Salar
de Uyuni
The
Salt Flats tour was probably the Bolivian highlight. We set off in an old
Toyota Landcruiser for 4 days. Some friends we know who had done it and had
said it all depends on the group in the jeep coz there's literally 6 and a
driver in a jeep together for 4days. So needless to say we paired up with our
auld travel buddies Elaine and Dan and had two sound English lads in the mix
aswell. This trip isn't for the faint hearted nor the whingers! You kip in
places with no heat (a salt hotel in one spot) at 4800ms (higher than any
mountain in Europe!) which are freezing and the food is fairly basic here.
Needless to say at such an altitude we slept with about 40 layers on us those
nights and I woke up with a hat on the next morning.
But
what its all about is the scenery and its absolutely unreal. Because you are
there doing it for 4 days you kind of get used to this crazy landscape that's
almost like a lunar landing but looking back at it now and especially the
photos it was pretty amazing. You go from salt deserts to red sulphur lakes to
mud pools and geysers to semi arid desert. I won't go into too much detail but
I think the photos will do the talking here.
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| Hanging out at a "train cemetery" prior to hitting the salt flats |
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Doing a "Robbie Fowler" with a salt pile at the Salt Flats
Liz "squeezing" me out!
Flicking mini-Liz out of my hand
An album cover we created for the "Salt Flats"
Getting overwhelmed by the Dahli Desert
Some of the places resmebled a lunar lanscape
An Andean rabbit called a Viscacha
The Red Lake
"Trying to keep warm by drinking wine"....any excuse!
Very Loud Geysers
Mudpools and geysers all around!
Liz with the Dahli Desert in the background
Elaine doing her best to get airbourne!
A vacuna - related to the alpaca and llama family
One hairy Llama!
Chile
We
went further south to Chile at the end of the salt flats tour. As soon as you
cross the border, everything changes. The roads are all tarmac and there's road
signs. You come to a very quick realisation your in a 1st world country.
Bienvenido Chile
Here
we stayed in a spot called San Pedro de Atacama its just on the border and home
to the Atacama desert...the driest place on earth...thankfully we found plenty
of craic here!
One
of the unexpected highlights was a star gazing tour. Looking up at the sky is
far from the place I thought I'd find something interesting goin on. But this
tour was great. The skies in my father's native county Cavan can be clear
enough but nothing compared to the Atacama desert sky! They had 320 clear days
of night sky last year and the American lad doin the tour gave me a serious
education on the sky.
Getting into Star-Gazing amongst other things!
This
was the last spot on the map we'd see Elaine and Dan so we had big night for
the grand hurrah. We all ended up looking for an after party with a load of
local Chileans and found it in a ditch off a road! After 12 the Chileans are
very strict about getting alcohol. So myself and one of our new Chilean friends
had to head for one of the neighbourhood adobe houses and knock on a random
window. next I notice a light came on and a window opened, next thing there is
cartons of wine and beers being passed out the window. It was all very
"clandestino"! The only drinking spot after 1am was in a ditch beside
one of the roads out of the town. It was if not spectacular a funny spot to
have a party and a send off to a pair who have been quality travel amigos.
I was a little regretful we weren't able to go further south esp to Patagonia but it will hopefully be a good enough reason to return to this beautiful land.
"San Perros de Atacama!"
A Chilean friend who was such die-hard "National" fan he got
the lyrics of "Anyone's Ghost" tattooed
Dan and the night of wine and that moment when he fell for a dog
Elaine brushing a random young lad's hair (we met him on the street
carrying a hair brush)
I was a little regretful we weren't able to go further south esp to Patagonia but it will hopefully be a good enough reason to return to this beautiful land.
San Pedro de Atacama's main street during the day
A town in the middle of a desert
And they call it puppy love!
We
headed back to Sucre to bed down for a few weeks before we moved onto Argentina
and Brazil on our last leg of the journey.
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