South America, Days 32 to 35 - Stage 8: Bolivia salt flats to Chile

At the Train Cemetery at Uyuni. A collection of UK, French and US steam trains abandoned in the 1980's following the collapse of silver prices and improved road networks making road transport quicker and cheaper. The salty atmosphere has degraded these trains, making them look much older than the 40 years they've been abandoned here 

Day 32 Saturday 

We were moving on to Uyuni today for the salt flats. For some reason Brian decided that 11.00 was a good time to catch a bus. I looked at the booking site at breakfast to find no buses till 15.00. I'd only wanted to know which company we were aiming at but this freaked us both out a bit. Realistically it's probably just that they can't link a woman with a clipboard out the front of the bus terminal with internet sales so have to close the latter quite early. We had woken up, had breakfast, let's try and get the 09.30 (it's currently 08.45 and we had been told to be in Sucre terminal half an hour before departure, even with a ticket!) Brian still had most of his washing spread around the room, so gather that, throw it in the bag, throw the receptionist out the door to hail a taxi and dash to the 'ex terminal'  for Uyuni, not where we came in, otherwise we would have got tickets then. Arrived at 09.00 touts trying to sell us tickets to somewhere, "Uyuni?" "Bus, there..." She was still selling tickets, we hopped on, only to find it wasn't even the 09.30 bus but the 09.00 one!

These beautiful old trains will not be here for many more years

The views from the window were stunning for the 4 hour journey, people getting on and off at random places, sitting random numbers of children to a seat, but all fine. We arrived in the centre of Uyuni and stopped not at the terminal but marginally closer to our hotel so we got off. The hotel had offered to book us a taxi, but not knowing arrival time I'd declined, anyway we could walk. Got to the hotel, eventually found someone, after the guy wearing a facemask and mixing cement also went looking. Up to our room, it's a shoebox, no external windows, only into the interior courtyard which is both full of cement dust, and on this floor like a sauna due to the plastic roof! He was also having problems with the WiFi which as we planned to spend the afternoon booking flights was not what we wanted to hear.

Making use of a swing erected between an old train!

We went to get some lunch.

Back to the hotel, perhaps we can sit in the communal area, no, it's the building site, oh yes, it's also where breakfast will be tomorrow morning! Up to the room. WiFi still rubbish, temperature horrendous, we can't stay here. It's the first time in all of our travels we've done this. Out into the town again, first place on the list looked even worse than where we were, we didn't even knock the door. Next place, twice the cost, but just throw money at it. They did have space but she very honestly told us there was a function, so music would be playing till 2 or 3 am! Using her internet then (as was another guy in reception) off to place number 3. Yes they have a room for one night, we only want one night, and it was lovely (If you want to see details of our hotels, click the map - top right- open the 'legend' and click on the place marks).

Jackie finds a cat to fuss

Back to get our luggage. Why do I feel so bad telling the hotel guy that we couldn't stay? Yes he'd been very responsive and helpful online, but hadn't mentioned the building work.....

We didn't actually get any flights booked but we did formulate a plan which actually took most of them out of the equation. It turned out to be very costly and time expensive to go to Trujillo and Cajamarca just because they were historically significant even though there wasn't much to see.

Dinner and bed after what felt like quite a stressful day, lots of last minute dashing about, but nothing serious.

The yard of one of the houses in Colchani where they process the raw salt to make it edible. The raw salt gathered from the salt flats contains high levels of lithium (a very important element these days in the production of batteries) and other toxins 

Day 33 Sunday 

We woke up to no electricity, the guy in the first hotel had said there would be no WiFi or TV in the whole of Uyuni, but somehow we'd missed that it was no electricity. Scheduled power saving as we are going to have to get used to on our housesit in Ecuador. In this instance it made no difference to us, the phones were changed, we could shower and breakfast was prepared.

Renan explaining how the salt is heated via wood fires to evaporate the toxins (in this case the lithium is not used) 

Fortunately Benjamin from Banjo tours in La Paz had got, and passed on, the message about our hotel change and our driver Zenon, and guide Renan were there to collect us at 09.30.

First stop the train cemetery, full of rusting hulks, British French and American trains. They looked like they are ancient, but are mostly from the '80's when the silver production was drastically reduced in conjunction with increase of cheaper quicker trucks. 

Finally it is packaged ready for sale. Each bears a Bolivian  health certificate showing it has been processed correctly and is safe for human consumption. As a side note, the salt flats contain huge reserves of lithium and the process for extracting it is very water intensive and will affect the ecology of the area. Currently a Chinese owned factory has a small production area that has a 300m square area dedicated to lithium production. There is talk that a less water intensive production method is currently being developed which might allow ecologically friendly production. Lets hope so for the ecology of Bolivia, but it would be even better if Bolivia could develop it itself rather than selling out to China. Apparently Bolivia has signed a contract of 20 years with China - very sad! 

He did tell us about Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid 1905/6 in  San Vicente. They came after fleeing the US, but were still bandits. They successfully held up a train for £20000 wages for the miners. A few months later they tried again but soldiers onboard fought back and killed Butch. The Kid was never seen again.

Then into Colchani, where my excitement was meeting a cat who wanted cuddles. We were shown piles of salt in each houses yard. Work in the dry season for every family is to purify and package salt. Purifying is by heating and this, apparently, gets rid of the lithium?! We didn't buy any either as table salt or bath salts. They have to clear the pile before the rainy season starts as it would then all get washed away. We also saw the blocks that are used for building. These are much harder, though they are still protected on outside walls with plaster and salt mix. You can also count the seasons looking at the blocks, dark is dry season as the dust gets blown across the flats and white is rainy season.

Renan explaining that salt production alone doesn't earn the villagers enough money, so they have diversified into making souveniers to sell to tourists like us (we didn't buy anything as we'd have to carry it around for 5 months!) See those cat models carved from salt? The vertical brown marks show the dry season. The white layers were deposited in the wet season when salt deposits are washed down from the mountains to form new deposits. A bit like rings on a tree, you can tell a wet year by the thickness of the white deposit

From here we finally made it onto the salt flats. First stop what looked like the hot springs in Yellowstone. They were springs, but not hot and the bubbles were actually caused by salt being put in as this for some reason causes carbon dioxide to be released. Don't understand why, but it looked cool.

Jackie looking at a bubbling pool on the salt flats. The water is cold, its not geothermal action is dissolved salt in water giving off bubbles rather like opening a bottle of pop

Second stop, Fish island or Inca Huasi island, about halfway across, so 98km into the 4400 square miles of the flats. The aim was to get there before everyone else which we didn't quite do, but we did beat the rush. At this time of year this is a normal stop, we could drive about 80km/hr so all was good. In the rainy season when there is a layer of water on top of the salt driving has to be much slower, so this journey can take a long time. We however were incredibly fortunate, most of the journey was dry, but just as we were approaching the island we hit some water, so I say fortunate as this is what gives you the amazing reflections. Three days ago there was no water so as Renan said, we are blessed. He has done many trips, and obviously used many mobile phones. He wasn't interested in Brian's camera, but did some great video, and later photos on my phone.

Halfway across the salt flats and we stop for a panorama shot

We got to the island, just like an oasis covered in huge cacti. They grow 1cm a year, so with the largest being 12m high that makes it 1200 years old. Nice little walk up for a good view and then back through a little cave. It was quite weird looking out at 4x4's as in your head they really should be boats.

Gingerly walking across for a photo. Although the car had driven through the water on the salt flat, our minds told us it wouldn't support our weight and it must be very slippery. In fact, neither is true, it's very solid and its quite sticky, not slippery at all

We got down and walked across the salt to the car beside which was now a table with an umbrella and 4 chairs. Lunch was beef, sausage, salad and an mix of potatoes and veg, prepared by Zenon's wife. Delicious it was too.

The immensity of the salt flats (the largest on earth) is difficult to convey in a photo. The views all around us as we sped over them at 100kph were like this all around. Look at the irregular shapes in the salt, this is caused by water rising in between bringing fresh salt deposits to the surface. A beautiful, flat landscape of such reliable size and altitude (3656m) that, apparently satellites use it for altitude calibration 

After lunch we drove back stopping to take the obligatory silly, perspective pictures. Renan has obviously done this before, lying on his tummy on the car mat to take them and direct!

Arriving at Isla Incahuasi, with a summit altitude of 3700m. It sits almost in the centre of the salt flat and contains approximately 2000 huge cactii 

We stopped at the site of the original salt hotel which was a bit of an eco disaster. New hotels are only allowed on the edge now. This is also the site of the end of the 'new' Paris , Dakar rally which happened for about 4 years across South America.

Walking up towards the summit

We then went to check in at the Palacio de Sal, our very posh home for the night. We had time to marvel at the salt blocks above our head and wonder why they didn't fall down. Catch up online having had no electricity in the morning and look out the window at the rain wondering quite what sunset was going to be like! We went out anyway. It had stopped raining and although there was about 270° of ominous black cloud, where the sun was setting was light fluffy clouds. We stopped to look at where the salt had been harvested while the car drove off a small distance. As we walked back to it, there was a rug and cushions and the biggest tray of snacks, crisps and nuts, toasts and cheese and salami, grapes and dried fruit, and a bottle of wine. How very lovely, but what was really nice that all 4 of us had some wine and snacks, though the guys only had half a glass, but it felt so inclusive. I'd really enjoyed that we all sat together at lunch too. What a lovely evening.

Stopping by a particularly large (and very old) cactus on the way up

Having eaten far too many crisps we weren't ready for dinner when we got back so thought we'd go and have a quick dip in the really very hot pool in the hotel. Said it was posh! Lovely dinner and a comfy bed.

On the way up we looked down on a bay in the island. But we're looking at salt not water and those are cars not boats. It's quite surreal

Day 34 Monday 

Started off at 09.30 with quite a long drive, stopping for a comfort break at San Cristobal whose claim to fame (apart from clean toilets) was that it was a mining town, but to do this the company had to move the church 8km block by block. I don't know if this was harder or easier than when it is bricks, but these blocks were very random. Renan has never been in in his 14 years and today was no exception.

Flowers on the cactii 

Our second stop was Valley of the Rocks. The rocks appeared out of nowhere in the landscape and vanished just as quickly. It was very strange. We loved it however and had a good scramble, much to Renan's surprise I think, though to be fair he was a lot more game than I expected.

We got back in the car and I was touched to be offered a chocolate biscuit. I'd commented the previous day, while eating biscuits I'd smuggled from breakfast, that I got hungry in the morning before lunch, so how sweet that they'd brought me a snack.

At  last we reach the summit and the views were breathtaking. Fortunately we weren't breathless, we got there with no problems now we're acclimatised

Lunch was at a strange looking rest stop. We had a quick scramble about while they organised lunch. Pretty much the same as yesterday, but chicken and llama sausage (very nice), rice, potatoes (I hate this double carbohydrate thing) veggies and salad. Again we all sat together which I loved. Although Zenon claims not to speak English he obviously understands quite a lot and could quite often be seen and heard giggling along with what was said.

As usual, photos cannot convey the beauty, vastness, or atmosphere, so I'm not going to try, you'll just have to go there yourself! Here's just one photo of a distant island with a perfect reflection

Renan told us about how llamas were named, apparently when the Spanish arrived they kept asking the indigenous people "Como se llama?" "What is it called?" Which they obviously didn't understand so kept replying with "llama?" And so it became, Karwa actually being the indigenous for llama.

On the way down we had a brief detour up to a natural rock arch

After lunch we moved on to 5 lagoons, all beautiful with flamingos of three different species. I think the photos will say enough, and to be honest they've all blurred into one. 

Which, on its own was quite amazing

The drive to the hotel took a while but was absolutely amazing the scenery was stunning. We ended up coming through a dry river bed which seemed most unlikely and would never have happened without Zenon's driving. We were impressed to learn that the drivers all own their own cars so take care of them, possibly better than if they are company owned. It does obviously also prevent the need for a big company outlay. 

But through the arch we went down into a cave

We had done some animal spotting, lots of vicuna, I'd spotted the only rhea, far in the distance, but as Brian had poopood my spotting of a road warning sign for big birds I was pleased to prove him wrong! What we hadn't seen was fox (which we never did) or viscacha. These are rodents that sort of look like rabbits but with a squirrel's tail. We were very pleased to see them here as they were very cute. They even hopped down the rocks towards us which made for good photos but suggests people feed them which is not so good.

Followed by another cave on the way out

Out of the river bed the drive continued on what in theory was a road but really was picking your own track across the desert (if you check out the map of our journey - top right - you'll see that Google maps didn't think there was a road, so plotted a very long route. We went the shorter way!). Stopped for a photo, drove over the edge, and there, in the middle of nowhere, was a hotel. Not as plush as the previous night but quite comfortable. Planning however was required. Sockets powered till 22.00. lights till midnight. WiFi not sure, but it was on at 05.00 when I woke up. 

Walking back across the salt to our car and, whilst we were gone Zenon had set up a table, chairs, sun umbrella and lunch for us

Day 35 Tuesday 

Early breakfast, I thought 05.30, Brian 06.00, he was right but we compromised and went in-between. Departure 06.30. We had a full day of activity ahead of us which had to be fitted in before 13.00 and our border crossing into Chile.

How pleasant is this?

Our first stop was the rock tree, not a petrified tree but a rock formation with erosion at the base to form the trunk. Second stop was much more impressive Laguna Colorada a very red lagoon with white, borax, islands. James's, Andean and Chilean flamingos and amazing reflections. Despite arriving just after the 7 cars of Korean tourists we walked the opposite way around the viewpoint and actually found it very peaceful and relaxing, though possibly not for Brian now as he has to go through all his photos! See our Relive video with photos: click here. I thought that's what he was currently doing, but no, he's just updated the map on the blog, showing where we've been. That gives him about 450 photos to go through to publish this blog, it could take a while!

After lunch we headed back onto the salt flat for some silly photos - brace yourselves!

Next stop was bubbling mud pools and steam. Not as impressive as we have seen in other places in the world but we could get very close and they were beautiful. See our Relive video with photos: click here. This was closely followed by the opportunity to go in a thermal pool. The idea of exposing ones body to the sun, even for a few minutes was more than I could cope with, so we compromised and dangled our feet in, also meant we didn't have to travel with wet clothes.

Silly photo #1. Isn't Jackie's teddy very large!

Lunch at 11.30, but that's fine, it was an early start, though the restaurant wasn't ready.

Two lagoon stops between here and the border and suddenly it was very windy, so they were quick. First stop on the border crossing was Bolivian customs, a hut in the middle of nowhere. Scan the QR code and fill in the form, get a QR code to be scanned by the customs man. Worked for me, but not Brian. Don't know why, but as I was cleared to leave he could do it on my phone. Drive 10 minutes to Bolivian border to be stamped out. Say goodbye to our lovely Renan and Zenon and hello to David who was going to take us into Chile. Another 10 minutes and we arrived at Chile border control. David went in with the customs form he'd pre-prepared for us, then we went in, passports stamped, bags scanned and we are in Chile.

Swing me!

The road to San Pedro de Atacama, the dryest place on earth was all down hill. So what was a surprise was to arrive at our hotel to 31°! The whole town feels like the wild west, more white faces than we've seen since we left Spain, but we've booked our trips and are looking forward to 5 nights in the same place. Tomorrow will be blog and planning what happens after those 5 nights!

Don't eat me!

'I'll do anything you say dear!

Ruuuun!!!

The old salt hotel, the first of it's kind. It was built out on the salt flats, opened in 2002 and became very popular with young backpackers. Sewage disposal hadn't been thought through enough and, within a couple of years the smell permeating around became unbearable, prompting it's closure and a law preventing any further development on the flats. It's now undergoing renovation as a cafe

The monument for the Dakar rally that was staged here between 2014 and 2018. Dakar, you may know, is in Africa, but it was moved here for those years due to, we think, political unrest over there. After 2018 it was moved back to it's home in Africa

Our hotel for the night, the magnificent Palacio de Sal (Salt Palace) and, indeed, it is constructed from salt blocks, but it is lined on the outside, with white cement for protection

It is truly magnificent and luxurious and  we had more than the standard room, it was a suite. We booked a three day luxury tour of the salt flats and paid accordingly, this being part of it, but this was so much better than our normal. When I looked on Booking.com at the price, Jackie would not have allowed me to pay the price, but it was fabulous!

A room with a view. Jackie's standing in the sitting area with views straight out to the salt flats. Above the bed is a dome made of salt blocks

Back out onto the flats for sunset and Renan wanted to show us the salt collection area. Meanwhile Zenon drove the car a little further and, whilst our attention was diverted, set up a sunset viewing place with wine and nibbles...

It was a bit windy, so we had our coats on, but over there is the car and what's that just to the left in the lee of the wind?

He  had set up a fabulous spot, out of the wind. We were so glad they both joined us in a glass of Bolivian red wine and nibbles

The perfect end to a perfect day. In front is the setting sun and blue skies, behind and all around were black clouds with forked lightning and a  rainbow. No rain fell on us and it made it very atmospheric

Next day we had to  travel back through Uyuni on our way south and, as we did so, I just had to take this photo of a little train passing by

On the way we saw lots of Vicunas. The ground is almost bare with no water as far as we could see, but thousands live here in this extreme environment nibbling at the meagre grasses that grow in places. Apparently there is a leader and he knows where to find the odd spring of water to feed the herd

San Cristobal and many walls had beautiful murals painted on their sides. Here's one just being painted. What will it finish up as? A flamingo, you can just see the outline

The rebuilt 17th century cathedral in San Cristobal. It was moved 8km block by block by the Canadian mining company who had found a rich seam of silver running right under the old town. Their solution was to build a completely new town 8km away, which the residents were happy with. However, they couldn't part with the rich history of their ancient church, so it was moved. The old town has now gone and is part of a huge quarry

This photo, taken through the window of the car is part of that vast quarry. The colours from the exposed minerals are magnificent

The only Rhea we saw and this was at such a distance I could only get a photo at full zoom. How Jackie spotted it against the brush is anyone's guess. Renan was very impressed with her abilities. Jackie even identified it had two chicks with it. They are in this photo, zoom in and look left of mum, you can just see them!

Happily scrambling in the Valley of the Rocks

With some quite unusual formations

Llamas in a little oasis in the dryness

Lunch stop was amongst ancient magma with snowcapped volcano's in the distance

We pressed on through stunning scenery in the altiplano (high plateau) to the first lake of flamingoes, Laguna Canapa

Needless to say, I took a huge number of photos. How to choose? Difficult, but here's just a couple...

This is one of three types of flamingo, identified by the colour of their legs and their size. The largest with yellow legs is the Andean Flamingo, medium sized and with grey legs is the Chilean Flamingo and, third, the smallest (but still nearly 1m tall) and with red legs is the James Flamingo. They all cohabit quite happily. This is possibly the Chilean 

And these are definitely James flamingo

We move on to Stinky Lake (named for a reason!) and more flamingoes in dramatic scenery

Of course there were many flamingo (and I have many photos to prove it) but this little bird caught our eyes. Forgotten its name

OK, just one photo then. It's a James flamingo

By Laguna Honda. One of us is dressed wrong and I think its her!

Driving through a dry canyon that wasn't a road, the Canon de las vizcachas, we saw this Vizcacha 

And, in the end, three of them came to join us

We drove on through simply spectacular scenery

Before arriving at our hotel for the night, quite simply in the middle of nowhere. Not quite as swish as last nights, but still a fabulous place

Just for the avoidance of doubt, this is a screenshot I took on my phone. The hotel is that green marker in the centre of desert

Next morning there were magnificent views from the panorama dining room windows

Next morning our first stop at the petrified tree. Not petrified at all, but a sandstone rock sculptured by wind, rain and ice. It wasn't alone either, there were lots of other amazing formations, many of which we scrambled over in the cool of the morning

First stop - and what a stop. The Laguna Colorada, a red coloured lake (caused by iron ore deposits) flanked by volcanos and full of flamingoes

Once again, I have many, many photos

But I wanted you to see this short YouTube 

And this is us

on to the geothermal area where mud boils and stream issues out under high pressure

A very interesting place

This was the small geothermal electric generating station

Our next stop (and lunch stop) was the thermal bath next to Laguna Chalvin. It's kept at a constant 34 C, but we declined to go in, preferring to dangle our legs in

Looking out over the laguna from the thermal bath

The lake and thermal bath (small building on the right) from our lunch stop

After lunch we headed closer to the Chilean border but had to stop to look in awe at the beautiful mountains in the Salvador Dali valley

They look good in the photos, but in real life they are simply stunning

Art as per Salvador Dali himself, hence the name

Time is getting short now as we have a date with David in Chile on the other side of the border 

But we haven't got far to go as, taken from the same position but zooming right in, on the other side of the lake is the border post (in the middle of nowhere)

This is the Bolivian emigration office. We passed through here, drove another 5 minutes or so to the border and had our passports stamped

A final photo of Renan and Zenon by the car before they departed for home. They are standing on the border in Bolivia, we are in Chile. Our luggage had been passed to David (who spoke almost no English), into another vehicle and we drove for another 10 minutes or so to the Chilean immigration office. Our passports were stamped in (and we were given a slip of paper that must be surrendered when we leave - don't lose it!), luggage scanned and we were in

In 20 minutes or so we were in San Pedro de Atacama in Chile. The road was all downhill, going from 4300m to 2407m. My, how the air seems better! On arrival our plastic water bottles were crushed from the higher air pressure at this lower altitude. What has that done to our bodies? Nothing apparently! San Pedro has the feel of a wild west town, its laid back, relaxed - and hot!

Our very nice hotel Katarpe in San Pedro. I'm writing this blog in the chairs under that shade. We'd allocated a day of rest and we've used it all, it's taken a huge amount of time to write this, but in between we've been planning our onward travel. We've booked flights to Quito in Ecuador at great expense and at poor times. We leave  on Saturday night instead of Sunday and have a total of over 17 hours travel, Calama in the Atacama desert south to Santiago, then north to Bogata in Colombia, passing over Ecuador, where we have a 5 and a half hour layover, before a 2 hour flight to Quito, all for £900! We leave at 7:30pm on Saturday, arrive at 11:30am on Sunday. Not very good, but the best we could do! Before then though we've got lots of adventures in the Atacama desert!  

I forgot  to add this earlier, its Renan's trick photography on the salt flats

And another of his shots at Laguna Colorada