Uyuni and the Salt Flats

After a few relaxing and very enjoyable days in La Paz, the evening came for us to meet with our group, the people with whom we would spend the next 25 days travelling across Bolivia and Brazil to Rio de Janiero.

Group travel is always a bit of a gamble, its a bit like Forest Gump and his box of chocolates, you never know what you’re gonna get. Fortunately, we got a cracking group of people from all corners of the English speaking world – Aussies, NY Aussies, Kiwis, Welsh, English and of course us Irish!

Our guide dismissed with the formalities and we all headed out to the witches market for some traditional Bolivian fare. I opted for a Llama kebab, which was surprisingly tasty and it doesn’t taste like chicken! With a long trip ahead of us the next day, we all retired to bed early, eagerly anticipating the next few weeks.

Our journey to Uyuni, our first destination began with a short bus trip to the small mining town of Oruro, south of La Paz, which is reputed to have been the last hideout of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance kid, a bit of information which came courtesy of one of our group members! From there a long dusty 8 hour train journey would take us through the desert to Uyuni, a salt mining town in the north of the Atacama desert and home of one of Bolivia’s greatest tourist attractions – the world’s largest salt flats.

The first stop on the salt flats was a small mining area, where the local miners essentially mark out grids from which they harvest the salt, stashing it into conical heaps, prepared for transport back to Uyuni for refining and purifying. You see little sugar loaf shaped mounds dotting the horizon for almost as far as the eye can see. Every mound must be transported before the rains come in November and wash it all away, flattening the landscape, until the floodwaters recede and the whole cycle can begin again.

By the time we had finished, bellies were rumbling, so we ventured on towards Isla de Pescado, Fish Island, a little oasis in the centre of the salt flats, a rocky outcrop more accurately. It seems to be the only area of height in an otherwise barren white landscape. Arriving there, we took a family hike to the top of the hill past the huge cacti for a stunning view of the salt flats and the outline of the distant mountains. There we made an offering to Patchumama (mother earth) and returned back to ground level for a delicious home cooked meal of fresh veg and salad and …. llama steak!

Naturally, no trip to the salt flats could possibly be complete without the cheesy altered perspective photos – hours of entertainment was had as we posed and directed each other in a host of ridiculous looking pictures. Finally as the sun set, we made our way to our hostel for the evening, fashioned almost entirely of salt. I can’t help wondering does it melt away in the rainy season too!

Over the next few days, we explored the desert around the Uyuni, visiting the Red and Green Lagoons, some stunning and unusual rock formations and from a safe distance, we even saw an active volcano. Our final stop was at the train graveyard just outside Uyuni, where the rusty remains of what must have been hard working mine trains are destined to spend the rest of their days, lying in the hot sand with only the odd visit from a curious tourist or a canvas hungry grafitti artist!

After the 3 days and 2 nights of wandering in the dusty desert and no showers, we returned to Uyuni, tired, smelly and happy, to enjoy some long hot showers and an incredible pizza and finally hit our beds to ready ourselves for yet another long journey to Potosi.