Monday, November 13, 2006

Salar de Uyuni

We spent a day travelling from La Paz to Uyuni so that we could go to the Salt Flats. It was a good thing that we were doing nothing as I had a stomach bug and couldn´t move!

On Saturday, we got into our 4x4´s and headed off out into huge plains surrounded by mountains. The road soon deteriorated into a dirt track and we put our 4x4´s to good use, especially when we crossed rivers in them!

We went to the Valley of the Rocks - an area that has large stacks of rocks all over the place. Jimmy and Robert decided to climb all over them!

We then arrived at our hostel for the night - its very basic and all the women are in a small room which should keep us warm!!

On Sunday, we got up at 4am so that we could see the Geysers at sunrise. There were numerous geysers and mud pools in this area and the smell of sulphur was very strong!!! We then headed to the thermal baths and Kate and Jimmy had a morning swim!

Our next stop was Laguna Verde, a blue-green lagoon that reflects perfectly the mountains behind it. Then we went to Laguna Colorado, a red lagoon that is home to lots of flamingoes. We then drove past the Tree Rock - as the name suggests, its a rock in the shape of a tree!

On Monday, we were up at 3:40am so that we could get to the Salt Flats for sunrise. Due to the oversleeping of our tired drivers and a flat tyre, we left about 40 minutes late. We stopped in the middle of the Salt Flats to see the sunrise thought! The flats are an area of 12,000 km which used to be a lake 8000 years ago. Now all you can see is pure white salt. The view at sunrise was amazing and the place was very quiet!

We then headed to Isla Pescado - fish island - that is full of cacti! Here we had breakfast and then spent ages having fun with the perspective on our cameras and taking silly photos! As there is nothing all around us, you can have fun playing with the perspectives! We did photos such as Melissa stamping on us, and me pushing Jimmy into a sugar bowl! We managed to amuse ourselves for ages!!

We then went and saw the Salt Hotel, where (as you can probably guess), everything is made of salt!!! It was closed down as it was too unhygenic!

We headed back to Uyuni and went to the Train Graveyard where they leave all the old engines. Jimmy and Robert decided to re-enact scenes from films involving the good guy (Jimmy) being chased by the baddie (Robert). It was great fun!

1 comment:

Mils said...

Did they tie you to the train tracks and rescue you, sweet damsel? Actually now I'm giggling to myself...I can just imagine Himmy doing the Dasterdly and Muttley chuckle.