Uyuni Salt Flats

A typical salt house and the typical charge for the loo.

The only 2 sober people in the village.

Look out for llamas!

There are numerous 'Salt Hotels' out here for two reasons - one, it's popular with the tourists, and 2, it's the most abundant building material they have. The salt bricks re carved straight out of the salt flat itself, and then the 'mortar; is of salt and water mixed together and left to set. Easy! Our whole hotel was made out of salt, and although it was cool to look at, not really comfortable to sit no salt benches or sleep on salt beds. I woke up during the night short of breath - I sat up, sucked in a few big breaths, then went straight back to sleep. Catch up oxygen. Before dinner on the 2nd night, we interrupted a Carnival party in the small village we were staying in. We first heard whistles and people just generally making a lot of noise, and so came out to investigate. Every person who lived here was out to party, and they were all drunk too - grandmas and young men alike! We were invited to join in, and did the best we could, playing local instruments like the drum and some kind of flute, as well as drinking everything that was forced upon us (which happened to be served in buckets, tea pots as well as convention cans), and trying to speak to everyone over the noise and alcohol in Spanish. The party was for Pachamama, or Mother Nature, praying that she would bring the rains for their crop of Quinoa. Fast becoming very popular in Western countries such as The US, this local plant is becoming too expensive for the locals to buy or keep, forcing them to sell it all off to expensive health food stores for hipsters to pay top dollar, causing the locals to not be able to eat any at all. Good news on the rain front though - Mama delivered, and it came pouring in! The only problem with this was tomorrow we were due out on the salt plain, and too much rain means no 4x4 will go out there. Fingers crossed.

Hello Llama!

Attack of the 50ft woman!

The rain from 'Pachamama.'

Good news! There was rain, a big storm actually, but the tour shall go on! Juan has put some plastic out under the car to protect it somewhat, and we headed out into the big, flat plain that now looked like an ocean - and ocean the same pale colour as the sky, a complete reflection. I was worried for out driver - he said he wasn't out partying with the locals at Carnival, but I didn't believe him. He turned up 30 minutes late to pick us up, smelt like booze and was napping at the wheel while driving out on the flat. Lucky it's so damn huge and we couldn't hit anything, but the last thing you want is your driver hang over (or still drunk) and driving you out in the middle of nowhere. Juan got it together by chewing on loads of coca leaves. We were here to do the photos that everyone does - the jumping ones and the perspectives ones too, but they aren't as easy as you would think! Firstly there is water everywhere, salty water, so laying on the ground to get that right angle is a no no. We finally managed to get some in, and by this time our driver has perked up and so he took some of all 6 of us. Apart from the funny photos, there isn't much to do here - it's stark but beautiful, but there's only so long you can stand in a puddle of salty water and say "it's wonderful isn't it." We drove on out of there, headed to a short stop at the Dakar monument. The famous desert race will be passing through here in June, and it was ready for them - flags and statues (made out of salt of course) and a hotel ready to go too. It was like an island in the middle of a calmest sea you've ever seen.

The Shot that everyone wants.

Dakar monument.

The train cemetery.

Our last stop before arriving in the actual town of Uyuni was the train cemetery. These train date back to the early 20th Century and are all steel locomotives. Uyuni at the time was an important transport hub, connection Bolivia with Peru and Argentina. It's incredible how they were just left here, abandoned as it became too difficult to built more infrastructure on these salt plains - they has since rusted up badly. Nowadays people climb them and take selfies, and what was usable in the engines has long been taken and replaced by graffiti. Even with the people there, it was quiet and quick spooky - a real grave yard. The town of Uyuni, a 2 minute drive from here, was another story. Not the prettiest town in the world, but my first view of a Bolivia city. Everyone was either drunk or trying pretty hard to get there - Februaury is Carnival time, and it pretty much goes the whole month. Deliveries of beer were turning up to shops, people staggering down the street, booze in hand, and of course a few lads werent able to hold all that liquid in either. I wanted to get out, and get out now - there was nothing in this town for me. I was covered in salt, tired, and just wanted a hot shower and a bed - something that hadn't fit the description lately in Bolivia so far. I bought the first bus out of town, leaving in an hour, to the city Potosi. I'd never heard of it before, but I was going there. The bus was also ready for Carnival, but I was hoping the driver had behaved himself, also as he was driving his whole family in the front. We left, and the bus was full - I was next to a Bolivian woman, dressed in her colourful wrap and her little bowler hat - a real authentic bus trip. Postosi it was - let's see what you have!

Leaving Uyuni.

Potosi cathedral.

Brick houses of Potosi.

The city of Potosi is one of the highest cities in the World, sitting at just over 4000m, and also used to be one of the wealthiest cities in South America for one reason - silver. The World's largest silver mine is here, and it has been continuously mined since the 16th Century with the arrival of the Spanish. For centuries is was also the location of the Spanush mint. Back in the day the silver was transported by llama to the Pacific coast, then shipped to Panama and then onto Spain. Nowadays, the city isn't as affluent as it used to be - the new part of the city has sprawled over the hills, the houses made out of red brick and mostly unfinished, reminded me of Kathmandu. The reason for the unfinished houses, with their steel reinforcement sticking up in the air and the unpainted bricks, is that you have to pay a tax when you finish your house - and who wants to pay taxes right? I could count on my fingers the painted houses in town. The old part of town, up on the hill, is still quite pretty and worth a wander around. It has the beauty of past Colonial days, yet the hustle and bustle of modern Bolivia. I walked around the city, and down into the new part, which was much busier and crazier than the old centre, and really got a feel of the city. Up until now, as much as I loved Chile and Argentina, I hadn't felt that I was seeing he real South America. Bolivia, which the women wearing traditional colourful clothes and bowler hats, felt like the real deal - busy, colourful and more of what I thought I would see when I landed on the continent last year. My next stop in this beautiful country is Sucre - the "White City."

A woman and her dog sitting on the steps of the cathedral, Potosi.