The Salt Flats of Uyuni

So still travelling with Richard and Anika and a day after our suceesful descent of the "Worlds Most Dangerous Road" we set of on a night bus for Uyuni, a small town in southern Bolivia, formerly a railway centre and now a tourist town and the starting point for tours of the Salf Flats nearby.

As with most Bolivian transport the world uncomfortable sprang to mind as we left La Paz and speed down dirt roads at unrealistic speeds, my knees becoming intermate friends wth the seats in front quite qickly (the height of your average Bolvian must be a good foot shorter than me and the buses are built accordingly).

We arrived battered, bruised and sleepless in Uyuni at 7 a.m. ready to do battle with the hordes of touts just waiting to sell us all inclusive and exclusive packages for a wonderful 3 day tour of the flats. We also met around 7 other Gringos on the bus that we had met at previous locations around Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia, we really were on "The Gringo Trail" now.

So to the Tour. The Salt Flats are, I think, caused by colliding land masses sending what were once salt lakes or sea areas thousands of metres up. So its totally flat and very white which makes photography fun due to the lack of perspective. After driving across the flats and a visit to the Fish Island (it looks like a fish and was once an island when the salf flats were water) our tour guide, cook and general auto mechanic took us to a supposedly "exclusive" salt block built hostel, remember the touts. This was of course rubbish as there were loads of other groups there but it made the dynamic fun even though our guide had buggered off without leaving us any bread or water, we did eat of course, the usual Bolivian faire of chicken and chips.

The second day was another journey through fantastic wind and sand carved scenery across deserts and fascinating rock formations. We also manged to get to a shop ( made our guide go to a shop) so as well as water we had a good supply of Bolivian wine for the evening and it wasn`t too bad. The guide Raul even let me drive the Jeep for a while, I think he was feeling guilty about leaving us the night before.

The third and last day saw us continue across Dali esque scenery and take a dip in a hot springs, my first full bath for over two months and then back to Uyuni for a fantastic tea at Minute Man Pizza. If you are ever in Uyuni go there, but do not use the tour agency we used BLUE LINE.