It's Life Jim, But Not as We Know It

We left Salta and headed for the border with Bolivia. After a 7 hour bus journey the first thing you notice is the freezing cold. After that the border with Bolivia doesnt open til 8, not that we had a clue how to get from the bus station to the border. When we finally walked there, the difference between Argentina and Bolivia was obvious. Much more Indigenous people and much poorer. The bus from Villazon to Tupiza showed some of the country side, barren and as one of the lads put it, like the moon. Nonetheless, it was amazing to see and the scenery was class.

One night in Tupiza then and it was off on a tour of the salt flats, Salar de Uyuni. This was a 4 day 3 night tour which we spent most of in a jeep, starting in Tupiza and ending in Uyuni. we were in a group with a French couple on their honeymoon. They were a good laugh but I think Anna wanted some nicer places than the ones we stayed in! On the trip we saw geezers, boiling mud, giant cactai, red lakes, green lakes, white lakes, flamengos and some of the most amazing views you could imagine.

On the first night we stayed in a small village up in the mountains. The altitude was about 4200m and the town had a population of about 250 people. The temperature we were told was about -7 that night, with the second night promising to be colder again, staying at an altitude of 5000m. Our room for the first night had no glass on the window, concrete floors and a corragated iron roof. Insulation obviously not a concern here :) Thankfully on the second night there was a more sturdy structure so the extra few degrees didnt harm us too much. It was said to be -15 degrees but it was cloudy that night so not sure if it got down that far.

On night 3 we stayed in a hotel made of salt. Basically it was blocks of salt carved into the shape of bricks, with salt on the floor. Chairs and tables also made of salt blocks. It was much warmer there as we were back down to about 4000m and the hotel itself was kept warm.

The final day was the highlight of the trip. Salar de Uyuni, the largest salt flats in the world, containing 10 billion tonnes of salt! It is a flat and white and after that, there is not much else that can describe it apart from pictures.

After finishing the tour, we arrived in Uyuni. General advise was get the f*** out of there as soon as you can. It didnt take long to see why. It really is not a nice place. There is nothing to do or see there apart from the salt flats and train cemetry which we had already seen. The only problem, no buses leaving to Sucre for 3 days because of elections! After some asking around we managed to get a guy with a jeep to bring us to Potosi which is where we are now. Its only 3 hours from Sucre where we hope to get to tomorrow. The jeep journey started off eventful with the driver crashing 2 minutes into the trip. Thankfully it was only a small tip and no damage was done. After that, it was plain sailing.

Potosi itself is a mining town and is also the world's highest city. Think it is about 4800m. The main attraction here are the mines but after hearing that they are full of asbestos we will be giving them a miss.

One last little thing, altitude makes it near impossible to climb small hills and you get sunburnt when it is 2 degrees!

Til Next time

Brian

I have over 200 pictures from this trip so I have only quickly took a small sample

The women all wear bowler hats here and are very aged. The cook on the trip was 32, looked 52!

Evo Morales has a lot of support in small towns for the up coming elections

On the second day we were up at 5:30

At this point we are higher than Mt. Blanc, Europes highest mountain. Higher to go!

Mud boils at 200 degrees

The smoke is full of sulphur. Basically, the place stank of rotten eggs!

Unfortunately it wasnt particularly nice weather. The lake was red. From algae and sediment apparently

Me at a big rock thing

the big rock thing on its own

Candles light the room in the salt hotel. Electricty is off at 9:30

This train has died!