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.