memories.