Salar de Uyuni
After the killer 25.5h bus ride from Santiago I finally got to San Pedro de Atacama, a small and very remote village near the Chilean-Bolivian border. After finding a place still open for dinner and writing an email to Marina to arrange our meet-up in Uyuni three days later, I headed back to the hostel for a short night. Got up at the crack of dawn, treated myself to some pancakes for breakfast and then walked the dirt roads to the tour agency to enlist for a three day excursion to the Bolivian altiplano and the Uyuni salt plains. Luckily there was one open spot in the SUV that left that morning, so a short time later I was in a bus that took us to the Bolivian border. From there on we were switched to 7 person SUVs and began our trip through the altiplano.
adobe buildings in San Pedro
the Chilean-Bolivian border
We had some breakfast at the park's entrace, overlooking this lake. I snuck down, mounted my 70-300mm tele lens and tried to get as close to the flamingos as I could.
Shortly after, we continued our journey and got to know each other a little bit. I was lucky to spend this excursion in the company of 5 really nice and interesting people. Stephanie and her brother Cédric in the back, from France. In the front row Thana, Carolina and Carina, all very charming ladies from São Paulo, Brazil. All of us spoke fluent English, French and Spanish, so it was nice having three languages in common.
First real stop: Laguna Verde (the green lake).
Then, the Dali rocks, named after the painter.
We came to a natural hot spring where we went for a refreshing bath. Some of the other people in the hot spring were Flemmings as well. I later found out they were friends of my friend Karolien, who took the iMBA program with me. Small world.
And the journey goes on... leading us to some geysers in the awesome altiplano landscape.
After teh visit to teh geysers we drove on to another lake where we made camp for the night. The gang and I went on a little hike to a hill overlooking the lake. It was super windy and by the time we got back, my head actually hurt from the wind.
After some dinner we sat around and hung out with some Argentine guys who had brought a guitar and were really gifted musicians. We all crammed in one room and had a super cosy singalong.
The next day we got up really early in the morning, had some breakfast and continued on our way.
Came across the arbol de piedra (stone tree)...
Arbol de piedra
Next stop: Laguna colorada (red lake)
We made a stop for lunch at another very remote village...
And in case you doubted which company has the best marketing in the world... here's proof:
We reached some greener lands, inhabited by hundreds of llamas.
The last village on our route for the day was the most remote thing I've ever seen... we drove for two hours and finally reached a bunch of houses, only 5 of which were still inhabited. Two of the local kids came to greet us.
the abandoned train station
We spent the last night of our trip in a hostel near the salar (salt plains). After a refreshing shower (the first in a few days), we played cards and drank some wine. Good times.
The next morning we were all ready and excited for a visit to the salar, although none of us had a clue we would be in for such a treat...
After a while we reached the inundated part of the salar, where the water is about a foot high during a few months a year...
Click to view
After two hours of driving through the inundated part of the sailt plains, we made a stop at the Isla de Pescadores.
And saw some really old cactuses.
And again, hitting the salar one more time...
Near the end of the salar we reached the Hotel de sal, completely constructed in salt. We're talking walls, beds, doors, tables... the whole shebang.
One last stop before reaching the end of the salar... ojos del salar (the eyes of the salt plains).
A little later we reached Uyuni where we said bye to our driver/guide, all had some lunch together and then went our seperate ways...
Luckily my way would cross with Marina's later that night, and they would run alongside each other for the two weeks to come.