Victoria and Justin: Todos posible, nada seguro

'Todos posible, nada seguro' translated is 'Everything is possible but nothing is guaranteed', a statement which typifies the behaviour of a good number of South Americans we've met along our travels (particularly the Bolivians). They'll offer you the world to get you onto their tours, into their buses and in their accomodation but when it comes time to deliver they often fall short. It's certainly made us more cautious (and a little cynical). And our 'Salt Flats' tour, while an amazing experience, it was no exception.

Our bus arrived in Uyuni at 6am, after 8 hours of dirt roads (yeah, an overnight bus on unsealed roads.....arghh). Uyuni is the starting point for most tours into the 'Salar de Uyuni' (or salt flats) and 'Altiplano' (high planes) of south western Bolivia. The town sits at 3600m above sea level and is pretty much just desert, dust and tourist offices. We took one look around and decided to get straight onto a tour that morning.

We found a tour company leaving at 10am that day. We checked all the details; trip itinerary (3 days), food menu (pretty standard), type of 4WD truck (Toyota Landcruiser), number of guests (3 Slovaks, 1 American), guide (speaks some english, ok), it all sounded good. We also had time to stock up on the essentials, water and wine. So, we left at 11am, time is not that important in Bolivia and within the first 5 minutes of the trip it was pretty clear our so called 'guide' was actually just a driver, given his zero english skills (seriously, nada!) and we caught him reading a pamphlet with various facts about the region. We found out later he's been driving the tour for 4 years.....you can only laugh.

First stop, the train graveyard, home to the retired coal-powered steam trains which were replaced by diesel motors in the mid-1900's. It's an amazing sight, with around 100 engines and carriages all rusting in the desert. These were the trains that transformed the mining industry in Bolivia during the late 1800's.

We jumped back in the truck and headed to the salt flats. The flats cover an epic 10,000 sq km's and are the remains of a prehistoric lake which covered the majority of south western Bolivia. Driving across the salt flats was amazing (i've been using this word a lot recently but it's all true, Bolivia is a special place). On the flats you can see for miles, with an oasis (an illusion of water) in every direction. Once across the flats we arrived in San Juan, a small town on the edge of the flats, our accomodation was the local 'salt' hotel. The place was made entirely from salt bricks, it had 12 double rooms and one shower (and only cold water) and one toilet, which certainly made things interesting.

Next morning we headed south, driving higher into the Bolivian Andes, we passed five lakes, Laguna Cañapa, Hedionda, Honda, Chiarkota and Colorada (or Red lake). The lakes are home to Flamingos which offered up some great photo opportunities. We also stopped at the 'Arbol de Piedra' (or stone tree), a volcanic rock eroded over hundreds of years, and yes, it was also amazing. The second night was spent in "the refuge' next to Red lake, at 4800m above see level, the accomodation was a mud brick house with some rooms, pretty basic accomodation (as warned, with no showers). After a few beers and a chew on the customary 'coca leaves' it was time for bed. Our room was only 9 degree but fortunately we had secured 4 blankets!

We woke at 4:45am on Day 3, to see the sun rise above the mountains, the colours were spectacular. Before sun rise I also had my first glimps of the Southern Cross from South America, it was upside down, not sure why (need to check Wiki). Our first stop of the day was the Sol de Mañana (thermals blasting out of the ground, driven by the nearby Volcan Licancabur). We pushed on to our breakfast stop at Termas de Polques which included a dip into the thermal bath on the lakes edge, a toasty 37 degrees, very soothing. Next stop was Laguna Verde (Green lake) and Laguna Blanca (white lake), by this stage it was just another lake but still pretty impressive.

From here, it was back to Uyuni, and 5 hours of driving ahead of us. We passed the Valle de Rocas (more volcanic rocks) and San Cristobal catherdral, some impressive stuff. We arrived back in Uyuni at 5pm, headed straight to the hostel for a warm shower, followed by a couple of beers and dinner. We're leaving at 10am the next morning for Potosi.