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So next we embarked on a 3 day, 2 night tour of the Bolivian salt flats, the salar de Uyuni. which for us started at san pedro de atacama in chile and would take us up and over the border to uyuni in bolivia which stands 3800m above sea level. We did the tour in old 4 by 4 jeeps, 6 of us in the jeep who we would come to get to know very well over the next few days. We crossed the border early in the morning and our first glimpse of Bolivia where the rather run down immigration post where we paid our 'border tax' and had breakfast. The back drop wasnt too bad with two giant volcanoes sat in the back ground. Afterwards we set off across the desert passing some strange stone formations and lots of mountains arriing eventually at a geysier park almost 5000m above sea leel. We had a good look around the bubbling mud pools and steaming geysiers before realising we were well within the 'dangerous' area.. ooops! Next we stopped at our hostel for the night which was right next to a massive blue lagoon, surrounded by mountains. After lunch we had a walk around the lagoon, attempting to get better photos of the pink flamingos who inhabit the lake, and happening on a group of llamas out for an afternoon stroll. Walking at over 4000m quickly takes its toll with even a small stroll quickly taking your breath away. Its a weird feeling as your hearts thumping and your fighting for breath after meerly crossing a road, hopefully something we would get used to after a while!
We chilled for the rest of the afternoon playing cards and getting to the know the other 3 jeeps who were with our tour company. After dinner we played some more cards and wrapped up warm for our extremely cold night with no heating and only blankets to protect us from the cold. We decided against getting up early and braving the morning frost to see the sunrise but made it up in time for breakfast and heading on with our trip. First off the next day we stopped at the stone tree which is a stone that has been weathered to look like a tree. We saw some gorgeous lakes some which reflected the mountains beautifully and most of which had more flamingos basking in the sun. We sat by one of these lakes to eat another amazing lunch and take in our surroundings. Our final stop on the second day was the first salt plains, we were a little underwhelmed as they were not the perfect white salt covered flats we were expecting so we held out hopes that the ones the following day would be better. We passed the bolivian military base on our way to the second hostel which was a little intimidating before we settled in a little village for the night. Another relaxed night ensued, with more cards before we headed to bed early to get up for sunrise the next day.
We made it out of bed early and just about made it to the salt flats in time for sunrise! This was much more what we imagined, perfect white salt in every direction as far as the eye could see. After taking the sunrise shots our minds turned to the real job at hand. The salt flats take away perspective so you can take really interesting photos as if you are all in the same line of sight, so after some interesting shots of us rowing hats, jumping out of wine bottles and eating each other we headed off past the salt mines to the small mining village for lunch. Our final stop of the tour was at the train cemetry where trains have been left to disintegrate and rust just outside the town of Uyuni. It was a slightly weird place to visit and we didnt quite get the point of it but it made for some interesting photos anyway. So we headed into uyuni passing police with massive guns, which didnt quite entice us to stay, so we decided to get out of there as soon as we could!
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