Uyuni and South Bolivia

Last week, we went on another 3 day/2 night tour to see the salt flats and lagoons in Bolivia. Much of the tour was spent sitting in a 4x4 car driving from one location to another. I think we spent over 20 hours sitting in the car in the three days but all-in-all, it was a great trip.

Below is a quick summary of our three days.

Day 1

We spent the first day visiting several locations including the Train Cemetery, salt flats, Isla de Pez and spending the night at a Salt Hotel. The Train Cemetery was interesting – just some railroad tracks and a 'dead' train that's (obviously) no longer functioning.

Our next stop was at the salt flats. These flats were pretty neat – hundreds of kilometers of pure salt. It definitely reminded me of snow but after a quick taste of the white stuff, there was no doubt it was salt. Apparently the salt flats use to be a lake surrounded with volcanoes over 25,000 years ago. All the volcanoes are now inactive, except for one that spits out mud and another that spits out oxygen.

We also stopped by an island that is shaped like a fish (Isla de Pez), supposedly. The weird thing was when we looked out of the island, we expected to see water but only saw miles of salt. Our 4x4 broke down on the way to the hotel. Luckily, our guide, Walter (who reminded me of Porky Pig) was a mechanic so he was able to fix the car in no time. (see photo - note: his feet don´t touch the ground when he works on he car - too cute)

That evening, Wilson and I stayed at a hotel made of all salt. It was a lot nicer than we had both expected. I thought there were no showers but apparently there were. Unfortunately, we had to pay since our tour didn't include one but we opted to be dirty for a couple days just for the adventure (actually it was too cold to take off our clothes to shower).

Day 2
Today we spent the first couple hours in the car heading to see a series of lagoons. On the way, without fail, our car broke down. Apparently the gas line wasn´t working. This time Walter connected a plastic tube from a container of petroleum on the roof of the car to the carborator fuel line. Not something they would do in the States but it worked out fine.

We continued on our journey for hours and finally arrived at our first lagoon. It was amazing to see a lagoon in the middle of the desert. After, we saw about three of four another lagoons which all looked the same after the first one. There were lots of flamingos in the first lagoon which was also pretty interesting since it was in the middle of the desert.

That evening we stayed at a 'refugio' (mountain hut), which if I didn't know Spanish would have thought it was a house for refugees. Quite honestly, the place was like a refugee house with just bare-bone basics. The five UK medical students in our tour, Wilson and I had to share a room. We slept in damp sheets, smelly sleeping bags and had to get up at 4 am the next morning to start our day.

Day 3
I was the first to wake up around 4:15 am and woke the rest of the folks up. We all tumbled into the 4x4 to our first destination, the thermal baths. We arrived at the thermal baths around 7:00 am, before sunrise. Wilson and Dav, one of the guys on our tour, quickly jumped into the thermal baths. I, on the other hand, tried several times to undress and jump in but while undressing midway, would put all my clothes back on. The temperature outside was about 20 degrees F, which to me is quite cold. I finally got in before sunrise.

It was an absolute treat to go into the thermal baths when it was so cold outside. After, we all ate breakfast and then were on our way back to Uyuni. Before getting back, we stopped at Lake Colorado, which also had many flamingos hanging out in the lake. We've come across many posters asking visitors to vote Lake Colorado as a “7 Wonders of the World”. Although it was beautiful, it definitely does not quality as a “7 Wonders of the World”.

We also stopped by some geysers that smelled of sulfur. Inside the geysers, the temperature is approximately 100 degrees F so while we were taking photos, I took extreme care not to fall in (not to mention, I would also smell for ages).

We got back to Uyuni around 5:00 pm or so. Our guide told us the complete trip was nearly 900 km round-trip. It was definitely a fun, worthwhile trip. Bolivia is definitely a beautiful country with lots of natural wonders, and I´ve come to realize you don´t have to take a shower every day to enjoy them!