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Pass the salt ....

The Salar de Uyuni salt flats are the largest and highest salt flats in the world - and are deemed to be ´THE´thing to do in Bolivia. Whoever said that was so right, it was the most rediculously beautiful place I´ve ever been. It contains 10 billion tonnes of salt and covers an area of more than 10,000 KM squared at an altitude of nearly 4000m! Luckily we didn´t see ALL of it.

The thing to do was to take a 3 day/2 night 4x4 jeep tour which covered the salt flats and a number of amazing lagoons. So after a very rocky 12 hour overnight bus from La Paz, Alan, Kenny and I arrived in Uyuni and tried to get on a tour. They were all booked up for that day so we had to hang around until the following morning. Uyuni wasn´t exactly a thriving metropolis! So come 10.30, we met with 3 chatty Ozzies who were going to share our Toyata Landcruiser from Andrea Tours. We met our friendly (non-english speaking) guide and his wife who was going to cook for us for the 3 days. Guess who was elected (bad) translator for the 3 days??

So fast forward past a couple of stops and onto the Salar. It was AMAZING. We were lucky in that for only 2 months of the year, the Salar is covered in a thin layer of water, and that provides the most gorgeous reflections of the sky. Looking into the distance, it´s hard to make out where the sky ends and the land begins. Unbelievably gorgeous. The locals process this salt and sell it for half nothing, there is even a hotel build entirely of salt smack bang in the middle of the plains ...... after an hour on the salar taking pictures, we were all fried with the sun and COVERED in salt - once the water gets on you and dries, you´re completely encrusted with the stuff!

Our accommodation on the tour was basic, but fun all the same. We were lucky with the group of 6 that we had. We saw loads of amazing desert scenery and volcanos, and mountain lagoons - I never knew that Bolivia was so desert-like, and the colours of the red mountains were amazing. We saw Flamingos and Vicunas too, geysers and thermal pools. Just 3 days of being blown away by the scenery.

On our last morning, we had an early start, 4am. Didn´t go down too well since the previous night we bought out the hostel ´bar´(if you could call it that) of 3 six-packs, 2 bottles of rum, 2 bottles of coke, and 2 bottles of wine. All for about a tenner. Ouch. After 8 hours of solid driving, we got back into Uyuni where we had to hang around for the Night train to Tupiza, close to the Argentinean border. At this stage we´re looking forward to getting a bit lower and a bit warmer!

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