The past three days we have spent travelling through the desert and salt plains of Southern Bolivia. We took an overnight bus from La Paz down to Uyuni (possibly the bumpiest ride ever! Pretty much off-road on a bus…). On arriving in Uyuni, a very small town in the middle of the desert, we tried to find ourselves somewhere to kip overnight. The first place we tried was awful and having signed ourselves in, we promptly signed ourselves out and tried elsewhere. In the end we found a decent little hostel with a private bathroom that suited us just fine.

After a quick rest, we went into the centre of town (about 25m walk) and trawled through a few of the agencies trying to find the best deal on a three-day jeep trip. We plumped for a $65 one with a stay in a hotel made out of salt

Day One

We were supposed to set off at 10.30am but of course that means 10.30am South American time. We eventually set off closer to midday after packing up all our things onto the jeep. Our first stop was the train graveyard just outside town. It was quite a weird place and we ended up clambering into some of the rusting wreckage.

From there, it was a short drive into the salt flats themselves. A very strange landscape indeed – white for as far as the eye could see and quite blinding. There were little piles of salt all over the place too (presumably ready for gathering up). A short drive further and we stopped at a salt hotel to take a few photos. Kim tried using the loo but informed me that it was the worst toilet in the world…

After a short break we drove on through the salt plains to Fish Island – an island that looked a bit like a fish. As we got closer, we saw it was covered in cacti. We stopped for some lunch here and wandered around a little. Kim and I decided to grab ourselves a cold beer from the shop on the island and tried to stay out of the burning sun.

We then drove on to a small village where we were staying that night in a salt hotel. Pretty much the whole place was made out of salt – salt bricks, salt floor, salt cement, salt beds, salt tables and chairs, and so on. It was quite an experience. Fortunately our salt hotel had clean toilets and even a hot shower!!

Day Two

The second day we were up at 5.30 to try to beat the sun. We had a long drive through the desert but there were some amazing landscapes. I could just imagine dinosaurs roaming the land it was so strange. That day we drove right up by a volcano as it was churning out ash – it was a really spectacular sight to get that close.

Once past the volcano, we had our second puncture of the journey, although this one was a little more serious as we broke down miles away from anywhere on sand. You can imagine jacking up a 2 tonne jeep on sand doesn’t work very well and took us at least half an hour or so as we stood in the blasting winds, with sand going everywhere. I tried to help as much as possible but we were still at quite an altitude and even lifting the punctured wheel onto the back of the jeep made me gasp for breath!

Having finally repaired the jeep, we set off again to some of the desert lakes. The lakes were pretty impressive with hundreds of flamingoes. I managed to take a few photos but I am not sure if they will come out well enough to see the birds. We drove on and on through the desert, past amazing landscapes – rock formations, undulating sands, mountains, desert foxes, chinchillas… We stopped briefly to take a photo of the famous rock that looks like a tree (see if you can spot it in my photos).

Day Three

Up at 4am to get to the geysers early in the morning when they are the most active. We sped through the dark, icy cold desert and reached the Tatio Geysers just before the sun rose over the surrounding mountains. I took some really great photos but it doesn’t quite do justice to the place. The geysers were giving off really high plumes of steam and the whole place smelt of sulphur. We didn’t stay too long there as it was absolutely freezing. Back into the jeep and off to some hot springs. There I stripped off to my shorts and plunged into the boiling hot waters – it actually hurt getting in, it was so hot.

Our final drive was to Lake Verde (which did look green) and then to the Bolivian/Chilean border. There we got our passports stamped and boarded our minibus bound for San Pedro Atacama, Chile. As soon as we were over the Chilean border, it was unbelievably different. The roads were so smooth and perfectly straight (better than British roads by a mile). A couple of hours later we reached our destination – a small town in the middle of nowhere but so green and presentable with really friendly people. Kim and I both decided there and then that Chile was a really nice country! We stayed for some lunch and booked ourselves on the bus to Calama, a larger Chilean town, a little further West from San Pedro.