Uyuni Salt Flats

"Don't forget that Bolivia's strength is its women" 

Back at the beginning of last week, after saying goodbye to Daniela in La Paz, I took an overnight bus to Uyuni and headed for a 3 day 2 night tour of the Uyuni salt flats which took me through some of the most incredible and surreal landscapes that I've seen in my life, thanks to the hardcore driving of guide José. 

DAY 1: 1st stop the 'train graveyard'

The salt flats themselves - mounds of salt scraped together by local workers to dry, then gathered the following day.  This salt is only sold within Bolivia.

Miles and miles of salt... along with the biting cold this gives the illusion of snow.

Moley and Mini Moley joining our group.

(no Scottish or British flag here - someone bring one out!)

A bizarre rock island covered in cactuses emerges out of the salt landscape:

The island is a place of Aymara ritual here at Plaza Huyna Capac (and my wee offering of thanks to Pachamama!):

Our tour crew huddled up at dinner the first night - this room is made of salt! (left to right) Vivi (Chile), Rahel (Switzerland), Fernando (Guatemala - Canada), Iz (Switzerland) Jocelyn (Mexico) and (right) me and the hostel's friendly wee kitten/ hot water-bottle!

DAY 2: the sunrise view outside our thatched salt cabin - the colouring of the photo is deceptive, this was actually a freezing morning!

Flamingos!  This one appears solitary but actually her flock is just off camera to the left.  

I was well impressed by flamingos and their amazing ability to withstand the battering freezing winds, standing calmly without wavering or walking smoothly and rapidly without a wobble, I now have huge respect for flamingos and their skinny super-strength legs.  (These same winds had we tourists squinting bent over, huddling in our multi-layers as temperatures hit minus 15 to 20 Celsius - José's estimate.)

  

DAY 3: We had an even colder night in stone hostel where we holed up and warded off the chills with wine along with the entire convoy of salt-flat-tourists we'd been en-(spaced-out)route with over these last few.  Our final day started with welcome warmth with a soak in a pool of natural hot spring water, then we dropped our Swiss friends off at the Chilean border (just the other side of San Pedro de Atacama where I was back in March earlier this year!) and made the return trip to Uyuni through stopping off at some beautiful coloured lakes and more crazy rockscapes. 

Huge thanks to José for the crazy long hours of driving.  

A stunning experience :-)