Salty

One of the most incredible things I saw during my travels were the salt flats outside of Uyuni, Bolivia. There is no way to properly describe this pure white lake of salt and the salt formations on it. And it is SALT!?!? The way to see the salt flats is with a tour where the 4 wheel jeep, driver, food, and logging are all provided. I booked a four day, three night trip with the three English people I had met, James, Kyle, and Katherine and we were off. There were two other people in our group from London, Jane and Carlos. Our driver skillfully drove us across this gigantic lake of salt, stopping along to way to see a train cemetery and some of the salt mounds that are used for exporting. It is estimated that the salt flats contain about 10 billion tons of salt. The huge lake, Salar de Uyuni, is the worlds largest salt flat measuring 4,085 sq miles and it was a lake that dried up 40,000 years ago leaving behind the salt. The white lake goes on forever surrounded by mountains and desert terrain. We arrived at our salt hotel, yes the walls are made of salt bricks, and were able to go onto the flats and take some of the crazy optical illusion pictures that are so famous here (ie. jumping shots, walking into the Pringles can, holding people on your hand, etc). We also enjoyed the sunset. I don’t know that I will ever see anything like the sun setting on a bed of salt, glorious. That night we learned of a crazy stalker obsession that Jane once had for Michael Jackson (this is before he died). She would follow him everywhere, sleep outside his house, bribe her way backstage at concerts, hide in bathrooms, the list goes on. Needless to say, none of us could really top that one.
On day 2, we got up for an amazing sunrise of bright orange, purple and reds. Later we climbed up Volcano de Tunupa for an overall view of the lake. Then we were back in the jeep heading for Isla de Pescado, a random island in the middle of the salt lake filled with cactus. After a few more photo stops and a lame trip to the Galaxy Cavern we left the actual Salar de Uyuni lake and arrived at our salt hotel (this time even the bed frame and tables were made of salt bricks).
Day 3, we started to head south to see all the lagoons and mountains in this desert. At this time the road got really rough and several times we had to get out of the jeep so that it could get through safely. We got one flat tire on our first day and another one on our last day. Luckily our driver was used to getting flats and he was able to change them both quickly. It was a beautiful drive, stopping at different rock formations, lakes, and volcanoes along the way. At Laguna Ramaditas we saw wild flamingos, but there were not pink because there was no shrimp to eat.

Now, Jane and Carlos would take 100+ photos at every stop we made and by the end of the day (after we saw famous standing rock formation Arbol de Piedra), we were among the last groups of jeeps- there are 50 or more companies that conduct the same salt tour. The drive is very tough on the cars and the maintenance they get is questionable, remember Bolivia. Suddenly during the last hour of the day on the way to our lodging, our jeep dies and our driver cannot figure out how to fix it. A jeep passes, stops, and the drivers determine that it is an electrical problem, one that our driver cannot fix. Supposedly this jeep driver is going to drive his group to their hotel, get a car electrician, and drive back to us. Estimated time, 1 hour. Well one hour turns into two and although we are in a desert terrain, we are at an elevation of 4,260m. It is getting very very cold and the sun is setting. At night it will be below freezing in temperature. We have no way to communicate with the driver that went for help, remember Bolivia, so we need to face the fact that the other driver is not coming for us. It is a two hour walk into town and our driver says he is going to have to walk to town and dresses in some cold weather mechanic suit and is off. So we get our sleeping bags out for warmth and any snacks we might have left because it could be 3 or 4 hours before we are rescued. After about 30 min we see jeep lights and our driver is running down the hill towards up. We are saved!!! With the electrician our car is fixed in 10 min and we are driving towards our hotel, thankful we were alive- OK, it wasn’t that serious, but we were happy we had been rescued.

After a bitter cold night, I slept with 7 blankets on and was still cold, we set out on day 4. We drove to the geysers where we saw one huge geyser, it was great because it was blasting hot air, and the geyser basin where there were lots of bubbling baby geysers. From there we went to the thermal hot springs which was heaven after one endured the change from warm clothes to swimsuit to pool transition. It was so nice in the pool, but once you got out you froze in seconds. Even my bathing suit that I set on a rock while changing froze to the rock in minutes. Our last stops of the day were to see Laguna Verde and Laguna Blanca. Then I was off and on the road again, quick stop into Chile for a few days before finally making it to Argentina.