Our second lot of not showering for numerous days has come and gone! Hopefully our second (and second last) day of getting up at 4:30 has also come and gone!

The salt flats in Uyuni were amazing!!! Let me start by saying that karma came back to get me for complaining about the slow walkers by putting Kirbs and I on a tour with them. Let me follow that by saying that they were actually really nice women, and that we had a great time with them!! So after our LONG train ride, we made it into the hotel and pretty much just crashed and burned! The next morning we got up reasonably early so we could sort out our last night in Uyuni but there was just enough water for one hot shower. As we found out after I got in after Kirbs. With no heating in the rooms it gets FREEZING!!!

So, we were assigned to a jeep with Raul (the driver), and Isabella, Gabriella and Margerite (the ladies from Argentina) and we picked up Robbie (our Irish American) on the way. The use of international sign language for 'I have to sit in the front or I will throw up' came in pretty handy, and is actually universally understood. (If needed just pretend to drive a car, then lean over and open your mouth, and gesture like something is coming out! Lol)

We also stopped to pick up Raul's son so with 8 of us in the 4x4 (which had no hand brake…) it was a bit of a tight squeeze… it's quite funny to see a convoy of jeeps setting up and strapping all the luggage onto the roof… lol. We also found out that Raul had about as much English as we did Spanish, so needless to say we've improved a lot since we first got here!

Day one took us to the train cemetery (where all good combustion engine trains went to die) which was fun to play with (it's ok, I had my tetanus shot just before I left!).from there we headed to the Salt Flats where Kirbs and I had heaps of fun playing optical illusions whenever we stopped somewhere white. It was an absolutely GORGEOUS day and I ended up in a t-shirt for most of it enjoying the sun while it lasted! Raul also told us the story of the salt plains. Legend has it that the 3 surrounding mountains (2 girls and 1 boy, as in every good story) where all in a sticky situation. Both the girls were in love with the boy, but one of them was married (I think, remember I was translating this from Spanish!) to him and had a child (mountain) to him. So the other girl mountain cried all the time (which is why it is salty) and the other girl mountain expressed all her breast milk (which is why the ground is white). Not a very pleasant legend, but legend nonetheless! Lol

From there we headed to an 'island' covered in cactuses which apparently looks like a fish (I didn't really see it!) where Kirbs and I once again played, 'let's see how we can make it look like we can jump!' Once everyone was tired of us mucking around with our cameras, we piled back into the car and headed for the 'refusio' (think refuge). These places don't except reservations, so it's first come first serve, and if the first ones are full you just keep on driving til you get let in! We were lucky to get let into the first one thankfully!!! The place was really cool with everything built from salt stone. I mean everything - walls, bed frames, ceiling, chandeliers, floors. The works was salt, and surprisingly it was pretty warm too.

By this stage we were beginning to question why everyone had told us it was going to be freezing (we only had day packs with us with limited supplies) and thought the rest of the time was going to be like it had… boy were we wrong!

The next day was slightly colder, as we headed out to see the various lakes (named after the colours that the water took on). Our first stop was at an 'active' volcano (we were so far away, and nothing was happening) where we were told that the whole day was going to involve 'banos naturales' - ie find a big rock to pee behind cause there aint nothing else to give you cover. A bit of a challenge when the landscape is desert, but we managed after a hike… I'm not going to name any of the lakes other than laguna verda for the simple fact I can't remember the rest! We were lucky enough to see some flamingos at a couple of the lakes which was really cool! At the second lake we stopped at there were some frozen ponds too, so of course I couldn't resist the temptation to see how frozen… at least now I know my shoes really are waterproof! Lol. After the lakes we stopped at some cool rock formations, where we were caught in a massive sand-storm. Lucky for us we'd made it to the car by that time! We then headed to our next refusio where we were lucky enough to get the last room, so the 6 of us were crammed in tight! That night we found out what everyone was talking about with the cold, and we had to have fires going to keep us warm enough. Finding out we had to be up at 4:30 was enough to have us in bed by 9pm though - an easy enough feat when you consider that none of the refusios have heating, electricity (other than generator), and much of anything to do… (another time I regret not bringing along cards!!!). we also had an interesting moment where we thought we'd been MASSIVELY ripped off, and paid double what the Argentinian women had at the same tour place, but turns out one of them just got the price wrong and we'd paid the same! PHEW!

At this point we've made it to somewhere between 4100 and 4500 above sea level, so we're pretty high… and the altitude gives you some REALLY vivid and messed up dreams… so the next morning we're all up at 4:30, and I have on… my thermal pants, my hiking socks, alpaca leg warmers, my water proof pants, my singlet, my t-shirt, my merino thermal long sleeve top, my other merino top, my alpaca scarf, beanie and gloves, AND my jacket… I was STILL freezing!!! So pre-dawn (I've never seen so many stars in my life!!) we pile into the car to head to the geyser… as we're driving in the black of the night, I start feeling car sick but thankfully the sun rises before I need to get out the car! We finally make it to the geyser where it's blowing a gale so no-one can get out the car. Raul has kindly been pointing the snow out to us on the way so no-one was really that inclined anyway! Being the lucky one in the front seat I became designated geyser photographer (thankfully only 2 cameras!!!) but my arm was frozen! Post the geysers (and some more wind storms where we couldn't even see the road directly in front of the car but kept driving…) we headed to the hot springs. Unfortunately it was so cold and windy that none of us was game to get in, but it looked really inviting. (Until you saw the people who had gotten out… then you felt a bit smug… lol). The rest of the day was spent really seeing the sights from the car, mainly only getting out for food or for the banos (some of which were a bit amusing…) due to how freezing and windy it was (especially given the car had no heating…). The highest point of the day we made it to 4870 above sea level!

After dropping Robbie off at the border to Chile, we headed back down to Uyuni where we ran out of gasoline about 45 mins out from town… Luckily they keep the gas on top of the car (although now I think about it not so lucky if you crash…) so we were off and moving again after about 20 mins. Let me pause here to tell you a bit about the car. We listened to the same tape for 3 days. On repeat. I think it was in Spanish. I don't know what they were singing. It was crap. It's still in my head. As I said no heating. We also had essentially no suspension either, so by the end of the day my back was killing me from all the bouncing (we were driving through the national park, so no sealed roads). We got overtaken by EVERY single other jeep. We over took one jeep this morning, but I think that's cause they were broken down… lol. So we'd been driving for ages and there was still no sign of the city lights so I asked Raul how far away we were and he said 5 minutes… after 3 days of Raul saying 'just a little further' you come to add some time on… with no city lights in sight I was pretty doubtful until we found out that due to the wind there power was out. We also found out that the refusio next to ours had lost their roof during the night due to the wind, so we were pretty lucky all in all!

We made it back into the dark Uyuni (where the stars were really bright) and found out we already had another nights accommodation booked at the first place we stayed at, so we checked out both hotels, and decided our first one looked the best. Until Kirbs had a shower and had no hot water, so now we might be using the other one in the morning to get decent!

Tomorrow we head off to Potosi, so we're going to try to get up early to find an internet café (wifi doesn't seem to exist in Uyuni!) and hopefully post our pics and blogs, and chat to some folk at home. Thankfully we'll have power and (hopefully) hot water, everyday until we hit the inca trail so fingers crossed!

Hope you're all well, love and miss you heaps!!!

XoxoX

Well, I'm now in Potosi and despite having internet access am still no closer to actually uploading a blog! So we made it to the town (the highest town!) and our bus couldn't make it all the way to the station due to a road block because of 'natural causes' (we still don't know what that means!). So we got off the bus and decided to walk to the hostel and try our chances at the hostel that I emailed this morning to reserve, but which may or may not have booked. So, let's start by saying that we're at 4500 feet and that we're both carrying about 30kg by now. So we start walking and we get about halfway (15 mins) before we get a cab, it's one of the steepest places I've ever been to. We get to the hostel and thankfully they have a booking for us, but there's been a mistake and it's a booking for a 'matrimonial bed'. Kirbs and I don't really care so we take it and are grateful for the heating and the hot shower!! So, we head to an internet café (which didn't have computers powerful enough to power up a hard drive) and I check my mail and see that the reservation email that I thought that I'd sent had actually bounced back… so who knows whose reservation we have, but we're not really fussed seeing as we have a room!!!

Tomorrow we're off to do the mine tour, so that should be fantastic!