Although this is billed as the salt flats tour, it encompasses more than just those. We got to see lots of Bolivian highland scenery including lots of lakes and volcanoes and some of the native wildlife too.
We headed out of San Pedro by bus, stopping to get stamped out of Chile, past the local volcano to the Bolivian border.
Things were more hectic here with loads of 4x4s for the tours parked around the buses. We got stamped into Bolivia and then headed to the lee of the bus for brekkie. Given the border is at about 5,000m everything was hard work - lots of coca mate tea helped with this - but unfortunately there was no bathroom - the only option being to pee behind an old dilapidated bus. Some people didn't get the toilet memo and were taking pics of the bus whilst others were peeing :s
This would be our first and certainly not last 'nature' peeing experience of the tour!
We met our driver Edgar and fellow tour members - Sarah, Suzanne and Carolina x2 and headed out into the Avaroa national park having registered and paid our entrance fee.
Given that pretty much all of Bolivia excepting the Amazon region is at altitude we knew it would be high in the tour. However I don't think we all anticipated how we would react. Lots of liquid helped with the nausea, and we tried chewing the coca leaves with bicarbonate - the locals altitude remedy. Although these actions helped some of us Caro was unfortunately struggling the first day until we got a bit lower.
Obligatory selfie with sexy hats!
The next blue Laguna - this one gets the colour from highly poisonous elements - so no wildlife here!
Sunset over Laguna Colorada - we stayed here in a refuge the first night - it was at 4,278m which meant Caro was still effected by the altitude and had to have oxygen to sleep.
The Laguna was the red lake - so called because of the algae - and was home to lots of flamingoes.
That evening we had a traditional Bolivian dinner of chips with frankfurter sausages, boiled eggs and sauces, called salchipapa. Frankfurters featured heavily in that day's food!
Day 2 saw us in front of more lagunas and with lots of flamingoes! But first more strange rock formations - where volcanic rock has been shaped by the wind and rain in the desert environment.
From the desert we headed to Uyuni and stopped at the train graveyard - where the locomotives come to die in Bolivia:
A hot shower in Uyuni sorted us out that evening and we were raring to go at 5am to capture sunrise over the salt flats....
We spent the morning playing around on the flooded salt flats getting some great shots with the reflection of the sky and utilising the infinite horizon for some trick shots!
