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When our time at the animal sanctury was up Craig, Dan, myself, Kate and Lexi all head off for the Salt Flats in Uyuni via Cochobamba and Sucre. After a plane flight and a couple of dodgy bus rides- including a psycho mini-van driver whose average speed was 150kms, a traffic jam which kept us completely stagnant for over an hour and a bus full of obnoxious Israelis- we arrived in Uyuni. Having heard that it was a complete s***hole we were pleasantly surprised to see that it in fact wasn´t as bad as the reports-it was a little desolate, ugly and the food was terrible- but we weren´t there for the food, we were there for the salt! We set out on our one-day tour equipt with toy dinosaur, a bottle of wine and two bottles of rum. Firstly we were taken to an area with giant Cacti that were impressive because of their age and size (apparently they are over a thousand years old and 10-15meters). We then went to a train graveyard which was a weird as it sounds- a bunch of old unused English trains dumped in the middle of nowere. It was kind of fun jumping on them but after about 10minutes we were done and wanted to get out into the fields of salt, particularly with a rather dark storm cloud looming. After waiting for the driver to get his head out of the bonnet (not overlly filling us with confidence) we set off past some seriously sad looking towns, salt factories from the stoneage and workers digging up the salt. After a beer at the salt hotel our driver found a spot away from other cars so as far as the eye could see was salt! Being in the middle of the rainy season the entire region had a thin layer of water on it giving a perfect reflection of the sky and the feeling of walking through the clouds. It was phenomal, like nothing I have seen before! The water did make it hard to do the funny shots and after about half an hour the wind picked up making it quite unpleasant being out there getting sun and wind burnt. So, having convinced the poor Korean couple that were also on the tour that we should wait the two hours until sunset, it was back to the salt hotel to crack into our alchohlic goods over some suitably dirty yet hilarious conversation.
The sun setting over the Salt flats was absolutely extraordinary, the most beautiful thing I have seen. We ran around doing funny silhouette photos and taking it all in. Craig was so inspired by this wander of nature he decided to get his kit off and get a naked shot to frame for his parents when he gets home! Once the sun had set and we had had our fun we took off on the hour long drive back to Uyuni polishing off the rum and generally being loud and drunk- Dan sticking Metallica on, me yelling at him to change the music, the boys loving the music, then stopping the van to take a pea. The Koreans were pretty shocked I think! Once back in town after some food and photo sharing the singing didn´t stop with Kate being inspired by a Pavaorti DVD that was playing in the restaurant. After her attempt at Opera we all joined in to sing Tiny Dancer on our walk back to the hostel through the streets of Uyuni- perfect end to a perfect day!
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