When we turned up at the office at around 10.15 it was a bit chaotic as there were two tours leaving for the 3 day trip, and a few others just for a day trip. We had included a ticket for a bus from the Bolivia/Chile border to San Pedro de Atacama in Chile, but of course they had forgotten to buy it and had to run off to purchase it for us.

After standing around for close to an hour we finally left. Our tour guide seemed to be a freelancer rather than employed by the actual company we booked with, unlike the tour guide for the other group. He told us he had only been informed at 9 that morning that he had to take a tour which was why he was so late to pick us up. Great start! We were quite fortunate however, that we had people from Uruguay and Argentina on our tour who spoke both English and Spanish and were able to translate for us along the way.

The first stop was the train graveyard. Uyuni used to be an important railway hub, but with the collapse of the mining industry the need for trains dried up, and so the old engines and carriages have been left to rust. They make a great spot for photos (though there was hundreds of people there), and you are free to climb all over them. We were only given 15 minutes so we snapped as many quick shots as we could before moving on.

The next stop was in a town called Colchani, right on the edge of the salt flats. The stop here was a quick one for toilets and to buy souvenirs, water, etc. We found a place selling some small dinosaurs and other animals, and felt very fortunate to actually find a toy kangaroo in the collection! We really wanted to buy it to use for some classic salt flat photos but the girl wouldn't bargain with us at all and we decided her asking price was ridiculous. Plus we had bought some other little critters in Uyuni and figured they would suffice.

Then we entered the salt flats. At the first section the ground was ankle deep in water which was expected being the rainy season. There were mounds of salt drying off for harvesting which looked great with the reflections in the water. The only problem was getting a reasonable photo due to all the people! Why does every single tour company decide to start their tour at exactly the same time, therefore resulting in hoards of people at every stop?

Once our bare feet had started to sting from the salty water, we climbed back in the car and continued on to the next stop, a salt hotel in the middle of the salt flats. We were just driving on flat endless salt which was pretty cool. Though the colour of the salt was a bit brown, not the pure white that we had imagined. Our driver told us a dust storm had stained the salt, and this section hadn't had enough rain to clean it up.

There was a big monument of some description with the Dakar symbol out the front of the hotel, and the hotel itself was quite impressive though didn't look comfortable to stay in despite the price tag. The walls were all made from salt bricks, and the floor was covered in grains of salt. The view all around was just flat and white(ish) with some distant mountainous islands poking out.

We continued on for a little while and stopped for lunch on an open section where the salt had dried in hexagonal patterns. After our reasonable meal of meat (the guide told us it was llama but we're not sure) and some salad and rice, we took a few pictures and started to experiment with the little critters we had purchased. Unfortunately it turned out they were far too small to be able to take the perspective shots we had planned!

Luckily by this stage the weather was really nice. We could see patches of clouds and rain off in the distance, but around us was blue skies. We continued snapping away until our guide told us it was time to move on. We could see islands in the salt off in the distance, which appeared to be floating mid air due to the reflection on the salt.

Then we arrived at Fish Island. This strange island, literally smack in the middle of the salt flats, is absolutely covered in giant cacti. The salt flats themselves are the remnants of an ancient sea, and this island is the remnant of an ancient coral reef. You can still see the coral patterns, now appearing like textured rock with a grassy and cactus covering.

A pathway leads up to the top, which wasn't far but took a bit of effort at such high altitude. The landscape is completely surreal as you peer down a desolate hillside, dotted with tall cactus pillars and surrounded by a tranquil sea or pure salt. It's a magic sight.

With some time to fill before we had to be back at the car we set about taking some pics. We got out our little critters, a plastic frog, ant and a grasshopper. Unfortunately we quickly discovered that getting them and us in the picture was next to impossible, so we had to settle for a water bottle instead.

From there we headed south further along the salt. We made one final stop for the day in an area where the salt was really white. We stopped again for more pics, though we discovered our tour companions weren't really great photographers, so the photos we envisaged didn't turn out at all as planned. At least we got a couple of reasonable ones.

We then drove off the salt flats, a little disappointed that on a 3 day tour, barely a day is spent on the salt, but there were more amazing things ahead to see. We were to stay that night in the town of San Juan in a salt hotel. After an hour or so we arrived in the town, only to find that the hotel had no rooms left!

Our guide started blasting us for taking too much time taking photos, telling us it was our fault. We were all pretty angry given we were under the impression we would have a reservation at the hotel, and he hadn't told us at any point that we needed to hurry.

We drove to a couple of other salt hotels (all the tours use these hotels) and eventually found one that had space. We assume this one was either not as nice as our intended accommodation or these salt hotels were highly exaggerated on the quality. It wasn't anything exciting but at least we got our own room.

Why the hotel needed to be made from salt when we weren't even on the salt flats we couldn't work out, but it seems to be a selling point of the tours. Basically the walls are made from salt bricks, as are the bed platforms (with just a mattress on top), tables, chairs, etc. The floor is covered in thick grained salt which is really just more annoying than anything else.

We were able to have a warm shower, though it cost extra but we really needed to get the salt off, then relax with our tour mates over a coffee and biscuits before dinner. Other tour groups staying in this hotel were served delicious looking meals while ours was some very average chicken. The meals are provide by the tour company, another sign we had chosen the wrong one!

LAPFWT