13th August 2012
We managed to get to our Jeep trip just in time as we had to wait for our laundry to be returned. In our group was 4 Belgium's, 3 guys, Bram, Thomas, Kyle (unsure of his real name, but looks like American Kyle) and a Girl called Charlotte. We began our 3 day circuit by heading to Cementerio de Trenes a train cementary. There were loads of old rusting decommissioned steam trains from the 1800s. We climbed all over them to get the best shots.

We then headed to Colchani a salt extracting town on the east of the Salar and the best place to enter. There halve the town worked the Salt, while the other worked in tourism. There were many stalls selling tradition Bolivian clothing and items made from the salt. We brought a salt dice. Looking round the town I found a piece of raw salt rock that just so happen to fall into my bag as a souvenir.

Our next stop was the famous Salar de Uyuni, the worlds largest salt flats covering an area of 12,106 sq km at a height of 3,653m. It was formed when Lago Minchín a pre historic salt lake dried up. The Salar was huge, for miles it was pure white flats. We took photos trying to capture the bizarre surroundings that gave the effect of snow, down to the crunch. We then drove to Isla del Pescado, which is a mound in the heart of the salt flats that is covered in cactus. We stopped here for lunch, which was Llama and rice. It was surprisingly nice. A quick stop at the Salt museum we then ventured to the top of the Isla del Pescado to get panoramic shots of the salt flats. At the top was a shrine that had a rotting goats head on it. Bizarre and gross. On the way down I tried to take a photo of Stevie and Me, but when I ran to get in the shot before the timer had counted down I fell onto a cactus. The needles penetrated all my layers and skin drawing blood. Ouch Charlie!

Some of the cactus were 1,000 years old. We spend the afternoon here getting sunburnt before heading to our hostel. Surprisingly when we arrived at our hostel we discovered that the whole hostel was made from salt, it was a salt hostel. The walls, floor, light shades, tables and chairs where all made of salt. It was amazing. The only downer was that the electricity was produced by car batteries so was only on 7-9pm. No showers. No charging. No problem. We spent the evening watching the sunset, eating and playing cards with the Belgiums before heading to bed before power out/lights out. Sleeping in all our clothes as it was freezing.