Salt Flats..

Headed to Uyuni on the train from Oruro(after busing from La Paz).. a decision that most definately warranted staying in La Paz and waiting for the twice weekly train departure days(the timetable on the wall in Uyuni was very short, with only two trains leaving a week..)The 7 hour train, which was really luxurious, far outshone the , more expensive, 18 hour bus alternative..and felt like what I imagine, from my reading, training across India to be like, as the traintrack was crossing plateaus in the middle of nowhere.. very different from Ireland where a road or house can always be seen from the window..

Stayed in Uyuni one night, and had our tour booked before we even went to sleep(despite arriving at 10.30pm..as travel agents were very hungry for our business!). Although Cass was sick still the next morning there was no backing out of the tour(unless Cass agreed that the tour operator could lie to the rest of the group, say the driver was drunk, and we'd all depart another day.. an option we swiftly declined!) and we began on three days that were a huge highlight of travelling so far, sick or not..


The first day involved seeing the old train museum then driving in the 4x4 to the salt flats where we easily entertained ourselved taking cheesy touristy photos(due to the lack of perspective in this all white landscape with an all blue sky a litany of crazy shots are a must do for every backpacker). After this we visited the Salt Hotel.. much like the hotel we were to stay in that night it had salt beds, sat chairs, and a salt floor which later made walking around without shoes pretty impossible.. We also saw the cactus island on Day1..a random hill of land in the middle of the salt flats on which hundreds and hundreds of cactuss grow.. a weird sight in a landscape that is otherwise somewhat like the antartic..
 

The second day we visited the Lagoons and the rock formations. The lagoons- white, blue, green and red.. each lived up to their name, unbelievably brightly coloured due to the different algae growing on their surface. We were really blown away by the reality of images I thought, when I seen them in the trip agency, must have been doctored to sell the tour. Flamingoes and Llamas were abundant at each lagoon.. seeing them in the wild was incredible..like the excitement you have seeing animals in the zoo as a child..but multiplied hugely!! It was just like being in a National Geographic magazine, or living some of the best scenes of a David Attenborough programme.. the red lake in particular was absolutely amazing.. a red lake, white icebergs amid green grass, backed by teraccota and grey mountains and clear blue sky.. It was definately one of the climactic moments of our trip. 

Stayed the second night in a dorm, and rose early the third day..4am early! It was however worth it to see the incredibly piercingly clear sun rise over the black mountains into a cloudless blue sky before arriving at the geysers, and then at the hot springs where we had breakfast. The geysers were amazing.. it was the third day we had seen a new and incredibly impressive geographical feature which blew us away.. the trip was three days of once in a lifetime experiences! Me and Cass took some impressive 'walking out of the mist' photos.. :) but the cold kept us from staying out too long! After breakfast we drove through the ever changing desert(sometimes orange, sometimes grey)to the Bolivian border.. where we were dropped off and prepared to begin the next leg of our journey..