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We set off at the much appreciated time of 10:30 allowing us a fuzzy head lie in and a quick breakfast. The Salar de Uyuni three day two night tour can be quite pricey although with a bit of patience deals can be found if you haven't any requirements (i.e. posh hotels, English-speaking guides, etc). We booked in with Red Planet Expeditions, more upmarket than most but we wanted an English guide which can be hard to come by, £120 or there abouts I believe we paid each. The tour included two nights accommodation. 4x4 transport, three hefty meals each day and a great informative talk on each destination we visited. Compared to other companies we crossed paths with our group was small with just three jeeps full, roughly 14 people of mixed nationalities. We shared our jeep with Mark and Ina a lovely Irish couple who were travelling north to San Francisco in a van, they were great company and it was a pleasure to spend the three days with them.
First stop was the Uyuni antique train graveyard. Filled with locomotives with hollowed out bodies that have completely rusted over and other remains, the "Great Train Graveyard" is found on the otherwise deserted outskirts of Uyuni, only a ten minute drive from the Uyuni town.
Uyuni has long been known as an important transportation hub in South America and it connects several major cities. In the early 19th century, big plans were made to build an even bigger network of trains out of Uyuni, but the project was abandoned because of a combination of technical difficulties and tension with neighbouring countries. The trains and other equipment were left to rust and fade out of memory.
Most of the trains that can be found in the Graveyard date back to the early 20th century and were imported from Britain. In other places in the world, the mighty steel trains would have held up better. The salt winds that blow over Uyuni, which hosts the world's largest salt plain, have corroded all of the metal. Without guards or even a fence, these pieces were picked over and vandalized long ago.
After this we visited the great salt flat of Uyuni (salar de Uyuni) on the outskirts seeing the salt pyramids; mining of salt and from there into the eye of the salt flats; and if there is anywhere in the world that makes you believe you have just touched down on the moon, its here! There was nothing to be seen in anywhere in any direction, other than our little group there was nothing! With a massive feel of nothingness all around, there was no breeze and very little sound. Climate was fresh but the bight white salt reflected beaming sun with a very high UV, sunscreen and sunglasses are a must. We did the obligatory perspective photos (making you lose all concept of size in a simply shot, people can look so small, its really funny).
Travelling just twenty minute we reach Incahuasi Island. Incahuassi has a total area of 61 acres and hosts gigantic cacti and a tourist centre. There are unusual and fragile coral-like structures and deposits that often consist of fossils and algae. The place is the top of the remains of an ancient volcano, which was submerged when the area was part of a giant prehistoric lake, roughly 40,000 years ago.
This was the end of day one already, the day had flown by and we were heading west to the small village of Atulcha to spend the first night in a salt flat hotel. Arriving there we enjoyed some hot coffee or chocolate, followed by a lovely supper.
The second day after an hour's drive we had left the Atulcha villages and reached the small desert of Chiguana south side of Uyuni salt flat. This desert surrounded for many volcanoes, dormant ones, extinct ones and one semi active called Ollague (5840 high) which we could see from the lookout. Later heading south to the Andean lagoons where flamingos were hanging around in hundreds, we settled there for a bit taking a ridiculous amount of photos of each flamingo, really enjoyed seeing them and I got to test out my new camera properly. We continued south to the big desert of Siloli at 4550 high (highest and driest in the world) And the most amazing place was next...the red lagoon! with even more pink flamingos!! the redness of the water from the view point was absolutely stunning and looked completely surreal. To end the second day we had a long drive to volcano Sol de Mañana 5000 high there you can see the crater and the fumaroles and boiling mad pots (volcanic activity 100 Cº hot). Great second day, somewhat compact but full of great things to see, not to mention the two stops we had to take close to another hundred photos of llamas; cant get enough of flamingos and llamas here!
The last day consisted of a lot of driving so we had an early start enabling us to reach Uyuni for 5pm. The accommodation that night was more like a hostel, six in our room with a big communal eating area, with the optional dip in the hot springs outside. The mountainous views around us were incredible.
Our only stop for the third day was the green lagoons. However, when we got there it was blue! The colour changes according to the weather, or so our guide told us, if there is little wind the lake will be blue before midday but come afternoon gradually turns green. Nether-the-less, it was still a great sight to see.
Our two Irish friends were from here to transfer over Chilean boarder, customs was only a twenty minute drive so we would head there to again say some farewells to some lovely people. From there, we would make the six hour drive back to the Uyuni town to end the trip.
With just me, Paul, Chris and our two guide we had a chilled out scenic drive back with a quick lunch stop in a tiny town on the way back. Arriving back around 5pm we were zonked from an amazing packed three days of sightseeing, storytelling and adventure.
More farewells...really are beginning to hate them! Especially when its to Chris. After a cheap and cheerful chicken dinner in a small street cafe it was time to move on. We were both sad to say our goodbyes, we didn't like to leave him on his own, a grown man, yes I know! But still sad to move on after such a great and amusing (always in Chris' company) time spent hanging out. After saying our 'see you back in the Shires' we head sadly on our way boarding another night bus to Sucre.
Thanks to Chris for waiting around in Uyuni, allowing us to catch up and spending the time out on the Uyuni tour with us; one of which I would like to mention he has already done before, got to be good to do it twice over! Safe rest of travels Chris!
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