If you ever have a urge to experience one of the world's premier places in terms of beautiful scenery that varies from day to day, set within a very unique environment - from the world's largest salt pan to lakes of varying colors, all placed at an altitude that puts most mountains in the world to shame, that place to visit is Bolivia, Salar de Uyuni to be exact. You definitelty won't be alone, as there are hordes of other fellow travellers wanting to experience those same outworldly sights. But if you ever come this way a good start to reduce the crowds by a chunk (and a half) is by taking the trip from Tupiza to Uyuni rather than the usual trip starting from Uyuni. After 4 days and 3 chilly nights (down to the minuses in these parts) this is the result.

Day 1

Day 2

We had a really good group in the car, Daniel & Evelyn, Jerome, our driver Roman (good job Roman), and finally our extraordinary cook Fortuna who cooked up some pretty mean pancakes one morning (also known as cookie by Roman & I). All the others were French (as it seemed were 90% of all the tourist we met on the Salar) and could speak pretty good Spanish. Simple Simon (in this case Dave) couldn't understand much of what was said for what seemed much of the trip. Daniel helped out bucket loads of times with his inch perfect translations and the others decided my camera was getting a far better workout in the front seat, so as it turned out all were happy.

Day 4

The last day started even earlier than normal (which was already early), 5.30am rather than the 7am sleep-in we normally had (who said holidays were easy). The reason being that now we were on the salt pan we wanted to get to the 'Island of the Cacti' (good grammar Dave ) as the sun rose. The 'island' is a rocky outcrop surrounded by the bright white of the salt flats, as it's name suggests it is covered in cacti. For awhile there l was worried that we wouldn't get there at all as the initial trip was through the water we had used in our photography the night before (see other Salar de Uyuni post) and a few times the jeep nearly came to a standstill as we lost traction. Good ole Roman got us through (good job Roman) so we made it on time. Getting up at such a ungodly time (ungodly? where did that come from) was definitely worth the effort as the views were inspiring (running out of adjectives ) and unique. While we were there we were lucky enough to come across a couple of chinchillas that were either frolicking in the rising sun or setting the prelude for a more x-rated scene later on. Whichever it was I enjoyed photographing them. After the island we conducted the compulsory photo shoot with the salt making things big and small before heading to Uyuni where our final stop was at the cemetery of trains. A great trip, can't wait for the next time.

After the Salar I decided to put the pedal to the metal and spent only a few days in Chile (in Arica) before a 21 hour bus trip to Lima where I finally met Nici's brother Gary - for a beer or two. Another bus trip later brought me to my current place, Huarez, Peru. This place is renowned for the surrounding nature within which are world-class hikes. Planning on doing 2 once I am over a cold, including a 4 dayer. Sort of looking forward to it, I have done a couple hikes over 5,000m and rewards come with pain.

Time will tell...

Category: Bolivia

Bolivia – Salar de Uyuni, Part 2

Day 1

Day 2

Day 3

Day 4

Bolivia – Salar de Uyuni, Part 1