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“Watch out for the yellow salt” |
After a few quiet days visiting various Bolivian towns, it was time for what I was hoping would be a highlight of the trip – and I was right.
The drive from Potosi to Uyuni was spectacular just in itself, the scenery changed so fast from mountain, to desert, to canyon, river, farmland and all back again, endlessly repeating, it really was stunning.
Arriving in Uyuni, it had the feel of a frontier town, all streets that drifted off into desert, dogs scavenging, falling down buildings, the compulsory Datsun 120Y (Bolivia was a university car park circa 1992) and the only thing missing were the tumbleweeds.
After a good meal we were off in the morning for a three day 4WD tour of the salt plains. But the first stop was a surprise; it was a train graveyard full of rusted out and dumped steam engines from the 19th century. I could have wandered around for hours as there were dozens of locomotives and you could just climb in and around them (thank goodness my tetanus was up-to-date..).
We then headed to a town that lived off the salt by collecting, drying and packaging it for sale. The process was very basic, just dry it off over an oven, then grind it, then shove it in a bag..
Onwards to the salt plains and it really was incredible, just endless white that burned your eyes and mirror reflections where there was water. The salt plains are about 4000mtres up and it was kinda confusing as you felt like you were at sea level with the white sea all around you. After driving for hours across the salt we came to our lunch spot, an island. It was the most bizarre landscape I’ve seen as it was a rocky island covered in long dead coral and giant cactus, all sitting in this white ocean…
After lunch we mucked around taking some silly photos…
After a few more hours we crossed the salt plains and we arrived at our accommodation for the night, a hotel made from blocks of salt. It was surprisingly warm and we entertained ourselves with card games and whisky…
Next day was driving through desert, just sand, rock, blue sky and massive volcanic mountains all around. It was so interesting how fast the scenery could change and how the strangest object could confound. In the middle of all this brown and red bleakness were a few lakes, one green, one red and one perfectly reflective and they all had flamingos wading about.
That night we stayed in some extremely basic accommodation and it was so very very cold.. probably minus 10-15… but on the upside, the star gazing was the best I’ve done. The moon was gone and there no lights for miles and we could even see distant galaxies – well, for the few minutes we could stand being outside!!
The next day was a very early start (5am) so we could get the geysers before daylight and the wind made them hard to see. It was pretty interesting walking among the steam, bubbling mud and hot rocks, but damn it was cold…
Next stop was breakfast at a lake that was also a hot spring, a few people hopped in, but I settled for dangling my feet in…
After breakfast and a bit of defrosting we began the long journey back to Uyuni and the scenery was ever impressive and minus the blown tire (our driver earned his tip!) we had a good trip back.
previous travel blog entry
Nathan & Emma says:
Hi, me again:) Do you remember who you booked you 4WD tour through. Sounds like a good trip. Train graveyard looks awesome!!! Thanks again, Nathan.