Bolivia - Uyuni and beyond to Chile - 2nd to 5th Feb

Phew that Potosi blog was a little heavy, just like the metals.

Anyway the trip to Uyuni got off to a bad start, There is an huge new Bus Station in Potosi which is bigger than Preston Bus station, so we thought thats where we'd catch the bus to Uyuni; logical thought! but this is Bolivia....so we rolled up in our left hand drive, right fascia'd datsun taxi, and took our bus ticket to the Trans Emperador counter to check our bags in...." No senores, l'autobus de Uyuni no sale desde esta terminal", The nice lady explained that obviously the Uyuni service leaves from the other side of town, obviously.

So another 20 minute 10 Boliviano taxi ride and we were in the correct bus station, street we mean, cos it was literally a street... with vendors, a railway line, and dogs..... anyway we made the bus despite our foolish logic. There were the usual unscheduled stops along the way to pick up passengers, but after 5 hours or so on a mixture of dirt and ashphalt, we arrived in Uyuni....

...Downtown Uyuni, early evening...its busier than it looks....

The streets were deliberatley planned to be wide here because this was going to be a boom city before the pacific war in the 1870's, but the town planners dream never acheived reality so the streets remian wide for the next boom,  which currently is the turistas.

We'd booked a nice Hotel that promised the internet, but there was none;  they told us with a shrug of the shoulders that they've never had a connection; so how they got our internet booking and deposit we don't know. Anyway we had a nice comfy bed and a hot shower, after our stay in Potosi.

The main reason for being here is that Uyuni is the jump off point for seeing the Uyuni Salt Flats and the Altiplanicas of Bolivia. So we booked a 3 day trip in a Toyota Landcruiser across some of the most beautiful landscapes in South America, that is until the next beautiful landscape....

Check out the trip link:  http://redplanetexpedition.com/?mod=tempview1&id=1249677777


Just to prove how beautiful it was, first have a look at some rusty old trains....

...this one was abandoned last week...

oooh look at the depth of field on this shot...you migh tlike the next one too...

...and Argentina is straight ahead...that a way.....see the sky in the distance just remember that cloud, you'll be seeing a lot of that in a little while.

From the train graveyard we went to the Uyuni salt flats to see how they make salt.... and basically they drive out to the salt flats in a truck, fill it and drive it back to the house to....

...dry it... add a little iodine to it, and......

not forgetting the novelty salt products.

The salt drying, iodinisation, and packing industry is a cottage industry,several family businesses work the flats,  and the salt hotels are genuinely built out of salt and do accommodate paying guests who have a taste for such things.

Moving on from such novelties as salt tables, salt stairs and father christmases, we drove out to the real salt flats. These are 12000 sq km (Titiqaqa is only 8000sq kms big) of a dried out lake, the salt having been washed down from the Andes (which are where......at the end of the Armsies). There had been rain recently so things weren't as dry as we'd expected....

...but were infinitely better for it...spot the horizon...where is the sky and where is the ground....

...might help if you have a few people to focus on...

 We know it looks empty here and so peaceful and it really was an amazing sight, but just to our left there are around 32 Toyota landcruisers parked up with people taking the same photos, its all a matter of perspective in every sense.

 From the beautiful salt flats we had a thundery drive on tar roads to our night stop in Villa Alota, a small village next to an army outpost.

...Villa Alota, the morning after the heavy rain...wherre the locals have piled stones in steel cages with a stone lid on to stop vandals taking them.

...our simple but warm and comfy overnight accom.....

Where each door has a some decoration above it...

view from one of the many side streets...mountains everywhere.

 So in the morning we packed up the Landcruiser...

...well OK Carlos was loading the bags on the roof, Lucio eating something, and we were definitley eating breakfast...

and we set off on the dirt road to the Altiplanicas...

..and came across a truck stuck in a flooded part of the track...well it is the rainy season...

..So we decided the safest way was to drive around the flood...on the dry bit of land to the left...

...which as it happens was very soft sand, but not wet as Carlos pointed out...and in which we got stuck upto the axles... oh how we laughed at the irony....

It wasn't long before a local farmer came to everyones aid...

Nothing out here but us, the tractor and our stuck Landcruiser...

..an hour later and out of the mud we drove to a nearby canyon....

and had...

..a look over the edge... nearly 1000m below...the green river is the bottom and the there is a rock pillar on the right

and then we drove to the Valle del Rocas.

where there are some oddly shaped rocks eroded by wind and rain...

...and some equally oddly shaped plants...

 The winds on the Altiplanica can get up to 200kph.

...causing some interesting formations...

...we also saw some rock art...

The journey through the country here brings surprising changes.

...in colours...

...textures...

...vistas...now are those clouds or snow capped mountains?....

...and more vistas...defintley snow capped mountains

...and wildlife, flamingos at nearly 5000m.... Andean and Chiliean...

Siobhan,  stood next to some geyser at 0500hrs after our second night stop, normal behaviour on hols...

and just to prove that its Bolivia...

...we found a Bolivian flag in the middle of nowhere...

and then we had to cross the border to get to Chile...

...spectacular immigration post in Boliiva...with an itinerant immigrant...

...and our bus to cross the border...

...still just clinging onto Bolivia...we don't want to go...

...not quite in Chile...

There are too many pictures to show here,  what stunning raw beauty there is in Bolivia, natural and man made, so you'll have to go take a look yourselves, catch a plane, then several buses and travel through the experience, but hold on tight because the edges are a little rough here

We had a brilliant time in Bolivia. the people, the country, the cities are all interesting in different and surprising ways, just when you think you understand it, it springs another wrong turn on you. Our experiences with buses, roads, cities and country were all positive, The people we encountered were genuine, honest and proud members of the poorest nation in S America. It was tough to leave one of the most surpring and beautiful places we've seen so far. However Chile was just over that hill behind us and our bus was waiting, so.....