3 day trip to Uyuni - border crossing into Bolivia...

Thursday 26th April

Overland 4x4 trip to Uyuni

We say goodbye to the various people and cats at our hostel in San Pedro, and wait for the minibus that starts our 3 day trip across the desert to Uyuni.

Picked up just after 8am, and driven back in to the centre of the small town, where we meet the other folks in our group, which are mostly Czech and Slovak Head Doctors, also an English couple, Duncan and Laura, though they will not be on our 4x4 that we'll pick up on the other side of the border.

Enjoyed an outdoor breakfast just over the Bolivian border, at 4000 metres, where it's a little more chilly. Paul had his first experience of chewing coca leaves, which aren't all that nice.

Fantastic view from here of Volcano Licanabur (5916m) and at the foot of the volcano we came across Laguna Blanca and Laghuna Verde - impressive sights, though a little put off by the 'toxic' foam at the edge of the Laguna.

The journey across the bumpy terrain is fine in the 4x4 and our guide/driver looks up to the job of ferrying us around for the next couple of days.

Next stop is at Polque's hot springs, though we didn't do any more than sit on the edge with our feet in. Whilst the water is nice and hot, the time will come when you'll need to get out into the absolutely freezing cold - again, it's bright and sunny, but we're way up high.

Further along we stop at an active geothermic field and see various steam pools and bubbling-mud pools. We're warned not to get too close.....

The onward journey gives us ever more impressive scenery, though very dry and arid.

We're enjoying our group (6 plus driver) and our Czech/Slovak chums are very friendly and accomodating of speaking English. Excellent English. Not a lot is heard from our guide, who I'd say is more of a driver, however, he's doing a great job and, so far, we're really pleased we picked the Estrella Del Sur tour.

Whilst our driver is doing a great job, it feels like our jeep is not quite 100% and we're going slower than the others. Most times we've stopped so far, the bonnet has been open and several folks peering inside.

At lunchtime (quite late afternoon) we stopped at our digs for tonight near Laguna Colorada - food surprisingly very good, all things considered. Plenty to go around. Not sure how warm it'll be in our dorm room tonight, and we're already aware that there's no hot water or showers in this place.

After food, we drive down to the lake edge, where there's an amazing 'red' colour in the water, which looks great against the white salt areas in the distance. Also here are rare Jamas Flamingoes, Chilean and Andean Flamingoes in their hundreds, who survive on the pink algae in the water.

Disappointed that we had a short time here as it's an amazing scene.

Back at the digs, we hang around and chat with folks from our group, looking forward to dinner.

Again, impressed with the food - soup, veggie spaghetti, drinks - all included in the trip price. So, Day 1 of the trip and we're really pleased with everything, after not expecting too much - we thought it would be basic sandwiches for every meal!

Very pleased to see a small wood-burner set alight for us, and we make a bench circle as tight as we can and make the most of the limited heat. Of course, whilst this is nice, it'll be even colder when we go into our room!

Folk soon head off to bed and we're not far behind - very glad that we had asked if they had any spare blankets (mantas). So, with 3 layers, plus sleeping blanket, plus clothes and a hat, we cocoon ourselves and prey that we don't die of hypothermia during the night.

It's not a best night's sleep, for any of us in the room (we shared with Duncan and Laura), though Chris seems to have won the prize for most shut-eye. And snoring.

Friday 27th April

Up quite early, and away by just after 8am. Breakfast very good, considering.

More of the same planned for today, heading north, and stopping at various interesting sites.

First stop, a curious random collection of huge stones in the middle of nowhere, one in particular called Arbol de Piedra (Stone Tree - a stone that looks like a tree etc.), then onward to Laguna Honda, Laguna Hedionda and Laguna Canapa. Again, great views and landscapes.

We stopped for a pleasant lunch by the 3rd laguna and watched the flamingoes tucking in themselves, though I much preferred the salad to the pink algae.

Very laid back, just watching the scenery around us, enjoying the fresh air and the company of some new friends.

Quite a long drive in the afternoon across the Salar (salt flat) de Chiguna, which wasn't as impressive as it could have been, due to a cloudy sky.

This was also the opportunity for us to see the optical illusions that are thrown up in such, flat, places - the area is extremely flat and nearly aligned perfectly with the shape of Earth, allowing visitors to see the curvature of the planet by producing an optical illusion that makes many of the mountains within the vicinity appear to be floating in the air since their bases are on the other side of the curve and thus out-of-sight.

Onward through the small village of San Juan towards the Salt Hotel, and saw our first quinoa (an andean crop) fields on the way.

PLeased to arrive at the Salt Hotel, and pleased that it seems warmer here - we're also a little lower in altitude.

Funny little place, though very nice. Made from salt and throughout the floor is simply sand (except in the showers/toilets). Our room is fine, and the bed comfortable.

We have a couple of hours to kill before a group dinner, and sit and chat, and read and play some Ipod. There's even a little tuck shop here, where we see Snickers, Toblerone, Skittles and other such luxuries for the first time in a while.

Dinner was excellent, really good stuff and wine, Also enjoyed good company at the table.

Afterwards, played cards for a while, including Top Trumps Planets, and Sharks.

Bed quite early, as we're up at 5 am tomorrow.

Again, another good day, and we feel that the trip is such a bargain (at 49,000 Pesos/GBP49).

Saturday 28th April

Yaaaawn - up at 5am sharp, though not much to do to get ready, the showers can only be used during the afternoon/evening. No problem. breakfast will also follow later, once we've made it to our sunrise rendezvous.

The moon is far over the horizon at this time, leaving a nice clear blanket of stars to admire, as well as the occasional shooting star.

Leaving a little later than planned, we head off with fingers crossed that we get to the sunrise point just in time.

We're now on the Salar de Uyuni, the largest and highest salt lake in the world, at 3650m, and covering 9000-12000 sq kilometres - this is twice as big as the great salt lakes in the USA. The depth of the salt ranges from 2-20 metres, and was part of a prehistoric lake, Lago Minchin, which dried up many, many years ago...

Unfortunately there's quite a bit of cloud around, especially where the sun is rising, so not the best of views, but it's amazing standing in the middle of the huge open, white, space.

There's an island in the middle of the salt flat, Isla de Los Pescadores (Fisherman Island), and you can climb to the top to get great views of the surrounding flats.

Had breakfast here too and played around with taking some photos, where it looks like Chris is as big as a book, etc. Sorry, no picture to show, but will update 'soon'.

Once the sun was fully up, the surrounding white salt looks amazing, and stretches far out to the horizon, though it would have been very cool to see nothing else on the horizon at all, for the whole 360 degree view.

Back in the jeep, we drive across the flat to another hotel in the middle of nowhere, which is made of salt. Then, onto some working saltmines at the edge of the flats.

Had lunch near here, again, great food.

Chris was given a bag of coca leaves to feed to a fairly-tame Yuanco. I say fairly tame, but it had been spitting at a few folks previously, like a camel.

By mid-afternoon we arrived in the dusty town of Uyuni, but before stopping we visit the train cemetary - simply a bunch of rusting locomotives, sat on their tracks in the middle of the desert. It is said that Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid held up one of these trains....

Back in Uyuni, we spent a few moments wondering whether to stay in town for a night, or get the overnight bus straight up to Potosi.

A few minutes later.....yep, we'll stay here. We're recommended by the Estrella people to stay at a hostel right by the open air bus terminal (oops, can't remember the name), and they also get us to a recommended bus company (6th de Octubre) to buy our ticket for tomorrow morning.

We'll not be doing much here except killing some time and avoiding taking the bus overnight. I'm sure it's safe, but we're more comfortable waiting until tomorrow. Anyway, it's only about a 6 hour journey, so we'd be arriving in the middle of the night, to then have to find accomodation. Not worth the bother...

After a long awaited shower, we spend some time in the small town, get some Boliviano's, and some food.

Using an ATM (there's a Visa one in town, not certain about Mastercard), it works out for me (as a Brit) that I get slightly more US Dollars for my money than Bolivianos, so I reckon we'll be using a mixture whilst we're in the country. Another tip, if you're using a debit card, like Nationwide's (www.nationwide.co.uk - free international ATM withdrawals), it'd be a good idea to make small withdrawals to give you smaller notes - 50 Bolivianos seem to be the smallest the machines give. US Dollars seem to be 20's.

Whilst we had said goodbye to Duncan and Laura, we had hoped we bump into them in town for a last meal, alas.......

Anyway, we'll underline the Uyuni overland trip here, and simply say that we had a great time, and, as well as recommending anyone in the vicinity to do the trip, we don't think you'd go wrong booking with Estrella del Sur, even if it's a few quid more.

continued on next thread...