Salar de Uyuni and surrounds

A view of the mountains across one of the Lagunas

The rock valley

Spectacular sunset at Villa Alota

Me at the train cemetery

Playing on the salt flats

A 6 hour bus ride through sheer cliffs and makeshift roads
saw us arrive in Uyuni. The road network was under construction. Not just one
small section but the whole road, it was one heck of a bumpy ride that im glad
we did during the day as most of the road clung to the side of the cliff.
Uyuni is a nothing town that exists solely to provide
tourists with excursions onto the salt flats or Salar de Uyuni. The salt flats
are a result of a prehistoric salt lake that has dried up. They take up over
12,000 square kilometres. Since it was the wet season we were unable to cross
the salt flats but just played on the edge taking heaps of photos of the
incredible landscape.
During this 3 day 2 night excursion we have taken our own
chefs with us and for lunch on day one they served us up some beautiful Llama
steaks with quinoa. These chefs are worth their weight in gold for the
wonderful food they served us up over the three days.
After our play time on the salt flats and lunch we headed to
the train cemetery, which is basically a rubbish dump on the outskirts of Uyuni
were old trains they could not be repaired were dumped. Bolivia did not have the technology to take
them apart and sell or re-use the metal so they have just been left to rust. It
creates a stark contrast with the surrounding landscape and some great
pictures, I particularly like the swings they have created out of the scrap
metal.
On our drive to the first nights accommodation we stopped
briefly at San Cristobal which is a manufactured town set up by international
mining companies to provide facilities for the miners such as schools and
education. We spent the night in Villa Alota and finished the night with a red
red sunset that had us mesmerised for quite some time.
Day 2 saw us head for Valle de las Rocas or rock valley.
This is an odd formation as it is difficult to see how these rocks got here, as
they form a defined space. Anyways they provided for some good climbing
opportunities. From here it was off road all the way, our driver was generally
very good but at times could get a little cocky. We sneaked a view of Ollague
Volcano and could see steam from its vents. This trip took us through the
mountain range giving us a great view of several high mountain lagoons, on
average we were about 4200m above sea level. The driving was bumpy in the jeeps
and long with shorts shops to take pictures at each of the sights, but the
scenery was breath taking. We had lunch at the place we would be staying the
night, Arbol de Piedra then quickly headed out to the geysers (Sol de Manana )
Laguna Verde (our highest point at 4800m) and finished with a soak in some
natural thermal baths (Thermas de Polques) – well worth it after all the
travelling we have done over the last two days. Today is St Patricks day and we
had organised some very dodgy Irish themed drinks for the evening, but playing
cards was as crazy as it got with several people sick, very tired and the loss
of electricity at 10pm.
The final day saw one stop at Laguna Colorada or the red
lagoon where flamingos were the sight to see as they fed on the plankton in the
lake creating both the red colour of the lagoon and of the flamingos features.
The most comedic part of the trip happened on the way back to Uyuni when our
cocky driver got us stuck in the mud in the supposed 4WD. F was incredibly
frustrated with the techniques that were tried to get the jeep out. We
discovered during this scenario that most of the jeeps are not 4WD and we were
just lucky that we had dry good weather. In order to get the jeep out a wire
was used and tied to another vehicle and we were pulled out. It was the most
shambolic series of events I have seen in quite some time. We took another route
around the mud to find a deep river crossing with another vehicle stuck. Our
group got out of the jeep and waded across the river not trusting in our driver
or his vehicle since we had recently discovered it was not 4WD!!!! He proved us
wrong however and crossed the river with little effort. Our final event in the
drive back was the random narcotics stop we had.
Overall it was a sensational trip with stunning scenery and
food, the driving was a little to much but the experience was unforgettable.l