Uyuni and the salt flats (or lack of...)

---

Claire:
not much to say about uyuni, all there is to do here is eat some really good pizza at a restaurant owned by a boston baseball legend and pick up some 4x4s for the drive across the salt flats. originally we were meant to be driving across the flats on day 1 of our 4x4 adventure but they were too flooded so we only got an hour across before we had to turn back. not only were the flats flooded but it was still raining so we didnt get the cool views and excellent blue skied, highly reflective views of the flats that allow the cool photos ops of me squashing ross and stuff. kinda pissed off at the weather the whole group got back into the 4x4s for lots of driving and flat tire in the middle of nowhere fun as our incompetemt 4x4 tour company tried to get us somewhere to stay with no reservations. fun (and bumpy) times.
day 2 saw us visiting a pretty canyon with llama and rock paintings, a lagoon with shy flamingo and generally still being grumpy about missing the salt flats.
day 3 started with us getting up early at 4am to visit some geysers and discovering two of the girls had had their cameras stolen at some point during the night. the geysers were cool but enthusiasm was low at that time in the morning and the mood of the group was foul anyway because of the cameras going missing. we continued to some more pretty lagoons of varying colours and then headed (with much excitement after the relative crapness of the last few days) for the chilean border and the tiny town on san pedro de atacama.

---

Photos

good times with salt llamas
geoff and marie-claire tear it up in uyuni

titanic madness
lauren and ana come over 'im king of the world' on uyuni main street

springs!
at the train graveyard on the edge of the salt flats

dead trains 1
these looked like dead trains to the grirls in the group but like toys to play with to the boys.

salt flats 1
we stopped just on the edge of the salt flats for lunch. nice weather, huh?

salt flats 2
it was a bit wet.

salt flats 4
ok. it was relly bloody wet. but going fast in the 4x4s was fun!

salt flats 5
this is as far as we got. do i look cold? i was freezing!

salt flats 7
there is a horizon here somewhere, honest..

salt flats 8
we abandoned the salt flats and drove to find a hostel to sleep in. many breakdowns and a flat tire were had on the way

4x4 trip day 2 - 1
pretty canyon. ross got excited about all the rocks.

4x4 trip day 2 - 2
i wasnt feeling the photos after the day and night we had just had

4x4 trip day 2 - 3
more rocks

4x4 trip day 2 - 4
ross' alpaca hat attracted this pretty llama. then it slobbered all over his sleeve, hence his face of disgust

Comments

[Shierly]

Hello from Puerto Natales!!
Hi Claire and Ross! So good to hear from you!! I'm sorry I missed you guys on the last day. Glad to hear how awesome BA is.. can't wait to get there. We've just arrived in Puerto Natales today, and spending 4 nights here. Will probably do the tour to the Torres Del Paine tomorrow, and some other stuff the next day, and probably just chill the day after. Haven't quite worked it out yet. We're going to El Calafate from here, then to Ushuaia, and from there we're flying to BA (on 3rd Feb). If you have any more tips, let us know. We'll definitely check out that restaurant!