Strange Rocks and Salt Flats

Far out brussel sprout!  My trip to the Salaar de Uyuni was amAZing! It's gonna be hard to put into words but here goes... 

Arbol de Piedra

The only way to really see this area in the southwest of Bolivia is on a jeep tour so I jumped aboard with three others: Alice, Jenny and Miriam. Yep it was an all-girl road trip, and there was indeed some singing in the car!  
The first day we drove from Tupiza past some dramatically eroded red rock formations, stopping to check out/chase a herd of llamas.  We stopped for lunch in a tiny wind swept town - it kind of felt like a ghost town because all the people were out tending llamas. As we continued our drive the landscape changing from jagged rocks to rolling hills, up to a height of 4855m above sea level where we looked out over the Altiplano.  Looking out I thought - I would love to come back sometime and trek through the area.  Another stop was at the ruins of San Antonio, a town formerly rich from gold mining, but since abandoned either due to some kind of mass sickness or the devil, depending on who you believe.  That night we stayed at a basic hostal in Quetena, enjoying a lovely meal by our cook Susanna and hanging with another jeepload of people from the same tour company.  The stars were really really amazing up there but it was bloody cold out so it was an early night rugged up in double sleeping bags and blankets for me!


The next day was my favourite day.  Firstly we drove to a beautiful spot where a frozen pond/lake was interspersed with these reedy grasses (mmm, theres that hard-to-describe thing happening) with snowy volcanoes in the background, all quite gorgeous in the morning light.  Then we drove through the Desierto de Dali -quite appropriately named as it did really look like the surreal landscapes in his paintings- onto the Laguna Verde, a partially frozen lake at the base of a volcano bordering with Chile.  I had fun skating and jumping around on the ice, throwing big rocks and failing to break it.  Afterwards we stopped at some hot springs overlooking another lake, melting into the clear waters.   Next was my highlight of the day - the Sol de Manana geysers.  From some fumaroles spewed out huge gusts of volcanic gases, and alongside there were slowly bubbling mud ponds, plus two other ponds which were madly furiously boiling away.  The earth was so alive and active!  Finally we went to the Laguna Colorado, a lake stained red from plankton and algae containing red pigments, on which flocks of flamingoes come to feed.  That afternoon the eight of us from the two jeeps got stuck into some red wine and playing Uno in our hostal place.  We got quite rowdy even before dinner, drawing looks from the other more tame and sensible groups.  We had been listening to some party music but when dinner arrived Shane swapped it for some classical piano dinner music, which we all found hilarious for some reason.  After dinner it was a drinking game called Cheers Gu´vner, involving counting and rules which got sillier and sillier as the night wore on.  The hijinks contnued until the wee hours of 10.30pm, by which time we were all snugly in bed!

Coral, cacti and salt!

Day three began with pancakes thanks to our cook Susannah and some much needed coffee.  First stop was the stone tree (pic above), a really awesome rock amongst many in the middle of a sandy desert area.  One of the girls Jenny started climbing all over some various rocks and I felt compelled to follow even though it was kinda scary getting to some of the spots.  But fun!  Afterwards we drove on to some more lakes with flamingos.  At the second one the flamingoes were really relaxed and you could get right up to them, it was cool.  I always associated flamingoes with warm kind of tropical areas, but here they live, in the high  freezing desert.  We stopped for a yummy lunch at another lake then continued on, past another volcano, over the salt flat at Salaar de Chiguana, stopping at a little town and then finally to the edge of the Salaar de Uyuni salt flat!  It is so huge! That afternoon I had a hoop dance and we settled into our hostel overlooking the Salaar.  The hostel was made of salt, too.  Salt bricks, tables, and floor (I even did the taste test!)  That evening we all had a few drinks, I tortured the others with some bad ukelele playing, but went to bed to rest up so we could wake for sunrise the next day.


We piled into the jeep when it was still dark and set off into the salt flat.  It is an enormous expanse of flat white salt.  We drove for ages and ages and still the salt continued.  The sun came up and as it did turned the sky all sorts of pretty colours, warming us up (much needed because it was absolutely freezing out there!).  After sunrise we drove to an island in the salt made from ancient coral - I dont quite understand the geological history except that it was all part of the ocean somehow millions of years ago.  On the island grew hundreds of cool cacti, some of them looking almost furry (not really soft to touch though!) After having cake for breakfast we drove out into the sunny centre of the salt flats for a stop for photos.  Sadly my camera had died by this point so I just put on some music and hooped around, then jumped in some other´s perpective photos which hopefully will turn out cool!  We finished the day in Uyuni the town nearest the salt flats where everyone heading north got out, so it was a sad goodbye to all my awesome travel buddies.  I got back in the jeep and drove through yet more weirdly beautiful alien landcapes for 5 hours back to Tupiza. 


It was a glorious time, and continuing on the train down to the border with Argentina was also beautiful, as is northern Argentina here around Salta.  Next I´m off to Iguazu falls - I´m so excited!  Not for the 24 hour bus ride commencing in an hour and a half though :/