Uyuni is a bit like a ghost town, except in the desert. There isn´t a lot but sand and dogs (yes, more dusty dogs). The only reason anyone comes to Uyuni is to go on a tour of the surrounding landscape which is truly amazing. My descriptions don´t do the landscape any justice - they are so stunning and varied that you have to see them really.
The tours are done in a 4WD Toyota Landcruiser of questionable repair. There were 7 of us - a Saffa, 3 Poms and a Dutch girl. Everyone was really nice so that was handy, given we were all jammed in a car together for hours on end. Our driver was Eduardo who we believe was having a bit of nooky with the cook.
The tour starts with a trip to the Railway Cemetary where you find hundreds of rusted out old steam trains. This of course was heaven to Dylan and intersting to me for about 10 minutes. In fact, the previous day Dylan and I had hired bikes and cycled out to the cemetary and spent some time there. I was ever so pleased to do it twice. The old track was used to transport minerals from Boliva to Chile but that stopped years ago.
Dylan says: I really like trains.
The next stop was the Isla de los Pescadores. You´re speeding along the salt flat when you come across this "island" in the middle of it. Nothing unusual in that except it is covered with huge cacti. The island is made up of coral and there are literally hundreds of cacti all over it. What a cool place!
Dylan says: What´s coral doing at 3,653 metres above sea level? This place is old!
The next day we saw a number of wonderful things. There are a couple of active volcanos which we didn´t get too close to - it was enough to see sulphur smoke coming out of the top from a distance! We came across a little hill that was home to a number of bizzare little animals called vizcachas. They are like a cross between a rabbit and a wallaby. They are obviously very used to tourists as they just sit there for you so you can take photos. There was one very daring little gerbal (sp?) who stole part of a bread roll off one of the vizcachas.
We also saw a couple of lakes (Laguna Canupa and Laguna Hedionda) that are home to numerous pink flamingos. They were great. We´ve never seen them before so spent a lot of time just looking at them. The last stop for the day was Laguna Colorada. The lake is red in colour due to the red algae that lives there. There are also lots of pink flamingos living there - so pretty with the pink against the red.
The next day we had to get up at 5am to get to Sol de Manana which is a geyser basin. There were some HUGE ones bubbling away. It was all mud and sulpher so the smell was attractive (Dylan says he likes the smell - weird boy). We had to get up early so that we could see the vapour from the geysers, in the day it is far too hot.
We then stopped at some hot springs for breakfast. We all dipped our feet in for a while but only 1 of us was game to go in completely (too bloody cold to take off your clothes to get in).
Dylan Says: There was a solitary flamingo looking for grubs in the warm water outlet, while all of his flamingo mates were frozen solid in the lake further away from the hot spring. Apparently this happens to them every night, while they sleep their little stick legs get frozen into the lake. They looked so happy!
Kat continues: The next stop was Laguna Verde which, as you can tell by the name, is a green lake, again because of microrganisms that live in it. It is more of a turqoise colour. The lake sits in front of a huge volcano (Volcun Licancabur) - the whole scene is spectacular. The algae is disturbed by the wind, therefore the more wind, the more green. Unfortunately for us it was pretty still when we got there, but was still spectaqcular.
We then drove to the Chilean border to drop off all of our group as they were crossing into Chile. Dylan asked the nice man with the big gun if he could take a photo of the border. Thankfully he agreed. Dylan also risked a quick dash to a bin that sat on the border, just so he could say he was (almost) in Chile.
Dylan says: due to security restrictions I am unable to display the picture here.
Kat says: That left Dylan, me, the driver and the cook. Not for long though as Wyn from Belgium (also left alone by his group) was put in with us. Wyn is one of those hard travelling types who goes everywhere the locals tell him not to as it´s too dangerous. There have been 30-40 attempted robberies over the last ten years (he comes to South America every year for holidays). All have failed so far due to his diving knife which he keeps attached to his leg?!
Anyway, while Wyn told us his stories, we drove on, and on, and on. This was a long driving day. Apart from the amazing scenery we were passing, the only main stop was in the Valle De las Rocas where there are hundreds of very bizzarely shaped rocks.
The final day was just the drive back to Uyuni, stopping in a couple of towns. One was called Pueblo Modelo. Not sure why it was built but is was very, um, quaint? I can´t think of another word. Very odd seeing such a model type village in the middle of nowhere. The other is San Cristobel, also a pretty little village.
Thus far, we had had no car problems (which was very surprising given the tracks we were driving over). We had to have one though. It was only running out of petrol (you would have thought Eduardo would´ve noticed a bit earlier) and a tyre going down pretty fast. No problem, lots of petrol in containers on the roof rack and a cook who doubles in her spare time as a mechanic.
We made it back to Uyuni without any further problems around mid afternoon. Then it was a bit of a wait until our night bus to Potosi. The bus was due to leave at 7pm and take 6 hours. It left at 7.45pm and took 8 hours. Not to be unexpected I guess. It wouldn´t have been such a problem except that there was only sufficient leg room for small 7 year olds. Still, we crawled into a very comfy and warm bed around 4.15am and slept soundly.
So we´re in Potosi now. Potosi is best known for its silver deposits, and the fact that it is the highest city in the world. There has been extensive mining here for a few centuries and there is some that continues today. You can do tours of the mines so we´re about to go and find one of those.
Tomorrow we get to play with dynamite......
