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The next part of our trip is something we'd both been looking forward to - a 3 day, 2 night trip from San Pedro, Chile to Uyuni, Bolivia, taking in the sights of the Bolivian high plains and infamous salt flats as we went.
We spent 3 days travelling in a convoy of 4x4 vehicles across bumpy terrain. I found it amazing that the guides knew where to go as, quite frankly, there was nothing to give any clues as to where we should turn apart from the occasional tyre track in the dirt.
We were also kept entertained by 5 Australians who were also on the tour. We all shared laughs along the way, especially when they said 5 minutes after meeting Tom...'Has anyone ever said you look like Ewan McGregor?' and the jokes continued over with 'Shouldn't you be doing this tour on your motorbike?!'
The trip really didn't disappoint. The views were outstanding, and surprisingly so different at every part we came across. Over the 3 days we visited a number of stunning lagunas of all different colours which were also home to various species of flamingo. We got to paddle in natural thermal pools, which because of the 4,800m altitude left us a bit light-headed afterwards (and unfortunately for Tom his altitude headache lasted well into the night on our first day). I could go on for hours about the stunning views, but the pictures speak for themselves.
The final day of our trip was the highlight of it all, and boy did we make the most of it by getting up at 3.30am. We spent the night in a 'Salt Hotel' (everything inside the hotel was made of salt) and departed to experience the sun rise over the epic salt flats. The immense scale of the flats is something that can't be given justice with words. It is 12,000 square kilometres in size, and 80 metres deep in parts. After watching the sun rise, we drove further into the flats to Huasi Inca Island. After driving through so much stretching expanse with nothing, it was odd to come across a hilly island full of cactus. This island is left over from when the salt flats were a lake, many many moons ago.
We then rounded off the trip taking photos on the flats that allow perspective to play tricks on reality... It made a change to be taller than Tom for once.
Feeling tired and weary, we were dropped in Uyuni where the tour ended. We had a 6 hour wait until our overnight bus to La Paz. Unfortunately for us, Uyuni consists of one street with a small square in the middle. The Internet cafe was slower than the dial up connections of old and the pizzerias that adorn this one street blast out 90s pop to the street. Needless to say we were keen to get on our bus.. but not when we found out the 'luxury' tourist bus was not running. Local bus here we come...
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Neil Must say it sounds great - envy you. Tom will be desolated to hear that Keith shaded a 3-0 win at snooker on Monday