3 day and 2 night Stay in the Salt Flats...Bolivia - big thanks to Manisha and Bhavin for the wedding present!
14th September
We got up around half 8ish and had breakfast before checking out and heading to our tour place. We dumped our bags and went to grab some throat lozenges and water. We couldn't decide whether to buy booze or not. We stood around for a bit, trying to size up the other people on our first ever tour. We made some first impressions of who we would and would not get on with, then listened to a speech from the owner of the tour company – he used to be a miner in Potosi – mainly about how our drivers would not get drunk and we would have a great time etc. We got organised into our two cars and we made our introductions to everyone there – we decided that we had got the best car. We had an Aussie bloke next to us called Yuri, behind us was a German bloke called Mario and two English girls called Lizzie and Kate. Our driver was called Eusabio, or something, who made a stop to pick up a big bag of coco leaves before we headed off to the 'Train Cementary'
The Train Cemetary is exactly what it says on the tin, a place where old locomotives where left when they were no longer needed anymore. See pics you will get the picture.
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| Toot toot! |
Next we headed off into the Salt Flats itself...during the journey we chatted about random stuff like where we had been, what we were doing, travelling etc. Me, Neil and Yuri hit it off as he was from Oz (Sydney) and we were going there so we exchanged what to do, see, tips etc.
Before heading to the Salt Flat we stopeed at a small town where we saw the process of how the Salt is made into Table Salt. 150Kg cost 10 Boliviano (around £1) and they can get as much as they want from the Salt Flat as it is free!!! We then looked around the shops and in particular a shop which had the largest Ilama in the world made from Salt!!! It wasn't as great as it sounded, sorry no pics on this. But we saw a cool old car..see pic.
We then drove some more until we reach the Salt Flats....it is an amazing sight, painfully bright, you can see for miles, completely flat and white. Here is where we got creative and did some perspective shots...see pics. Everyone does them and in the car we were talking about what we could do, the guide was great and bought lots of toys to play with YAY. Me, Neil and Yuri had a great idea..Andy we will send it to you personally!! It is great to see everyone doing weird things in the desert and actually it is pretty hard to do.
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| Raarr!!! |
After a few hours of photo snapping the guide took a photo of the whole group...see pic. But as there were so many of us we had to do this over and over again...it got tiring in the hot midday sun.
After we had lunch...not great as we opted to be vegetarians but ok none the less...I wish I ate more as dinner was a shocker...let you know about that later. After this we got to find out more information on the Salt Flats for example 13,000 sqaured km and it actually isn't the bottom of the lake it is actually a thin layer of salt and sediment on top of the water. Driving on a thin layer of salt with a Jeep with 8 people in and luggage on the roof now seemed more daunting.
Just goes to show you the amazing strength of a giant ionic structure. Later up the road we stopped to look at some holes in the crust – it was only about 5 inches thick. I dug around in one of the holes for a bit but the drivers managed to find some really big crystals. By this point word had got around that I was a science teacher. “Oi science teacher!”, someone shouted, “Why are the crystals square?”. I replied with as much honesty and detail as I could., “Because that's just the way it goes together...”. Don't think anyone was impressed. I was impressed by some of the facts though – there is also a lot of lithium found in the salt – 60% of the world's lithium in fact. It still amazes me how rich Bolivia is in terms of minerals but how poor it ends up.During the day we did a lot of driving and then getting out seeing Salt in various froms, mounds, blocks, furniture and as nature intended i.e. hexagonal. During the facts and picture taking our Jeep during the driving chatted and bonded on TV, Films, music, i Pods and who would you turn for...all expectionally adult games you would say.
When we arrived at yet more Salt but this time the hexagonal floor which is how the salt naturally dries out, more of the group asked our resident Science teacher as to why it was this shape, Neil gave some answer that Salt normally dries in cubes but water evaporates in hexagonal and this may be the reason as to why it is the way it is. Others came up wuth other answers but no one seemed confident, the guide agreed with Neil, but if you look closely at the photos not all are Hexagonal.....this started to shakes Neil's theory as he began counting the floor.
After more driving we got out to see the sunset...amazing and breathtaking yet as the sun goes down it get very very cold! We then drove to our hotel for the night which a Salt Hotel, however when driving we passed some building which frankly looked like they were straight out of a horror movie (you know the type where people who are stranded and happen to stumble across a old building whoich later they die in..you get what I mean) You should see our faces as we apprached these thinking we may have to stay and possible die that night...we had previously been talking about horror films.
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| This looked scarier at night... |
We got to our destination and, in the dim light, it appeared that the name of the place was written in letters formed from human bones above the door. This caused some members of our group to start acting in a slightly hysterical manner. The hotel was actually OK, considering that it was constructed entirely out of salt. We got our room – a twin – then settled down with the rest of our group for a hot drink and a game of cards. We started playing the only game that everyone seems to know but the name of which I can't write due to the younger members who may be reading this. It was around 7 and we were told that we had 2 hours of electicity left. After a few rounds of cards, I overheard people from the next table moaning that we had stolen their table. I ignored them as they appeared to be a bunch of miserable buggers.
After a while, three small boys dressed in alpaca hats and ponchos came up to where we were all sitting. The oldest one grabbed one of the others and pulled him to the front, despite his obvious embarrassment, and told us all (in Spanish) that they were going to perform some musical numbers for us. With Scared Boy on maracas and the other two on pan pipes, with Older Boy singing with great emotion, we were treated to song after song of traditional Andean classics. This was cute at first. I pointed out to B that the table of MBs did not even crack a smile while the chicos were doing their thing. A dog kept trying to join in.
After they had finished, some bloke came over and told us that we were on someone eleses table and that we had to move. We all refused to do anything until our man told us that we had to so we got relegated to a makeshift table at the side. While we waited for our dinner, me and B went to check out the shower situation. Our guide came over to me and said that we were in luck. I had previously asked him, half-jokingly, when the bar opened. He jokingly replied that it didn't matter as we wouldn't be able to get past the drivers to get a drink. Our luck was in though as they had found that they had 4 bottles of beer and a bottle of wine left. I immediately bought 2 of the bottles of beer (for an extortionate price of 20 Bs) and was served by a boy of around 10 or 11. It turned out that he was also in charge of the showers and I had to pay him for the priveledge of a hot one. I gave him 10 Bs and he asked for another 10 as there was two of us. I told him that only B was going to have a shower. This meant that when we both went for a shower later, I had to keep hiding from him, so he wouldn't see that my hair was also wet. This is the first time that I have had to hide from a child to avoid paying a pound. At one point I was hiding behind the door while B explained to some girl that she had paid the 10Bs and it was only her that had had a shower.
Our dinner consisted of omelette and chips. The others didn't realise that the chips were for the few vegetarians so all helped themselves, leaving us with possibly the saltiest omelette in the world. Before we tried it B asked if there was any salt – this made me laugh as we were in a hotel constructed entirely out of salt. We really didn't need it anyway.
At around 9:20, someone from the 'other table' came over and said that the hotel would give us an extra hours electricity if we gave them 20 Bs. We were like – well, go on then – and begrudgingly coughed up 10, so that we could continue to play cards. The card game made it clearer that some members of the groups were maybe a little stand-offish and we were pleased that they weren't in our car but felt sorry for the nice couple (Maria and Michael) who had to be in that car with them. Anway, we kept playing until the lights went out, then kept playing with head torches and candles until we were all to knackered / cold / bored to continue. The fact that we had to get up at 6:30 the next day didn't help.
15th Sept
We woke at dawn and it was bloody freezing. We got a breakfast of scrambled eggs, bread and stuff and packed our bags for a 7 am departure. We drove round all day looking at lagoons and deserts and stuff.
B wants me to add more detail... We stopped off at a shop at first and we all queued up to buy booze. We decided to split a bottle of rum with Michael and Maria. We spent ages driving but kept stopping regularly to look at lagoons in the middle of nowhere. They were all different colours due to all the minerals and stuff and were generally full of flamingos. We had lunch at one which was named 'The Smelly Lagoon' or something. I had to pay 5 bolivianos to use the toilet and it turned out I was just full of gas so I paid 50p to fart in a small hut. Lunch was nice, like yesterday, a decent salad, avocado, warm potato salad. Our guide told everyone that they were eating flamingo but it was probably chicken... After loads more driving we got to, what our drunk friend earlier had refered to as, “The most famous rock in the... World”. See pictures...
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| Catching a rock apple from the rock tree |
During the time in the car we had i pod playing with various music...some from Oz (Thanks Juri) and an array from Izzy (Thank you too) The driver and cook in the car with us seemed to hate our music and the cook would have her own MP3 in her ears, sing along and knit all day. At one point we thought the driver like our music as he was tapping the steering wheel but actually he had his MP3 in his ears and was listening to something else and still chewing on Coca leaves. Also during the drive bits from the roof were falling off, bags, rope (this is where our bags were) and the driver would stop but then didn't seem to bother and drive on..we were all worried that our bags would be left behind. We talked more about home, jobs, freinds, family, wedding etc and go to know the people in our jeep.
We drove some more and saw some more lagoons and flamingos. Eventually we got to the big lagoon called, 'Lagoon Colorado' due to it's red colour. Our accomodation was next to the lagoon – it was certainly basic but it was fine. We were sharing 6 to a room and it was definitely going to be cold. Our dinner consisted of vegetarian spaghetti and entertainment from girls similar to the previous night (when the boys did it) but the girls had miserable faces, no passion and sounded terrible, they asked for money as well to but school supplies so we did then thinking that there was no school around for miles so they prob were lying.
After dinner we spent the night getting drunk and playing cards, another guide called Juan joined us as his group were boring and had gone to bed, scaring people in their rooms with wrestling masks, being silly like in Carry on Films, hysterical (due to the altitude of course) and basically acting as us teacher would on Residential...those who come to this know exactly what I mean. We went out to look at the stars which were amazing but due to the freezing temp we quickly went back inside. We ran out of light and so we lit some candles and tried to go to the bathroom...the doors had holes in so people could see (basic we told you), also me and Neil had to try and take our contacts out of our eyes in candlelight...very difficult to do. Went to bed, wearing all our clothes as it was so cold. I didnt sleep well as Neil snored most of the night along with Juri!
16th September...actually still the 15th
Our wake up call was 5.30am!!!! that is right it was still dark when we had to get up. We were told by our guide the previous night that we had to be up and have very little time (around 15 minutes) to get up and get out. This is why the previous night the cook and guide told us to get to bed early..in a very parental fashion and so as children we rebelled.
Anyway we got a wake up call and in the dark and freezing cold we had to get up, sit on a very cold toilet seat, brush teeth with cold water, no shower and had to put on our swimming stuff as we would be later that day going to the thermal spa...nice idea but at the time I didnt really fancy taking my clothes off to put it on. By the way not sure how it happened but for once I wore my bra to bed (due to the cold) and it broke in the middle of the night..problem was I had no other one with me and had to endure more bumpy movement in the Jeep that day. Anyway we headed out in the night towards the geyser and bubbling mud pits, this time we had a different group and jeep as we were now split in to those who would go to Chile and those who would be going back to Uynui. We still had Kate and Lizzy and were joined by Maria and Micheal...which was a nice group however we missed Juri. The jeep was heaps loads better with soft seats more room and newer.
I have to be honest at this point no one was talking due to the time of the day and how tired we all were. We saw the geyser..see pic it was warm and so that was the only thing I liked at this time of the morning. The bubbling mud pits were good but really smelly and so made me feel a little sick.
We then headed to the thermal springs to have breakfast...mmmmm cold pancakes..really thick. I had to go to the toilet which was ok as it was ecological but some people dont know which hole to use for which release! Then we went tot he thermal spa which was not what I imagined..it was crowded with people and not very big, I was considering not to do it, but due to the temperature and that fact I had bothered to put on my tankini at 5am I was going in. Once in it was amazing, warm and everything I needed as we had not had a shower that day and it was the warmest water I have had in a while. Not all the group joined in, Juri told me that when he got in he would pee...nice information.
Spa was good but we had to get out which was the problem – v cold – B decided to pay the 2 bolivianos to use the changing room. Unfortunately she also took my pants in with her by accident so I had to stand there with no undercrackers on for about 10 mins while our guide kept shouting at me to get a move on. We headed off again to our final stop which was the green lagoon. It wasn't green when we got out but, whenever the wind blew, it changed colour from red to green – no idea why...
The other jeep were going to leave us to head for the Chilean border so we made our goodbyes and swapped emails etc. We basically started off on the long drive back all the way up to Uyuni, occasionally stopping for more photos such as 'The Salvador Dali desert' and some rocks that look like things. Oh – I forgot about the rabbit/chinchilla things – I asked what they were called and someone told me they were called 'Pokemons' or something...
We got back to Uyuni after the long drive but we'd had fun just chatting to the others and stuff. We headed out to the pizza place again for a drink with Lizzie and Kate before they headed off for the bus to La Paz. After umming and ahhing, we decided it was worth us getting a cheap room for a few hours – it was 7pm and our train left at 1:45 am – the room cost 60 bolivianos so it was worth it just for the chance to shower, sort out our bags and even sleep for an hour or two. We got to the train and all my hopes came true as we climbed into 'executive class'. It was heated, we had big seats, when the train set off the man came over and offered us a pillow and blanket. Generally pretty good for 8 quid. Having said that, I didn't sleep particularly well as it got colder later on but I couldn't be bothered to get a blanket. In the morning we got a sandwich, I had a cup of coca tea and watched a never-ending video of 'Just for Laughs'. We got to Ururo about 9 and were on a bus to La Paz by 9:30 – smooth all the way.
Click the link to see the full photo album (there's a lot...)
