SALAR DE UYUNI

Hola,

So the last three days of Bolivia was spent on the Salt Flats (Salar de Uyuni) with everyone who was then going to either backtrack through Bolivia, head off to Argentina or go to Peru via Chile.
Salar de Uyuni are the worlds largest salt flats, sitting at 3653m and an area of 12, 106 sq km which also holds 50% of the worlds lithium supply.

We were split up into two cars of six, and one of the guilds was just honestly the biggest prick the first few hours. We would try ask him general questions such as ¨"where is our next stop" "at what point do we need to pay the park entrance" and he would reply with "it doesnt matter, calm down" "i dont know" and my personal favourite "i don´t speak spanish" - like alright buddy, just wanting to know about the tour.
We paid 675 bolivianos, which included the first night accomodation in the hostal before the tour, so we got a pretty good deal.



Apart from that weird guild situation, the tour itself was honestly so incredible. The first day was spent stopping at the Cementerio de Trenes and then Colchani which is a salt extraction area where the first Salt Flat Hotel was made (??) which has now been turned into a museum due to health and saftey reasons (??.)
At one point, we stopped to go "fishing" for salt crystals, where we just put our hands into these weirdly warm pools of salt and pulled these formed cyrstals out.
That night we stayed at a salt hostal off the salt flats, where the walls, beds, floors and furniture. I dared Jess to lick the bedframe to see if it tasted like salt, it did.

The second day we went the Los Lipez region where you can see a snowcapped active volcano called Ollague. We drive past some increasing terrain, mineral rich lakes until we arrive at Laguna Colarada which covers 60 sq km and is around 80cm deep.
That night was Evan´s 24th birthday so to celebrate, we all drank wine whilst playing cards and eating dinner whilst rugged up as it was ridiculously cold and later went out to look at the stars. Im pretty good at spotting Orion´s belt now.

The last day was the large geyser filled Sol De Manana. It is thick with sulfur fumes that are pretty nauseating, honestly. The floor is cracked and then has puddles of bubbling and boiling fumaroles.
After that, we managed to relax at some hot springs, which after freezing nights was a pretty nice change.

We all said our goodbyes at at Laguna Verde, which was practically at the corner of the three countries: Bolivia, Argentina and Chile which was pretty fitting. Jess went back to Bolivia whilst I joined Sydney and Evan into Chile - and didn´t even have to pay the $60-$120 fee (massive score)

I´m back in Peru now and am catching an overnight bus to Lima tonight, so for the moment it´s back to good ol solo travelling.
I wanted to post more photos, but the computer is being ridiculously slow. Sorry.
xxxxx Sarah