The Uyuni Salt Flats

This may be the shortest blog ever as there is no words to describe the wonder of the Salar de Uyuni. We spent three days driving around the salt flats continually looking out of the car in amazement. On day one our driver Saul, who turned out to be an amazing driver with enough English to make the trip enjoyable and informative, took us to the train cemetary on the outskirts of Uyuni. This is where all the old locomotives from the 19th Century have ended up after the decommissioning of most of Bolivias rail network, the remainder is now owned by Chile. It was then on to village of Colchani to view where the salt is cut by chainsaw and then processed through a mixture of fire and other extrating minerals to produce the salt that is edible for us to use in food. All the salt processed in the salt flats is used in Bolivia, and theres a lot of salt there. The view over the flats is unreal, they stretch forever, with the white crystal shimmering in the sunshine only to be stopped by the volcanoes miles in the distance. The flats as our guide Gonzalo, who had great english and was a laugh, told us used to be under the Pacific Ocean until the plates collided and pushed the volcanoes and plains into the sky. We drove on over the salt, watching as the crystals below us changed from sand like to form a mixture of pentagonal and hexagonal shapes. It was cool. The next stop was the Isla del Pescado, Fish Island, which is a small hill that rises up from the salt with nothing else near it. The views from the top are really impressive. The island is also covered in cactus, but not water bearing like the ones found in the desert. These cactus in fact provide very good wood with which to build tables, chairs, cabinets and the rest. It is also on this part of the salt flats that we are able to take the funny pictures. Some of the group had ome crazy ideas, a lot of people were sitting in shoes and Pringles packets. The afternoon involved driving to our hotel for the night stopping numerous times to look at the views. They are so good, masive volcanoes, topped with snow rising from the salt and later the desert. Our hotel for the night was nice, made completely out of salt blocks. It did get cold at night but the stars over the flats were unbelievable, I didnt think there could be so many. Even the Milky Way was as clear as day and there was a few shooting stars there as well to top it off. The next morning up to watch the sunrise over the flats and the colours were ace. Our adventure for today included more jaw dropping views, especially when we arrived on Mars, or at least thats what is looked like, the red rocks with the snow capped volcanoes all around. Today we also saw Chile for the first time. It was only a few miles in the distance with the mountains providing the frontier between the two countries. We passed numerous lakes and lagoons high in the mountains, we were never below 4000m at this point (Ben Nevis is only 1000 and something) including one named Stinky Lake due to the stench of sulphur coming from the water. Each lake and lagoon was filled with hundreds of flamingos. Andean, James and Chilean, their pink mass covering the landscape. The afternoon we entered the park passing Lagoa Colorado on the way. The lagoon is crimson in colour due to the algae feeding on the red minerals contained in the rocks in the area. It again is filled with flamingos and its setting is just a picture. Beautiful. The park also contains the Rock Tree, a rock formation that stands apart from the others thus looking like a tree. The rest of the rocks provide a fun place to go climbing as well. We drove on stopping numerous times again to catch our breath from the views that we were witnessing. We stopped next to a patch of snow that hadnt melted yet and Tamara and I decided it was a good idea for a snowball fight. Whilst this was going on someone spotted a small rodent, rabbit like in appearance but with the tail of a chinchilla. It was cool bounding along the cliff face and even posing for us to take pictures. The hostel that night was at an altitude of over 5000m and once again it was very cold! The last day involved an early start with an early visit to the guisers in ther region. The hot steam bursting from the earths surface certainly warmed the hands in the morning cold, very welcome. We then drove to the natural springs for our first bath in two days. It was mad getting down to your swimming trunks at close to zero degrees and the water, at first was roasting on the skin. After a while though the 35 degrees was just perfect and nobody was for getting out, though I still felt warm for about 10 minutes out of the water. The rest of the day was spent making our way back to Uyuni but once again with the constant stoppages to get out and marvel at the land around us. We arrived back at Uyuni at 5 in the evening, the four of us and the rest probably all very very pleased to have spent those last three days out on the flats. The amount of times that I got out of the car or looked out of the window to utter the words incredible is probably a world record for three days. The majority of the time though I was left totally speechless and that takes a lot. I said it about Iguassu but I must say it again. Sometimes the incredible, unbelievable beauty of the world makes you think that somebody bigger than us has had a hand in designing it. This is defintely one of those places. There can be nowhere else like it on earth and I will remember my experience here forever. There is just not enough adjectives in the English langauge to describe this place!