Salt flats, volcanoes, deserts, lakes and flamingos

I headed for the southern corner of Bolivia to Uyuni and its salt flats, and the amazing Eduardo Avaroa Reserve. Wow... the scenery is stunning!

After a bumpy overnight bus ride down to Uyuni (I had wanted to go by train in the day, but it was cancelled due to a blockage due to a political protest), I wandered round town, and bumped into Matt Fishbeck at the market!

I´d already signed up for a 3 day tour in a 4wd in La Paz, and I found myself in a very ¨international¨ car with 2 Canadians, 2 italians, a Columbian, and our Bolivian driver and cook. We headed out to the train graveyard, and then out to the salt flat and this small town that used to be a railway town but now barely survives refining salt. No shortage of salt of course, just its hardly worth enough to bother transporting it! So now carved salt souvenirs bring in a bit of money.

On to the salt flats and hardly surprising but its very white! Stunning and bizarre, with 4WD stopping here and there to let people out to take photos of salt piles, salt crystals, bubbling water pools etc. And onto the cactus island which I adored, with its juge cactii and stunning 360 degree view of salt and mountains in the distance. We left the salt lake, headed across the train track (that connects Oruru with Chile) Then onto a windswept small town (San Juan) surrounded by llamas for the night.

From there we went further south, into stunning volcanic high plains and deserts, with wierd rock formations, sand and stones. And wierd animals like rabbits but with bushy tails. And Vicunas eating god knows what in the desert... There are these spectacular coloured lakes, teeming with flamingos. Which contradicts all my instincts that flamingos live in tropics! We´re talking lakes of about 4000m altitude with temperatures dropping below freezing overnight (down to -30 apparently at times), but they don´t freeze due to their wierd mineral mix.

And a geyser and field of boiling mud at 5000m altitude, and a wonderfully warm hotspring for a quick soak before breakfast! Onto more lakes (and the most spectacular greenish blue one which may look pretty but is a poisonous mix of chemicals including lead and arsenic), and more wierd rocks before a long drive back to Uyuni. Unfortunately we had 2 flats on the way back and only one spare tyre... so we waited for another 4wd to help us out. They´re all quite friendly from the different companies, with drivers helping out on various engine/tyre problems.

So what a trip! Spectacular scenery, lovely people, good food... all i´d say is it would be nice to be able to spend a bit longer at some of the places! Next time hey... But I`m not as crazy as some who were riding bicycles across some of those barren deserts...