So this morning got off to an interesting start.....
I woke up with my alarm that had been set for 3.30am. It's such an unnatural time of the morning to get up, however when you have a plane to catch you don't really have a say in it.
I readied myself, packed the last couple of items into my bag, and then headed down to the lobby to check out and wait for my transfer.
My transfer was booked for 4.30 am, and my guide arrived just before this time. We sat waiting for our transport to arrive, and chatted idly about how I've enjoyed Bolivia, and what my itinerary is from here on out. We waited, and we waited, 15 mins went by and there was no sign of the driver. My guide called someone, however was still no closer to finding out where our driver was. Finally at 4.55 she received a phone call to say that the driver was 2mins away.
At 5am, the van skidded to a halt out the front of the hotel. He quickly jumped out to open the door, and help put my bag in the van. By the sounds of his heavy breathing, it sounded like he had just run a marathon.
So in the van we jump, and the driver was on a mission to make up for lost time. Like a bat out of hell we zoomed off from the hotel.
Each of the intersections we came to displayed a red light, however this wasn't going to stop my driver.... and he proceeded to drive through every single one of them!!
He was like a racing car driver, overtaking cars, moving between lanes, he did everything to try and streamline my journey to the airport. Anyone who got in the way, received a long hard high beam from behind. It worked, as cars moved for us..... it was like the parting of the Red Sea!!
We arrived at the airport, and my guide and the driver jumped out of the van so fast, and helped me into the airport. The guide escorted me down to the check in counter, and I had made checkin for my flight by about 10mins... Easy, nothing to worry about!!
My guide then showed me to the boarding gate entry, were I said goodbye to her, and headed through security. I made my flight.... but it wasn't without a few nerves!!
I waited about 30mins, before they called for us to board the plane. As I showed my ticket, and made my way through the doors, I realised that it was going to be a tarmac special. However, this tarmac special was a little different. There were about 6 little planes all lined up, and people walking everywhere. It was really a pot luck if you ended up on the right plane, or even if you wanted to change destinations. Pick a plane any plane.
I just headed towards the first plane displaying the Amaszonas name. I climbed the stairs and found my seat. I was relieved when the captain announced that this was in fact my flight. I haven't heard of Amaszonas before, however I managed to resist the temptation of googling its air safety record. I don't think I need to know that just before I board it!!!
The plane trip to Uyuni was a short 45mins, and we travelled over some pretty barren land, mostly made up of red rocky formations. Then in the distance, I could see the large patches of white.... The much anticipated salt lakes and plains.
It is hard to give you an idea of the size and magnitude of the salt plains, but maybe think about Port Phillip Bay, completely filled with salt. It's huge. It was really impressive to see from the air, however I couldn't wait to actually get out on to the plains!!
We landed at Uyuni airport safely, and I was met by my guide Paulo, who lead me to our 4WD, and our driver Simon. Paulo had offered to take my bag, however I said that I was fine wheeling my own bag out. And didn't simon give Paulo heaps about it, I could hear them arguing at the back of the car whilst securing my bag in the boot. Paulo got in and told me that simon wasn't happy with him for not taking my bag.... Oops, I didn't mean to get him into trouble, it's just that by now I'm just so used to wheeling my own bag, that it would be weird for me to let him take it!!
We drove the short distance into town. It is a fairly basic small town. We stopped out the front of a small backpackers hostel, where they did a really cheap, but great breakie. Which was perfect as I was hungry.
We then went for a quick walk around town. There were lots of quirky sculptures, and old trains that lined the medium strip of the main road.
Paulo took me to have a look at the railway station, which was actually closed. We then walked to the church and through some of the local food markets.
I saw a lot of grains that are unique to Bolivia, and the veggies were very similar to what we get at home, except super sized!! Noticeably, there were so many different varieties of potatoes, many I which I have never seen before. Here I tried some local food.... It was a boiled black potato, prepared with crushed peanuts. It was actually quite nice. We didn't eat it all, so I tried to give it to a few homeless people on the street, however they all refused it.
Paulo had to go and grab some stuff from his room, so he left me to have a look around town on my own. The problem was, we had already walked around the entire town, and there really wasn't much more to see. So instead, I sat on a park bench in the pedestrian walkway, and started to read my new iBook.
As I sat there reading, in the beautiful warm sun, a local man came up to me. He started to chat, and we had a very basic conversation in Spanglish!! He seemed to be getting what I was saying, and vice versa. Every 5 mins or so he would jump up and run back to his souvenir stand, to tend to people passing by, even if they only took a single glance at something on the stand before them, he was there in a flash.
Before I knew it Paulo was back, and we flagged down Simon. Time to start day 1 of this tour.
First stop was on the other side of town. It was the train graveyard. There were so many steam trains that were rusty and weathered, and completely covered in graffiti!! But there was something ultimately cool about this place. I could totally see why it would be popular with the local teenagers. Coming down on a Friday night to sneak some booze and make out!!
I loved this place!! There was a swing that was made out of old train parts, and I didn't need much encouraging to get on and have a swing. Then Paulo and I walked around the trains, checking them all out, finally ending our time at the graveyard by climbing over a few of the rusted train skeletons!!
We jumped back in the car, making a quick stop to pick a couple of eskies, containing our lunch, and then it was off.
We drove for a little while, along unmade, bumpy, but flat roads. I was excited to see llamas roaming around, free!! We drove along the road until we came to a very small town. Here I was shown a salt factory. However factory would be pushing the terminology of what we actually saw. It was more like a barn, that salt was processed in. However it was very traditional, and great to see how the salt that we add to our food is processed.
I had a walk around the craft stalls, and then made my way back to the car. We were off again, however it was only a short distance to the actual salt plains. As we first drove onto the salt flat, we soon stopped and watched as a local man stood and back breakingly harvested salt with a hoe. He made big piles, ready to be loaded on to the old weathered trucks.
We then continued on our way. As we drove further along the flats, the salt became cleaner and whiter. I was amazed at the repetitive pattern naturally made in the salt whilst drying out. It was like continual hexagons, lying next to each other. It wasn't until I got out of the car, that I realised that what had appeared to be cracks in the ground, where in fact this natural build up of salt. It was crystallised, and it looked like shards of glass lying all over the ground. And it seemed to just go on for ever and ever, until it met the blue cloudless sky!!
We drove quite awhile further, and by this stage we had left the 'salt freeway', however really it was just a track that many cars had driven over, not a real freeway. However, once we were off the freeway, we had now started to drive on the actual salt lake, which is where the ground is covered with a thin layer of water. This was so magical, as the salt sparkled like diamonds shimmering in the sun. The only draw back was that Simon could only drive at 20km/hr, for fear that he may actually bog the 4WD. Do you know how long it takes to get to the other side of this very large salt plain going at 20km/hr? a bloody long time, that's how long!! The repeating hexagon pattern, the shimmering light, and the 3.30 wake up were all making it all too easy to fall asleep in the back of the 4WD, however I managed to resist the temptation..... just.
By 2o'clock we were almost at the other side of the salt plain, and we had come to an area that had a deeper amount of water across the ground. This provided us with the most spectacular reflections of the surrounding mountains, and the glacier topped extinct volcano that overlooked this salt plain. This is where we stopped the car, and Simon opened the back and set up a table cloth, and set out a very yummy picnic lunch. We stood there and ate our lunch, with one of the most beautiful views surrounding us!!! Pretty spectacular.
Once finished, we packed up our lunch, and drove the rest of the way to the end of the salt plain, where we found some flamingos dancing around and foraging for food in the shallows of the salt lake.
We drove up on to land, and started our off road four wheel driving expedition. We quickly drove through the rocky roads of the small village, and headed out of town on a single lane off road track. I bounced around the back seat, as simon skilfully manoeuvred the 4WD around the steep, rocky and narrow roads. Simon managed to navigate his way around a couple of cars that were coming in the opposite direction, with one of the cars having to reverse to a larger part of the track to allow us to pass.
We drove up the side of the extinct volcano, until we reached the car park about a third of the way up (which is still a long way up). Here Simon parked the car, and Paulo and I got out, and walked a rocky track towards some mummies.
We walked the short distance, and climbed into a cave. I was surprised to find actual skeletons in there, all huddled up in the faetal position. I guessed I shouldn't have been that surprised, considering I passed and read the sign that said 'Mummies this way'. Scared that I was going to have nightmares about the cave, I left and headed back out into the sun shine.
I was about to start walking back in the direction we came from, heading for the car, when Paulo said that we were going to go another way. Ok. So we started walking, and then hiking up the side of this extinct volcano. It was a mother of a hill from hell (I would like to stick another word in there, but will try and keep it clean). The rocks and earth moved from beneath my feet, with every single step that I took, and let's just say I'm no mountain goat. I'm clumsy as hell, so tripping over rocks wasn't helping my cause.
My legs were all scratched up from the spiky grass, and thorny bushes, and the elevation was really effecting me. I was finding it hard to catch my breath, and my heart was pounding so fast that I thought that it was going to beat right out of my mouth. I had to have a few stops up that mother hill, just so I could stay alive and not have a heart attack. I asked Paulo how high were we, and he told me that at this stage we were no higher than 4000m above sea level. Yep, that's why I can't breath. We were only climbing higher and higher too. As I took some photos at each of the stops we made, I managed to catch a glimpse at my reflection in the camera screen just before I switched it on.... and my lips were white. Yep, I'm glad I didn't have anything to check my oxygen levels with up there!!! I still carried on though, and I had the living suitcase scared out of me by a fricken partridge. We were walking in silence, as we were both so out of breath we didn't want to waste our oxygen on talking to each other. As I walked through this dried up river bed, a partridge started squawking so loudly and flew up into the air just beside me. My heart stopped and I nearly passed out, I was so lucky I didn't wet my pants.... If I wasn't so dehydrated I probably would have!!
As we reached the lookout, we got some good views of the volcano, with its white capped top. I did think that I would have been able to get the same photos with my camera lens about 5km down the hill, however that would have taken all the hard work and achievement out of what I had just done.
We started our descent, and I found going down just as hard as going up. The ground was sliding away from under my feet, and I struggled to remain on my feet. However I managed to stay upright, even if I did skid my way half way down the hill.
We made our way back to the car and we both skulled a bottle of water each, before we had even taken our seats back in the car.
We set off again, this time towards my hotel. We drove along the narrow off road track back into town. Instead of heading back into the salt plains, we hooked a right, and made our way bumpily through town on the unmade road. We followed this road for some time, passing llamas eating away happily in the fields. We soon rolled into the next town, Tahua. This is the town that my hotel was located in, and after that hike I was just looking forward to settling down for the evening. However, Simon and Paulo had other ideas. We pulled up out the front of a ceramic museum. Holly crap, of all the museums to take me to, it had to be a ceramic one. I walked around, looking at everything, however secretly wishing I was kicking my heels up. We had finished in the museum, and I started walking back to the car when Paulo said that there was another section for us to see on the other side of the road. Oh crap. So he lead me across, however this section was pretty awesome. There were a lot of sculptures made out of rocks. It was pretty cool to see, especially with the salt plains behind them providing the most perfect backdrop.
Eventually it was back in the car, and I was driven the short distance to my hotel. Now this hotel was the coolest place!!!!! The actual hotel is made out of salt bricks. It is so beautiful, and decked out with earthy tones and rustic fittings. I really love this hotel.
After a quick dinner, it was time for bed. I was well and truly ready for this tonight!!! After waking at 3.30am, plus 15 hours of travelling and touring today, plus a massive hike, I think I deserve a good nights sleep!! I am shattered.....