#23 bolivia: san pedro to the uyuni salt flats

(Aargh! please ignore aggravating dust and dirt in my pics...)
Armed with a hefty dose of anti-altitude sickness Diamox tablets, we boarded a jeep from Chile for our 3-day traversal of the Bolivian landscape. Apart from Kris and myself, there was Gustavo (a Brazileno about our age) and Hana and Dada (a mother and daughter duo from the Czech Republic - interestingly, Dada is an actress and did the dubbed voice of Kirsten Dunst in the first Spiderman movie... we know a famous Czech person!), and our recalcitrant Bolivian driver Theo.
Just after Bolivian border control, we stopped at Laguna Verde (the green lake), which was actually more a muted white colour as at 4300m it was frozen over in the Bolivian winter - dammit! (I actually didn't change my underwear for the entire 3 days as it was too cold to remove my thermals to get to them...) Next we had a dip in some natural hot springs which were a blissful 40 degrees centigrade. When getting changed back into my clothes, I stupidly left my cap and sunnies on the roof of the jeep and promptly forgot about them when we drove off! I realised about 10 minutes after we'd left and asked Theo to turn around, but he didn't want to use up more petrol, so I said I'd pay for the extra petrol. Luckily we found them, and Theo said it would cost 40 bolivianos (about US$6) for the extra 20 minutes we'd driven. Hmm... seeing as petrol costs about 5 bolivanos a litre in Bolivia, I thought it was a bit rich - but this wasn't the last of annoying traits in our driver! (More on this later.)
We next checked out some cool gas vents in the earth with bubbling mud and steam rising from them (they are often called geysers although they are actually not) - for some reason it reminded me of Dr Who (the old version). We also passed some large rock formations in the desert - possibly a result of volcanic activity - before arriving at the beautiful Laguna Colorada.
Laguna Colorada is this huge lagoon which is a deep maroon colour as a result of minerals in the water. With the blue sky, patches of white snow and ice and the yellow tundra grasses around it, the red lagoon made for some stunning pictures.
Although beautiful, as we found out, Laguna Colorada isn't the best place to spend the night in the middle of winter - as at 4200m, it's...well...bloody freezing! I wore every single layer of clothing I had, and made Kris sleep in the single bed with me so we could double up our blankets, and we made it through the night. (Though Kris abandoned me during the night, saying he was squashed - sob!) Luckily I'd taken Diamox and was coping with the altitude just fine, but everyone else in our group didn't sleep as well.
Day two started with our jeep breaking down about 10 minutes after leaving Laguna Colorado (as water in the engine had frozen during the night). As a result of our 40-minute setback, it clued us into the fact that Theo was rushing us through the entire trip. He kept getting angry at Kris and myself for spending too long at the sights (ie more than 10 minutes), but at the end of the second day we arrived at the hotel well before any of the other jeep groups, although we set off well after them.
Despite all this, we did get to see some amazing things on day two. We passed throngs of llamas and vicunas, and we also stopped at a town in the middle of nowhere dubbed 'Pueblo Abandonada' - so-called because it was once a thriving calcite mining town, but most of the inhabitants deserted it once all the calcite reserves were used up. The only people left there are a family who run the train station - amazingly there is still a working railway that terminates in this town. We met a grim-looking 6-year-old girl named Janet who lived there with her family. Geez, what a hole to have to grow up in - all there is is sand, rusty machinery and deserted houses. We gave her some food and she just stared at us with her attention-starved eyes. Shudder.
The day ended when we arrived at the edge of the famed Uyuni salt flats. We stayed at a nice hotel on a hill and watched the sunset spilling over the white expanse before us. The hotel walls were actually all made out of salt. That night we asked Theo if we could leave early the next morning to catch sunrise over the salt flats, as we were told it was an option when we booked our trip. After umming and aahing and asking us if we had a printed itinerary that said sunrise was included, he finally "realised" that the petrol tank was empty - and lo and behold, the petrol shop didn't open till 8am! How convenient!
So on our last day we got up and just watched the sunrise from the same hill next to our hotel. We set off at 8am (wow - the petrol shop must've opened!) and ploughed throw the neverending whiteness of the salt flats. It's quite amazing to look all around you and only see white for ages and ages... and it makes for some cool optical illusion pics (as you can see above).
Our first stop was Isla Incahuasi (or Fisherman's island) - this incredible cactus-studded island rising up out of the salt flats, looking like a green oasis on the surface of the moon. It was the best part of our entire trip. We spent about 45 minutes there (Theo was feeling generous), and followed a walking trail through the cactuses to the top of the island. The biggest cactus on the island is actually 12.3m tall - although it was looking pretty crusty (someone should put it out of its misery).
After much chiding from Theo, we set off again, bound for a "salt hotel" in the middle of the salt flats. On the way, Theo begrudgingly granted us 10 minutes in the middle of the salt flats to take photos of the hexagonal saline crust formations. Then we stopped again at some salt mines (the conical piles of salt in the pics), where Theo cheerily said we could stop and take photos, and then he got out and surreptitiously collected a whole heap of salt in a large bag. Hmm - somehow I don't think that's allowed....
Our last stop on our trip was a "train graveyard" on the edge of Uyuni town. Although it seemed like a strange tourist destination, the rusty ghostly shells of the trains were quite beautiful to see.
We swung into Uyuni town at 11.55am - more than three hours earlier than when we were due to arrive. For some reason Theo was hell-bent on getting there by twelve. Kris and I were so annoyed we didn't get much time on the actual salt flats that after we arrived in Uyuni, we looked into getting another jeep trip to visit the salt flats again that day. But when we were told it would cost US$60 for a couple of hours we decided it wasn't worth it.
I hope this doesn't sound like we didn't enjoy the trip - we loved it! It has definitely been one of our highlights in South America so far. And the whole trip only cost US$80 per person (meals and accommodation included) - so how much can you complain?