Hello everyone. It is April 9th and we have just finished a three night / four day Jeep tour of the Bolivian Salt Flats and surrounding area. We are currently in Uyuni, having a bit of a break before our bus to Sucre.

Our Salt Flat tour started in Tupiza on April 5th - we booked it through a tour company that was located in the main floor of our hotel. How convenient! At 9am we piled into a jeep with 3 other girls (lucky Braden), our cook, and our guide/driver. There was not a lot of extra space, so things could have gotten pretty uncomfortable, but luckily we got along well with everyone in the car. Our travel companions were Linda from Ireland, Mel from Australia, and Silke from Germany. Our driver (Alfredo) and our cook (Augustina) were both locals from Bolivia.

On the first day, we saw many interesting landscapes and rock formations. Our descriptions could not do them justice, so you will just have to wait for the pictures! We also came within an hour of San Vicente, which is where Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid met their demise and are buried. This day was our first experience with coca. Alfredo and Augustina taught us how to wrap 7 or 8 leaves around a small piece of bicarbonate (used to release the chemicals in the leaves) and put it in the side of our mouths. It gives you a slightly numb feeling in your cheek and tongue, and is supposed to surpress hunger and thrist, in addition to reducing the effects of altitude. Later, we passed through a small village of about 150 inhabitants, where Alfredo stopped the jeep so we could get out and have a look around. He made sure to tell us that the people in this village were very poor. This was quite obvious when you looked around. The houses were made of adobe bricks with straw roofs. In most cases they were one room buildings. There was one washroom (from what we could tell). The only villagers there when we arrived were a few children under the age of 12. All of the adults were either in the fields with the llamas (their only source of income) or at the markets selling meat. It was a photo frenzy for the 3 jeeps that were stopped. We both found this a little ridiculous and stayed away from the cameras and gawking travellers. It seemed to us a bit like exploiting this village for tourism. Instead of taking photos we decided it would be more worthwhile to share our fruit we had brought along with 2 obviously undernourished girls. They seemed to like this idea. We spent that first night in a very simple hostel in a slightly larger village. We were surprised to see some jeeps being turned away from the hostel, and we learned that some tour companies do not make reservations for their groups, so it is a race during the day to get to the hostels first.

The second day was our longest day in the jeep. Up at 3:00 to wake both our cook and tour guide as Maya had a splitting headache from the altitude (we were at about 4200m). Alfredo quickly ordered up a tri-mate drink (a mate made of coca leaves and 2 other herbs) and a huge altitude sickness pill. Within 15 minutes of taking both Maya was feeling better and went back to bed to rest for an hour (we had to be on the road by 4:30). On this day the highlights included the hot springs and geysers. At the hot springs, we relaxed in the warm water (about 96 Farenheit) while Augustina cooked lunch. The water from these hotsprings is heated by a volcano, located quite a ways away, but interestingly it rises through the ground to fill the pool on a constant basis. Braden estimated that about 4 or 5 litres of water drain from the pool (out of 2 pipes and an overflow) every second. When in the pool, however, you cannot feel the water seeping up through the ground. The geysers were an amazing sight - we were at an altitude of about 5100m. There must have been at least 50 geysers scattered in an area about the size of a hockey rink. There were many different types as well - some with coloured water, some merely hot air rising from tiny holes in the ground, and some with thick boiling mud. Alfredo said temperatures in the geysers ranged between 200 and 300 degrees. We are assuming that most of the geysers boil at such a high temperature because of the concentration of chemicals (e.g. magnesium, oil, possibly borax, etc.). When we arrived, another tour group was wandering around the geysers without a guide, but Alfredo stressed the importance of staying together and following his lead, as he was familiar with the area and some spots could be quite dangerous (apparently a tourist lost his feet when he fell in some time ago). Luckily we only stayed at the geysers for 10 minutes, as we were concerned about the toxic chemicals in the steam (which was being sent up continuously). We stayed that night in a barebones hostel (no running water) on the edge of Lago Colorado. We celebrated Mels birthday with a bottle of wine and some droopy birthday candles that we managed to prop up in some bottle caps.

The third day was a bit shorter, thankfully, but no less dusty (we were covered in dust the second day, and with no showers!). We saw several lakes, with many flamingos. Better still, we saw numerous mirages. On many occasions, it looked like we were going to drive into a lake or sea that we never actually seemed to reach! On this day we couldnt dawdle, as Alfredo was unable to make reservations at the hostel for that night. Luckily, we were often the first jeep on the road... and on this day, we were the second group to make it to the hostel. Braden was the first into the one and only shower! That evening, we walked around the small town and down to the lake where Maya made friends with four donkeys.

Up early again on the fourth day. We were on the road by 5:30 so we could see the sunrise on the salt flats. The sunrise was actually quite abrupt and not overly spectacular. Before the sun rose though, the blues and reds in the sky were amazing. Even more amazing was that before the sun rose we were able to see the curvature of the earth - the salt flats are that flat and that vast! (12,000 sq. km.) Looking left to right we saw the curve as well as looking into the horizon. Amazing. When the sun rose however, this perspective of the earth was lost. After taking a few photos of the sunrise, we hopped back into the jeep as the cold was almost unbearable. We drove on to see Isla Del Pescado, a small island covered with huge cacti in the middle of the flats. From there, we drove to the middle of the salt flats where we had a picnic breakfast, played skittles (with rocks and an air freshner) and took numerous photos. When the sun is up, there is no perspective on the flats. It is possible to take photos where some things will appear to be much smaller and much further away then they really are. For example, we have a few great photos of Maya who appears to be lifting the jeep up over her head (with Augostina sitting on the hood!). After the photo session, we headed over to see a hotel made completely of salt on the edge of the flats. (Lonely Planet recommends that no one stay in the hotel as they drain their sewage directly into the flats.) We should add that the salt ranges in thickness from 6 inches to 9 feet with water underneath. After a quick tour of the hotel, we headed off the flats. It was a good thing we did, because by this time it was about 10 oclock and the glare from the sun was very bright.

At the edge of the flats we stopped in town of Colchani, which exists primarily for the extraction and processing of salt (2000-3000 kg. of table salt a day). Here, we saw a small salt procesing plant. Maya got up and close to a vicuna (a relative of the llama).

At 12:30, our guide dropped us off in Uyuni. Found a hotel, but were too tired to shower. Sorted out our travel plans for the next day, napped, and then met our friends for dinner. This morning, we enjoyed pancakes topped with real maple syrup and apples and cinnamon, with unlimited coffee refills! Can you tell one of the restaurant owners is American?

Off now to Sucre (the Paris of South America), with a quick stopover in poverty stricken Potosi.

Love always and many hugs!

Braden and Maya

xoxoxoxo.