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Well we finally arrived after a long bus ride from La Paz. About 13 hours of which we think the first 3-4hrs was basically stuck stationary in traffic getting out of La Paz and through the first road toll block. I don´t think I can complain about traffic in Adelaide ever again!!
Getting off the bus we walked to our Hotel. As Uyuni really is a little town everything is pretty close. The main street really says it all with it being a small paved streeet with some restaurants (mainly pizza), deli type shops and internet places.
After settling into our hotel, Tonito Hotel, and being pleasantly surprised there was hot water and a heater (which we suspected we would need later on) we wandered down to find our tour company.
Ok I´m not going to spend this blog complaining about our tour company so bear with me for a quick run down:
Bad things about the tour:
1. Neither the driver nor guide spoke any english - luckily one of the bolivian tourists spoke a little english so we had someone to speak to occasionally and who explained the instructions from the driver.
2. The driver and guide didn´t explain even in spanish any of the landmarks or features of the flats
3. 3 of the 5 bolivian tourists on our tour were the typical - oh we have an hour, in my world I take that to mean two
4. No one helped anyone with photographs (The whole reason we went!!)
5. The driver clearly had no 4WD experience . . .
Note: We didn´t expect someone to speak good english but had been advised that our tour company - blue line tours - did have drivers and guides with some basic english.
Good things about the tour:
1. The salt flats were pretty spectacular
2. The salt flats had water all over them (pretty unusual and it had previously snowed!) which was a different experience
3. We did actually manage to get a couple of photographs that we were after.
4. We met another guide from a different company who was very helpful and quite passionate about the flats and spoke english.
The first stop on our tour was the train graveyard. We are still not sure how this is an attraction as it is just where they dumped their trains when no longer used but it appears to be the first stop for all the tours.
Now the highlight of our trip to Uyuni was Minuteman Restaurant. Minuteman is a Pizza place run by Chris from Boston (who married a bolivian) and who built his own pizza oven at the hotel run by his in-laws. Now the pizza was absolutely amazing as was the wine from Tarija (Bolivia) (the vineyards are the highest in the world) which rivals Australian wine. Amazingly the bottle of Cab Sav cost 50 boliviano about $7 AUS!! And the dessert. . .Oh my god his devils chocolate cake was to die for.
Tip:
Don't use Blue Line tours. Although they are recommended by LP the one day tour was a complete waste of time (almost). Can't say what the three day tour would be like but we couldn't do it anyway due to the snow.
After a great sleep and the hottest shower we have come across in South America we were off to Potosi. The world´s highest city at 4070m!!!
The saddest thing we saw was when we left there was a sea of plastic bags on the outskirts of town. Never has it made me happier that good old South Australia has banned them. The sheer amount not only in Uyuni but in South America that are just discarded - particularly in their waterways- is just sad. :(
Tip for Uyuni:
Book your tour when you get there. We met 2 Americans on our overnight bus who hadnt booked a tour and they ended up getting the day tour for around the same price (about $45US) and got a good guide and helpful people to take photos for them. The tour companies want to fill their seats so they do good deals.
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