Salt, Salt Everywhere..

On the road to Uyuni.. The most remote phone box in the world
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We arrived in dusty, hot Uyuni in the afternoon, the desert portal to the famous Salar de Uyuni nearby (Salt Plains - imagine a surreal blinding white desert) after a bumpy, dusty, not very memorable five hour bus journey. We made the journey with Alex and Mel our new found Potosi mining mates with the intent to go on a tour of the salt plains together. We had heard all sorts of horror stories about the quality of food, accomodation and transport of these tours and decided to go on the recommendation of Matt & Mary (our friends from the rainforest in Peru). They had passed through only a week earlier and felt that Andes Salt Expeditions was good. Sooo, after a hectic couple of encounters in booking agencies, we went with A.S.E. and it was relatively cheap (50 quid for 3 days). In the process we picked up three Ozzie fellas (Dave, Timmy and Shep) who were also wanting to leave the next day on a tour. The seven of us met for Pizza with Rich and Fiona that evening and it all looked good.. Rich and Fiona were already booked with another company leaving a day later so we said our goodbyes.

There were a lot of these roaming the roads
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Our tour started off a little bit strangely, well firstly the driver of our old battered looking 4x4 didn't speak a word of English. O.K. maybe thats to be expected but when he drove us to a rundown looking part of Uyuni and picked up his wife and 2 year old daughter we were a bit bemused! His wife was our chef, the kid was coming along whether we liked it or not! Luckily she didn't scream much.. There were 10 of us (including the kid) packed into the 4x4. Shep took one for the team and sat in the hot seat upfront next to mother & child for the entire trip. His role became 'Uncle Shep' and he kept the little one entertained whilst we admired the views.

.. the brilliant blue sky meets the white horizon..

Lots of these Vicuna roaming the hills
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Since none of us spoke good Spanish and the driver & wife didn't speak a word of English the tour was more of a get driven somewhere, short charades session as the driver explains how long we've got there and what it's called, explore and then we're off to the next destination. Luckily I had grabbed a leaflet in the agency the day before so we worked out what our itinerary was for the next three days.

We soon got used to the fact that every time we stopped somewhere the driver would get the bonnet up on the 4x4 and tinker with it. Shep,  a car mechanic in denial, couldn't help but notice the driver pumping the brakes as he slowed down. Rather worrying! But the drivers efforts throughout our trip meant that we did not once break down. We heard of other tours where everyone had to get out and push! Not something you'd want to do in the intense heat of the desert!

Some more Vicuna - similar to Alpaca
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Our first stop was the train graveyard on the outskirts of Uyuni, we passed through the Kuiper Belt of garbage that was orbiting the town. Their attitude to the environment was pretty lousy and tons of rubbish had just been dumped on the outskirts. Anyway, the train graveyard was quite fun, just a number of old engines and carriages that had been left to rust very slowly in the dry, desert environment. We clambered over the wrecks and posed for silly pics on the tracks.

Next stop was Colchani Town on the edge of the salt flats, a centre for handicrafts. I bought a large salt crystal from a market stall, always the science teacher! There was a museum all about salt there but we got distracted from it by a thirsty looking llama and spent our time feeding it juicy pineapple slices. In the meantime our Aussie friends had viewed the museum and pronounced it a rats nest! (this term covered most things in Bolivia in their opinion!)

Barren landscape
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Then a quick drive to the salt pyramids, just a place where the salt is "farmed" scraped into piles ready to cart off and sell. We clambered around the pyramids until the chap who had scraped them up shouted something. Didn't take a translator to figure out what he meant either..

Nearby there were the "eyes of salt" where the water comes bubbling up from below the surface, I found out much much later that the entire salt flats lies on top of a massive body of water. Kinda like a dried out dead sea. In this point the salt crust was thin and you could bathe in the extremely salty brine. We chose not to.

The most picturesque part of Uyuni - it was a pretty ugly place...
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We then drove out onto the salt plains proper, incredible driving across this featureless, blinding white landscape. So surreal! We stopped for photos at the original salt hotel. Complete with salt tables, chairs, you name it. Pretty cool place but we weren't going to be staying there. At this point or Aussie friends pulled out some of the props they had brought for later (wait and see the photos!). Godzilla made an entrance and Timmy placed him on a salt island in a wee paddling pool outside the hotel.

Heylp! Heylp! - screamed Penelope Pitstop
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Next stop was an hours drive away, a really really bizarre place called Fish Island. It's difficult to describe how weird a landscape this white desert was, with nothing to see in any direction, right upto the horizon. So the brilliant blue sky meets the white horizon. Gradually on this horizon an island appears and as we approach you can see it is covered in giant cactii. On closer inspection it turns out the island is in fact an ancient coral reef! Thats why it's called Fish Island, oh and it does vaguely resemble a fish...

Where are the Anthill Mob when you need them??
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Our guide tells us that we will have lunch here, he doesn't mention it will be by far the best meal we have on our trip (Lllama bbq - yes, the same beast we had just taken pity on and fed pineapple). We only realise this later. The Aussies have been well briefed and are prepared for our first stop on the salt plain so we head off with them and their props to try and create some surreal pics. The lack of any features on the landscape made it possible to play around with perspectives. Though it was incredibly difficult to use the camera. After an hour without suncream and a couple of cool pics we headed back to fish island for some lunch and Cactii encounters.

The abandoned trains - such a dry place - little rust
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After couple more hours driving we left the white expanse and headed along dirt/salt paths to the salt hotel. On the way passing some very very foolish people who had strayed from the path. And they didn't have a 4x4 either! We did the right thing and tried to push 'em out. But they were well and truly stuck. Our everhelpful Aussies recommended a number of solutions involving planks of wood they didn't have and then we left them stranded in the desert.

Our final stop for the day was a salt hotel (but not actually on the salt flats) this was a curious place, built as the name suggests entirely from salt! Though at least the salt beds did have a non-salt mattress to sleep on. We all got rooms which was cool and we found out that there was a mile long queue for showers which cost more money which was not so cool... Our driver in the meantime drove off and left us at the hotel without much an understandable explanation. Or completing the itinerary and taking us to Devils Cave. He just pointed off towards the hills and said 2 hours walking...not very guide like..

By far the coolest bit of graffiti I've ever seen (I am a Physics teacher you know)
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It was about now that I realised that I was as bright red as a lobster, having completely underestimated the strength of the sun on the salt flats. Very very silly, so hats and scarves were donned to protect my burnt to a crisp head.

We decided that the 5pm finish was a bit rubbish so we decided to climb a hill. Half an hour later and with great views of the salt flats and mountains we stopped surrounded by cactii. We returned to the hotel and our guide and wife reappeared to prepare us dinner. Hmmm, after some very poor quality food and a significant amount of alcohol we were talked into drinking games by our new Aussie mates. Our evening rapidly went downhill after that. But before we went to bed, we managed to appreciate the spectacular stars. We have never and probably will never see stars that clear and bright again unless we return to the salt flats. The salt absorbs all traces of water vapour from the air and the sky is sooo clear because of it (science teacher voice).

On the front
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Day 2 in the fun bus, we got up at a stupidly early time of 5am and were on the road by 5:30, not quite sure why it had to be so damn early... Anyway, we were all quite hungover and the journey wasn't very enjoyable for the first few hours. We saw several beautiful lakes (Canapa Lagoon, Hedionda Lagoon, Chiarcota Lagoon, Honda Lagoon and Ramaditas Lagoon) with and without flamingoes. They were all stunning and were a range of colours caused by the minerals in the waters.

On top of.. No rules here, you can clamber all over them
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We drove through the Siloli Desert stopping only at the "stone tree" if you look at the pics you'll see why. The highlight of the day had to be Lago Colorado, we arrived here mid afternoon and the views were very special. I have never seen a red lake before. The algae in the water as well as the minerals caused this dramatic colour change. Seeing the contrast between the whites and reds in the lake made the whole journey worthwhile. We then drove to a spot in the desert where some very basic huts had been built. This really was a "rats nest" and there was only a dorm to sleep and relax in. After possibly the worst spaghetti bolognase ever, then a wee bit of stargazing. We crashed out.

Claire and her Bolivian Segway!!
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Day 3 in the fun bus, crazy crazy early start at 5am. The driver had got no sleep as he spent all night tinkering with the vehicle (in the dark for a while until Dave lent him his headtorch). His mechanic skills got the car started almost first time and we were back on the road again, this time to a volcanic landscape of geysers, bubbling mud pools and hot springs. We soon found out that the geyser wasn't scaldingly hot and would warm us up (it's cold in the desert at 5am!). We visited a hot spring that bubbled up into a paddling pool. It was tough getting changed into swim gear in the cold. But it was well worth it. After driving through some more desert we arrived at our final highlight. Laguna Verde and as the name suggests it was really green! But also totally calm and really opaque so it was a perfect mirror for the mountains behind. Awesome!

Trains, trains
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We left our driver, wife and kid at the Bolivian border. After a short while we were in another bus to travel across the Chilean border. It took ages. We soon learnt that this was the Chilean way. Everyone had their bags checked and contents queried. By mid afternoon we arrived in San Pedro de Atacama. Having finished the Bolivian part of our travels!