Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
uyuni is the main departure point for the salar de uyuni, which is the biggest (and therefore best) salt flat in the world. its also the highest, think we were up to about 3600m now so spent quite a lot of time panting when trying to walk up stairs/do anything. the town of uyuni is a bit of a dump though, it was like a ghost town when we arrived and nothing was open after about 10pm, so had a bit of a mare trying to find anything to eat when we arrived. luckily managed to sort out a tour of the salar for the next day so didnt have to stay there very long, and set off in another jeep the following morning. went first to a train graveyard with loads of big rusty trains that used to go to chile before the railways fell into disuse, someone had written a big physics equation on one of them which made me happy. for some reason though after that our perfectly good driver took us back to the agency and swopped himself for someone who im pretty sure was about 14 and had to be shown how to use the gearstick, not too reassuring! he managed to get us to the salt flat though, which was amazing, completely flat and white as far as you can see. could just make out the curvature of the earth as well, 2 dimensions in curved space, love the physics. yessss. took a few generic salt flat photos then went to the isla de pescado, which they cheekily charged us extra to get into, still pretty cool though. big island in the middle of the salar with loads of cacti and other tourists taking photos. went wandering off on my own for a break from speaking spanish all day and met an australian girl and later her brother who were quite cool, so met up with them again later.
in the evening after several hours driving across the salt flat we went to a volcano overlooking the salar, where there was a hostel to stay the night. the edge of the salar is really wet with big pools of water, which me and nathan (the australian) decided to go wading into, turns out after about a metre the salt crust gives way and you end up up to your knees in thick black sludge, lovely. absolutely incredible sunset though, all the pools are perfectly flat and reflective so got some awesome photos. saw a casual flamingo strolling around as well. got really cold at night because of the altitude so went inside after that and stayed up late talking to ayelen and clara (the argentinians), about the falklands, che guevara, the disappeared, etc, quite interesting to get the argentinian perspective. also met two more crazy argentinian girls from BA, so much wild gesticulating and loud spanish, head hurts.
had a bit of a hike up the volcano the next day, so much harder because of the altitude! the australians were on a different tour and cruised past us in their jeep looking smug, not ideal. eventually made it to a cave where there were loads of partially mummified skeletons, very creepy, then went back down at sat around for ages waiting for our guide, probably had to finish school and do his homework. this meant by the time we got back to uyuni it was too late to get a bus to potosi, however luckily the girls pulled out the fiery latina temper and had a go at the tour company, who eventually said we could stay in the agency overnight for free! also bumped into a irish bloke i knew who was friends with the jamie who i was mates with in buenos aires so went out for a well deserved beer in a little cafe with loads of posters of arnie on the walls and the best tv show ever, basically the same as takeshis castle but with scantily clad latinas running around getting pushed into pools of gunge by big muscly men. optimal dinnertime viewing. had a really good sleep on the floor, despite two people apparently trying to break in in the middle of the night and the girls shouting at them for ages. cleverly slept through it though, probably for the best, then went to potosi the next morning.
- comments