Day 1
On Day 1 the terrain changed as we drove from dry burnt red rocks to green moss to grey mountains. At lunchtime we arrived at a grassy plane and ate lunch next to hundreds of llamas. There were a group busy mating, bizzarly humming away as they did so, and a couple of really new babies - the after birth of one lay nearby and must have been only one hour old. We saw many mines, a couple were big but most were tiny with only about sixteen miners and their families living and working there, manually extracting the minerals from under the ground. The sky was full of amazingly beautiful clouds for the entire day. We felt short of breath and dizzy as we climbed and slept at a height of 4200m.
I am chewing coca leaves that help with altitude but also sent my cheeks completely numb!
Beautiful, giggly Emma cooked us amazingly tasty food!
Here is the pueblo where we slept on the first night at 4200m next to astonishing mountains.
Day 2
We began the second day with a visit to the ruins of a pueblo that was built 200 years ago due to all the gold and silver to be found and mined nearby. We drove passed and were surrounded all day by volcanoes and reached the highest I have ever been 4885m. Due to the volcanic activity in the area the land was very fertile and covered with bright green grass under a blue sky. We encountered our first flamingoes on a laguna, complete with fascinating reflections which kept my camera busy the entire time! As we passed through the area the colours melted into each other as the flamingoes flew through them. We arrived at lunchtime at some natural thermal springs with the most astounding view across the multicoloured landscape of the desert and under a blue sky. Along the way we passed Laguna Verde and Laguna Blanca which meant we were fifteen minutes from Chile. The next place we jumped out of the jeep was at some geisers. We saw the vertical steam columns, smelt the egg of the sulphur and marvelled at the bubbling earth. Then we visited the Laguna Rojo, made red by tiny algae. Here were incredible colours flowing into one another - the red of the lake, the green, grey and yellow of the landscape the bright pink of the flamingoes, which harnessed the wind as they flew like the clappers passed us! Surrounding us were two volcanoes, Volcan Uturuncu at 6008m high and Volcan Llicancahur at 5950m high which marked the beginning of the Andes and was owned half by Chile and half by Bolivia. Altogether a day of surreal, dreamlike landscapes of immense beauty and breathtaking wonder. We slept at the height of 4600m but I only found this out the following morning which didn't help my panic in the middle of the night feeling like my brain was going to explode in my skull.
Day 3
The third day began with the surreal piedras of the desert, the first photo is of the famous piedra de arbol or tree stone. We found the huge stones carved by the wind and weather to represent various things such as faces, trees and mushrooms! We visited more lagunas named locally as the 'Jewels of the High Andes'. So named for their various colours; green, red and green, white and clear, white clear and green, and white respectively. Small medicinal plants grew everywhere but no cacti or trees as they can't grow easily over 3600m. We saw three different types of flamingoes; Chilean (black and white), Andean (the biggest) and Hams (yellow and black on beak). Also an incredible desert fox legging it through the desert travelling as fast as our jeep, overtaking us and crossing our path to leap up the side of some desert rocks. We took lunch in the amazing desert, in view of the volcanoes, and a viscacha joined us. A viscacha is a small furry cuddly creature who looks like a cross between a rabbit and a chinchilla. Along our drive we also saw many vicunas, the timid and quite rare cousin of the llama and alpaca with incredibly soft fur. We saw yet another volcano in the region, this time still smoking! Volcan Ollague at a height of 5860m, again half owned by Chile and half by Bolivia. We arrived and slept on the edge of the huge Salar, or salt plane and slept in a hotel completely made of salt; bricks, floor, ceiling, decorations all.
Day 4
On our fourth and last morning we awoke before the sun and headed across the salt plane towards the island in the middle. Now among the eight jeeps that had stuck together, looking after one another out in the wild only three decided that they would brave the water on the salt plane (as it is the rainy season making a lot of places in Bolivia inaccessible). We were lucky enough that Viktor was a very experienced driver and felt able to take us! We stopped to watch as el Sol rose and then continued to the island. Just as the sun was rising in the sky we climbed the small hill on top of the mountain to take in the vista of the entire salt plane. The hill is covered with exceptionally old and huge cacti. We admired the view for some time and then took breakfast on the edge of the plane. Then we drove onto the lake until we were completely surrounded by bright white terrain under a powder blue sky holding puffy white clouds. As we passed over large areas of water the reflection of the sky created the most surreal landscape yet!! It was breath takingly incredible. Then we came to stop in an area of complete white under the blue sky. Here we had the typical fun with perspective that people always have in photos of this place. Finally we drove to the salt hotel in the middle of the salt plane, paused and then continued towards Uyuni and the other edge of the salt plane. Here we saw people working on the salt, gathering it into piles for trucks to come and remove it to transport it around Bolivia. Finally we drove to our hostal in Uyuni had lunch together and then went our separate ways. What an incredible experience and one we are unlikely to forget for the rest of our lives.
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