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Our third day on the salt flat tour was another early start at 6.30am and we left our accommodation at 7.30am for another full day of sightseeing. We slept quite well in the homestay accommodation even though it was quite cold through the night. I think the 3 blankets we had each helped.
Our first stop was to see the Black Lake and the surrounding rock formations which were again spectacular. We cloned some of these rock formations which overlooked the black lake to get a good vantage point. There was a rock in the shape of a camel which a couple of the group climbed but I didn't given my particular dislike for anything above a couple of metres.
We had lunch in a secluded spot opposite some llamas and sheep which were happily grazing. We tucked in to the excellent food and enjoyed the views across the valley.
In the afternoon we first visited a canyon with river flowing at the bottom in the shape of a snake. the views were spectacular as there was a rock which protruded out into the canyon an some of our group, Beth included, lay flat against the rock an leaned out over the canyon to get some great pictures. I did venture onto the rock but couldn't even look when people were lying face down on the rock to get a good picture. We then visited a museum which housed remains of old tribes which had been discovered in the area. Some f the stories were pretty gruesome given that anyone with a disability, whether a child who was born with a disability or an adult who had an accident, was drugged and placed into clay pots and entombed in coral. They were still alive when the was done and slowly they died given the lack of oxygen. We saw the remains of some of these people and also the mummified remains of the queen from the time.
After this we headed to a local shop where we were allowed to purchase some treats and alcohol. Beth refrained given that she was still struggling a bit with the altitude but I didn't want to be rude so took the advice of Pablo, a Spanish guy living in Bolivia, and purchased a can of Bolivia's finest lager. The altitude definitely helps alcohols effects!!! This was particularly important given that our driver had two cans and then decided to race the other driver to the salt hostel. Only in Bolivia!!!
We arrived at the hostel made completely of salt at around 5pm and were delighted that it looked better than our previous two nights accommodation. Beth headed straight for the hot shower and I promptly followed to form an orderly queue as the English do!!! After our showers, we sat with the rest of the group to have tea and enjoy a couple of drinks as our guides had provided a bottle of local red wine for each of the groups. After breaking the news that we needed to be up at 5am the following morning to see the sun rise over the flats, a few of the group went to bed whilst we stayed up and had a game of killer with Marie and Rachel from England and Natasha from South Africa. We were still in bed by 9.30 to make sure that we could get up the next morning.
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