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Uyuni
From La Paz we travelled overnight (on the coldest bus in the world)
to Uyuni, the edge of Salar de Uyuni or the Bolivian Salt Flats. Day 1
was spent in the town of Uyuni thawing out. We did visit a train
graveyard while we were there. It mightnt sound impressive but being
surrounded by old rusty trains is quite weird and worth the visit.
Day 2 saw us set off into the desert in a 4 x 4. The landscape here is
pretty desolate, dust and rocks everywhere broken up by the occasional
flamingo lake. There are literally hundreds of these pink birs around
one of these lakes. Everyone slept in their clothes that night is was
so cold (approx -20 c outside).
The next morning we set off at 4:30 am in the sub zero dark. Our 4 x 4
had no heating and I dont think Ive ever been so cold in my life. Our
car broke down for 20 minutes in the middle of nowhere and I thought
we had had it! Eventually the sun came up and we visited some hot
springs which helped restore normal feeling. Later that morning we
visited some volcanic geysers. This was a classic example of Bolivian
health and safety. You were allowed walk across bubbling pools of
sulphuric lava no problem. Very cool thing to see though. Keeping with
the theme, that afternoon we got to see an active volcano (from a
distance). After 13 hours of driving in a 4 x 4 over bumpy roads we
were all early to bed that night.
The next morning we left before 6am to get to the actual Salt Flats
for sunrise. The journey, the cold and the early starts were more than
worth it. Seeing the sun rise over miles and miles off nothing but
white salt is amazing and you have to look at the pics to see what I
mean. We spent the morning on the "island" of Incahausi, a mount of
rocks in the middle of the Salt flats, climbing lava formations and
taking pictures.
We then drove back to Uyuni stopping on the way for a hurdle race over
Salt mountains. The Salar de Uyuni are definetly worth the visit to
Bolivia. Spectacular!!!
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