Pass the Salt Please

Resting on a short plastic stool, our feet in an inch of salt water, potato crisps in the left hand and a small glass of red wine in the right. Mouth open in awe of the horizon, wide eyed we observe the sun set across a salt flat mirror.
Hues of orange and red reach through the clouds when thrilling bolts of lightning crack down to the Earth. Flash after flash of lightning steal our gaze from the edge of the horizon.
This must be another world, we all think.

Two days earlier, our heads resting on the edge of a hot spring, our bodies cozy beneath the warm water. Steam rising from the surface meeting the cold air of a dark clear night. The moon felt as bright as the sun as it beemed down across a blue lagoon and across our hot spring. Looking around the sky we counted shooting stars and satellites passing overhead.
Neither of us wanted to leave the hot spring and make a cold walk back to our rooms. Not when the constellations came out to play.

Three days earlier, we caught a bus out of La Paz to Oruro. A mid way stopping point for us on our journey down to Uyuni. We could have taken an overnight bus the entire length but with time to spare and a disinterest in over night buses or particularly long jouneys, we opted instead for a four hour trip to Oruro.

Knowing little of the town and spending only one night there, we enjoyed a stroll through the markets and a central mirador. Ian acquired a cheap belt, for his pants were now too loose to stay up on their own.

The main street had been closed off and some loud music coming a few blocks away. After dinner we investigated and discovered a rally race would be taking place down the main street that evening. We spotted some rally cars and sure enough after some strange opening ceremony, police began ushering spectators from the 'race track'.
We stood on the footpath, fireworks went off and one by one a car would race down the street, over a dirt jump, through a chicane, complete a U-turn and head back up to its finish line.

No safety barriers between the racing or the spectators, a lot of yelling took place when stray dogs ran along the track excited by the cars. Most of the cheers were saved for the cars that took the jumps with great speed, thus flying through the air and causing significant front bumper damage on landing.

An exciting evening that we weren't expecting.

The following day we rode a bus a further four hours South to Uyuni. The primary hub for the famous 'salt flat' tours.
We weren't certain which tour we wanted or how long. We had reviewed online a range of options and costs. One day, two nights, four nights etc.
Being seasoned travellers, we went for the South American style of just rock up, walk around, have a chat with a variety of different tour groups and see what happens.

There were some two night options going for $750 Bolivianos ($150AUD). But they didn't look all that flash. A well regarded tour group quoted us $1400, but that was a little expensive for us.
Fortunately, they'd had a cancellation and the following day had two spare spots, they could drop to $1200. Still too high for us, we said we would go have a beer to talk it over and come back.

Upon returning, the price was now $1000, we said Yes. They asked us to please not tell any of the other tourists what price we paid. The following day when we were in the car together our British friends asked us how much we paid, we replied, $1400. 'Darn they said, they had paid $1500.' We stayed, 'Mum'.

The morning of the tour, we met our english speaking guide, Carlo, our driver Omar and two other tourists we would be in the car with, Joe and Stacey from England.

Our tour was a three day, two night journey consisting of the lagoons, hot springs, flamingo's and desert down South. Then a day North on the great salt flat.
We had joined Joe and Stacey half way through, they had already completed the salt flat and now needed the South journey.

We departed Uyuni around 9am, joining a small convoy of other tour vehicles South. At a small rest stop an hour in, Carlo asks us if we would like to avoid the other tours and go another route. We take his advice, and soon discover that you can do the Southern route in reverse. Which is what we did. This left the other 20 vehicles to head down the main road, we cut off onto a dirt track and made our way through the desert.

We paused at unique rock formations, hardened sediment weathered by the inland sea millions of years ago. Then cleaned by the wind for thousands more. Interesting moss bubbles grew in the corners of the rock outcrop.
We learnt the Vicunas would get moisture from these and historically, locals would crack open, let dry and use for fuel on a fire.

We breaked for lunch and ate some quinua, vegetables and dried meat.

Back on the rough road we bounced and bumped our way along an altitude above 4800 metres. Unfortunately, the combination of altitude, bumpy driving and interesting dried meat gave Jamie a queesy feeling. A quick call for stop and gladly for us she returned the lunch outside the vehicle.

Being an absolute trooper, she apologised and we all said, 'nonsense'.
It was a long drive that day, a further three hours and we reached our resting point for the evening. We experienced a variety of coloured lagoons along the way, all with different algae and minerals.

The accommodation that evening sat over a large blue lagoon and down by the water had a hot spring pool we could rest in. That evening, resting our bodies, we enjoyed 40c water while watching the stars come out to play, discussing the constellation's and making a wish for each shooting star.

Our second day we were up and about early, making our way along the reverse group of the other tours. Our first stop were a field of geyser's. This brought back memories of Yellowstone, without the scale or restricted pathways. Watching our step carefully, we followed our guide around bubbling pools and gushing steam. Even entertaining ourselves with a quick leap over a smaller geyser. Only in Bolivia.

The next point of call, Laguna Colorado, and the pink flamingo's. Thousands of flamingo's walked slowly across the lagoon, running their bright pink beaks through the water sifting for algae.
We borrowed binoculars at first to watch from afar, then crept forward to the edge of the lagoon and sat admiring them in the peaceful surrounds.
A special treat to observe a rare bird such as this, thrive in a harsh habitat.

Reaching lunch time, we made our way along sandy roads to the highest desert in the world, Atacama. Sitting at 5000m the altitude certainly made us feel a little off. This time we avoided the meat and ate vegetables and fruit instead.

We encountered the caravan of other tour groups heading in the traditional route. We passed them and found ourselves back in vast open areas with no one around. At times we all agreed we could have been on the surface of Mars. Rich red dust, barren landscape and alien rock formations to climb between.

We had more stops on the path this day, green and yellow lagoon's to stop at and admire. Many hours in the car, gliding over sand and dirt, appreciating the vast landscape and loving Omar's selection of music.
"There must be some kind of way out of here..."

Finally we reached asphalt again, nearing the end of our second day. One more stop to learn about the quinua crops and see llama's frolicking in water.

Eventually making it back to Uyuni by 6pm.
Here we left Joe and Stacey and wished them well on their travel's.

We were taken to a nearby salt hotel for the night, that appeared half under construction. Though we'd gotten used to this in Peru and Bolivia. Our room was lovely, interesting to have loose salt for floor and blocks in the wall and ceiling. A little inconvenient when the bed sheet and blanket would touch the ground, then brought back up to the bed with a covering of salt.
Unique and now a nice memory.

Our third day of the tour brought us back to the company office in Uyuni. Here we discovered what it was like to be firmly in the midst of a large convoy of tourists.

We were slotted into the 'one day' adventurers. Which meant just out to the salt flat and back in the evening.
Some of the tourists were commenting that the one day tour they had chosen would be enough and there wasn't much to see down South. We stayed 'Mum' once again and went along with the flow.

Our first point of call was the nearby 'train graveyard'. As we had slowly learned along our adventure through these parts, Uyuni was a significant thoroughfare for the mines in the Andes. The Spanish fuelled the expansion of mining from the 1500s to the 1800s taking a lot of silver from these areas.
Over time, trains became worn and replaced, the people just discarded them at the edge of town to slowly rust. Now a vast graveyard of iron had formed, interesting to walk around, but a stark reminder of how waste is dealt with in these parts. Something we had seen along the roads all across Peru and Bolivia. Piles of rubbish on streets, corners, bends, ditches, between bushes and trees, along streams and river banks.
Without a supported recycling and waste program, people do what they know and just pile it up elsewhere.

After the train graveyard we made our way out into the great salt flat. This time we were with three American tourists.
The drive across the salt flats was a slow 10km/hr speed as holes needed to be avoided that broke the top salt layer and sunk down through sediment of previous seasons.

We enjoyed watching all the vehicles slowly spread across the lake, gradually finding their own way and heading to a secluded spot that would allow a brief moment of solitary.

We reached a spot our driver was happy with, we climbed out of our vehicles and splashed down into the salty water. Beneath our sandals we crunched on hardened salt, an inch of warm water ran across our toes and a thin layer of fine salt floated on the surface.

The sun beat down and we covered ourselves in suncreen, though Ian missed places on his legs.
We laughed as we walked through the water and gazed out across a mirror reflection of the sky. All the way to the horizon was a light blue view marked by white clouds.

A lot of fun was had taking photos, playing with perspective and the mirror effect.

We drove to different spots a few times, getting a slightly different view of mountains in the background. We looked around the first salt hotel that is the only one sitting on the actual lake.

As the afternoon grew, we drove again and found a place to create some group shots. The wind had died down so the mirror effect became even more pronounced. Our tour guide taught us some dance positions and while driving around us with a timelapse camera we acted out his routine.

Then, as the sun began its descent, we set up a mini camp of plastic stools, a plate of potato crisps and some red wine.
There we sat, all together, astounded by the day, giddy at the surrealism. Little did we know the best was yet to come.

As the sun hit the horizon, heavy clouds in the distance began to spark. First a flash, some saw it and yelled out, we all began to focus.
Bolt after bolt began to reach out of the clouds and strike the ground. At first we couldn't hear thunder, so we felt safe. Though questions were asked about our feet resting in water. How far could an electric current travel?

We sat glued to our plastic stools, finishing the red wine, all trying to capture a bolt of lightning on our camera's. Then we heard the thunder, a long pause at first, but getting closer.

An exciting thrill to watch lightning crack over a mirror effect salt flat, thunder boom and echo as the sun disappeared leaving deep red and purple light sifting through particles.

Then the lightning struck to our left, then our right. The thunder came closer, we knew it was moving towards us. Our guides advised, now was the time to leave. No questions were asked, we packed up camp and climbed aboard as the rain began to fall around us.

Almost an hour slow drive back across the lake to reach the shore, our foreheads were on the windows watching the storm break down above us. It was like a convoy of boats desperate to reach safety as a storm raged around. Biblical scenes from Noah's ark made us all give a small wish for a safe passage.

The vehicles slowly lined up and joined the main path off the salt flats. We made it to asphalt and our journey back to Uyuni appeared secure.

Back in town we bid our farewell and gave our tips.
Now 8pm, we found the nearest broaster and ordered roasted chicken and chips each. Hungrier than we had realised, it was gone in moments.
A walk to our accommodation and a thorough shower to wash all the salt away.
We collapsed into bed still shaking our heads at the extraodrinary experience we had just had.

Now we can say, "I've seen things... lightning crack over salt flats at 4000metres."
All those moments.
In time.