Salt Flats - 19 May - 24 May

We arrived in Tupiza ¨fresh¨ from an overnight bus ride into Bolivia and then 2 hours more once we had crossed the border. To say that we experienced some culture shock would be a gross understatement! The women are all straight out of the funny pages, not so much women as caracatures, dressed in oversized multi layered petti coats, bowlers hats ballanced at the very points of their heads, twin plaits hanging loosely over their shoulders and more wrinkles than a Sharpei puppy. The roads are cluttered with street stalls selling unidentifiable fried meats, ready made juices waiting all day in the sun just for you and every kind of llama wool jersey, sock, frock, beanie, bag or rag you can think of. In short this was more like the South America we thought we would be walking into, Argentina was quite European and civilised in many ways compared to this, more Spanish than Indigeonous. Bolivia was the real deal and cheap at the price!

With an ok nights sleep and some provisions bought we stepped into the Land cruiser that would become our home for the next 4 days as we explored the legendary Salt Flats of Uyuni and all that surrounded it. If you are looking for surreal landscapes then you come here to get spoilt! In our first three days we saw Vivid Green and Red lakes transformed into these colours by the Sodium, Sulphur and Uranium that line their bottoms. Pink Flamigos that skim the surface to get a better look at their own reflection, bubbling geysers at a breath taking (literally) 4980m above sea level, more volcanoes peaking over 6000m than anywhere on the planet, rock and bolder mazes, Dali inspired landscapes and more llamas than people in Bolivia. Ever corner seemed to hold a new sight, experience or contrast to what we had seen before. A photographers dream and a Agrophobe´s nightmare! But we were saving the best for last, the trippy crazy landscape of the worlds biggest Salt Flats was to be saved and savored on the last day of our trip, a day that started with a sunrise watched from an ancient coral island populated by cactus. You see the only way to get a giant salt flat is to plant an ocean there first then drain it fully over a few thousand years before ¨ding¨ its ready! This means you get left with a bunch of coral islands scattered here and there testifying to the once oceandom of the region and also an unnerving, bewildering flatness that goes on much further than the eye can see. Really cool! Unfortunately the Vix had been feeling horrible for the last day or so, a mixture of altitude, food poisoning and 8 hours a day stuck in a bumpy car, but she´s a trooper and was determined to get in on the Salt Flats action later. After a simple breakfast we a short drive to make sure there was nothing to see but whiteness and a the sun in the sky, we all started playing games with the lack of perspective achieved on the Salt Flats, jumping flying, playing giant or midget it was all good fun. This is a game that can take all day and is hard to get bored of unless you are the driver of a Land Cruiser that still has to get home to the wife and kids, so after a few hours of play and a lot of hooting we got into the Land Cruiser and headed for Uyuni, a little town right out of Mad Max only with Bolivians instead of Australians.

We would say goodbye here to Hari Har the German, Eimer the Irish and the MexiCAN brothers we had met along the way. Uyuni would be home for a few days much to our dismay as we waited for the Vixen the get her tummy right, something only antibiotics would eventually cure. However the Salt Flats were a definite highlight and something we will talk about for a long time to come!