The trip took us over the Salar de Uyuni, the world's largest salt flat, and through a spectacular wilderness of extravagent rock formations, volcanic peaks, icy lakes and bubbling geysers.
In Uyuni,on the edge of the salt flat, we stayed in our first "Salt hotel". The walls, fireplace and furniture were all made of salt
even the bed was made of salt! And at 12,000 feet (3,660 metres) it was cold enough for John to need his woolly nightcap!
The "Salar" itself was a dazzling expanse of white
hard enough to drive on
its smooth surface interrupted only by small conical piles shovelled by the local salt collectors.
each of which they will sell for about 50 pence (US$1)!
The surface is embossed with the shape of the salt crystal
There are a couple of "islands" in the salt flat, one of which is covered in magnificent giant cactus
In the evening the salt reflects the pink of the evening sky
before the sun disappears in a final blaze of colour
Uyuni's only other attraction is its train cemetery, the end of the line for lots of rusting engines
The second day of our trip we were driven south through a barren, roadless wilderness, broken only by wonderful rock formations
and isolated lakes. The first lake appeared to have ice all around it, but the white is borax crystals
People must have lived here once
but now there are only small herds of wild vicuna
and flocks of flamingos
We wondered what the vicuna could find to eat, but when you look hard there are mosses, lichens and primitive plants around the rocks
The next lake that we came to was red from a particular type of algae
and another was a wonderful ice blue
but perhaps the most beautiful was simply the colour of the flawless blue sky above us
Accomodation on the second night was in a very cold hostel at 14,350 feet (4,375 metres). Fortunately they had supplies to help us keep warm..
and we agreed to "dress for dinner" - including hats!
The next day started early at an area of natural geysers
The mud was bubbling all around us
and we didn't like to get too close to these open holes
A commercial company is investigating the possibility of harnessing some of the energy from this area, but they have to be careful where they dig!
A few miles further on nature has put the heat to the best possible use - a natural hot bath at the edge of a freezing lake!
Guess who wanted to stay in all day!
From there the terrain became more and more barren, relieved only by the warm colours of the rocks
and appropriately as we crossed over the border into chilly Chile we saw our first snow
Chile is very different to Bolivia. It has wonderful roads
even if they don't seem to lead to anywhere very significant!
We ended our trip in San Pedro de Atacama and would happily have turned around and done it all again! But we had a date in Argentina......
