Saturday Oct.20th
I leave the hostel with 4 other people to go to the bus terminal, we are all going to Uyuni so figured we'd leave together. Leaving at 11am and arrive in Uyuni at 3pm for 30Bs. We find a room at the hostal Avenida for 25Bs after dealing the price from 30s. We go find a small local restaurant for a late lunch and a cold beer. Around 5pm I go to the Red Planet agency
to meet up with a friend and to confirm and pay for the Salar tour. Price was 1200Bs, it was more expensive than most other agency by a lot, but after hearing many bad stories from other people about their tour after they did it, I am very happy that we paid more but we had an excellent guide, excellent food and some good hotels. My friend just got in to town, so we go to the hostal to find her a room and we go meet up the group of friends that are on an outside terrace at the main plaza for a drink. Later we will go to the ''Extreme Fun Pub'' where we will have quite some fun and a few drinks. We are a pretty mixed group, me (Canada), one Egyptian, 3 Germans (2 guys, 1 girl) and one Swiss. Back at the hostal at around 1am after having a snack in one one the stands still open in town.
Uyuni and the Salar in background
Sunday Oct. 21th
I wake up with a bit of a headache because of the evening, but it goes away quickly :) Everybody is still sleeping so I decide to go for a walk at the main plaza to get some sun and more important to get a coffee. When I come back to the hostal everyone is up and getting ready for their Salar tour. For me and Susanne it is only on the Monday that we will leave, so we have an extra day to spend in Uyuni. I say goodbye to the group and we leave to go for breakfast in town because I was starving. We walk around town a bit and in the afternoon we go to Pulacayo to see a train cemetery and the oldest locomotive of Bolivia. Only a few trains to see but very interesting to visit the small village. Back in Uyuni after 2h30 hours of visit and taxi ride, we wil then go for a drink in the evening and a movie to finish it up.
Bolivia's very first train
Monday Oct. 22th
We get up early and get our luggage ready for our tour. We also go to the Immigration office to get our stamp out of Bolivia because we will not be coming back to Uyuni, at the end of the tour we are heading to San Pedro de Atacama in Chile. After breakfast we get to the agency at 10h30. The tour leaves at 11am and the first stop is at the train cemetery closer to Uyuni. Lots more trains than the day before and then we head for the Salar. Second stop in a at the flag island and the salt hotel on the Salar, We make another stop a bit later to take some pictures. Next stop was at the Fish Island (named this way because of it's shape) to see the enormous cactus and the view on the Salar is very nice. At the end of the afternoon we get to another salt hotel on the other side of the Salar completely. A good coffee, supper and in bed at 9h30.
Train Cemetery
Train Cemetery
Building made out of salt blocks
Flag Island
Salt
Gotta have a bit of fun
Isla Pescado
Click on picture to see the whole album
End of day
Tuesday Oct. 23th
We leave in the morning at around 7 and head to the desert, many stops on the way during the day. First stop close to the volcano, second stop at Lago Canana to see the flamingos, third stop on the high plateau of the desert and the rock tree. It is the highest desert on earth and at the rock tree we were at 5000 meters above sea level. fourth stop was at Lago Colorada and we then got to the hotel for the night. Supper and in bed.
Weird Flora in the desert
Flamingos (Lago Canana)
Arbol de piedra (Rock Tree)
Wednesday Oct. 24th
For this third and final day, we leave at 6am. We stop at the geysers (boiling mud, not exactly geysers has we think of it) where the mud in the holes is really boiling and quite impressive because the temperature of it is around 150 degrees Celcius. Second stop at the hot springs where we will have a swim in a hot pool. Third stop at the desert salvador Dali (named this way because of the weird shapes of the stones), fourth stop at Lago Verde and then we headed to the Chilean border. It's the end of the tour and we take a bus to get to San Pedro de Atacama where we arrive at 1pm. We find a hotel and spend a good part of the day wandering in town. We go for supper and at 10pm, we go for a small astronomy tour a bit out of town. The french guide explains to us the basics and history of astronomy and we can observe star, clusters and planets through tha many telescopes. Back at the hotel at 12h30am and the door is locked, we have to knock and ring many times before they come and open the door (at the moment that I was on top of the wall trying to sneak in :)
Geysers
Hot Springs
Lago Verde
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