I am catching up on blogs again as we have been travelling at a fast place and I have been lazy so sorry about that! We arrived in Uyuni bright and early on a bus from La Paz. We had breakfast then we headed off to book a trip to the largest and highest salt flat in the world! We booked a 3 day trip which cost $80 US. After buying a few bits and bobs in the one decent shop (Uyuni is a bit of a ghost town with not much there) we met the 3 other people in our group; an American guy and a couple from England. We then loaded up the 4x4 jeep with our rucksacks and headed for the Salt flats!
Day 1
We reached the salt flats relatively quickly and could see why a 4x4 was needed. The roads if you can call them that, were terrible! We just saw a vast white expanse with a clear blue sky. We headed out and took some amusing pictures for half an hour or so, then continued on. There were places where salt water bubbles to the surface of the salt flat. We also saw a hotel made completely from salt but apparently it is illegal to build on the salt flat so it seemed strange that it was there as it stands out a bit!
Next we headed to Isla del Pescado, a coral island raised up from the ocean bed covered in tall cacti.
We continued onwards after lunch by Isla del Pescado and left the salt flat later that day and got to our hostel. It was tiny but we managed to get a hot shower in the evening after we had gone out to see the sunset. Unfortunately we just missed it as our driver was late! However, we did see the moon rise! It came up so quickly and the colours were fantastic, it looked much better than the sunset! We then got some much needed rest as we had an early start as we were coming back out to see the sunrise!
Day 2
After watching the sunrise we had breakfast and headed onwards. We drove a long way and saw some amazing rock formations, including a rock which looked like a crocodile which I spotted! We then did a spot of climbing and saw a smoking volcano in the distance before heading on again. We stopped at a couple of lagoons and saw hundreds of flamingos before reaching the red lagoon, Colorada, which was an amazing sight. It is red in colour because of some minerals from the surrounding rocks and plankton in the water. We reached our hostel quite late and it was a really cold night as we were up above 4000m.
Day 3
We had another early morning but I didn't mind so much as we went to a hot spring! Just before we got there we visited guizers and saw lots of thermal activity. It smelt very strongly of sulphur but was really good to look at! It was freezing cold as it was not even 7am but once we got in the water it was lovely and really did not want to get out! When we did finally get out we had pancakes for breakfast so it was not too bad! It was so cold my swimming shorts froze solid in the time we ate breakfast when they were drying on the fence!! Next we headed on and saw some more amazing rock formations, the scenery was truly beautiful, all the mountains are so colourful. We finally reached the last sight of our trip, the green lagoon, Verde. This was not quite as good as Colorada but again it was a beautiful place. We had a really long drive back to Uyuni and slept quite a lot. While I was sleeping I bashed my head when we hit a bump and snapped my sunglasses! We visited the train graveyard at Uyuni were lots of abandoned trains were which was also pretty cool. We then went back to get ready to head to Argentina.
Back in Uyuni
We had booked our train ticket before we left for the slat flats so were feeling happy all we had to do was get on it and sleep, or so we thought! It was delayed... and then cancelled! There had been a blockade on the line and the train could not get through. So we ended up staying the night at a hostel and would try and book a bus in the morning as the trains did not leave again until the evening and the same could happen again.
We got up early and could not find a bus that left until the evening, we wanted to leave as soon as possible though as we were short on time so hunted for hours for a 4x4 ride. Eventually we got a guy to take us, so we (Liam, John, myself and the 3 guys from our salt flat trip) departed in a 4x4 (again!) heading for Villazon on the border. We crossed the Altiplano, and the drive had more amazing scenery. We went through river beds and up mountains around a crazy road which buses also take! We got to the town Tupiza, which is where our driver lived. Conveniently, the 4x4 had a problem with the alternator and after an hour or so of trying to fix it Bernardo (the driver) said he was unable to continue to Villazon! We were all annoyed, especially as he managed to drive us to a hostel after the breakdown! John Liam and I just stayed up all night on the internet as the bus to Villazon left at 4am. We finally got to Villazon and got straight on a bus to Salta in Argentina! We were all well tired and slept well on the way there!!
