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We left Chile in the morning on a mini bus that was to take us across the boarder where we´d pick up our 4 by 4 for the tour. The mini bus was full and so we worked out we´d have 4 full cars to share.
Just before we left another girl rushed on and sat next to me, seeming a bit distressed. When we talked I found out she´d booked last minute (as in just now!) and wasn´t sure if her bag had made it on the bus! she couldn´t see it.......oh dear. We arrived at the Chile control (10 minutes drive on the edge of town) and sat there waiting for 1 1-2 hrs to clear. During this time the girl spoke to a man and then realised she´d got on the wrong bus!! ooops. Her new driver sent her runnning back to town for her bag (or so we presumed as she set off in a sprint). Not her lucky day. We can confirm however, that we did see her later in Uyuni which meant she and her bag did make it back in time before clearing Chilean emmigration.
Bolivian immigration was another 1-2 hr drive
across desert and consisted of a small square building with a smiling man who collected your 30 Bolivianos in return for a stamp..easy....even for an Australian!!! (not if you´re American though, you pay $135USD.....we had no poor Americans on our trip to gawp at for that event but we did later meet a guy who´d paid and then watched as the border guards laughed and shared the cash between themselves....haha...... at least he had a sense of humour about it too).
We shared out the car space and G&I landed in a car with 3 Spanish guys - handy! Until of course we found out that the 3 Spanish guys had privately hired the car and that we were interloping. It turned out that our company was one car short because of mechanical trouble, but they were working on getting us a car ASAP!
In the meantime we started our Salar Trip. Day 1 was all about lakes and altitude. First lake was Lago Blanco......the white lake. It was just across the border at around 4500m. Second lake was Lago Verde...the green lake, it was closer to 5000m and pretty spectacular. We lingered long enough for the obligtory
pictures before we headed to our next site......the Thermal Baths.
It was at this point that our driver said Ann and I had to leave the vehicle....apparently our tour company had miraculously gotten the broken car to work and it was on its way! An hour and a half later, a bomb of a 4wd arrived and sure enough it was ours! We piled in, with Aurien a 200cm Beligish giant and Marion and Rob (French & German respectively) joined us as well! We drove fro the baths to the boiling mud pools. Not unlike the geysers we´d seen in Chile, but these guys blew mud rather than water. After this stop Marion and Rob got out of our 4wd and Claudio and Dan (Swiss and English) jumped in. Apparently Marion and Rob had decided petrol fumes and dust were a little too much!
From there Day 1 finished with a drive to the final lake of the day Lago Colarado.....the red lake.....despite the fact that the Spanish word for red is roja! This lake was a little lower than the others at around 4200m and on the edge of the lake was our "hostel" for the evening.....hostel
is a pretty loose term. Yes it had beds, a meal room and a toilet, but Sparten wuld be a generous description. A chilly night was had with everyone raiding whatever spare beds there were for extra blankets.
Day 2 dawned and though getting up for sunrise would have been a great idea the freezing cold temperature meant staying under the blankets inside a sleeping bag was a much better options......heck how nice could a sunrise possibly be! After breaky we jumped back in the car. Ann´s altitude headache from the night before had dissipated somewhat thankfully. Day 2 was basically a very long drive through the Andean Altiplano at around 4500m. We passed amazing rock formations as we drove through the alpine desert and passed more lakes this tie they had flamingo´s and we had learnt the value of telling our driver to "pare" every time we wanted a photo opportunity!
As the day wore on we slowly descended into more fertile regions, droping about 1000m in altitude as we approached the edge of the salt flats for our second night of accodation! We had been promised hot showers at this place so there was an air
of anticipation as we aproached.......this was somewhat shattered though by the spluttering of the 4wd´s engine and evenutal stop.....yep we had run out of petrol. Out of the car we, Aurien and Gordon helping our driver Hector unload the spare petrol can, and then empty it into the tank! Job done we set off again for the drive to the final hostel with daylight rapidly dimishing. It was then we discovered yet another feature of our 4wd.....the lack of headlights......or headlights that actually penetrated anywhere near enough to see! We made it though and the showers were hot!
Day 3 dawned and there was a loovely view over the start of the Salt flats....again though we opted for a lie in. Finally though we got going.....the long awaited drive on the Salt Flats had arrived. The 2 days of driving from San Pedro was worth it though as the 4wd sped along the salt flats towards Isla Pescado......a rock in the middle of the salt flts named because on it there are coral formations from when the salt flats were actually a sea! Also on the island were ancient (1000 y/o) catus´. Amazing! Of course though the real fun
on the salt flats are the amazing pictures and fun you can have taking them. With a pure white background, the imaginative amongst us got some sensational pics.
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Rossana
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So So Beautiful
Hey guys, I try really hard to be anything but happy for you but when I see all this, I can't help being a bit envious too!