Bolivia Salt Flats

Leaving San Pedro, we waited on our bus in the hostel at 7.45am we were full of excitement about the upcoming 3 day tour by jeep. By 8 we were a little worried as the guy who took the booking wasn't the full shilling lol... but a bus showed up to pick up it's passengers at the back of 8, so all seemed ok. However we were not on the list, as this bus was from another company. After talking nicely to the hostel owner she looked up the contact number on the internet for us and called...to get an answer machine :O(
Then eventually at 20 past our bus turned up having decided to get us last rather than first as we had been told, so on the bus we went our excitement a little less than before.

Anyways...after driving for 1 hour (passing an active volcano that last erupted in 2007 ) we reached the border between Chile and Bolivia to get our jeep. After a quick lunch we boarded our jeep and set off for the 3 coloured lagoons. Joining us in our jeep were Shimi, ( the funniest guy ever - spoke like Bruno from the ali g show )his girlfriend Eleshia, and Benoit, and we were soon getting along great.

The 3 lagoons were spectacular but all fairly similar apart from the colours ( green, red and white ). After this we went to a natural volcanic hot spring which we could bathe in.( but only for 10 mins cause of the high mineral content of the water, which is not good for your heart) The rest of the day was spent traveling to where we were to spend our first night. Talk about basic....

The toilets were mixed, and stinking, not to Arlene's amusement lol. To flush them you took a bucket filled it with water from a big tub then threw it in to the pan...yuck!!!. As we had arrived at the digs first the 5 of us got the "best dorm" which by 6pm felt like it was - 20 inside. With nothing else to do we broke out the cards and learnt a new game called Yani, which i was shit at and Arlene was the best ( guess who's dictating lol )

The next day we got up at 6 to move on and were glad to see the back of the freezing digs. Last nights problems were soon forgotten as we soon arrived at the area of the stone tree. This is an area of rocks which have been exposed by the wind and left standing proud of the surrounding area. The photo's here were amazing.

Next we moved on to an area of hot mud geysers which stunk of sulphur ( rotten eggs ) but were smart to see. After enduring 2 punctured tyres on our jeep and 1 on the other group that were traveling with us we arrived at our digs for the 2nd night. What a difference, the entire building was made out of salt from the flat, and they had clean toilets, and HOT showers...bliss. Dinner that night was llama, which taste like kebab meat but in pork chop style.

The 3rd day was out on the salt flat itself. The salt flat was once a lake, which dried out to only leave the salt. Over time the thickness of salt has been increased as rain carries salt from the surrounding area on to the flat, which then evaporates leaving more salt. At the moment it is over 20m deep. When on them, due to the lack of background you can play with the perspective and create funny pictures. So check out the pic's on flickr... In the middle of the flat is Fish island...so called cause from a certain angle it is said to resemble a fish. Which after a long climb to the top gave stunning views. After spending much time trying to be creative with our pics we moved on to see the salt mounds which is where the salt is being excavated and dried to sell and to make sculptures for tourists like Arlene to sit on...Another amazing thing about the salt flats is that they create mirage's in the distance and you think you can see pools of water reflecting the mountains, but really it's just an illusion being created from the salt...weird but cool.

This was such an amazing trip. xxxxx