Salt plains

Flamingos in Flight
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We stayed in Uyuni only to sleep for a few hours before our tour of the Salar Di Uyuni.  It was a town in the middle of nowhere and a place I would not have liked to stay long.  Luckily for us we had our trip booked and arrived there at 1am and left at 10.30pm.

Our tour of the Salar was in a 4x4 with 4 other tourists, the driver and a chef so quite a squeeze.  This was an opportune time to practice my Spanish as our driver, who was also our guide, spoke no English.  First stop was a train cemetery on the outskirts of Uyuni - all that I can say is it was desolate.  The only reason Uyuni existed in the first place was as a train town that linked Bolivia with Argentina and Chile.  Now its purely a stopping off point on the Gringo Trail as tourists either head North up through Bolivia or travel south to Chile or Argentina.

...it was so white it was blinding...

Desert
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We then headed into the Salar and it was so white it was blinding.  We had fun playing about trying to get some nice shots where we looked as we were jumping over the horizon.  The Salar used to be an ocean (yeah, that´s why there´s salt!) and is now the largest salt lake in the world.  It is perfectly flat and in January and February when the rains come it turns into a shimmering lake.  The first night of our trip we stayed in a basic hostel with stunning views over the Salar.

Lago ??
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The second day of the trip was first through the desert of Siloli.  We went to view an active volcano and then on to the lake district.  Many of these lakes were inhabited by flamingoes, some of which were pink as they fed on algae in the lakes which changed the colour of their skin.  We finished the night in Lago Colorado which was a lake with red waters and volcanoes in the background.  The accommodation by the lake was really spartan with springs and wires on the beds that I had not seen in a while.  It was a really desolate place and at over 4000m was also quite chilly.

Salar Illusions
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The final morning was a 4am start to go to see the sun rise at the geysers.  We first had to pass over 5000m meters before dropping down to the valley of the geysers.  We managed to stay out for a few minutes before succumbing to the extreme cold and refuge of our jeep.  It was then on to the hot springs and none of our group ventured in to the water.   After breakfast we then went on to our final stop, Laguna Verde, which was a truly beautiful green lake with the 5990m Volcan Lincancahur in the background.  Our driver then dropped us at the border, we said our goodbyes and headed on a bus to San Pedro.  And as we went back onto a paved road in Chile the whole bus cheered - it was the first time in a while for us all to be on a paved road and in some sort of civilisation!