We have way more photos to come, but it's this great graveyard for old steam trains just on the outside of town. You can climb all over them and do whatever you want!
No I did not construct a swing in my time there.
After that we started our drive south. The Salar de Uyuni is the world's flattest surface with less than a metre's difference in elevation across the whole flats. It is so flat and stable that satellites calibrate their altitude with earth using its surface. We reached them after a bit and it's what you'd expect: blinding white sand and, at this time of year, severe clear blue sky. It reminded me a lot of driving on the big lake in Yellowknife, but without any snow drifts or clear ice patches, just endless white. I wish I took a phone picture of the surface, but the surface is very solid with a hexagon pattern due to moisture and nighttime cooking. If you smashed the heel of your boot on an edge of the hexagon a few times, you may break through to a small pool a few inches below the surface.
The famous Dakkar Race takes place in South America every other year now and a highlight is passing the salt flats. We stopped at a monument made of salt to the race then moved on to the middle of the flats. This is the place where you can do the bizarre perspective shots because of the lack of background. Again since all the photos are on other cameras, I can't show you anything!! We played around with perspectives using a T-Rex toy, Pringles can and a Godzilla toy. Our lack of imagination got the best of us at the end, but hopefully we got some decent pics from the stark setting.
Our first night was at a small hotel made of salt. It was in a small village at the edge of the flats. The hotel was fairly cold and the sleeping was in common rooms with no heat.
We made a friend at that hotel, a baby vaycuña.
Day 2 started with a trip to a small island in the flats. Half the year there is less than a metre of water on the flats so this island is... well isolated.
This was one of my favourite parts of the excursion as there were giant cactus littering the island. We hiked around for an hour or so then set off for our next hotel. We left the salt flats and continued on rough dirt tracks to our next hotel.
Our next hotel was beside a lake with flamingos at the foot of a dormant volcano. Again we were the only guests and enjoyed playing cards in the dining hall before bed. Again it was dorm-style with all 5 men in one room and for some reason, the 4 women split 2 rooms! I can't explain the logic here.
The next day it was -15C and we set off in our 4x4. Of course there was no heat in the truck, but we had a tiger-print blanket to keep us in the back seat warm. The thermometer hit -17 as we made our way to a mushroom-shaped rock then to Laguna Colorada (Red Lake).
The red lake was another highlight. After a couple hours of driving, we arrived at the lake. The lake had 100s of flamingos of four different varieties. Even though it was below minus 15, the edges of the lake were liquid because many small hot springs beside the lake kept the outsides warm. The flamingos weren't great fliers at the high altitude, so they skimmed along the surface and made large steps on the water's surface.
After the lake we went to a small village for lunch. Both of the days we had lunch at a small hotel in a village, but our drivers prepared the meal using food we had brought with us. The hotels were basically like an indoor picnic.
We also visited some geysers and then returned to Uyuni for a night with pizza for dinner.
The next day we took a 4 hour bus to Potosi. Potosi has a silver mine that was once the world's largest. We toured a monastary and the short underground mine shafts and spent the rest of the day walking around the city's downtown. After Potosi we drove to Sucre, which is out of the high altitude!
After the lake we went to a small village for lunch. Both of the days we had lunch at a small hotel in a village, but our drivers prepared the meal using food we had brought with us. The hotels were basically like an indoor picnic.
We also visited some geysers and then returned to Uyuni for a night with pizza for dinner.
The next day we took a 4 hour bus to Potosi. Potosi has a silver mine that was once the world's largest. We toured a monastary and the short underground mine shafts and spent the rest of the day walking around the city's downtown. After Potosi we drove to Sucre, which is out of the high altitude!
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