World Bolivia Uyuni

Jodie's visit to South America Jodie's South American Trip 2007 - 2008

Salar de Uyuni 2 Dec 2007

I just finished a 3 day 4WD tour of the Salar de Uyuni and even though my guide only spoke english and I didn't end up on the tour I paid for it was awesome. The landscapes were just amazing, there is so much variety in Bolivia. I took so many photos because it was just so beautiful. The salt flat was incredible, it looked like snow and was so bright that i couldn't tell what i was taking photos of but they turned out so I'm happy. The photos of the salt flat where it had cracked into hexagons and pentagons are stunning. Little stalls along the way had trinkets made of salt, which were really nice. The first night we stayed in la Hotel de Sal in San Juan which is literally a hotel made of salt, the walls, the beds (with a mattress on top), the tables and chairs are made of salt and the floor is salt about 15cm deep, it was so beautiful on the inside. It was kind of surreal. In that tiny town there was a necropolis where you walk around and look inside these rocks to find real skeletons in the fetal position, it was very strange and kind of spooky, especially as we were there just as the sun was starting to set. the town was quite deserted so we were all feeling like we were in some kind of horror movie. We also went to Isla Pescado (Fish Island) which is on the salt flat which was just awesom, it is covered in these hugh cactuses which were amazing in themselves but in contrast with the bright white salt and the mountains in the background it was just breathtaking. Climbing to the top of the island was hard work because of the altitude (which is killing my by the way) but i didn't feel so bad because most people looked as stuffed as i felt when they got to the top. We drove up to an altitude of 4700 meters which is probably the highest i'll ever be in my life, and it was so cold and windy. That night we slept at 4300 meters and i was so sick with allergies which i'm not sure whether they were caused by the altitude or not but now that i'm lower down it's not as bad so perhaps it is altitude related. Along the way we saw tons of flamingos, Llamas and Pecunays (no idea of the spelling), we also saw a couple of these squirrel cross rabbits (so cute but i forget their name), beatiful lagunes, many dormant volcanoes and one active, geysers which were just amazing the air coming out of them was so hot and in some of them the mud was boiling really hard and the desert. It was so beautiful but my photos don't do it any justice.

Advertisement