It really is difficult to know where to start in summarising the past week, so I am going to split it into 2 bits and rely on photographs to do a lot of the talking. What I will say first and foremost is that if you ever get the chance to come to South West Bolivia do it - it is one of the most stunning, fascinating and varied landscapes you are ever likely to see. Oh, and make sure that a guy called Abel isn't your jeep driver. More about that later, for now back to the start...
Last time we posted we were just about to board the train for the 6 hours trip from Oruro to Uyuni; it really was the stunning journey we had expected. Almost as soon as we left the station we very going through the middle of what seemed like a lake, complete with flamingoes and cows walking through the water - very bizarre sensation but a beautiful sight. We passed through many small towns and villages on the way, and also endless plains with stunning mountains and hills as the continuous backdrop. As you can see the views at sunset were stunning and it was a bit disappointing that the last 2 hours of the trip were in darkness.
When we arrived in Uyuni at 10.30pm we were greeted by lots of people trying to sell us beds for the night and tours of the Salar de Uyuni otherwise known as the salt flats. The place we ended up staying at was basic but fine, pretty much the same description as I'd use for the town itself, and we were tired so decided to wait until the next day to decide on which tour group to go with. We spent a quiet Wednesday in Uyuni, which has no remarkable attractions but it is the main starting point for tours so always attracts tourists. We were able to sort out a 4 day trip very easily, and chose to go with the company that would drop us in the town of Tupìza, 3 hours north of the border with Argentina. The other options would be to head into Chile or back to Uyuni, neither of which fitted with our plans.
On Thursday morning we found out that we were sharing Abel's jeep with a Dutch couple - Kira and Eduardo as he calls himself as his Dutch name Ewout is too hard for people to pronounce! - and an American girl called Rebecca. We had a brief stop at the very odd home for dead trains and then went on to the salt flats. I am not going to try too hard to explain the landscape, apart from it looked like ice but in fact was 12000 sqare km of salt which was once a sea. Totally incredible sight especially when all you could see all around you was pure white. The whole scene did very odd things to your perception of distance the silly photos show, and it is even possible to stay in the middle of it all in salt hotels.
After playing around like small children for a while, we were in really good spirits as we reached our lunch stop. Unfortunately the group in the other jeep from our company were not so positive and there was a bit of an argument going on. A Swiss guy who continually proved himself to be unpleasant over the next few days was being extremely confrontational as he didn't think that the tour corresponded with the contract he had signed. We´re still not quite sure what he thought he was missing. The end result was that another American girl called Emily transferred to our jeep as he was giving her a really hard time for not translating all his complaints. We just thought that he was missing the point and were happy to welcome the very positive Emily into our group. Our team as we called ourselves from then on was complete!
After lunch we headed on to see some more of the salt flats, including an island filled with cacti, another surreal but beautiful sight as you can see from the photo. We then left the salt flats and headed to our first stop for the night, admiring the light doing spectaular things to the mountains as the evening drew closer. All in all it was a magical day followed by lots of good chats and laughter through the evening. We were all very pleased that we had been thrown together yet got on so well, and went to bed looking forward to more adventures the following day. We weren't going to be disappointed...
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