Salar de Uyuni (Salt Flats of Bolivia)

Monday morning after the giant bank line and with cash in hand we were ready to set out on our voyage of the salt flats.

Day One:

We set out from Tupiza into the desert of Bolivia climbing to approximately 4000m above sea level. This was mainly a travel day, but we stopped to see a few sights such as fields of llamas. That night we stayed in a tiny village where most of the buildings were made of adobe. Our accommodation was a house with no heat and at that altitude in the winter it is pretty cold so we warmed ourselves the old fashion way, with soup and scotch.

Day Two:

This day we had an early start of 4:30am. After having a breakfast of bread, tea and dulce de leche(caramel) we hit the road. At about 5:30 we stopped at a ghost town that had been used for mining silver or gold. I think this would have been really interesting, but as it was still dark we couldn't really see anything. Shortly after we reached our maximum altitude of the trip at over 5000m and stopped briefly for some coca tea. The Coca leaf, which has been part of the culture of the South American people for centuries, is known to help with altitude sickness, reduces hunger and increases resistance to the cold. People usually have this is tea or hold a large wad of half chewed leaves in their cheek for hours at a time. The leaves do help with the altitude, but taste a little like you are sucking on tea leaves and also make your mouth go a little numb. The Lonely Planet advises you try to resist the urge to slap your face and say `I can´t feel anything!!', an urge I couldn´t resist. Later in the day we visited the Green Lagoon, swam in some hot springs and explored a group of Gysers where they let you get surprisingly close. Having little or no sense I took advantage of this (see picture). This night was supposed to be the coldest of them all, but I found it surpisingly mild. This was probably because I was sleeping in most of my clothes in a sleeping bag with three blankets.

Day Three:

This day were were able to sleep in until 5am and had a lesuirely breakfast of exactly the same thing as the day before and tea the previous two days. Who knew you could get sick of caramel and bread? I had to switch to peach jam and bread. Today we visited more desert and then had lunch next to the railway which went straight through the salt flats. We arrived at a hotel made entirely of salt where we were to stay for the night and had the first showers of the trip. I played some two on two soccer which was very difficult at this altitude and we were all out of breath quite quickly.

Day Four:

The last day of the tour, we woke up early again to see the sun rise over the salt flats which was worth the early start. Then we drove to the an island in the middle of the salt flats covered in cactii, some 10m high and over 1000 years old. We then drove to the middle of the salt flats which were vast and pure white as far as the eye could see. As there is no spacial perspective, it was perfect for some trick photography. The Israeli guys were fully prepared for this, creating some pretty hilarious illusions, unfortunately my camera was almost out of batteries.