Salar de Uyuni

This trip was by far the best thing I have done since being here! Worth every penny. For 3 days we went cruising through deserts and mountains seing the most amazing scenery of my life.
The first day consisted of going to the train cemetary where there are dissused trains. A kind of strange place, like something from a film set. Then we headed to the salt flats - a salt desert. Obviously we spent a good while taking photos and doing lots of silly poses, as you can see from the photos. We were taken to see a hotel made of salt and then to la isla del pescado. I can´t even describe the scenery there - beautiful. After lunch, cooked by our driver Javier we went to various lagunas and then to our accomdation for the night - a salt hotel, where everything from the tables to the beds was made of salt. That night we saw the most amazing moon. We all just sat outside in the cold in silence, each one lost in thoughts, perdido en sus sueños, taking in this incredible view.

The next day we were woken early to start the trip to more lagunas and to this place with lots of rock formations including el arbol de piedra - the stone tree. Pretty impressive I have to say. We then headed for "el refugio", which pretty much means basic accomodation, i.e no running water or central heating. Now I had heard that the second night was the worst as it´s sooo cold. I was wrapped up like an onion I had that many layers on. I had also decided that it would be a good idea to take a little bottle of whisky, you know, for the cold. We dumped our stuff and went for a walk around the laguna colorada, which is a laguna that looks red. I took the whisky with me so we all had a little toast to Pachamama. It´s easy to see why people in Peru and Bolivia believe in Pachamama with natural beauty like we saw. As the night went on the temperatures dropped alot and I didn´t even get changed to go to bed coz it was just too cold. I could never do this trip in winter because it must be unbearable.

The following morning arrived with a 4.30am wake up call and my god it was cold! I couldn´t feel my feet for half of the morning. We travelled an hour or so to the geysers. It was like being on another planet. Luckily the hot steam being projected warmed my feet up slightly. We were then taken to aguas termales but I wasn´t brave enough to go in. I was so cold that the last thing I wanted to do was take my clothes off and be in my bikini. A few of my friends braved it though. After breakfast surrounded by moutains and a volcano we were taken to the end of our trip....onwards to Chile!