Ça c'est bon ça

i've just returned from a trip around the salt flats at Uyuni - this was amazing!

i arrived in Uyuni after onew of the worst bus journeys of my trip so far. In total it took 14 hours, the first 6 were fine, i was on a lovely bus, lots of leg room, enough space, just fine. The second bus was however, very different- i had the last seat on the bus the middle of the back row. My seat did not recline (not great for an 8 hour night bus) beside me was a smelly couple with a baby wrapped in a huge blanket taking up at least half of my seat and in front a woman got on with 4 children and had only booked 2 seats (the other 3 made a bed at my feet), the road was unmade the majority of the way very bumpy and the temperatures dropped to near freezing- i was feeling great when we got off at 5am, even better when my first choice of hostel was full and i had to search for another.

After a sleep in a more then adequate hostel i went in search of an agency to book my tour with. I was interested in a day tour but only one agency would offer this to me and so far the tour had 4 french guys booked on (6 is the maximum on each tour) i was faced with the dilemma- could my spanish stand up to 4 full days with no english communtication?...argh what to do. i booked the trip.

The following day i was very relieved to find an austrailian girl, called Kylie (i thought only popstars had names like that) had also booked to come with us. The french boys, very friendly but only one of them spoke a little english and one of them spoke a little spanish...and i couldn't remember any of my A level french and Kylie spoke no french at all.

When we finally set off after a few car troubles (well it is Bolivia after all!) it wasn't long before we reached the edge of the salt flats. The salt flats (the highest and largest in the world) are what is left of a huge inland sea that once covered almost the whole of Bolivia, this lake dried up and the ground was also pushed upwards, forming the altiplano and leaving behind just the salt- 12,000km square in fact, 10m deep in places. It is one of the most weird things i have ever seen in my life, at once we started to drive across it to our destination for the night, and drive and drive and drive- it didn't seem anything was getting any closer. When we had driven for an hour or so the entire landscape was just flat (really really flat) and white (really really white) the 'edges' of the lake were nearly suggested by hazy blue mountains on the far horizon. i've never been in a desert but i imagine if deserts were totally flat they may look like this but i could only think it was like being on another planet. It was also a great canvas for silly photos!

Early afternoon we arrived at one of the volcanoes that borders the lake, our site for the night. We were staying in basic accomodation and in the morning, climbing about half way up the volcano until it became too dangerous for us- inexperiened folk. The afternoon was spent taking more silly photos and trying to find some alcohol in the tiny village we were staying (we suceeded, of course) and in the evening we played a french dice game despite the initial language difficulties. (and i have to say i kicked some french ass)

The following morning we got up early to walk up the volcano before it got too hot. The views from our view point were fantastic- behind us we saw the volcano's gravelly slopes towering above us and spread below, for what seemed like forever was the blinding salt flat . we wandered past increasingly odd flora, my favourite was a huge catus with bright pink flowers growing from the top. We relaxed at the top for a while, chatting and i'm pleased to say my french was coming back (albeit in a terrible accent) but we were making progress. That afternoon we drove to an island in the centre on the flats, again more cacti and silly photos and lots of time in the jeep. We spent the night at the 'salt hotel'.

i'm not sure what i was expecting but the whole thing was constructed from salt, the walls (blocks), the floor (grains), our beds, tables and chairs! it was quite weird, but just to make sure i did lick the walls (remember the salt cathedral in columbia?), we even managed to find someone willing to sell us wine (decent wine), not bad considering the town had about 10 houses, a church and nothing else.

The next morning we continued on our journey southwards into the national park past volcanoes, mountains, multicoloured lakes (red, blue, green) and flocks and flocks of bright pink flamingoes. The landscape was amazing it was very barren with only small tufts of vegetation in places, we followed dusty (bumpy) roads that seemed to stretch on forever stopping occasionally to look at the view. That night was our coldest, we stopped at 4200m in the refuge- i felt poorly and couldn't share the warming rum that the french were offering, but more importantly i kicked ass at the dice game again (come on).

Our final day started early, 5am- it was freezing, actually freezing- too cold for the car it seems, as just after we set off the jeep totally gave up. The driver explained that the radiator had frozen and we would just have to wait for it to melt before setting off and then went back to look under the bonnet (in that way men do when cars break down) after a few moments he came back and searched through the glove compartment- removing a screw driver, an old rag and a lighter (curiouser and curiouser). He then set light to the rag after dipping it in petrol and stuck it in amongst the engine in order to melt the radiator faster, good lateral thinking i would have agreed withhim if it wasn't for the fact that wewere all still locked inthe car!! It worked however and obviously we didn't explode and quite soon we were on our way again, not before however, the sun had risen behind us.

We stopped for breakfast at a natural hot spring at the edge of a lake, we all had a dip and a good look at the geigsers before the long long trip back to Uyuni (only 2 further breakdowns) and some proper food and wine french style.