Rose early from my comfy slumber and shared some of my prestigious Vegemite tube with the English lass's before embarking on our final day.
Ripping into the cocoa leaves with bob and Bruno before arriving at our first stop. To attempt to put it into words we were at the foot of a mountain that had a winding footpath of steps you could walk up to reach the top. We weren't allowed sufficient time to be able to reach the high point but I gave it a good nudge. The view was a spectacular outlook of the entry to the road out to the real salt flats. The mountain which I had just been walking up was also riddled with cactus! So cool, would of loved to reach the very top but time was of the essence. Back into our jeep and off onto the road to reach the much anticipated 'salt flats'. The drive out there was ridiculous. Driving the the most pristine crystal clear water a few inches deep of a ground of pure white salt. Post card beauty. Really really beautiful. Could of sworn you were in the Bahamas or somewhere tropical by the look but the water temp told you otherwise. Sore some crucifixes plant not far from our trail in the water and was told they were the tombs of some American tourists who recently died trying to cross the solar on their own. Apparently lost direction and water level became too deep and had to attempt to swim to safety but froze to death in the process. Was glad I opted for the guided tour.
Rolling out of the water and onto the salt flats themselves was like stepping onto another planet. White, dead flat salt as far as the horizon. The perfect blue sky made for the ultimate contrast between the two colors. Where the f*** was I ?!?? Middle of nowhere and couldn't of been happier.
The perspective photos posed a little harder then first thought but rekn I nailed a few.
Continued on and drove to a small salt museum where we at our lunch. Most of us opted not to go in the salt museum after finding out it was actually illegal to build on the flats and the existence of this building was harmful to the environment. Pretty sure I didn't miss much.
Moved onto Some salt mines which looked awesome, however my camera battery had died. Bruno and bob got some cool snaps for me but.
Before entering uyuni itself our last stop was the train cemetery. Soo rad. All super old beat up train wrecks that had rusted and corroded over time. Alot riddled with graffiti you could tell this was a common hot spot for photo shoots. I loved this place. It was here that I proclaimed to myself and the others that over these past three days I had just witnessed some of the most astonishing and breathtaking sites of my 23years breathing. Felt pretty lucky.
Stop in a small village market in uyuni where i purchased an alpaca beanie in anticipation of Peru. Alot of the driving of this final leg the views outside the jeep were cluttered with litter, really disgusting. Alot of South American countries are very far behind the western world in terms of hygiene, waste disposal and recycling. I hope Bolivia can get its act together for the sake of its amazing environment.
Within 5mins of getting dropped off in downtown uyuni i had booked myself a bus ticket to lapaz for that night. Said goodbye to Bruno and exchanged details. Few beers with the girls and bob before I let them to check into there accommodation for the night. Cruised around with some girls i met that were also heading to Lapaz to kill sometime. Was from here on that I was constantly swarmed by herds of English "gap year" kids. Some worse than others but I didn't mind them in controlled doses. Went to a pizza restaurant for dinner with the kiwi couple And some columbians that were also on the tour. Had to get my pizza to go and make a run for it because I was about to miss my bus! Huddled into a jeep with some gap year girls that took us to the bus terminal. I was ushered by a lady from the travel agency to my appropriate bus and as soon as I was seated was when I realized I'd left my blue jacket behind. FECKKKK!!!! Nothing I could do now but. Dumped a sleeping pill that the kiwis had given me before running out of the pizza shop and I was out like a light! Think we stopped once for supplies in the ghetto. Wish I could of got a better opportunity to say bye to the girls but there was no way I was missing my bus. Keen to see the shire boys in lapaz !! Leahmo, Andy, wynny, aggro, mozz and gizzo. Not long now and fingers crossed I was going to have a place to stay and a job waiting for me!! See you soon wild rover ...