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I hadn’t done any laundry since leaving Arequipa 2 weeks previously and Judith had put in a weeks worth of laundry. I could close my rucksack for the first time without any effort and I probably would have thrown most of the clothes away at the end anyway. Judith felt pretty much the same although she had the added problem of having put all her underwear in the wash leaving her with nothing. After 4 hours we had to change buses so we rang Ray and Emma from the bus station who offered to send some clothes to Lima ahead of us and share the rest out amongst themselves – nice to know we helped other travellers. The next bus was an overnight bus which was a total nightmare as it was completely full with people sitting all down the aisles. This meant that when we stopped at places during the night all the lights had to go on so that people didn’t fall over each other and there was lots of load complaining. We were understandably tired when we finally got to Uyuni at 5am. |
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After a spot of breakfast and a quick sleep in the tour office we went in search of underwear for Judith. We eventually found a market stall with a range of stock most of it designed for the larger lady but there were a few suitable items for Judith including a lovely lime green pair of pants which we felt she had to buy. We then set off on our tour to the salt plains, and just to prove that South America isn’t such a big place in my car was Keith the English guy who was in my class in Cusco and in one of the other cars was Robert the Dutch guy I’d met on the way to Pisaq. They also knew each other having met a couple of weeks earlier. Also in my car was an American guy Jim and an Aussie guy with his girlfriend from Chile who’s names I can’t remember. |
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The first stop on our journey was to a train cemetery which is basically where all the old trains are dumped and left to rust. A train spotters heaven but not really all that interesting. From there we drove to the edge of the salt lake where we saw what the people do with the salt once it is collected we saw a couple of little kids whose job it was to melt the tops of the plastic bags over a flame and seal them. The sad thing was they were very quick at it which meant they’d probably been doing it since they were strong enough to hold the bags. From there we drove onto the lake which was a strange experience as it looked like we were driving on ice and when we got out the car it was quite cold but the sun was very strong so you had to wear sunglasses as the salt was so bright. The people who work on the salt wear sunglasses and balaclavas because of the strength of the sun. (we were at 3653m) Quick explanation of the salt lake and the other lakes in the area. The area used to be covered by Lago Minchin which covered an area of about 60,000 sq km. About 24,000 years ago this lake dried up and was refilled by Lago Tauca thousands of years later. This then evaporated 10,000 years ago leaving two large salt deposits one of which is Uyuni. On the mountains around the salt plain it is possible to see the original water level line. |
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From there we drove across to the Isla Pescado via two hotels which were totally built out of salt (even the bed & tables). The Island was covered in cacti which gives you the feeling you are in a very strange place as the backdrop looks like it is snow & ice. Extremely beautiful though but I had to sit in the shade for a while as the sun was too much for my pasty complexion. We then drove onto our stop for the night. We got there first as our driver was a bit of a lunatic and seemed to be racing everyone else. We found out later from Jim who was sitting at the front that while we were driving across the salt lake he actually dozed off for a bit. Apparently he likes to catch up on sleep while there is nothing around to hit! After a night in comfy beds in a warm building we set of at about 7am to visit lots of lakes. The first part of the journey took us past Volcan Ollague which is still slightly active and very impressive to look at as because of all the different colours (because of minerals from the original lake I think). We then moved onto a series of Lagunas; Canapa, Hedionda, Charkota, Honda and Ramaditas. All of the lakes contained flamingos which didn’t seem to be bothered by the strong winds (I kept expecting them to fall over) and all were incredibly beautiful with amazing surroundings. Lake Hedionda smelt a bit but that was because of the sulphur in it. |
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We then drove for 55km through the Desert of Siloli which contained the odd big rocks which had viscachas living in them (look like rabbits but with long tails) considering the very stong winds I’m amazed they don’t get blown away. We also saw the Arbol de Piedra (stone tree) which is in fact a rock worn away by the winds over 1000’s of years and now looks like a tree. Once we got through the desert we reached our accommodation for the night which wasn’t quite as nice as the previous night but I was grateful to just be indoors as the winds outside were unbelievably strong and very cold. The accommodation was on the edge of Laguna Colorada which is a huge lake (60 sq km)with bright pink and red water. Again it was covered in flamingos. We walked along the lake to get a better look at the flamingos and luckily we wee the first people there as we scared to flamingos away and they all flew to the middle of the lake – we got good photos first though. The walk there wasn’t too tough as the wind was behind us but it took us twice as long to get back as we could hardly stand up let alone walk against the wind. We were glad to be back at our shitty accommodation out of the wind. After going to bed at 8.30 and getting up and out by 5 the next morning we found ourselves (after another hair raising car journey) at Sol de Manana where there were geysers shooting out steam and bubbling, and spitting pools of sulphur at 5000m impressive but smelly and very cold as the sun hadn’t risen and warmed anything up. We then drove onto some natural thermal baths where Judith and I took the opportunity to warm our feet while breakfast was being prepared. Some brave people went swimming but I decided my body wouldn’t be able to cope with being made warm for 10 minutes and then having to go back to being cold again. |
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After breakfast we drove another 60km to Laguna Verde and Laguna Blanca (at 4315m) which are next to each other and in the shadow of Volcan Licancabur. All pretty breath taking. This was our last stop before being driven across the border into Chile (not till I’d temporarily lost important paperwork though and been insulted by the official who told me I was fatter than my photo – charming). The entrance into Chile couldn’t have been more impressive as we drove from the desert onto a beautifully flat tarmac road with signs and road markings and everything. Obviously to get through Chilean customs involved lots of passport stamping and bag searching (they couldn’t be arsed with mine – too full even without half my clothes) and some Clark Kent / Superman jokes I hadn’t heard before – “Are you Mrs Superman?” This takes us into Chile and the beginning of the journey back to Lima which in the next instalment. |
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