We spent a night in Uyuni before heading into the desert. We were travelling in old land cruisers, not the really old ones, but a few generations ago. Our first stop was a train cemetery, where many old trains have been turned into a playground. Was great fun!!
Next we stopped in Colchani, where we learnt how the local people collect, grind and package the salt from the salt flats for consumption in Bolivia. From there we visited the salt flats themselves!! We had to take some of the typical photos playing with perspective of course. The scale of the flats was absolutely mind blowing, just white salt and blue sky for miles!! The tour company provided an awesome picnic lunch, by the end of which most of us were sunburned, like being in the snow!
We stopped at an 'island' on the flats, which was bizarre - covered in cacti and rising up out of the salt. On the way, our driver realised we had a leak in our transmission fluid. Sam tried to help him fix it, getting back into the car saying "don't look under the bonnet, none of the parts are original". We had definitely experienced the Bolivian culture of patching things up rather than thoroughly fixing them!!
We stayed the night in a salt hostel on the edge of the salt flats, which was also completely made of salt!
The next day we continued travelling south, stopping at lagoons and volcanoes along the way, the lagoons were all different colours, and we saw many flamingoes. The last lagoon was red due to iron-containing plankton, which was pretty crazy!!
Our final day in Bolivia, we visited the Solar de Mañana geysers, which were steam funnels similar to Rotorua, some with mud bubbling. We headed off to a natural hot spring, but on the way our poor land cruiser had a flat tyre. So we had a dance party in the desert with the car radio while they fixed it. It was surreal. One of the spares was the wrong size, another was flat also, but luckily the third space saver tyre got us to the pools!! The pools were very scenic, it was awesome to get in the warm water in the freezing desert!
We then crossed the border from the Bolivian side (a wee hut in the desert) and traveled for a few kms to the Chilean side (a much more respectable border office where they even have a border patrol!!). Another stamp in the passport!!
In the border town San Pedro de Atacama, Chile, we felt like we had reached civilisation again. Especially because they have proper milk, no more lumpy powdered milk!
The next day we walked to the Quitor ruins, which also had a great view, nice to get some exercise!! In the afternoon we went on a tour to the valley of the moon. The landscapes in this area have been spectacular. We watched the sun set over the valley.
Today we have our longest night bus yet, 17 hours from S.P. de Atacama to La Serena. Painful!! But still glad to be in Chile.
Take it easy everyone, lots of love xoxo
Sam Facts Days 61 - 66: The Atacama desert is the driest place on earth. The Uyuni salt flat is the largest on earth, and the Atacama salt flat is the third. The north of Chile also used to be part of Bolivia, then Chile confiscated it in a bloody war in the late 1800s, leaving Bolivia land-locked. Still a sore point to this day.
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