The Bolivian Salt Flats

So we arrived at the La Torre tour agency right on time, but had to wait around for a good 40 minutes as a lot of groups were heading off that morning. The guys there had to sort people into various groups and assign us all to our jeeps, all of which were huge modern Land Cruisers. Each jeep can take up to 5 tourists (some companies cram in 6 people), but our group had only 4 of us (so with a driver and cook the car had 6 people).

Our rucksacks were loaded onto the roof, but when myself and Sarah clambered into the back of the jeep it became immediately clear that it was going to be incredibly cramped. There was no way I was going to spend 4 days stuck in this back seat, which had very little, and raised, leg room and also highly restricted views from the smaller windows. So after a quick discussion with the guy we'd booked with I arranged to move into the nice comfy seat beside the driver, thereby kicking out the cook, Esperanza! Esperanza was actually the drivers wife, but I couldn't see the logic of her taking the best passenger seat in the jeep when it was us tourists who had paid a lot of money specifically to ´see´ this part of Bolivia (it turned out over the 4 days that she mostly slept or knitted as we drove about anyway, so I reckon my thinking turned out to be well justified). So anyway, Esperanza moved back into the middle row of seats while Sarah remained on the back seat. I reckoned Esperanza should have sat in the very back from the start (as she was by far the shortest person, and had obviously seen all the scenery we passed many, many times before!), but Sarah was too embarrassed to say anything, so for two days Sarah took the cramped back seat. The other two tourists were both lads (Franz from Germany and Antoine from France), and also not in the least bit interested in taking the back seat, and rightly so in my opinion. Two days into the trip Esperanza did, without any word from any of us, take up the back seat though, so for our final two days we all had comfy seats in the jeep!

So for each day we alternated the front passenger seat, with me taking it the first day. That night the two other lads initially thought I was being cheeky kicking out the cook, but after I explained my logic they both actively agreed, and were both keen to take up their residence in the front seat when their turn came.

So over the three nights and four days of the trip we basically just drove to various landmarks and got out to take photos and the like before moving on. The accommodation on the first two nights was very basic, but the first night myself and Sarah were lucky to have our own room since the place we stopped at only had our jeep and one other.

The second night though had by far the worst accommodation, possibly of our entire trip so far. We had 8 people in a cramped dorm and the beds were in terrible condition. The whole place was pretty grim, although the dining area did have a small stove to offer some relief from the cold night temperatures. But at least nobody snored and I actually had a decent enough sleep.

The third night was in a fantastic new salt hotel right on the edge of the Salt Flats, and again myself and Sarah were very lucky to get our own room with great beds (I think we were the only people to get a room to ourselves, and it was just blind luck as we were just given it).

Over the four days Esperanza cooked us wholesome meals with plenty to go around (the last day we even had a fresh cake for breakfast!), although with the odd exception it was all pretty plain really (some people might say the conditions and isolation might be to blame, but I've had multi-day trips in far more isolated places where the food was much better).

So over the four days we saw lots of fantastic landscapes with lots of lovely ravines, lagoons, volcanoes and one very cool, mad-looking rock apparently sculpted by wind-blown sand over hundreds of years. A few of the lagoons had flocks of flamingoes, and on one of the lagoons many of the flamingos weren't nervous of humans like in Africa, so it was easy to get really close.

But the Salt Flats themselves are always said to be the highlight of the trip, and for us coming from Tupiza instead of the usual Uyuni, we arrived on the edge of the Flats on our third evening. The salt hotel we stayed at (made completely from salt blocks) was perched up a hillside, and so we got a quick overview of the Flats before we settled down for a quick shower (that didn't work properly!) and then dinner.

Early the next morning we got up and headed straight onto the Flats before breakfast to try and catch the sunrise on the plains themselves. Everyone seems to find these Salt Flats awe-inspiring for some reason, but I couldn't see it really. It is an impressive landscape for sure, but not, in my opinion, in any awe-inspiring sense. So after sunrise (again no big deal for me I'm afraid), we drove on to the Isla Incahausi for breakfast.

This is a cool mountain thing in the middle of the completely flat plains, and gave impressive views over the plains themselves. It's covered in mad huge cacti and has a trail leading to great views and some mad coral rock formations. I reckon this was the most impressive part of the Flats for me, as it gave you some appreciation for the shear scale of the place (it's the largest and highest Salt Flats in the world), but even this was severely mared for me by the multitude of tyre tracks all over the place from the thousands of jeep tours. Unfortunately there is no control of the tour groups who drive across the Flats, and so they just drive willy-nilly all over the place. I don't see how the salt can ever regenerate over these dirty tracks, so it seems the aesthetic damage will be permanent, which is a real shame as it prevents the view from the top of the mountain being a completely uninterrupted sweeping panaroma of human-unaffected salt that it should be.

Many, many tour jeeps had congregated at the base of the Isla, but there were also two pairs of cyclists that where obviously riding right across the plains. Now that is the real way to experience this landscape I reckon, maybe if I'd ridden across the plains I'd have been more inspired by them. Anyway, after breakfast we continued driving across the desolate plains, stopping at one isolated spot to take the obligatory 'perspective' photos (i.e. where it can look like I have a tiny Sarah standing on the palm of my hand), and then again at a much older (and apparently illegal) hotel made completely from salt. Then we drove on to the town of Uyuni where our tour finished.

We should have driven to the local train cemetery where there are a multitude of rusting train engines and carriages, but our jeep's brakes had apparently failed. Over the four days we'd had exhaust pipe problems which a mechanic in a tiny village welded for $3, a flat tyre that was replaced while we checked out a lagoon, some electrical ignition problems and then the brake problems - initially I had thought the jeep looked in great shape, and it was very comfortable, but I guess the Bolivian terrain really does take it's toll.

The last couple of days poor Sarah had a dicky tummy. Nothing serious, but she couldn't really eat much. When we got to Uyuni yesterday we decided to book bus tickets to La Paz for today, giving us a chance to rest for a full day first. While Sarah rested in the lovely Hostel Salvador beside the bus terminal, myself, Franz and Antoine strolled the 3km to the train cemetery.

It was quite impressive I have to say, as most of the train engines are still in pretty good condition, and so us kids (the lads are 20 and 21), could clamber all over them. After the stroll back to the town along the train tracks (and through a very stinky rubbish dump), I picked up Sarah who was feeling much better and we all headed out to dinner in the cool Minuteman Pizza restaurant.

But the next morning Sarah was feeling pretty bad again. After lying in bed for a few hours she didn't really improve much, so we went across the road to move our bus booking forward a day and we both went back to bed. So later in the day I strolled about, but the local museum was closed for some reason, so I just came to an Internet place for a few hours. Hopefully tomorrow Sarah will be fit and well and we'll be able to get the overnight bus to La Paz, the Bolivian capital.