We ventured out and joined up with our tour group which included 3 dutch girls, 1 swiss and us (and our driver of course). We threw our bags on top of the 4x4 jeep and crammed in. We set off to see the train graveyard, which consisted of delapitated, rusted old trains that were used to transfer the salt. Then shortly we arrived to the salt plains that are very white!! It is the biggest salt reserve in the world. It is a endless sea of blinding white and we were glad to have our sunglasses. Our guide, Elias, explained the salt plains. We had met up with a german journalist who had come to write about the large lithium reserves under the salt plain, but they can´t harvest it. We drove on the salt which was quite hard and after we stopped to take some silly pictures we continued on until.... off popped our tire! I also didn´t mention that we stopped at a small town were we also had a flat tire and we had put our spare on. Being quite the handyman our guide set to work whistling away and he inflated a new tube which was leaking. So he scrambled with some scraps until he was satisfied the leak was sealed for the moment. We arrived at Inkawasi which is a rock hill covered with cacti. The cacti were very big and one was over 9 feet tall and dated back...1 cm a year? We had a lovely lunch on tables created of salt after which we continued on to our sleeping quarters for the night. We managed to stay warm with our team huddled all in one room. The second day we set off to various locations to see different lagoons, rock formations, and flamingo´s. We arrived at our hostel which was not quite so nice or warm...thankful for the duck tape on the cracks of the windows! Our group bundled up for supper and as soon as we were done we hit the sack to hopefully sleep through the cold. That night it reached down to -27, although we managed to stay warm (I had rented a second sleeping bag, which was a lifesaver). We had an early start to the day at 5:00 to change into swim gear...um that was difficult task. We saw geysers and then arrived at the natural hot springs shortly after sunrise where we ventured into the hot water. There were only a few of us brave souls as there were many onlookers from other groups (it wasn´t so bad, considering we´re from Canada). We then enjoyed a pancake breakfast out the back of the jeep. Off we set again for a long day of driving back to Uyuni bundled in our sleeping bags.
We stayed the night in Uyuni as the train was still not running due to blockades so we took a morning bus to Tupiza. The drive started out very cold, but as the sun rose, the bus warmed up. The roads around here are all gravel/sand roads so very dusty and bumpy. The drive was quite pretty teh closer we came to Tupiza with rolling hills, with rock formations from errosion, and cacti covering the hills. The place has a very western feel and Dennis was wanting his cowboy hat! Anyways we are booked for a horseback ride through the canyons tomorrow morning, before catching another bus out to the border into Argentina. We´ll let you know how that goes as the last few times I have been on a horse it was a white knuckle ride! I should mention that this is a western town in more than just scenery. A small town outside of Tupiza is where the infamous Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid met their match, just a bit of Tupiza history for you.
P.s Happy Fathers day!!!
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