Salar de Uyuni - 3 days of beautiful views and ridiculous temperatures

One of the most famous things about Bolivia (and really the only thing I knew about it before this trip) is Salar de Uyuni. It's the world's largest salt flat. Many many many years ago it actually used to be a lake but it dried out leaving these salt flats. In some places the salt is 10 m thick. In other places it's quite thin and you can break through it to see brine underneath. During the summer a thin film of water gathers on the surface making it super reflective. Photos during this time of year look amazing. We were a bit sad we missed out but it was still an amazing trip and because we were in dry season there was less chance of something going wrong.

After a night in Uyuni and chowing down on some prime Boston Pizza from Minuteman (this is like the only thing to do in town) we headed out on our 3 day Salar de Uyni trip. It was 3 awesome days driving around, listening to tunes and taking in same crazy landscapes. 

DAY 1

We left the office at 9:30 am and started a long drive down into the very south of Bolivia. There were long stretches where not a lot happened but the further south we got the more there was to see. 

Alex was prepared with his bag of coca. Thank-fully none of us got altitude sickness.

Our Car in the Salvador Dali Desert, named so because it reminded someone of his paintings. 

The goal of the first day was to get down to the Laguna Verde (Green Lagoon). It's green because of some minerals, making it slightly toxic. This is pretty much the corner of Bolivia. Behind that volcano is Chile and out of frame to the left behind some other mountains in Argentina. It was extremely cold and windy out here. We were thankful of our extra jumper panic buys the day before.

Apparently it's greener if it's windier. 

Our driver who we had a lot of fun with.

We got to our accommodation, a hostel in the middle of no where, had dinner and prepared for a night in the host springs. The big dilemma was how to get from the hostel to the hot springs, which was about 100 m away. In the end we settled for changing into togs in the hostel, putting our warm clothes back on, wearing thongs and making a mad dash for the changing rooms right next to the springs. I was so cold by the time I stepped into the hot springs that it felt like I was burning. Eventually this sensation subsided and I could relax and enjoy the night sky (which was blurry for me as I didn't think to wear my glasses. I'm told it was spectacular though). 

The Hot Springs

DAY 2

We started the day with pancakes (a welcome surprise) and my first taste of dulce de leche (caramel spread). Little did I know that I would be eating this almost every morning in days to come. 

I think that morning was maybe the coldest I have ever been. While we waited outside for the cars to be prepped my toes and fingers went numb. When we were in the car I put two more pairs of socks on. Our driver told us it was about -11 degrees. My toes didn't thaw out until about an hour later.

We found the cars covered in ice in the morning

While we were mulling around that morning the owner of the hostel was running around with a llama head in his hand shouting "Llama, Llama!" Alex went into the kitchen to investigate. The llama head was thrown on the ground and the owner and his wife were sorting through some entrails. This head probably ended up as a soup, which is good for helping you sleep apparently.

First stop on today's agenda was checking out the geysers. There were projects set up to hardness energy from them but they moved slow and there isn't a lot of money so I don't think much has happened. 

This one was man made

Between destinations we saw a heard of vicunas. This was the first time we'd been able to get a real good look at them and finally take a nice photo. I was very excited. 

Our driver told us a jumper made from vicuna would cost about 500 USD.

Laguna Colorada (Red Lagoon) is another beautiful lake that gets its colour from minerals. This one is a popular hangout for flamingos. We weren't able to get too close to the flamingos before they flew off, thank god for zoom. 

We were first greeted by some steamy llamas

Next stop was Arbol de Piedra (Stone Tree). It was surrounded by lots of other interesting rock formations that made for good climbing. 

Next stop was a mirador to check out an active volcano. Here I had the pleasure of sitting next to one of the oldest species of plants in the world. It was sticky.

We stopped off to see this railway that's used to transport goods to the port in Chile once a week

Then it was onto the hostel for dinner and rest. This hostel was quite special - it was made out of salt. No one was game enough to lick the walls though. There used to be a hostel you could stay at in the middle of the salt flats (also made out of salt) but it was closed down due to pollution issues. It's now a museum.

DAY 3

Today was the big day. The day we got to see the salt flats. We woke up at 5:00 am to watch the sunrise. There were beautiful pastel colours among the mountains as we waited. As the sun got higher we started to get more excited as we realised we were completely surrounded by salt as far as the eye could see.

Early mornings can be rewarding

After the sun was up we headed for Isla de Pescado (Fish Island). It looks like a fish from the air. It's covered in crazy giant cacti. We were told by our guide to go for a walk around the island while they got breakfast ready. 

After breakfast we were told to go for another walk while they packed up. After walking around the other side of the island and into the abyss we got bored so had a group yoga session.

After a short drive deeper into the abyss it was time for silly photos! Because there's nothing around Salar de Uyuni is the perfect place for good perspective shots. I didn't realise this was a thing and I wish I'd spent a bit more time before hand coming up with ideas. We were still able to manage a few good shots though.

All over Bolivia we had seen Dakar stickers but we had no idea what it was until out Salt Flat tour. Is a rally that originally went from Paris to Dakar, Senegal. In 2009 they moved it to Chile and Argentina due to security threats in the middle east that lead to the rally being cancelled in 2008. The rally was supposed to extend into Bolivia in 2014 but wasn't able to due to flooding on the planes.

The Dakar logo that we saw everywhere - made out of salt

We had lunch near the salt factory. We bought salt for 1 BOB (about 0.20 AUD) for 1/4 kg. This crazy low price means the workers here are quite poor. There's not much pay off for all the work it takes to get the salt ready for cooking.

After lunch was our last stop - Cemeterio de Trenes (Train Cemetery). All these trains are from the 80s and were dumped here when there was a big down turn in work in Uyuni. Turns out a train cemetery is a lot more fun that I thought.