Steve's turn...

SPDA - UYUNI Trip - Day1

Jump on a minibus - go back to shop where we booked the trip - wait 15 minutes then drive five minutes to the passport office (about an hour from the actual border with Bolivia). We drive uphill for ages and stop at the smallest little shed in the world (Bolivian Border Control); alt 4800. If we didn't stop, no one would have cared or even noticed - but we wouldn't get a wee bit of paper and a stamp in the passport. We go in to get our paper slip and stamp and meet one little guy at the desk looking decidedly uninterested.

I spot the 4wd (atoyota) and see one guy, who we are soon to meet as Freddy, our tour guide; who speaks no English. Lucky we're pretty much fluent in Spanish (ahem) after studying for 3 weeks in B. Aires. Though after about five minutes into the trip, I ask Freddy if he has a boyfriend (novio instead of novia)! We have a laugh and I later make up for it by offering to wash his car (by accident), instead of asking if he needs to wash the salt from the Salar, or Salt Lake, off the car (necesito/necesita)! It's safer when you know nothing about a language!

Stop at the first (of many) lake(s) reflecting beautiful snow capped mountains! Shan's suffering from the altitude so takes drive by pictures while I venture 10m closer! We drive further uphill, over 5000m now, and we're all starting to feel the effects of the altitude. We stop at some hot geysers with lots of bubbling mud pools. It's pretty high and cold but if you stand in the hot air from the vents it's pretty nice - but smelly!

Set off again and see nothing; absolutely nothing, but desert. We get so much time looking at this landscape that we start to notice the varying degrees of nothingness. Cruising along in the sand and stop at these rocks jutting out of the sand. Apparently these gave Salvador Dali inspiration and the area is called after him.

We get to our shelter at 3ish and find out this is where we're going to be spending the afternoon and the night! There's absolutely nothing there - bar the llamas wandering past. Have some lunch and few people are feeling the altitude sickness come on. The wee woman (who's grumpy as hell, though we can't exactly take our custom elsewhere - there's nothing for miles), gives us Coca de Mate for the altitude. To be honest, I think if someone broke their leg the answer would be 'Coca de Mate' too! Apparently we'll test positive for the derivative from the coca leaves - Cocaine. We can tell it's going to be cold at night so we get wrapped up well Jo and Justin even give us hot water bottles (after a discussion with the angry woman) who says we can't have hot water for them - even though it's freezing! We go out to look at the stars which are amazing - the whole sky is totally filled with them, as there is absolutely no light pollution.

About 15mins after I'm in bed, I realise I'm roasting hot and the rest say the same. They are in separate beds though! We all have a terrible night trying to get to sleep with the headaches and Shanita's heart rate's up - I think it's because she's next to me, but apparently it's the altitude.

Salar de Uyuni Trip - Day 2

Everyone's had a rough night, but surprisingly we all feel better once we're up and walking about. We later learn that it's not good to lie flat when you're feeling bad with the altitude and if you're sleeping you should try and sit up a bit.

We set off early and see loads of Flamingos. Take loads of pictures. Guidebook says not to chase the flamingos to get one of them flying - nae chance running at this altitude - I can hardly chase sleep. There's a tiny hill back up to the car and I give Shan a piggyback for two minutes as she's struggling to walk uphill and end up knackered myself! Stop for more pictures of flamingos and see some Vicuñas too.

More desert driving - there is gradually getting even less vegetation and now it's pretty much just sand. We stop at the Arbol de Piedra (stone tree) and spend most of the time climbing over loads of rocks that jut out of the ground - and practice a few jumping pictures.

Freddy's told us that we're going down now - but we can see the altimeter in his jeep (which goes up to 4500m) and it's still off the scale. I need to take painkillers for my head but about an hour later I'm fine again -just missed lunch as I had to concentrate on not dying from my headache. Later we see some Llamas in the middle of nowhere and a few minutes later see an indigenous women with baby tied to her back in the brightly coloured slings they use to carry absolutely everything. We wonder about her life and how little she must have out here and how differently she lives compared to us.

We make it to a tiny little village of about 200 people about an hour later, just before dinner time - this must be the 'big city' compared to the isolated huts we passed earlier. It's so good to get a lukewarm (that might even be over-selling it. It's probably closer to 'not icy cold') shower.

Shanita and I go for a wander round the town. Two minutes later we're back for dinner. Llama and potatoes - even the wine can't take my mind of it being llama so have a few bites and leave it. Good chat round the table and spend ages looking at our pictures from the day.

Day 3

We set off for Uyuni (about 1½away), and stop at the Cemeterio de Trens (Trains Cemetery). Pretty cool to see all these massive trains left to rust as they don't need coal powered trains anymore (at least I think that's what Freddy said). Head into Uyuni as we have to pass through to get to the Salar (Salt Flat). When we see Uyuni, we see that we don't want to hang about so arrange overnight bus out for that night. (We hear the best thing about the place is 'minuteman pizza' and the busses only leave every night for La Paz.) As soon as we see the Salar we're captivated - it's just so vast and flat and white. You can see the reflection of the sky. We see people putting the salt into little piles to be shovelled into the back of a truck. Looks like hard work in a harsh landscape. When we step out the car it's into water that's a few inches deep. Water sprays up our legs and the sun dries it to leave crystallised salt on our skin. Speand a while making depth perception pictures - only a few work because it's the wet season. After lunch we head back to Uyuni - the closest that comes to civilisation out there in the middle of nowhere.

When we get back we spend a while getting our administrative tasks done (ATM, Pay bus, get food and snacks for bus). Shan's still feeling ill so we go to the local clinic. It's better equipped than expected. The Dr speaks no English so luckily we (Shan), is able to speak well enough to tell the Dr about her medical maladies! She gets hooked p to the oxygen and given some drugs for her high blood pressure (I might have contributed to that) and popped into a bed. About an hour later she's sound as pound and we're off to catch up with some of the folk from the trip for dinner.

Bus to La Paz

After rushing from the Dr's to the pizza place and back to the tour company that has our bags, I have to carry both bags to the bus stop. It's bloody difficult, but we get there on time; just. We've paid the extra (probably an extra fiver) to get the best bus out of there and it's not too shabby. Until we start moving.

No matter how good the busses are, the roads are just dirt tracks through the desert. We keep thinking the bus is going to topple with the wild rocking from side to side. At pne point we lose the road and the conductor goes out with a torch to find it. We back up and then back onto the 'road' again. Later we drive through an actual river. I fall asleep then wake up as some light is in my eyes. It's flames at the side of the road. The flames indicate the road isn't passable so we have to cut into a field. The driver takes three attempts to get over the ditch at the side of the road. I think it's best we just try and sleep!

When I wake in the morning we're on a paved road, it's colder and I get the feeling it's higher. Half and hour later we're in La Paz. Phew, that really was the worst road in the world! So far…