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Click on the map to unveil our journey
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Mate, got a favourite place on earth ?...
Pay this a visit and it might be it ...
After a jeep-ride from Tupiza we got to Uyuni.
A city in the desert with no greenery as it seems.
This is one of the starting places of the famous Salar de Uyuni tour.
The biggest salt flat in the world and the only shining natural point that is perceived from the space.
You can do a daytour or you can decide to do a 3 day tour, visiting the fascinating altiplano lagoons and gasses and steam wells as well ...
Of course we've done that and we set off the 3 of us, with our guide Eloy, a Dutch girl, a French girl and German girl and a Swiss miss ...
Day 1 : Uyuni to San Pedro de Quemes, passing the Salar
First stop were a little fabrique and some hotels, totally constructed of salt, even chairs and tables etc ...
Really cool.
Amazing as well, the depth of the salt layers can reach untill 100 meters !
Driving over it, was like driving over a road.
Very flat and we reached high speed ...
After that we went to Isla del Pescado.
It's an islands with enormus cactusses.
Standing on top of the islands, looking around you, it was unbelievable.
The Salt Lake looked like a normal lake.
It was a pain for the eyes and for the body.
I took my shirt off for about 15/ 30 minutes and was burned for days !...
It was also the place where we took our last photo, but that's another story ...
We passed the 'Cave of the Devil',
a site full of buriel places and skelletons of the Chulpass, a pre-Inca society.
The night we spent in the very cold and deserted place of San Pedro de Quemes.
The temperature between night and day can range between 40 degrees Celsius over there ...
Day 2 : San Pedro de Quemes to Laguna Colorada
After waking up at 7, and a nice prepared breakfast from Eloy, we set off for day two.
On the menu today were the fantastic lagoons, full of different colours due to its various minerals and inhabited by pink flamingos and Desert Siloli.
First of all Eloy had to fix a serious problem with the car.
We were also the last jeep, all the others were driving in front of us.
That might have been a serious problem had not Eloy taken half the motor out and fixed the problem.
Amazing ...
Amazing as well were all the lagoons with its colours.
We passed quite a few of them that day, one was red and white, another was totally red, another was green ...
It was beatifull, also with its flamingos and deserted mountaintops behind ...
Late afternoon we stopped at the Siloli Desert, with its famous rock used by Salvador Dali and the beautifull Arrol de Piedra.
Final stop that day, was Laguna Colorada, the Majesty of all the lagoons ...
Every single colour you can think of, you find in there and it is huge as well .
We actually spent Christmas eve over there and it was a great night !
We mixed a bit with other groups, among them Pablo and Jody from the Bingobus and our friend Antony.
I took the guitar out and we were all having a sing-along.
It was so cool, that Antony actually sort of came back from bed ...
Something else, the stars were so beatifull, everywhere you looked around you, from horizon to horizon, you could see stars.
It was like Australia.
But Raaf never went there and he enjoyed these ones instead by nearly freezing to death outside ...
Day 3 : Laguna Colorada to Culpina
This day we first visited some geysers at an altitude of +5000m.
How high, I have never been so high and I must say that I also felt quite high at that moment.
The geyser was great !
I 've been to a place like that before in New Zealand, but this one was really beautifull ...
The mudpools as well.
They were booling.
At one point, Janneke (the Dutch girl) was dreaming or sleeping a bit and got covered by some on her arm.
I tried to help her taking it off but it was quite hot ...
After that it was time for the hotsprings.
Cited between a vulcano and a lake, there are some rocks with natural pools.
We undressed and bathed in them.
It felt so unbelievably great.
Somehow I felt the happiest person on the planet and I think I have never felt as happy before ...
What was it great to be there and having the chance to do it ...
I'm still very gratefull for it ...
Now it was time for Laguna Verde, the famous lake near the border of Boliva, Argentina and Chili ...
It was a place where people set off to Chili and others were heading back to Uyuni.
Janneke and Francisca (Swiss girl) left for example, we headed back.
We sat there a bit and it was really beautifull and calm ...
What a country ...
After quite a bit of driving we finally ended up in the little village of Culpina.
I remember playing some football with local kids, but after 5 minutes I was dead beacuse of the altitude ...
Day 4 : Culpina to Uyuni
Another early morning took us along San Christobal, a new town.
This is built because of the minerals which are found there.
They even built an airport ...
It was amazing again to see some people in the middle of nowhere !
After not seeing any man-constructed things, we've suddenly seen this local riding his bike !
We also picked up a hitch hiker.
It's amazing imagining living there.
Kids sometimes walk up to four hours to school !
And then they have to go back again !
After Lugana Verde there's not really lots of interesting things to see anymore,
you're basically driving back to Uyuni.
But before getting there you pass the Train Cementary.
Old and rusted trains qeued up in sometimes rows of 2 or 3 and that for nearly as long as a mile ...
Very special actually ...
This is also were we gave Eloy auite a bit of money.
He was really happy and he deserves it.
He was our guide, driver, cook, anything, you name it ...
He worked his balls off and hardly sees his family appearantly.
The don't get paid well neither, so fuck it, as well as having given him a helping hand at times, he deserves some good money !
Back in Uyuni we enjoyed this most amazing trip.
One of the highlights, even in life ...
Finally we ended up having quite a few beers, because our trein to Oruro was only at 1h30 am ...
What a tour this has been ...
Half of the pictures on this page are courtesy of our friend Janneke
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