The Salar de Uyuni was incredible!
4 days of pure heaven: silence, beauty, nature, animals, no toilets, temperatures below zero every night, a visible milkyway and millions of stars, sleeping in ALL my clothes, getting up at 4am every day to see the sunrise and generally just head out onto the road- as we usually drove in our 4x4 for a good 8 or 10 hours.
Flamingoes, volcanoes, salt planes, weird shaped stones, incredible landscape, bumpy ride, delicious food ( and alot of it)....
i could keep on going! We headed out from Tupiza at 9am on Sunday the 10th. Who? Simon, Emily, Heather and Kevin. Two couples, both from the UK and me. Our driver, Alberto, was a doll and constantly told us stories from his 7 years as a driver through the salt planes. His wife, Elizabeth, is an incredible cook and surprised us every day with new yummy creations. Breakfast ( which we ate at 5am pretty much every morning - you get used to eating at that insane hour) was usually bread with dulce de leche, some hot tea ( my saviour). When she really wanted tot reat us, we had fruit salad from a can or panckakes- yep, they were pretty good! We would then usually head out in our jeep, it still beign dark, we had trouble staying warm, but seeing the sun rise over the beautiful landscape was always worth it. Lunch would be served at noon ( one was pretty hungry by then, as it was 7 hours after breakfast) and would contain some delicious meals, such as lentils, meat, rice or other filling food!
We stopped about a hundred times, to take photos and generally just admire the scenery- although the mornign stops would be very limited in time, as after about 5min I usually had to retire to the jeep- the cold was simply unbearable! We would then arrive at our next accomodation around 5pm and would be ready to eat some more- the cold really gets to you! Plus we were constantly in heights of approx. 4000-5000m above see level,. and it tires you out.
Dinners were epic. Soup- my favourite meal of the day- followed by another warm meal, and then hot chocolate and soem biscuits. As sad as it sounds we were all tucked in by 8pm, wrapped up. fighting the cold, and ready to get up in 8 hours again!
The last night we stayed in a salt hotel- yes, you heard me, the entire hotel was made out of salt blocks: beds, tables, walls, floors, ceilings- todo!! That night,. our last, climaxed with a super hot shower, the firts one in 4 days, and a toilet with a toilet seat ( even a toilet seat can become a luxury when you don't see one for days)!
So all in all it was wicked and i would recommend it to anyone ( also- if you feel like getting some funky photos takes, the salt planes are the place to go- as sad as it sounds, posing next to an apple, and appearing to be the same size on a photograph excited me beyond belief)!
On Wednesday, the 14th, we arrived in Uyuni- a dissapointingly ugly town! But we only spent one night there, exhausted, and ready for some rest in a hotel, which actually had heating, proper beds and a normal bathroom. We all, the five of us, decided to stick together for a bit, as we were all heading in the same direction, and so the next morning, today, we took a early bus to Potosi! The drive to Potosi was beautiful. The landscape varied from sand dunes to craggy rock features to green valleys.
WOW! I think I am in love.
The highest city in the world, at 4080m above sea level, it is lively, pretty and full of bolivian authentic spirit. We arrived, after 6 hours, in Potosi and headed for our hostel, the Koala Den. Only 10min were needed, to drop our stuff, and off we went to explore the city. The little charismatic streets, filled with stalls, markets and smiley grandmas were enought o convince us all to stay a bit longer.
We bought an enormous amount of veggies at the local market for a smashing 6 Bolivianos ( about 90 cents) and whipped up a delicious dinner in our kitchen at the hostel. After swapping some photos, I left the two couples at the hostel and headed out to meet Ryan, Matt and Patrick for a quick beer. Who are they? Ryan and Matt are two ozzie guys, absolutely lovely and they are travelling with Patrick, a welsh guy. We had a nice chat over a couple of beers and it seems like my next few days will be spent with them.
Somethign yous hould knwo about Potosi: it has numerous active mines. Now what could that possibly mean in the travels of Ivy-Victoria? That she obviously has to go and see them! It took me a while, but after some hard-core convincing, I have now signed us all up ( Emily, Simon, Heather and Kevin) for a mine tour for tomorrow mornign at 8:30am. We leave the hostel in the morning, go to a market, so that we can buy somehtign for the miners ( usually visitors stock up on coca leaves, unfiltered cigarettes, 96% proof alcohol or dinamite- yeah its true, dinamite) and then head to the silver mine. We will spend 2 hours underground with the miners!!
Emily, seing that she is a doctor, is concerned about the lung diseases we could catch, Simon (also a doctor) about the possibility of an asthma attack, and Heather and kevin keep checking the statistics of how many people have died in the mines in previosu years. And me? Well I am just bloody excited. First of all, when will I be able to see an active mine- possibly never. And secondly- what would life be without its dangers!!
So with that in mind, I am going to sleep, very excited to have my go at crawling through some extremely small, dark and dangerous mine corridors tomorrow!
Potosi is full of old churches, lovely caffees and little squares, so I imagine the afternoon will then be spent exploring those thourougly.
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