Tupiza to Uyuni, Bolivia

   

After a mere 11 hour bus journey we arrived in the freezing cold at the Bolivian border at 5am, somewhat bleary eyed and disorientated. Luckily we met Sophia who was fluent in Spanish and helped us find the way to the border crossing.

By the time the sun was up we'd found a bus to take us to our first destination in Bolivia: Tupiza. It didn't take more than a couple of hours but on the way the bus driver was flagged down by a woman on the side of the road who asked him to stop and fill up his truck with all her luggage. This took about 30 minutes but lots of people helped her as there was a ton of stuff. She may have been moving home...

As Tupiza is the famous place where Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid had the shoot out with the Americans Feds, we thought we should experience some horse riding in this famous outback...

After five hours of horse riding we booked our Bolivian Salt Flats tour from Tupiza to Uyuni. We asked for an English-speaking guide, but needed two more people to fill our Land Cruiser. With perfect timing, an English couple walked into the booking office. We both recognised them from an incredibly brief encounter back in Mendoza 6 weeks previously, so it seemed a great idea to join forces for the trip...

Matt: Having not introduced ourselves back in Mendoza, we were able to get to know Laura and James pretty well. However, it soon turned out that they both know my cousin, Pete, on a professional basis at Coventry hospital and live not far from him in Leamington! Small world...

Mario (below, left) was our driver and Gladys (right) was our English guide and cook. With our 4x4 loaded up we headed up through the southwest of Bolvia with 3 nights in basic accommodation on route to the famous salt flats. Our first day saw some of Bolivia's most astounding mountains, and we quickly came to realise that it was going to be a VERY cold few days...

The first night we stayed in a little village where the local boys played some traditional music.

Before we headed to bed, we took some photos of the night sky but the moon was so bright this was as good as we got (still pretty good we think!). The thermometer wasn't to creep above freezing for the next 3 days or nights...

The next day we got up early and continued our journey north...

Mario pulled out all the stops to get us through some tough terrain. Every other driver asked their passengers to get out for this bit but Mario was cool as a cucumber and would never have dreamt of asking his passengers anything of the sort. He was therefore crowned 'Super' Mario....

Super Mario then helped some other drivers get through...

We stopped off at a natural hot spa. It was a bit chilly getting out though!

There is always a Frenchman who wants to get his cheeks out!!

Sarah: Much to the girls amusement!

Driving through the mountains...

Reaching 5000 metres! 
(James on the far right, Laura to his left)

The red lagoon. Flamingos everywhere.

Checking out the geysers...

Matt is a geyser...

The very icy lake...

Sarah: Matt testing how thick the ice is... obviously not a stupid thing to do at all.

Visiting the active volcano and looking in awe at the lava formations.

The salt hotel was a saviour on our last night.. we had hot showers! Albeit only for 3 minutes per person!

Finally, after four days and three nights on the road, having experienced temperatures of -20 degrees Celsius we arrived at the famous salt flats! Time to have some comedy fun with the camera...

Sarah: Loving the power! (If only...)

We reached a mature way to settle any differences: dinosaur vs. tank!

 Final day in the car saw the arrival of lollipops. 

Our very last stop before saying goodbye to Super Mario and Gladys was the random train cemetery. Such an odd and eerie place in the middle of nowhere. Apparently all the trains were from England as we sold them to Bolivia. Who would have thought....

Matt: The weird train was something of an analogy for the town of Uyuni: rusty, falling apart and covered in rubbish. Not wishing to mince my words, I would describe Uyuni as a complete shit hole, one of the most depressing towns I ever visited!

And that was the end of our amazing Salt Flats tour. Not wishing to spend a second longer in Uyuni that was necessary, Gladys hooked us up with a local taxi driver to take us straight to the constitutional capital of Sucre. The city couldn't be more of a contrast...