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Published: October 9th 2007
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on top of a giant tube of Pringles!
It's suprising what you find in the desert these days One of the highlights of Bolivia is the immense Salt Flats, aka the "Salar De Uyuni". Covering an area of over 10,000 square kilometres, it is essentially an enormous desert made of salt. Proper salt too, none of this low-sodium "lo-salt" rubbish that you see in the shops nowadays. I licked the ground just to make sure.
The gateway to the Salt Flats is the town of Uyuni, which can be described in various words beginning with D: drab, dreary, dusty and depressing. It's only redeeming feature was a legendary pizzeria called "Minuteman". Rumours on the backpacker circuit said that this was the best pizza on the face of the planet. A bold claim indeed, and one which my tastebuds were obliged to investigate. So I ordered my personal favourite pizza of all time. This was first introduced to me by David Lee, co-founder of the Tooting Curry Club, and currently in temporary exile in New Zealand. The flavours are basic but controversial: Pineapple, Pepperoni and Chilli. The sweetness of the pineapple balances and compliments the intense savoury of the pepperoni and the spicy bite of the chillies. Try it!
So, was it the best in the world? Possibly.
Best Pizza in the World?
I ordered this for myself, but needed to call in reinforcements to finish it I say possibly because I remember eating a remarkable pizza in Battersea in the autumn of 1998, which was also a contender (pizza geek, I hear you cry!) But I was so impressed by this pizza that I bought the T-shirt. In fact I am wearing it whilst I type this entry.
And on the wall in Minuteman Pizza was a guide to emergency phrases in Spanish, which apparently could be useful. I hope I never have to use these!
1. Hola, tengo una lesion grave (hello, I have been seriously wounded)
2. Podria yo usar tu cinturon para un torniquete? (may I use your belt as a torniquet?)
3. Me presta una toalla para limpiar la sangre? (can I borrow a towel to mop up the blood?)
To visit the salt flats we signed up for a three day 4WD tour, which would also take us into Chile. Our first stop was just outside Uyuni, at a train graveyard, which was full of rusty, hulking remains of trains. Dozens and dozens of them! Very cool. Then we headed offroad to the Salt Flats, which were simply amazing. Flat and white as far as the eye could
the death of trains
this was the train graveyard.... see. It was great for photo tomfoolery, as you can see from the pictures here. Sunglasses were vital at all times because of the dazzling glare of the sun from the ground. In fact, the reflected rays caused me to get sunburnt behind my ears!
As we drove south towards Chile on days two and three, the scenery changed dramatically. Flat desert turned into bizarre rock formations, which turned into snow-capped mountains and green alpine lagoons. And it was bloody cold at night. We stayed at a basic lodge one night, and I was appalled to find a dog tied up outside. I was wearing three layers, hat and gloves and the driving wind was still chilling me to the bone. And this poor mutt spends every night tied up outside. I was so tempted to cut it’s rope and bring it inside the lodge (there were no staff inside). But I thought it would be more cruel in the long run, because after sampling the warmth of the lodge for one night, it would be just put back out in the cold after we left. It was such a friendly dog, jumping up and trying to lick our
vroom vroom
heading offroad in our magnificent 4WD jeep faces. It was so enthusiastic, it was like it had five tongues slathering over us! At one point it jumped up at me and knocked me over, paws on my chest. It then scrambled up on me until all four paws were off the ground completely, and I was covered and pinned down by a frantically licking dog! Theresa, Steve and myself kept bringing it out food, and it practically bit our hands off , wolfing it down manically and somewhat desperately. It was obviously starved of food as well as love. Poor thing
On our final day I nearly had a nasty accident. We were visiting an area with geysers and mud pools. There was steam everywhere, smelling strongly of sulphur, and there were dozens of bubbling mud pools. As I was walking back to the jeep, the sandy earth gave way beneath me, and suddenly I was up to my thighs in the ground. This whole section of earth was on a slope towards a scorching hot mud pool, and it all started to crumble, falling into the bubbling mud. I managed to half scramble, half claw my way to safety before the earth finally gave way
in the palm of my hand
6-inch disco dancing dwarves are common in Bolivia and fell into the mud. I don’t know whether being plunged into scalding hot mud would be fatal, but I am sure it wouldn’t be pleasant! A lucky escape, which was celebrated by a beer later that day
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Francoise
non-member comment
OUah!
nice to see you are doing well,thank for the photos. xxFrancoise.