I woke to the sound of the Chilean driver asking for my name at the hostel reception "Arry? Donde es Arry?" It was 45 minutes before my scheduled pickup! Luckily for him I am a bit of a speed demon when it comes to putting my clothes on (though not as fast as I am at taking them off, #ladies). In 5 minutes I was in the van and after waiting a good hour for the other tourists we were packed in like "sardinos" on the way to the Chile/Bolivia border.
Border formalities and a quick breakfast aside and we had split into 5 + a driver for the 4WD tour ultimately ending in Uyuni. With the extremely knowledgable Edgar behind the wheel and Latin America's finest tunes blasting through the speakers we were on our way. Laguna Blanca was the first stop, then Laguna Verde, coloured due to chalk and copper/arsenic respectively. It's a seriously spectacular sight to see, the lakes almost gave off a glow of their respective colours. We then visited the Rocas del Dali, volcanic stones scattered across a sandy backdrop made famous by a painting (I think). Other stops of the day included the steamy, multicoloured, and weirdly wonderful Sol del Mañana Geysers (5km asl, it was very hard to breathe) as well as some thermal baths (to soak in the juices of your fellow tourists) and the flamingo haven of Laguna Colorado (coloured deep red due to the algae) where I nearly did a Mary Poppins and disappeared in the 200km/h winds. My first real taste of the altitude that night made it hard to breathe, and after a few rowdy games of spoons (cards), sleeping at 3800m asl was uncomfortable to say the least.
By day 2 we were up and at them ready to tackle more of the weird and wonderful in the extra-terrestrial like landscape that is the salar region. The 3 lakes - Honda, Heidono and Chaqueño had their own special characteristic (depth, stench and I forget for Chaqueño). But were also all an absolutely amazing spectacle with at least 2 of the 3 flamingo species (Chilean, Andean and maybe James) of (different markings of) pink, white and black observed heads down copping feeds the whole day - endemic to the Salar region. What a life it would be to be able to eat all day, one could only wish. We then hurled down one of Edgar's makeshift trails (there are no roads) to an active volcano lookout. Standing almost 6km high, this baby puffed out those fumes like a yob down to his last pack of Winnie reds (f**k owfffff). Then, after passing a small town disaster struck. Thinking that we were killing it boppin to some sort of salsa, we stopped abruptly to find the axle had made its way out from under the car. After numerous knee slappers (mostly from my marvellous brain) regarding the situation it quickly became less of a joke when both drivers weren't able to repair the damage. And it never rains in the desert right? Wrong. As it poured like never before, myself and a couple of other gentlemen waited in the broken car while others were rushed off in the functioning car to the hotel (Edgar on the job as usual). So just when I thought all the excitement was over, 2 hours later I find myself in the broken car with the driver being towed by Edgar on a thin piece of cable no longer than 1.5m. In the rain, dark and gravel road with stones flying every which way this was lots of excitement, and I was shielding my eyes half expecting a rock to pierce the glass, but it didn't.
Day 3 we awoke to the Bolivian car repair party in full swing and left the salt hotel (made completely of salt) headed for the main course - the Salar de Uyuni. I sat there gaping in amazement I think throughout the entire duration of the crossing. The view is white as far as the eye can see, with salt up to 7m thick. We passed stranded fuel tankers, which had succumbed to the deceit of the salty terrain. As well as the cacti filled Isla del Pescado for some llama photos and a hike to the top for lovely views. At the whitest region of the salt flats, it was time for some illusional photos. I hadn't heard of this before but apparently you can use props (bottles, people, cars etc) to make something look bigger or smaller than it is (using the right camera angles) Cool! Too bad I just stood and smiled for my photo (and did a little jump). The last stop was an abandoned train shed (graffer's paradise) before being dumped in Uyuni where after taking one look at the town, I decided to high-tail it to nearby Potosi. Though my first Bolivian bus ride, consisting of no toilet, cramped to the max and arriving an hour late was another story.