So we left the tragedy of Potosi behind us and set off in our posh 4x4 with Williams and Raoul, our driver for the next 4 days. After a couple of hours driving across the dry altiplano with volcanoes all around, we stopped at a lagoon filled with flamingoes. It was totally silent apart from us and the reflection of the sky in the water was gorgeous. Pulacayo was our next stop - a ghost town now at the site of a 19th century mine. It also has the old train robbed by Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. We then drove to Uyuni, where we stopped for a slightly too traditional lunch (what is this?? was asked a few times, thankfully no guinea pig in sight)! before heading to our hotel, built entirely of salt with views over the Uyuni salt flats. It was very odd to be walking on salt everywhere, but it was lovely and we watched a beautiful sunset - bit cold up here though at night!
The Uyuni salt flats were, along with the Glaciers; Easter Island and the Amazon, one of the places I was most looking forward to seeing before leaving home, and they didn't disappoint. It is hard to describe them tho as they are like nothing else, but I'll give it a go! Instead of soil, there is salt. It is completely flat and covers an area of over 10,000 square kms. We are here at the end of the wet season so there is a layer of water sitting on the salt (great for piccies but not great for 4x4s!). As this water evaporates in the dry season it will form another layer of salt. We drove some 50kms onto the flats, which is weird as you feel like you are driving on water as it's so white below you it doesn't look like solid ground. We stopped for a picnic and pictures, we were both in awe and could not believe where we were having lunch. As the flats are 4,000m above sea level, the air is really thin so you can see volcanoes 200kms away on the other side of the salt flats - incredible. Looking across, you can't tell where the horizon is and where the sky starts. Anyway, I'll stop babbling on and let the photos do the talking!
We headed back to Uyuni for the night, stopping at a steam train graveyard on the way - Uyuni town used to be a key railway junction linking all the mines with Chile, Argentina and the rest of the world. As the mines declined, so did the railway.
The following day brought a much cloudier sky as we drove a further 5hrs through more amazing landscapes. We had another picnic by a river, stopped at a canyon, walked through a rock valley and checked out quinoa farming - just a basic day really! We arrived at Villamar, a very simple Andean village with more llamas than people, and to our "rustic" lodge. Williams took us on a walk to an amazing ruined village in a canyon. There were 500 families living there before drought, and then the Spaniards, cleaned them out. If the Spaniards hadn't found it and smashed it up, I think it's the sort of place that could easily rival MP, but instead they looted everything, burnt down houses and took the people to work in the mines of Potosi.
That night we were all in bed by 9 as it was freezing, no luxury like heaters in this village! Poor G seems to have been struck by the altitude again and spent a large part of the night in the bathroom, thank god we had a private loo, no matter how basic! We had to leave at 6am for what was probably the longest 6hr journey of his life! Such a shame as once again the scenery was stunning,
There had been snow overnight so the sunrise was across snow covered plains and volcanoes. We even got to see flamingoes in the snow (which is v rare according to a very enthusiastic Williams)! We stopped at various spots - Laguna Colorada (red water and reflections from shrimp in the water); the Sol de Manana geysers and boiling mud, amazing, although at this point G looked close to death (we were at 4,850m!); laguna verde (full of minerals and arsenic) with volcan Licancabur as its backdrop - all just incredible.
Anyway after saying our goodbyes to Williams and Raoul at the border, we were picked up by their Chilean counterparts and driven to San Pedro de Atacama. This is our final new place before flying home. We have a lovely hotel and at the moment intend to do nothing but relax, sunbathe and get G better.
We both loved Bolivia although I feel slightly saddened by it. I wish they would make more use of their stunning natural resources and market themselves more to International tourists. It could be a much richer country but instead a lot of its people just manage to scrape a living together, working so hard.