As our last trip in Bolivia, and as a means of getting to Chile, we did a 3 day tour of the Salar de Uyuni, starting in Uyuni and ending in San Pedro de Atacama. What amazing scenery, Iīve never seen anything quite like it - itīs almost as if you are on a different planet, although, as usual, I donīt think the photos really do it justice.
There were six of us in our group - me, Cindy, a Dutch couple and a couple from the Czech Republic. Our first stop on the tour was at the train cemetery, just outside Uyuni, where there are a few trains just standing in the middle of nowhere, rusting away. After that, we headed out onto the salt flats, where the reflection of the sun off the salt is so blinding, that even with sunglasses on it hurts your eyes (of course it could just have been my rubbish sunglasses). We then made our way to the salt hotel, and from there to Isla Pescado, where we did a 30 minute walk around the island. The view from the island was amazing - just salt in all directions, with mountains all around in the distance. We stayed in a tiny little village on the first night, and, just for a change, had a dinner of soup, followed by chicken and rice. The next morning we set out relatively early on the next part of the trip. We saw a number of lakes, with thousands and thousands of flamingoes, a smoking volcano, a stone tree and a blood red lake. We spent the second night in a very primitive refugio at Laguna Colorado, where Cindy made friends with the 4 Germans and 1 Dodgy Aussie next door, and we ended up playing cards by candlelight after the electricity had been switched off for the night.
The next day we got up really early so that we could see the geysers at sunrise. It was freezing cold, but worth it when we got to the geysers and the thermal baths. So strange to see mud bubbling in a whole in the ground. The thermal baths were great - quite small and shallow, but quite hot, right on the edge of a frozen lake. It was really cold having to undress and get into the baths, but so worth it once we were in! We didnīt even want to get out for breakfast, but eventually managed to drag ourselves out. It was so cold outside, that the bits of my hair that got wet, actually froze! We finally got eggs for breakfast, which was a real treat after the last breakfast of rock hard rolls and jam...
After that, we went to Laguna Verde and Volcan Licancabur, where the official part of the tour ended and we caught the bus to San Pedro de Atacama, where it took us almost 2 hours to cross the Chilean border...
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