Monday 6 May 2013

Lagunas and Uyuni Salt Flats in Boliva

From San Pedro we were to go on the three day tour to the Uyuni Salt flats. On the way we would see lots of lagoons, old rock formations and unique Bolivian wildlife. It was pretty much 1 hour of bumpy road, half hour of photographs at a site, then back onto that bumpy road again. We started at Green Lagoon or Laguna Verde and took some snaps. There were also some pretty cool Geysers as well but by that stage I had been thrown in the jeep for a few hours now and the rotten egg smell of the sulfur was not going well with the nausea I was feeling. The landscape and rock formations along this barren landscape were of the like I've never seen before. Stunning.







The next morning we journeyed on to some more lagoons. There was the Laguna Colorado where the water was all red. And we saw some awesome wildlife. The viscacha, relative of the chinchilla boucing around on the rocky hills, pink flamingos filling up the lagoons and pacuna, primitive cousin of the lama. 







Rarest of all - the great Cambodian flamingo
One of my favourite moments was when we reached a train track in the middle of nowhere. Being so flat despite being so high up we could so that the track went on and on and on. Thinking it abandoned we took some touristy shots of us having fun lying on it like in the old movies. 


Ten minutes later to our suprise we saw this. 

No one was lying on the tracks after that. 

The second night we stayed at at hotel with a shower (though I had a cold one) and salt floors! It was hard to put your stuff anywhere because it would get covered in salt, ditto with walking around in thongs. 



We left at 4am the next morning to watch the sunrise over the salt flats (mostly from the jeep as it was so cold) and then went to Incahuassi Island, the largest 'island' in the Uyuni salt flats. It was a rock mountain covered in stunning gigantic cacti. The trek up the moutain was more than my body could handle but the view from the top, looking over the cacti and the white flats that stretched as far as the eye could see, was breathtaking (sorry about the bad pun). A lady in her fifties overtook us and gave me some breathing tips to deal with the moutain air. That was a bit depressing. 




I took some photos once we finally reached Salar de Uyuni (salt flats of Uyuni) but it's a lot harder than one would think. If you jumped too hard on the salt crust it would give way to reveal water below. You had to be careful not to fall in! White as far as the eye can see. If you look at it on a map of a Boliva the salt flats take up a significant part of it. The enormity of it is the most interesting part.The salt form a honeycomb like pattern on the flats.





We didn't see much of La Paz besides some stalls in the witches markets with lama foeutes and toucan bills for sale. From La Paz we went to Lake Titicaca which is the highest lake in the world. It was so large that it was hard to believe this wasn't the ocean and you weren't at sea level. We got ripped off by the bus company paying premium for a nicer bus seat which we never got and in truth I found Bolivia a really difficult country to enjoy and cannot imagine myself coming back here again. 



2 comments:

  1. WOW.. the photos are amazing here Toni! I've been reading every post on this blog since your trip, and it has always been a good read. I thought you guys were going from Brazil and working your way up to the the states? You guys are going all over the place in south America, not that is a bad thing, but good. Whats next, Venezuela? LOL Tell Kevin if he remembers playing that board game "WORLD DOMINATION"? ROFL.. back then I, James, Kevin, you, Karen, Winnie and all played that game. It was girls vs boys and I had Japan and asian protected. James had Venezuela, which was untouchable and he declared it untouchable because it was the land/country of hot chicks. bahahahaha.. KEVIN GO VENEZUELA! lol

    - Cassius

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  2. Thanks Cas, yep we wanted to make the most of our 3 months here but sadly had to skip Columbia due to time restraints. we'll just have to do it next time. And maybe if Venezuala becomes a bit safer we'll do that as well. Haha can't believe you still remember that, must have been over 10 years ago! Good times.

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