Southern Bolivia - The Salt Flats of Uyuni...

After a lazy couple of days hanging out in La Paz, I finally kicked into travel gear again and got me the overnight bus to remote Uyuni in the south of Bolivia. This one-horse town is mostly known for its access to the southern Highlands and the incomparable salt plains that stretches for 120 square kms...

The Tourist Bus was not crowded, and I met an interesting and entertainingly opinionated Irishman called Casey. My kind of people, his informed opinions would range from the state of the union in Ireland to the absolute blast Chavez is having in Venezuela stirring the pot in South and Central America...

Entonces, I hopped on the same tour as Casey upon next day arrival in Uyuni (why waste time) and we were off in a Landcruiser for some high altitude adventuring. The group consisted of Casey, Paul and Caroline from Oz, Emma from England, Lilianna from Columbia and myself... and of course our cook Augostina (she rocks,we ate like kings) and our chilled out guide Leo.

So over the next few days we saw amazing salt plains, vast lagoons populated by Pink Flamingos at altitudes of up to 4900m, we swam in hot springs, saw natural geysers erupt, and overlanded across some of the most beautifully remote high plains in the world.

Accommodations were basic and temperatures dropped to under freezing point, but we were well prepared and with some rum, good pasta and playing a lot of Shithead (the card game that just keeps on coming) we braved the elements succesfully.

We dropped off half our crew on day 3 on the Chilean border... and this border post was something out of an Afghanistan movie, what a treat. Although I sorely missed the "nature of good versus evil" and "Who is the Evil Empire" discussions once we had offloaded Casey, the all-day journey back to Uyuni was thorougly entertaining.

We gave three soldiers a lift, the van broke down at least 3 times and we encountered a blockade initiated by some pissed off Villagers (this is quite common in Bolivia). They were objecting to the Tour companies not going through their town and therefore losing out on tourist money, so they swept up to the neighbouring town and put a bunch of big rocks in the road.

A big debate ensued between the tour drivers and the disgruntled Villagers, with either amused or irritated passengers snapping away pics or attempting to join in the debate (no not me). In a model for peaceful mediation which your man George W could do well to have a look at, they resolved the whole thing in less than an hour, signed some kind of petition and the rocks were cleared... and we were off!

Engine repairs and replacing flat tires notwithstanding, we were back in Uyuni by 8 last night. Missed our bus to get out of here but that`s cool, as we took the day to just chill out, blog and read a bit.

Tomorrow I head back north to go check out the Salt Mines of Potosi, but this experience has been one of the best so far. Amazing remote nature, good company, good food and good times. Who could ask for more...?