We were wakened up early on Thursday morning by the sound of a truck and loud voices which to me sounded very threatening. Apparently, according to Carly who is fluent in Spanish, there were three men on the bridge overlooking our camp site. They were arguing over whether or not to rob us. One of the men thought it was too risky, even though they were armed. Carly was quite scared and immediately woke up Tony our driver who put on all the truck lights and they started getting breakfast ready as loudly as possible. I guess this scared the men off as they had lost the element of surprise. It was a little scary, but the good thing was that we were able to leave half an hour earlier than planned for our drive to Uyuni.
The 200 km drive was the most spectacular yet. We climbed up to about 4115 meters above sea level on a narrow dirt road, executing hundreds of hair pin bends, through vast mountain ranges, under bright blue cloudless skies. At the top we drove along the narrow mountain-top ridge and then into the Altiplano. We also drove 25 kms through a dry river bed. You can imagine how we were all shaken round in the back of the Truck!! Only about 5% of the roads in Bolivia are paved and only 20% of all roads are passable all year round.
We were fortunate to arrive in Uyuni on market day and spent an hour in the evening just wandering around the many stalls which sold everything you can imagine and taking in the Bolivian peoples, and the various activities around us.
On Friday, we spent the day on the Salar de Uyuni, or the salt flats. The flats are 20 km outside Uyuni and stretch for about 10,582 sq. km. 25,000 tons of salt is removed each year and they say the flats contain about 10 billion tons of salt. They are about 3,650 meters above sea level.
We saw how the salt was taken off the flats by the local people with a pick and a shovel, stacked in triangular piles on the Salar, taken to a small family factory in trucks, crushed, dried, iodized, and packed in plastic bags for sale mainly in Bolivia. We visited a hotel on the Salar made entirely out of salt, except for the roof, but including all the furniture. We walked over Isla Pescado (Fish Island) an 80 km bus ride across the Salar from the salt hotel. The island is covered in cacti including one about 1200 years old, and offered stunning views over the Salar and the snow-capped mountains and the Tunipa volcanoe in the background. It was incredible to look around and see nothing but white salt, and so odd to touch the salt and not to find snow or ice.
We also visited the train cemetry in Uyuni where now derilict and decaying train bodies, orginally purchased from Britain in the 1800s, had been stored when Chile bought over the railways in 1977 and modernized the railways and the trains.
Uyuni, founded in 1889-90 is another pleasant small town set on the bleak southern Altiplano in Bolivia. The population is around 10,000. It was a trading town, but now it is mainly a railway town and a tourist gateway for tours to El Salar de Uyuni and Reserva de Fauna Andina Eduardo Avaroa. It is situated at 3,670 meters above sea level, and the altitude was still affecting some of the group. The altitude sickness doesn´t seem to last all the time, but comes on at different times, depending on the amount of energy expended - it makes you feel sick, headachy, or just lifeless.
In Uyuni we stayed at the Tonito Hotel which was fabulous, had our own room, very clean, full of character. The restaurant serves the best pizza I have had in a long time (Minute Man Pizza). On our second evening a small group of us ate at El Loco, but although the atmosphere was good, the food was variable.
The 200 km drive was the most spectacular yet. We climbed up to about 4115 meters above sea level on a narrow dirt road, executing hundreds of hair pin bends, through vast mountain ranges, under bright blue cloudless skies. At the top we drove along the narrow mountain-top ridge and then into the Altiplano. We also drove 25 kms through a dry river bed. You can imagine how we were all shaken round in the back of the Truck!! Only about 5% of the roads in Bolivia are paved and only 20% of all roads are passable all year round.
We were fortunate to arrive in Uyuni on market day and spent an hour in the evening just wandering around the many stalls which sold everything you can imagine and taking in the Bolivian peoples, and the various activities around us.
On Friday, we spent the day on the Salar de Uyuni, or the salt flats. The flats are 20 km outside Uyuni and stretch for about 10,582 sq. km. 25,000 tons of salt is removed each year and they say the flats contain about 10 billion tons of salt. They are about 3,650 meters above sea level.
We saw how the salt was taken off the flats by the local people with a pick and a shovel, stacked in triangular piles on the Salar, taken to a small family factory in trucks, crushed, dried, iodized, and packed in plastic bags for sale mainly in Bolivia. We visited a hotel on the Salar made entirely out of salt, except for the roof, but including all the furniture. We walked over Isla Pescado (Fish Island) an 80 km bus ride across the Salar from the salt hotel. The island is covered in cacti including one about 1200 years old, and offered stunning views over the Salar and the snow-capped mountains and the Tunipa volcanoe in the background. It was incredible to look around and see nothing but white salt, and so odd to touch the salt and not to find snow or ice.
We also visited the train cemetry in Uyuni where now derilict and decaying train bodies, orginally purchased from Britain in the 1800s, had been stored when Chile bought over the railways in 1977 and modernized the railways and the trains.
Uyuni, founded in 1889-90 is another pleasant small town set on the bleak southern Altiplano in Bolivia. The population is around 10,000. It was a trading town, but now it is mainly a railway town and a tourist gateway for tours to El Salar de Uyuni and Reserva de Fauna Andina Eduardo Avaroa. It is situated at 3,670 meters above sea level, and the altitude was still affecting some of the group. The altitude sickness doesn´t seem to last all the time, but comes on at different times, depending on the amount of energy expended - it makes you feel sick, headachy, or just lifeless.
In Uyuni we stayed at the Tonito Hotel which was fabulous, had our own room, very clean, full of character. The restaurant serves the best pizza I have had in a long time (Minute Man Pizza). On our second evening a small group of us ate at El Loco, but although the atmosphere was good, the food was variable.
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