[NOTE: I´ve now posted the rest of the Salar and horse-riding pics, for those who were waiting with baited breath]

We left La Paz with our camera in working order, new shoes on my feet and recharged batteries after four days of relative calm. We first took the bus south three hours to Oruro, where the train lines begin, then caught the train (funny that) for another seven hours to get to Uyuni. The views outside the train were always interesting, lots of mountains, some snow-capped, plenty of llama and alpaca, and the odd vicuña (non-domesticated cousins of the other two). And the quinoa (a grain a bit like cous cous) fields at sun set were beautiful.

We arrived in Uyuni at 10pm, and were picked up by a guy from the tour company with whom we had booked a 3 day, 2 night tour of the salt flats and surrounds. We didn´t have any accommodation booked but it was no problem as he took us to a hotel near where we would leave from in the morning.

We turned up at 10am as instructed to deposit our big bags at the office and wait for our jeep to arrive. At about 10:30, the woman at Sandra Tours told us (in Spanish… not a lot of English speakers around these days) that someone else booked on our tour was sick, and would we like to perhaps start the tour tomorrow? We explained that we couldn´t stay an extra day as this would throw out our itinerary. She sighed, then said everything was okay and got on the phone again. In the end we waited two hours to be picked up by a jeep from another company which had two spaces and set off for the Salar, the biggest salt flat in the world.

Our driver, Elarion, did not speak English, which wasn´t a big problem as we understand a lot of what´s going on in Spanish and there were some fluent Spanish (& English) speakers on the jeep with us to iron out the more confusing matters.
Our first stop was actually a train graveyard at Calchani. In hindsight it was a bit at odds with the rest of the natural attractions we saw, but at the time it was cool to climb around on the old engines etc.

We finally made it to the salar at about 2pm. It´s one of those places that photos are better than words at trying to convey what it´s like, but the photos still don´t tell the full story. People (us included) often slipped up and said "ice" or "snow" where referring to the white surface of salt we drove across… it just seemed an inconceivable amount of salt.

We drove for about an hour to get to the original salt hotel, where we stopped for lunch, then drove for another hour or so to get to Isla de Pescado, an island in the sea of salt covered with cactus. The island was once covered by the sea (the same sea that left it´s salt all over the region) and its surface was in fact fossilized coral. Keeping with the ancient theme, some of the cacti were over 1000 years old! We climbed to the highest point and stared out at the vast expanses of salt in all directions. It was surreal (not the last time that word will be apt).

We then drove on for another age (it would be so easy to get lost on the salt as it´s all flat and white), making it off the salar eventually and to our accommodation for the night, which, funnily enough, was made out of bricks of salt. It was novel until the salt started crumbling on Marisa´s head during the night!

The next day we drove south to four small lagoons which take on various colours based on their mineral content. We weren´t at the right time of year for the most vibrant colours, but they were still dotted with flamingoes and surrounded by mountains. We also visited Arbol de Piedra (the tree of rock) which if you squint does look like a tree (see the photo).
As we continued south, we climbed to higher altitude, and by the time we made it to the national park (the name escapes me but it borders Chile and Argentina) it was snowing! This was unexpected (despite being at over 4000m), and when it dumped over 15cms in an hour, even the guides/drivers were at a loss. At one stage, as we huddled around our cups of tea in our accommodation (not made out of salt this time), there was talk of not being able to leave in the morning.

But it turned out the snow stopped overnight and we were woken at 4:30am to begin our third and final day of the tour. We had to get up so early to make it to the geysers which go off at 6am every morning. There were also mud pools, and it was kind of cool, but nothing we hadn´t already seen in NZ (though I don´t think you´re allowed to jump over an erupting geyers in Rotorua) and it´s hard to appreciate anything that early in the morning when it´s fah-reezing cold.

We continued south to Laguna Blanca and Laguna Verde. By the time we arrived the sun was properly up and things got a bit warmer, so we all had a snowball fight. The lake looked quite green with my polarized sunglasses on, but not so much through the camera lens. Oh well, still one of the best places on the tour.

We then started north, stopping off at Laguna Colorado, the biggest of the lagunas in the region and home to the most flamingoes. It often takes on a vibrant red tinge, but due to the snow, it wasn´t red that particular morning.

Then we drove north over the unsealed roads (I should have mentioned earlier that all the roads were unsealed) for approximately 8 hours (stopping occasionally) to get back to Uyuni.

On the way we encountered hail, meaning we encountered just about every type of weather phenomenon on our tour (I didn´t mention the rain, rainbows, sleet or sunshine).
Upon arrival back in town, we were harassed by a woman from the tour company which runs the jeep we were on, as the company we booked through hadn´t paid them yet. She ended up following us back to Sandra Tours (we needed to get our large packs back) to demand her money. It all seemed to be resolved by the time we left, but if you´re going to Uyuni, expect some sort of drama. There are so many companies offer tours, and they all seem eager to make the most money with the least amount of work. But definitely worth heading down there and doing a tour!!

The next day we caught a bus further south to Tupiza. Again the roads were unsealed, so it took 8 hours to get 200kms. The bus wasn´t too uncomfortable and, as seems par for the course in Bolivia, the scenery was plenty distracting.

Tupiza is smack dab in the middle of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid territory (the died in San Vincente, 120kms away). Today, on our only full day in Tupiza we went for a three hour horse trek around the countryside, and it was a real highlight of our time in Bolivia. It felt a lot like the wild west, and at times, with the silence and the rocky surrounds, it could have very well been the 1800s.

Tomorrow we´re heading back up north to the mining town of Potosi, then it´s on to Sucre for three days. Still loving cheap prices, the ever changing scenery (and weather). Still loving Bolivia.