Riders on the Storm

After Vilazon we got on a bumpy crowded bus to Tupiza, the next town up on the way to Uyuni and the saltflats. After the bus we were pretty knackered and crossed the road from the terminal so the cheapest and most run down hostel we have probably stayed in so far, the whole thing stunk of pee. We were planning to buy a train ticket from there the next morning, but after being about 70th in the queue at the station we got to the front to find that the tickets had all sold out and the next train wasnt for 3 days! There were tours leaving from Tupiza, however, slightly more expensive and for 4days instead of 3 but we decided it was probably worth it as Tupiza wasn't the most exciting of towns to stick around in for so long. We stayed in a really cheap and nice hostel that night with the hottest shower so far, our door didn't have a handle though so when se shut it we realised we couldn't get out of the room and had to shout for a good 20mins before someone came to let us out with a pair of scissors.
The next morning we left on our salt flat tour with two Danish guys who were called, Jon and Peter, they were pretty funny and we were glad not to be put with some stuck up Frenchies who were leaving at the same time in a different jeep. We drove out of the town for about an hour before we came to an amazing canyon about 3500m up, you could see for miles over all the mountains it was really incredable. The roads were pretty sketchy though and there were a few time when we were sure we were going over the edge down a 1000m drop. Next stop was around 4000m up for lunch in a field of llamas, after chasing them and looking at their poo piles (they all crap in the same place then sleep on massive piles of their own shit) we decided to run up a near by hill, half way up and not used to the altitude we had to take a break before reaching the top. Then lunch, sandwiches and tamales (meat and corn mash wraped in corn leaves) was pretty good and definately raised the expectations for the rest of the meals...
We stayed in a really local and sweet little village that night, when we got there we decided to climb up another hill to look over at the surrounding, nearly at the top we found a little cave full of sheep with pink wool tags in their ears, we climbed in passed the poo piles to take some photos before climbing to the top of the hill. Dinner that night was a disappointment, hot-yes, salty-yes, edible-not so much. It gets dark at about 6 30 so after a few rounds of cards we were all in bed at about 9, ready for our 5am start, ouch! The next morning we drove for about an hour until we got to old Spanish ruins dating from about 1500, we stopped there to take photos and watch the sunrise. That day was probably the best of the whole trip, we entered into one of the Bolivian national parks and saw all of the lagoons, there were some hot springs to swim in if we wanted, I didn't but Drew and Peter decided to brave the bitter wind and get into the water. After that lunch and then on to Lagoona Verde, one of the most picturesque sights we have ever seen, the water is so green and behind it is a huge volcano, behind that, Chile. Apparently the water gets to around -55 without freezing. After another couple of hours drive we reached some geezers 5000m up in the mountains. They were increadble but by this point the wind was picking up so it was hard to stay outside for long. That night we stayed in some very rickety accomodation with a straw roof so full of holes that we could see the stars. It was freezing! We didn't realise at the time but we were also in the middle of a hurracane, the wind was so strong that night that all of the jeeps car alarms were set off at various intervals in the night, no sleep for us. The next day we didn't get to see alot as the wind was so strong all of the sand and dust was flying everywhere making it impossible to get out of the car. We did at one point to see some flamingoes braving the cold in a red lagoon, we didn't stay outside long, Peter could lean back into the wind and it would hold him up. After a dusty lunch sheltering behind rocks we were off again through the sand storm and on to our accomodation, that night a hotel made out of salt bricks, the floor was completely covered in salt and it was quite a bit warmer than the previous nights accomodation. However, the food seemed to have been made out of the walls, we got salt with a bit of broccoli and some canned meat. The table next to us had lasagne and red wine, we were seriously unimpressed and went very hungry!
The fourth day was another 5am start to see the sunrise over the saltflats. That was amazing and we spent hours taking some awesome perspective photographs. We had breakfast by an island made of coral and covered in cacti. There were little gray kittens running about and one climbed into my hood and slept there while i ate breakfast. After some more photos of the saltflats, and getting chased by an angry bolivian because we climbed on his salt piles, we had an 11 o'clock salty lunch and were dropped into Uyuni. It had been a good 4days without a shower so we deliberately picked and payed extra for a hotel with hot water. Turns out the hurracane had wiped out all electricity here and there was no hot water, stinky us!

Drew's tainted experience

Well.... Tupiza was really cool, cactisus were cool, hugged a fair few. The Salt flat tour itself was incredible but throwing up during a hurricane was a little bit strange, especially as there was no electricity to work my way to the toilet with a mouthful of regurgitated salt...tasty. Also, in my salty state, a managed to destroy the danes at their own card game rendering Peter an arsehole, reigning as King till the next day when they acted together in an act of treason to reduce me to the arsehole. I hope they feel good, picking on the guy with Hepatitus E. On the plus side, I have an awesome yellowy tan and I've heard people pay a lot for yellow contact lenses. But that aside, the tour was incredible and I managed to get out into the cold enough times, 15 seconds and you're shaking, Abi enjoyed the experience from the jeep most times, a wiser choice. 3 days without food and on a salt flat kind of screws with your perspective, everything looks a few meters away but takes half a days drive to reach, im certain I made it 500 miles before nearly blacking out, maybe a couple of metres, who knows. O yea, we found an Alpacca graveyard which was really cool, thousands of alpacca bones piled together. Too many cool things to write about, definately a life experience!!! A cold, salty, alpaccery life experience!!!