Salar de Uyini madness!

Uyini itself might best be described as bleak. Other words might be desolate or downright depressing. Infact the only thing that prevents this southern most point of Bolivia from turning into a complete ghost town is the constant number of travelers that pass through it to see one of the most astonishing places on Gods given earth - Salar de Uyini.

Ok, as a bit of back ground, Salar de Uyini is the worlds largest salt flat at 10,865 km, and because it is elevated 3,700m above sea level it is very hot in the day, and unbelievably cold at night - which partly excuses my dress sense. Not completely though I admit. The Salar was formed as a result of transformations between several prehistoric lakes. It is covered by several meters of salt crust, which has an extraordinary flatness, with the average altitude varying but no more than one meter across the entire area...! It's like landing on the moon...absolutely surreal and beautiful.

So, the first day, i was up early and it was stupidly cold - I tumbled along to the meeting point and met my travel mates. Now, a word about tours from Uyuni - It makes absolutely no difference who you book with, because the car is going to be knackered. Now, of course, there's knackered and there's knackered, and as it turns out we chose the most knackered of the lot - by the time we chugged back home I reckon we'd broken down 10 times. A second point to note about the tours is that the operators tell you that they only send 6 passengers out in their Land Cruisers. Plus the driver of course...and the tour guide. Eight people then, in a standard sized 4x4. It might have been the altitude but I found it very funny - genuinely I loved these four days, and didn't stop laughing the whole time.

On the first morning, we headed out to the train graveyard, and mucked about climbing on the deserted skeletons, before heading north 20 kilometers or so to Colchani - a village that lives off the Salt production on the Salar. There we met the locals, and learnt about how they mine and process the salt...and the pitiful amount of money they earn daily. When you see the amount of work involved for a couple of pound a day, it breaks your heart. From Colchani we headed west into the great Salar de Uyuni - driving through, sat on the roof of the truck, was a real Alice in Wonderland moment - like the biggest mirror in the world, where the earth blends with the sky. Stopping, we pulled crystals from under the salt, visited the famous 'Salt Hotel' - literally everything, seats, tables, beds etc,was made from salt - and finally visited one of Bolivia´s most amazing sites - the Isla de los Pescadores. By this time we were all starting to understand that this was going to be a tour of jaw dropping sites. I still don't understand why they call it the Isla de los Pescadores (Island of Fishermen) as it is in fact covered in giant cacti, but there you go. They grow at around 1cm per year - theres a photo of one which is around 1200 years old. Pretty amazing...

That evening we drank and ate under the most amazing endless sky, with constant shooting stars. Beautiful it was.

The second day was all about lakes - red, blue and green - flamingos and breakdowns. We also got to play around in the desert, using the foreshortening and small toys to take a million photos. I don't know whether they worked or not, but we laughed like kids.

For day three we were up at 4.30am - ouchie - to see the geysers at sunrise. They were incredible, the sun rising through the steam and sulphur clouds drifting - it was like being back in Iceland. Or another planet even. Next were the thermal baths - 6am and freezing outside, we were at 4000m above sea level - they were amazing. Getting out wasn't much fun, but it was one of the greatest mornings ever. Looking on, over the baths, with a good breakfast and great people, I've never felt more alive.

Potosi - the mountain that eats men

"We eat the mines and the mines eat us" - Bolivian miner I spoke to.

Mining has defined Potosi (at 13,420 ft, the worlds highest city) for almost five centuries, and it has come at a heavy price. In the 1500's a small group of local Indians leaked the secret of the vast veins of silver in Cerro Rico, the "rich mountain" that towers over Potosi, and the dreaded Spanish implemented a system of forced Indian labour to dig out the treasure. Between 1545 and 1824, around 8 million Indian and African Slaves died in the process of producing 45,000 tons of silver for the Spanish Empire - as a result Cerro Rocco has earned the nickname 'The mountain that eats men'.

These days thousands of the Indians' Minero descendants (and often their children - today 800 kids work the mines) still travel deep into the mountain around the clock, bringing ore to the surface for processing in the nearby plants - its absolutely tragic. Due to dreadful worker conditions the miners still have a short life expectancy with most of them contracting silicosis and dying around 35 - 40 years of age - the miners know this and many of the men I met were within a year of dieing - they do it because they have to eat and provide for their family.

I travelled to Cerro Rocco, and as part of a group, walked, crawled and climbed through the tunnels - it goes without saying, but it was pitch black, incredibly dark and almost impossible to breathe - the dust was awful, and it was truly claustrophobic.

It's customary to bring gifts to the miners - cocoa leaves (every miner has a constant cheek full of leaves - like a hampster - to relieve exhaustion), cigarettes, snacks or drinks, including el puro, the 96 percent alcoholic drink. The miner swill always leave some of the gifts for the 'Tio', the devilish God represented by a statue in each of the mines.

The Tio is a fascinating and fundamental part of the miners existence - the history is that the Indians revolted against the Spanish, the Spanish - knowing that the locals were extremely religious, and had many gods - built a large statue, naming it Tio (rather than Dio - the latin word for God - as the letter 'D' didn't exist in the local dialect) and threatened the Indians that this new Devil God would kill them all, and their mountain, if they didn't work - the belief is so strong,so fundemental, that the miners offer regular sacrifices to the 'spirit of the hills' so that 'he' will continue to provide metal and spare their lives.

Seeing Iguazu, Manaus and Machu Picchu has been amazing - they're iconic and beautiful. But for me Potosi has been a real eye opener, a moment that has made me reflect on the bigger picture beyond the beaches and waterfalls - I guess the point of travelling is to experience different cultures and to see how others live. To understand the world a little better - Potosi has been an extraordinary experience for me.

So I move on from the 'rich hill' and after 2 weeks of being ill - horrible fever in Potosi - I look forward to travelling in good health. Next stop the stunning salt planes of Uyini.