Uyuni, Bolivia

Today the whole hotel is up by 6am, full of excited tour groups ready to set off for the salt flats. This is except Yuval who is properly ill, to the point he wants to stay in bed but can’t due to the schedule. We pile him into the front of the jeep after plying him with a mix of medicines and head out in the dark ready for sunrise on the salt flats. The Salar de Uyuni is the world’s largest salt flat at over 10,000 sq km. It was formed as a result of transformations between several prehistoric lakes. It is covered by a few metres of salt crust, of which the flatness has little variance in elevation making it perfect for perspective cheating photos. The sunrise is amazing and seeing the salt flats revealed, the hexagonal tessellations is once in a lifetime moment. We drive on to visit Isla incahuasi (fish island), one of 33 random out of nowhere islands that exist within the salt flat. The island is apparently the top of the remains of an ancient volcano, which was submerged when the area was part of a giant prehistoric lake, roughly 40,000 years ago. The cool part is that it is covered with gigantic cacti. These apparently grow at a rate of 1cm a year, so are pretty old. The still rising sun creates some magical views across the flats. We have a traditional cake for breakfast, of which I manage 3 slices. We then go back onto the salt flats for crazy pictures and videos that are heaps of fun. Yuval is still unwell, and I cannot imagine how devastated he is in missing this highlight. We stop briefly at the Salt museum and more interestingly the Dakar rally monument & flags that look great flying above the flats. I imagine rally racing across the flats would be a lot of fun. Our final stop is the Train cemetery just outside Uyuni. Trains were once a big deal in transporting minerals and in early 19th century they were set to expand this until fractions with Chile stopped the project. Most of the abandoned trains that can be found in the Graveyard date back to the early 20th century and were imported from Britain. The salt winds that blow over Uyuni, have corroded all of the metal and there is a lot of vandalisation. We clamber over and through the engines regardless, getting a few arty photos. Lunch signals the end of the tour, and the stewed steak reminds me that I won’t be having Argentinian steak again. The whole group has been discussing next moves for a couple of days and it makes sense to get out of Uyuni on arrival as there is nothing there, Potosí being a good logical stop that isn’t too far. We all get on a local bus to Potosí with Yuval propped near an open window for fresh air. Potosí is four hours away and I am grateful I went to the loo before I got on as it is a bumpy ride with no facilities. We pull into Potosí the highest city in the world and it feels more vibrant than Uyuni. There are two British guys that we have been chatting to, Gerry & Paddy and we all set off by taxi up the hill to the hostel. The group ends up in separate hostels but all meet for dinner in town. The area is very interesting and the main plaza (10th of November plaza) is lit up in different colours. I select trout for dinner as it’s the house special, not sure where it would have been fished but it is very tasty.