Salar de Uyuni - the world's biggest salt lake

We set off in the morning and met up with the two others we'd be sharing the Jeep with for the 4 day tour, Arry from london and Lesley from the States.

We began our ascent and our first stop was a view over a deep gorge with a dry river bed at the centre, below tall, impressive red craggs. We continued up and up along a winding dirt track, sometimes with steep drops on either side.



After around 7 hours we stopped in a tiny settlement, San Antonio de Lipez at 4200m above sea level, with stunning views of a nearby snow-capped montain and a little church and stream. It was such a peaceful place. Choalitas rounded up a herd of Llamas and lead them across the stream as I sat and watched. Each llama had brightly coloured fabrics woven into their fleece's and around their ears, the traditonal practice of an indigenous festival, giving them the appearance of 'cyber-llamas' returning from some kind of llama rave. As soon as the sun disappeared behind the hills the temperature dropped off quicky, and we felt the harshness of this barren, desolate habitat. We found the bodyof a huge Condor - it was only a juvenile and was still massive, and had apparently died of natural causes.



Interestingly, each of the small mud houses has its own solar panel, supplied by the government, to provide what little electricity the people there use. Looks like even Bolivia is ahead of the UK in solar capacity. Later in the evening the stars shone brilliantly, and the milkyway spread across the sky like a sliver of pale mist. We had a lovely dinner prepared by our guide and his helper, and retired early to our beds to mummify ourselves in piles of thick blankets.


4am start. The air was so cold and thin and Mercury shone bright above the the horizon. After a hearty breakfast and a short drive we stopped at the ruins of an ancient town which had been abandoned. The sun hadn't yet materialised from behind the hills and we wondered around the eerily silent remains of a town which had been abandoned under mysterious circumstances. Apparently bad spirits had decided to move in and people had begun to die, one by one, so the people did a runner - spooky stuff.

We set off again and passed vicuñas (a bit like a deer), some animals that resembled chinchillas and loads of llamas. The sun rose and we enjoyed its warmth as landscape merged into desert.



We stopped at this amazing area of crazy rock formations formed by weathering, including the 'tree of rock'. Spent 30 min or so clambering around on the rocks - I love climbing around on stuff, i'm sure it's a hangover from our ape days. Might have to get involved in a bit of rock climbing when I get home.

There was so much breathtaking scenery we could hardly breath. Actually that was probably the altitude. We reached 4900 m above sea level at one point. The physical effects on your body include shortness of breath and a slight throbbing pressure like sensation on the old cerebrum, a little unpleasant times, but nothing too unbearable. We made like the locals and chewed mouth fulls of coca leaves which seemed to help.


Over the following three days we stopped at stunning glacial lakes with flocks of pink flamingos sifting through the turquoise water, snow capped volcanos and smooth, banded hills looking like scenes from Dali paintings. We stopped at a thermal pool for a dip in waters 30 C warm, checked out some geysers of bubbling mud and eggy sulphurus steam, and mirror-perfect lakes that reflected the surrounding mountains.



On the final morning we drove to the actual salt lakes before sunrise. Salar de Uyuni is the world's largets salt flats at 10,582 km² . About 40,000 years ago, the area was part of the massive prehistoric Lake Minchin. Eventually the lake evaporated, leaving behind Poopo Lake and Uru uru lake, and two major salt deserts including Uyuni. It's the most surreal thing I've ever experienced. It's incredibly vast, white, crispy salt, split into a consistent pattern of cells stretching as far as the eye can see. It felt like walking on hard snow. The sun began to rise. It was a gorgeous moment, ruined temporarily by the our driver blasting some ridiculous 80's classic from the Jeep (can't remember the track, it was a classic, but there's a time and a place - maybe a school disco or wedding, but surely not here). I don't know what he was thinking.
We then headed to the 'island' Lomo Pescado which is just bizzare - an island made of ancient coral reef covered in cacti up to 15 ft tall. I climbed to the top and got an idea of just how huge the flats are. It seemed like a real island in the middle of a calm, white ocean. I'll never forget it.
Met a nice chap called Chaz from Gloucestershire. We chatted about his home on a longboat, and once again it got me thinking about whether or not this could be an option for me one day. Certainly one way of keeping ahead when rising sea levels begin to reclaim the land.

After breakfast at the island, we continued on through the bright sea of salt, stopped to take a few photos, and watched the weekly 'crossing of the train' - the one train which crosses the flats to transport salt and minerals to Chile (whose distant mountains we could see).

It was a great 4 days, even though it was a long time to spend in a Jeep. It was amazing to see so many different landscapes over such a short period of time, and to get a glimpse of Bolivia's natural untainted beauty (well, i suppose it was slightly tainted by the presence of the many tour Jeeps bombing around, including our own). Definately one of the highlights of the trip. We arrived in the town of Uyuni, bought our bus tickets to Potosi for later that evening, ate some mexican food with Chaz, and got ready to move on once again.