Next instalment.....

6^th December

Well today is election day, and Uyuni is closed!.... as is all of Bolivia! So even if we did want to do stuff, we can’t!  Uyuni doesn’t have a lot to offer, so we decide to…..  wait for it…..  HAVE A LIE IN!!....  amazing!   I think this is the first time we have had nothing to do!  After a wander about the deserted streets, we go back to the hotel to watch a DVD and to do the blog!.... (the last instalment!)

7^th December

Today we have the first day of our 4 day tour, we booked a few days in La Paz.  After a great deal of messing about we decided not to do the private tour to all the luxury hotels (including the “Hotel de sal”… the salt hotel, a hotel constructed entirely of salt, including all the furniture!!), as it would cost about $800 dollars each!!!.....  The tour we wanted to do is very popular and there are a lot of agency’s touting for business, they all cost about the same, but in the end we went for another tour agency who offered the same route, but for a fraction of the cost….$100, including private rooms in all the hotels and a stay in the “Salt hotel”!!  Way hay!!!   

Fantastic! So of we go on our 4 day tour of the solar salt flats, this is the southwest corner of Bolivia, known for its minerals and volcano’s.  First off is the train cemetery, where all the old steam engines used to transport salt have been left to rot for the last 80 years.  Next off, we make our way to the salt flat, this crisp white expanse is left over from an ocean that dried up…… a long time ago….  Its massive, nearly 8000 sq/km.  We stop at fish island 80km into the salt flat for lunch and a wander, turns out that the island is actually made of a left over coral reef,  left over from the great evaporation!  

…………..  It soon becomes apparent that the other people in our 4x4 are only on a one day tour?.......   after lunch, we start heading back toward Uyuni!.....  but on the way, we get dropped off at the famous “hotel de sal”……. Great!.....  turns out that we are going to join a new group tomorrow, who are on a 3 day tour?....  kind of defeats the object of doing a nice long relaxing 4 day tour!?..... oh well, at least we have a hotel…….?  

Turns out there are two “hotel de sal”……  this one isn’t the luxury one…..  this one, has no electricity, running water or heating?......  and all the staff appear to be under the age of 11…..  it soon becomes apparent that we have been sold a somewhat dubious tour!....   NO ONE ELSE is staying here for a start…..  and looks like they haven’t for some time!  Still, we make the best of it, and buy a couple of bottles of wine!....... 

That is until it come time for dinner…..  Grim soup, followed by the worst meal ever created by human hand……  it was suppose to be an easy spag’ bol…….  Lorraine says….(she had been drinking a lot of wine at this point!!)….. “it's not that bad?....  it’s got meat and cheese in it?... what’s your problem…..?”   It was at that point I had point out that there was no cheese or meat in the dish?.....   it’s hard to imagine how you can cock up pasta… but they did….  It instantly turned into a floury past in my mouth….. it was all I could do, not to gag all over the table (made of salt!)

8^th December

After a cold night, we wake up, looking forward to what luxury breakfast we are likely to have…..  tea and Jacobs crackers…..  that’s a new one!....  never mind, all we have to do is hang on for our new tour guide to pick us up…..  After several other groups stop  (this is the only bathroom stop for miles……  I say bathroom…..  it doesn’t represent any bathroom I have ever been in!!!   The numerous tourist pass by, as they leave we can hear them all saying…  “people can stay here???...  but why?...  ) we get met by our new group….at 1pm….

Not impressed…..  especially as we then go to fish island, the same place we went yesterday!....   as the rest of the group look round the island, we amuse ourselves by taking some amusing pictures!!  Quite a good use of time in the end!

We arrive in the evening in San Juan for our hotel…..  another luxury digs, but as it happens, we have a private room with on suite…..  hummm…..  still extremely grim, but the shower is welcome, even though its hotter than the sun for 5 seconds, then colder that the southern ocean for 1 minute! Hot, cold,hot… you get the idea…. At least the food is nice this time!

9^th December

Up we get for the next day’s fun!  On the way to our next digs, we pass a number of lagoons, all a different colour from the last, an amazing act of nature that is rarely seen.  It is the algae in the lagoons, feeding on different minerals in the water and they each have a different colour depending on the mineral they feed on.  Feeding on the algae are thousands of flamingos, sifting their way through the colored water…..  There is the black, red, white, green, lagoons doted along our route, as well as some amazing rock formations and desert landscapes.

The digs for tonight are….  Well….  They have running water….  But it is a series of seven, 6 bedroom dormitories……..   not quite what we were expecting!  After much haggling, we buy all the beds in one of the dorms, to have a room to ourselves….. a massive £16 expense!...  worth it! 

After some wine and lots of games of cards with the guys on our tour, we call it a night, as we have a 4am start in the morning!

10^th December

That was a short sleep!  Never mind, we all jump into the 4x4 to catch some spewing geezers at dawn, that’s amazing!

After a few more lagoons, we arrive at the border with Chile, swap into a bus and make our way to San Pedro De Atacama, the next town on our little trip.

Once cleared our way through immigration, we check out the town, a nice little place with a real Chilean feel! (not that I know what a Chilean feel is!)

After dinner we go to on a tour to an observatory, to San Pedro is one of the best places in the world in which to view stars, due to its clear sky and altitude.  This is the first time we have looked through a telescope and it doesn’t disappoint.  The French Astronomer, guides us through the sky with several large telescopes, taking in the Crab Nebular, tarantula nebular and the stars in the clouds of Magellan, quite impressive really!  It’s a late night, back to the hotel a 2am!

11^th December

 After a very long lie in, we head on out and book ourselves on another tour, through the valley of the moon, a desolate landscape that is……  like the moon!.... after a lovely sunset, we head back into town.  I really enjoyed the observatory last night and after I forced Lorraine’s arm, she agreed to come out on another tour.  Equally as amazing as last night, but this time we get longer on the telescopes!  we managed to get ourselves on an earlier tour, but we still get in after 00:45 We both had a great time, but we are very aware that……..

 

12^th December

The alarm goes off of 04:10…………..  that’s right, we have just had 3 ½ hours sleep and we are off again!  This time we jump on a bus, with all our luggage and head off to see a geyser field at dawn.  The bouncy buss doesn’t help but we both manage to get a little extra sleep and we arrive at 05:30.  It’s quite amazing, all these steaming and bubbling holes in the ground, just as the sun appears from behind the mountains is quite a sight!

Once all the pictures have been taken, we get the chance to jump into a hot spring……  fad!  Did I mention that the air temperature is about -7 degrees?....  let me tell you, that’s quite cold in just your swimmers!  The water was a bit of a disappointment, on the surface, the water is hot enough to melt steel, but 1 inch below, its barely above freezing!   We were on our own for 10 mins, but after that, we had had enough. 

We spend the rest of the day winding (and snoozing) our way through villages of northern Chile, making our way to Calama airport, from which, we are flying to Santiago for the last 2 days of our south American leg.

Until next time see ye!

Will and Loz