Bolivian Aliplano, Uyuni Salt Flats, Atacama

Day 27 Thursday 1st January 2009 Uyuni Salt Flats and Incahuasi Island

We woke at the respectable time of 8 am ... being a tour group of 4 on our own meant that our new guide was quite happy to be flexible with timing. At our breakfast meeting he explained that our planned activity for the day was a visit to the salt flats, but that heavy rain had meant some areas ere not accessible. He offered his suggestion for an amended schedule, which we accepted without trying to seem disappointed ...

So we set off in a Toyota 4 wheel drive for a 20 km drive across "rumble" roads to the edge of the Uyini salt flats ... on these roads, the local drivers appear to work on the theory that faster makes for a smoother ride ... not sure about that one ! We arrived at the edge of the salt flat to a spectacular expanse of shimmering white salt sands and a huge lake of water ... all jumped out to admire the view and take some pictures on the assumption that we would be driving further around the lake.

We got back in the car - not so !! The driver headed straight into the water and took off across the lake ... It seems we misunderstood ... while the northern section of the lake was impassable, the main section we were heading across was fine. It turned out that the water in sections was 5 - 10 cm deep, but in other sections the lake was still fairly dry ... so we could hop along at 100 km/h in the dry sections, but had to slow up in the wet sections. Our guide explained that it´s just about water depth - once the water reaches 15 - 20 cm in the wet season, the tour companies don´t drive on the lake as the water gets to far up into their vehicles and destroys the engines ... but the depth we had was fine ... although by the end of the day the car looked like it was cover in snow.

And the travel gods very much smiled on us again - the couple of days of rain meant that much of the scenery was spectacular for mirror images of the horizon, making for many photo stops ! And for our day on the lake the sky was bright blue with lots of fluffy clouds around - we will let the pics we post speak for themselves. The salt lake is massive ... thousands of square kilometers ... we were heading for a small outcrop of rock called Incahuasi Island, 70 km from where we entered the lake, and we were taking the direct line !! After around 2 hours of driving, a small speck eventually turned into an island of rock perched in the middle of the lake ... very small, no more than 400 meters or so long and 200 across.

But what makes this island unique is that being in the middle of a salt lake and pretty much just rock, only one thing manages to survive on the island - one species of cactus ... and because they have the island all to themselves, aside from the odd tiny shrub, they grow big ... very big ... and are known as giant cactus. There is a short walk to the top of the island´s hill for spectacular panoramic views of the island, the lake and the mountains and clouds on the horizon ... just magic.

Again, we´ll let the pictures speak for themselves, but our journey keeps turning up new and amazingly spectacular natural beauty that we have never seem before. By the end of this day, we all agreed that this had been the most unexpected day so far in terms of not knowing what quite to expect but being blown away by the colours and scenery that flashed part all day. We also must just put in a note of special commendation for our drive and guide, who seemed to spend about 2 hours on our return washing down every nook and cranny of their poor car in an attempt to prevent their vehicle from turning into a complete rust bucket in the near future !

Day 28 Friday 2nd January 2009 Tahua to Alota to Villamar

Given the long entry yesterday for the salt plains, we´ll try and cut it down a little for today ... but these few days on the Bolivian high plains have been spectacular and packed with many different sights and landscapes. Today we set off again heading south, visiting a number of sites across the top of the high plains ... as we climbed toward 5,000 meters above sea level, the landscape pretty much turned to rocks, as at this altitude just nothing grows. But the effects of the wind and rain over thousands and in some cases millions of years results in amazing formations of the land.

We visited the Valley of the Rocks, an extensive outcrop of hard rocks worn down by the wind into interesting shapes ...we are sure we saw Elvis ... and we also spotted a local native rabbit - very similar in the body to our imported European rabbit, bit with a big long tail ! We also stopped at an massive natural canyon and perched cautiously on the edge in the high wind for a look - no safety barriers in this part of Bolivia !

Day 29 Saturday 3rd January 2009 Villamar REA (Reserve Eduardo Abaroa) and San Pedro de Atacama

After a night in a local hotel built on the side of a big rock in a tiny town of only a few hundred people ... continued to crunch over the bumpy roads toward the Bolivian border. Today we hit the various lakes and lagoons at the very top of the high plains and were rewarded with views of the colourful Andean pink flamingoes that propser up here. They were hard to get close to for photos, so a little cropping will be required when we get home.

One lagoon in particular is called the ¨green lake and is an amazing site - the green is from the high concentration of magnesium in the water and it is brilliant green-blue to the eye .. hard to capture on camera. We passed through a local geothermal area that includes a number of small geysers, or really more like bubbling mud pools ... and a bit further along a hot spring which we could dip our feet into - no one ventured right in, too many tourists around ! And finally, we rumbled up to the border to cross back into Chile ... the conclusion of a stunning few days on the Bolivian high plains ... full of spectacular views of mother nature´s creations over millions of years and a must see part of any trip to South America.

January 2009 San Pedro de Atacama

After crossing back into Chile, we descended over 1,500 meters back down the side of mountains to the desert floor of the Atacama desert and the town of San Pedro. Another very early morning start at 5 am was required for the two hour trip out of town to visit the famous El Tatio geyser field ... and did someone say desert ? It was at least 5 degrees below zero until the sun came up and we shivered violently for an hour or so !! And the geysers were fantastic in the dawn light - clouds of water and steam shooting from the ground in various places all over the geyser field ...

After a rest for the middle of the day, we ventured out again late afternoon to visit "moon valley", another well known area just outside of San Pedro with more massive areas of natural rock formations from the actions of wind and rain. We walked down "death valley", visited the central lunar flat and saw the "Three Marias" rock outcrop, dated at millions of years old. To top things off, we sat at the top of a ridge to watch the sun sink slowly over the horizon ... not quite as spectacular as hoped, but very pretty. And so concludes a memoerable visit to the high plains of Bolivia and northern Chile ... this blog hardly does it justice and we have only scraped the surface of what we saw in the photo album ... for anyone interested, there will be another few thousand pics of this part of our trip when we get home !

Tomorrow it´s back on a plane and returning to civilisation at Buenos Aires, Argentina for a couple of days ... then we head up to the Uguazu Falls ...

More soon !