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We ended up choosing a tour operator recommended in the lonely planets and paid 70,000 for the three day tour (that’s about 80 quid by the way!!!!) First day was an 8am start and we headed straight to the border where it was absolutely freezing, but luckily we had a nice breakfast waiting for us there!! We met our jeep driver who spoke limited English (i.e. “come on lets go”) and he had brought along his wife to cook our meals and their 7 month year old son Milka! We found out that we were sharing our trip with two 65+ year old French-Swiss gents and a young German girl… absolute bundle of laughs were what we were anticipating, luckily they did speak English!! Day one was only a half day but we visited three beautiful lakes (green, white and red!) We also went to a natural thermal spring I took a plunge (Chloe refused!) and also some more geezers these ones were less impressive than Chile! We stopped in what can only be described as a shack around 2.30 (this was by the red lake or lagoon as they like to call them!) and were told we would be spending the rest of the night there! No running water, no flush on the toilet and no electricity bar some lights that didn’t really do their job!! We went for a bit of a walk around the lake which was quite amazing lots of flamingoes and stunning scenery! After that we had nothing much else to do and with the temperature falling (what with us being over 4000m above sea level) we decided our best bet would be to get into bed and attempt to stay warm!! After dinner which was surprisingly good, we actually went to bed properly and were looking forward to the prospect of sharing the room with the 2 old geezers one of which was supposed to be a chronic snorer!!
Day 2 we set off after breakfast around 9.00 this was the day where we did the bulk of the traveling! It was a VERY bumpy ride and we made a few stops taking in yet more lakes but also some impressive rock formations and a spot which inspired Salvador Dali (or so we were told). Probably the most impressive thing we saw on that day was an active volcano which appeared to have smoke rising from its crest (if that’s the technical term for the top!!!) Had lunch overlooking it then completed the final part of the trip to the Salt Hotel where we would stay. By this point one of the Swiss blokes, the one with the better English, was becoming a bit of a pest he repeated ridiculous questions like do we have tea with the queen etc. I began to give him short answers and a little bit of sarcasm in my responses and thankfully he left us alone and started to annoy the German girl instead!! We arrived at the Salt Hotel before the crowds thankfully so were able to have a hot (which meant tepid) shower before the hoards arrived later! The hotel was pretty cool everything made from salt and we had our own double room so didn´t have to share with our elderly tormentors, it was also a lot warmer than our previous dwelling!
Day three, we left around 8.30 and drove the short distance to the salt flats which were absolutely unbelievable like nothing I’ve seen before(Chloe had in California but was still wowed by the vastness off these) the slat was blinding white and faded into a perfectly blue sky absolutely beautiful! Our first stop was “Fish Island” which had no fish but thousands of Cactus. We trekked around this and got some incredible views out over the salt flats! Next stop was smack bang in the middle where we had the opportunity to take a load of pictures which we will upload when possible (the computers here are powered by hamsters!). Had great fun doing the pictures with the German girl whilst the other two wondered aimlessly across the flats for the best part of an hour, I was kind of hoping they got lost but no such luck! Third stop was the Salt museum which used to be Hotel but was closed for environmental reasons had some impressive sculpture but was basically the same as what we stayed in the previous night so no need for a long stop here! Saw some yobs (nationality unidentified) who were having a jolly ol´ time taking pictures of each over mooning and swearing at the Isreali flag (aren´t tourist great!!). Final stop was where they mine the salt which was just a vast area where workers were digging at the salt flats and arranging it into perfect heaps covering acres! We sadly departed the beauty of the salt flats and headed to the dive that is Uyuni city proper, here we visited a train cemetery (old rusting, abandoned trains!) and had a final lunch at our driver’s home. We stayed one night in Uyuni having tried and failed to make a quick exit as the bus didn’t depart to Tupiza until 6am the following day at a cost of 4 English pounds for the 10hr journey (Bolivia is crazy cheap), the upside was that we had a great pizza for 2 quid and watched an episode of Extras in our comfortable hotel room!
Until next time…..
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