SALAR DE UYUNI (BOLIVIA)

Quite unlike I had ever seen or experienced before, my 3 day 4WD tour of 'Salar de Uyuni' encompassed large areas of Northern Chile and Southern Bolivia between San Pedro de Atacama and Uyuni. The tour was undoubtedly one of my top 5 highlights from my travels around South America, not just because of the amazing scenery I witnessed over the course of the trip but also because of the friendships I developed with my fellow travellers sitting next to me in the 4WD for the four days.

On our first day we were picked up early and travelled the short distance to the Bolivian border, where after some discussion with the Bolivian immigration officials about the likelihood of seeing a Kangaroo on our tour, we grouped ourselves into 4 teams and packed our things into the various trucks. Given that 90% of the tourists which had signed up were from France, it was pretty easy for the rest of us to form a group - which eventually included members from England, Ireland, Scotland, Germany and 2 from Australia. It did not take us long to coin ourselves 'team Diggler' a name derived from the porn actor 'Dirk Diggler' because apparently our German gynaecologist also shared the same first name !

Scenery from the first day included some stunning lakes each with a different colour - white, blue, green and red; caused by the presence of different minerals in the water and various algae growing on the surface. The colour of the mountains in this region was absolutely amazing and despite there being visible snow on the peaks, the stiffling heat and endless sand meant it was hard to believe that we were nearing altitudes of 5000 metres ! After a pretty long day of sightseeing and a quick kick around of soccer outside the 'hostel' in which we were staying we managed a few games of cards before getting a good nights sleep where almost all of us found it was hard to control 'toxic emissions' from our bowels, something we attributed both to the high altitude and spinach soup we had consumed for lunch.

On the second day we passed a number of very interesting rock formations generated by errosion of the parent rock by wind and flying sand. Despite there being no roads whatsoever and only a few worn tracks formed by other 4WD's, it seemed our driver Juan was in complete control and he not only managed to guide us around all of the most interesting sights, but also he did so at almost twice the speed of every other driver, all the while playing classic music such as U2 and Dire Straits, much to the jealousy of our rival groups. Unfortunately however, Juan's command of the english language was almost non-existent and hence I was forced to translate much of what he was saying so that the others could understand. That night we were treated to hot showers and comfortable beds in the famous salt hotel, a hotel built entirely of bricks dug from the nearby salt pans. It was incredible to see just how creative the builders had been and also to learn that by looking at the salt bricks it was possible to tell the level of flooding which occured (by observing the depth of the white salt layer, which indicated the amount of mineral matter carried down from the mountains) and also the level of volcanic activity in the region (from the thickness of the brown dust layers in the bricks).

Our final day of the tour was spent almost entirely on the flat, white and expansive salt pans directly south of Uyuni. Here we spent considerable time just taking in the magnificence of the surroundings and taking many photographs of the group, performing various actions or using the endless salt pans to help create a number of visual illusions. On this day we also visited 'Isla del Pescadora', the only place in the pans where visible life could be found. For a few hours we explored this small rocky outcrop, marvelling at the sheer number of cacti which were growing here, many of which were literally thousands of years old. Finally, we rolled into Uyuni, tired and from the sight of the town, wishing we were still out in the wilderness. Nonetheless, the trip had been thoroughly enjoyable and a fantastic experience for all.

Photos 1&2: Snow capped mountains and coloured terrain of the Atacama desert.
Photo 3: Volcanic activity - boiling mudpools and spitting geysers.
Photos 4&5: Wind erroded stone formations.
Photos 6-9: Desert lakes almost all of which contained signs of life (mainly flamingoes).
Photos 10-11: The Salt hotel - made completely of salt bricks.
Photos 12-15: Photos from the salt pan.
Photos 16&17: Isla del Pescadora a desert oasis situated in the middle of the salt pan.