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Published: October 2nd 2009
We all got up early for our 7am pick up, all five of us piled on too our mini bus and headed for the border. I think everyone was hungover, the 3 Finish girls had been doing 4am and 7am tour starts the last few days so they were definitly tired. Everyone was a little apprehensive too; a tour group you dont really know; doing a tour that is known to have problems; and with the cheapest operator we could find... we had 3 days, what could go wrong.
Day 1 Once we crossed the border in to Bolivia we were met by our driver who doesn´t speak any English who is going to take us across the desert for 3 days in a 4WD Toyota Landcruiser, that looked well used.
We all forgot about the possible problems when we saw the scenery, it was absolutly breath taking. I didn´t think it would get better than San Pedro but this really was.
The sky was so blue, it looks different there, at 3,500m with bright sun and no clouds. le stopped off at Lagoons of different colours that looked like a mirror they were so perfect. There were 6,000m
volcano peaks everywhere and nothing but arid desert land eveywhere. Some how there were a few different spcies of Lama living off the land and loads of Flamencos at all the lagoons. Just like San Pedro there is loads of salt everywhere and the lagoons have salt water as far as I know. It was hot in the jeep with the sun beating down on us but outside the wind cut straight through and it was icey cold.
We arrived at our rest stop fr the night, it was kind of like what I imagine old mountain huts were like. It was at 4,500m and that makes doing anything hard. We were constantly out of breath and not just from the scenery. Then the sun went down and we learnt what cold was, I hadn´t felt cold like that in a long time. There was no insulation and no barrier to the outside so the temprature was the same in as out. The stars I saw that night were amazing too, so bright and so vivid. There wasnt a cloud and the same way the sky was so blue the stars were so bright.
After a quick and thankfully warm
dinner we made for bed, even in all our clothes it ws too cold to stay up, we all wanted sleeping bags and blankets. I slept in full clothes with a hat, sleeping bag (with hood), 3 blankets and still woke up with the cold. We all made sure to empty our bladders before bed so we didnt have to get up.
Day 2 We woke up early but didnt move till we were called for breakfast, the sun wasnt up and it was still cold.
We got moving after breakfast then our first stop was in a rock field in the desert, I think they stop so we can climb around and warm ourselves up. The wind was still blowing hard and out of the jeeps it was cold.
The driving yesterday was good but a little slow for my liking so I was happy when the pace had picked up today. I was sitting up front with the driver so in an effort to have a bit of comunication I commented "¡mas rapido!" which was meant to show my apprecation for the change in pace but I think it was taken as a question... The driver "Marco"
didn´t say anything for a sec then turned to me gave out an evil laugh and pressed the accelarator more. The rest of the day turned in to a rally with the other jeeps going from each sight as if they were rally stages. Marco took 2 detours during the course of the day which took us across some really rough terain, the other drivers didnt follow and I rekon Marco was one of the better drivers; he usually made it to the next sights first.
We stopped off in a couple of small towns which were interesting, on a normal tourist route you would neve get to see these places. One town in particular was really cool, it was like a ghost town from an old western. The town is just off the Uyuni salt flat and was once of the biggest towns in the area decades ago. They grow a type of grain typical to South America and once they produced tones of the stuff and shipped it out on trains. Now only 6 families live there whee 6 kids go to the local school. There is still a working train line but the old carriages were wild
west style.
The accomidation is much better today. We arrive at a brand new building just off the salt flat which seems to be insulated or hold heat some how. Our driver then tried to con us in to thinking that we only see the sunrise from the hotel and that we dont drive out on to the flats like we thought. After talking to soem Mexican girls we find out that we are suppose to go out to the flats and after nearly an hour of arguing the drivers agree to take us out in the morning.
We all get warm showers which is nice after last nighs lack of running water and after dinner we head off to bed 2 long days of touring has us tired .
Day 3
We all got up before 5.30am for breakfast so we could leave at 6am to see the sunrise but we noticed that the driver were not around. We asked the lady in the hotel and she told us the drivers were up last night and drove off at 4am. So we get the idea that they arent going to be back to take us out. We all 
hot springs
were so nice, if a little dirtywalk down to the edge of the salt flats to watch the sunrise anyway, which turns out to be less spectacular than expected; there were lots of clouds on the horison and that impared the views.
We all came back to the hotel and chatted about the lack of drivers, we were wondering if they were pissed off about us making them get up and started guessing when they would come back to get us.
They all arrived back at 8am and we packed up the jeeps. We didnt get an apoligy or much of an explination but we could see from the muck on the drivers that there had been some kind of trouble. We later pieced together that there had been a crash or someone had gotten stuck in the mud during the night.
We got going anyway, out on the the salt flat. We stopped at Isla de Fisher in the middle of the salt flat to take in the views. Then we went right out in to the middle for some photos. The drivers used this time to catch a few minutes sleep which they needed because they were falling asleep while driving...
We stopped in
to a hotel made out of salt built on the flats and a salt mine and all in all despite the seriously bad mood in the jeep we still had a great day.
The salt flats are enormous! at 12,000 km sq they are the biggest salt flats in the world. We we were on the island in the middle about 150m up we could look up and down the flat and it went right to the horizon in both directions. Photos dont really do any view justice but it is impossible to show the scale of this place.
We got dropped off at Uyuni in the afternoon and treated ourselves to Pizza and Beer. There aint much to do in Uyuni, some people made tracks for their next destination that night but we decided to wai till the next day. There is one cool bar, I think its called Catcus Bar. We went in for drinks and to watch people try to beat their "Worlds most extreme fast drinking records" They have a varity of games such as a free beer if you can down it from a nipple/penis cup in 7 seconds. Or the more serious 16 shots
Lagoona... something
cant remember the name but it was bright red/pink and a beer & tequila mix, a top ten place makes the drinks free and a free round too. The record is something crazy under 40 seconds. It you saw the cups you had to drink from you would think it was impossible. Good fun all the same. They have all attempt time up on the walls of the bar so you can see the average time.
So that was our trip in to Bolivia done, new country, new currency, new people and the same language, that I still cant understand....
In hind sight the mess up with the sunrise which seemed so annoying at the time and the fact that we had to buy some water even though it should have been included didnt really have that much of an impact on the over all experience.
I would recommend anyone to give it a go but with the advice given by lonely plannt and other travlers: It´s really, really, really cold the first night. It is not a luxury trip! You need a positive attitude and need to appreciate it for waht it is.
If you do that you´d have as much fun as we did.
A good driver really helps too, Thanks Marco!!
Next stop the highest city in the world. Well actually that stat. comes from Lonely Planet so it most likely bull shit, more likely to be 20% lower than the highest city.
P.S. - I put up a few of the photos from the trip in order of the days. I literally have hundreds so I just picked a few. Some were really good but it was better to be there, I hope you get the idea. Its too bad i cant put the videos up because there were some great ones.
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