The strangest end to a country yet!!

Coming to the end of our Bolivian leg and what a way to exit!! Firstly we hopped on a bus to Uyuni which I am sure you will not be surprised to know had small mechanical issue on route...I say small, one of the supports keeping the suspension attached to the back wheels decided to snap so we spent about an an hour deliberating and pointing before someone managed to get us patched up and on the road again. An honourable mention has to go to the passenger who was dispatched by the driver to find a particular sized piece of wood, when said size was not available he proceeded to try and split a bigger piece by placing it on the floor and hurling large rocks from a great height onto this poor branch...sadly to not much avail but at lest he was trying.

Once in Uyuni we realised that all of the guidebooks were correct, you don´t want to stick around!! It is not that it is particularly dangerous or nasty but, well, there just isn´t anything to do...as we found out. Cath had not been too well so we decided to take a day for her to recuperate and booked a tour out for the following day leaving us some time to chill...and boy was it cold. After finding out the the electricity going off in the middle of the day was quite normal and in fact something that most of the town was prepared for (by closing everything) there was only one thing for it and like Granny and Grandpa we hopped into bed with as many layers of clothes on as we could find!! There is not much more to say about Uyuni, we played some cards and had a couple of decent pizzas.


The mayor of Uyuni gets ready for a big night out


Yes, this place has a certain charm

The real draw of this dusty little town is the nearby salt flats and nature reserve that has all kinds of geological quirks. First we had to prepare for our border crossing and so went to the local migration office and got our post-dated exit stamps, three days later we would hop over the border into Chile.

The first stop on our tour proper was the train graveyard where a lot of the locomotives that powered the mineral export from Bolivia are now resting. It is like looking at a car park in a deprived part of UK and seeing a couple of Ford Sierras on blocks, but on a much larger scale!! There are about 15 shells in a barren expanse on the outskirts of this run down town, each bearing the scars of years of weather and neglect. Some great photo opportunities later we hopped back in our Toyota Landcruiser (vehicle of choice around these parts) with our 4 fellow passengers and headed for the salt.


Dead Train


The intrepid 6

The Salar de Uyuni (Salt of Uyuni literally) is the bed of a giant lake that was formed by the Andes poking up in the middle of what was then the Pacific Ocean, the water that was trapped dried and formed a crust of salt that is now 5m thick in most places and can therefore be walked, driven and built on. It is a strange experience when you first approach it, sunglasses are an absolute must as "snow" blindness is a real danger as is sunburn, it is so vast as to negate perspective to point of ridicule - allowing the creation of some amusing photo opportunities. After driving for about an hour and visit to the usual museum / gift shop we headed out first to see a salt hotel (more a rough bungalow created from salt blocks) and the freakish Isla de Pescadores where we stopped for lunch and to admire the rather suggestive hordes of cacti.


Salt "Hotel"


Cactusland


Massive nothingness


Some people trying very hard to get that photo - yes it is a caveman and spiderman!!


Ours was a little more sedate...but ahhhh!!

Onwards during the afternoon towards our saltside accommodation in one of the many salt hotels popping up, they are quite basic but in this hostile environment where temperatures get down to -15 and worse it is a welcome warm shelter for the night...and chance to catch up with some of the other groups over some old episodes of Heroes!!


Enjoying our warming dinner - and lollipops!

Day 2 started with the familiar Bolivian breakfast of hockey puck bread rolls and jam and coca tea with the added luxury of some scrambled eggs, boy were we treated!! The day itself was a study in the variation of landscapes available and lot´s of jumping out of the cruiser for snaps, we started on the flat white expanse of salt before moving to the loose rocky roads through the many peaks ending up in the desert-like sands leading into oases of blue, green and red lagoons where flamingos frolicked in their hundreds. I will cop out slightly as I don't have words to describe some of the things we encountered but hopefully some of the pictures will nearly do the landscape justice...but you really need to see some of this stuff!!!


This one is active!!


Gorgeous


Vicuña bottoms and scenery - they are related to Llamas


Flamingoes


7 coloured mountain

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Stone tree


Red lagoon


Snacking Llama

We all went to bed quite early that night with a swig of rum to send us off, this was firstly as it was again much warmer inside the 2 sleeping bags, rugs and duvet but also as we had a 4.30am start to get to geysers in time for their early morning blast. Despite the fact that we were all in varying stages of hypothermia we all bundled into the wagon and caught a few last minutes of kip before arriving at the lunar landscape that welcomes visitors to the highly active geothermal area around the Uyuni geysers. We all hopped out for the slightly staged photo where some clever soul had tapped into a vein allowing an impressive stream of steam to shoot 30ft in the air and then had some time to wander in the fog of the more natural hot pools and vents (I guess we were spoiled in NZ with our trip to Rotarua...or it could have been the temperature and hour but we didn´t spend too long looking around.) Given that it was now still only just after 5.30 next stop was breakfast, where our guide came up trumps with some freshly made cake (yes spongey goodness!!) topped with dulce de luce (spreadable caramel, we may have mentioned this before but YUM.) After filling our bellies we hopped in a hot pool to bring our body temperature up from 0 to a more pleasant 37 degrees!! It was so cold that when we got out our hair froze solid as we hadn´t dried it well enough in time!!


Getting ready for bed in the Salar Hilton


Steam


The natural environment


The only time we will get away with wearing a hat in the bath!!

Some more lagoons and spaced out landscapes raced by as we made the dash for the border post and waiting bus to take us down into San Pedro de Attacama, tourist haven and first stop in our last new country of the trip...we are definitely feeling the downward slope towards home now.


End of the line

This was one of the best trips we have taken in a very inhospitable but none-the-less stunning (to use my fave SA word) environments we have visited. Trying to take a photo of the 360 degree awe that awaits around some corners is impossble and you just have to stand and go "wow." The people that make their living in this corner of the world, whether it be from Llama herding, salt mining or the growing amount of tourism have my utmost respect for their determination and cheerfulness as everyone is always ready for a chat and joke.

I am sad to see the end of Bolivia, it has been a challenge in places but we have experienced so much and enjoyed almost every minute...barring a couple of journeys and sleepless nights!!