Leaving La Paz to a small town called Oruro (which was a bit of a dive), we spent one night there and were happy to leave. Having only been on one train previously, it was a bit of novelty to not be on a bus.
The only thing of note in Oruro was a South American classic.....a statue on a hill.
Apparently they do hold a way kick ass festival there, but not when we were there, so Oruro remains (at least in my eyes) a bit poo.
So off we set on our train, and a patriotic one at that.
So patriotic that they played these awful music videos of Bolivian superstars of the 70s. Was pretty painful to sit there through that for a few hours.
But at least we got to peer out the window and see loads of flamingoes. Jen tried for ages to get a good shot, then I took the camera and took one shot, the one that we used here.
Arriving in Uyuni we were greeted by some bizarre statue thingy, some kind of human but not sure what's really going on here.
After looking at a few tour companies we picked one and stayed a night in a hostel, and met an Irish girl called Sarah. We spoke to her for a bit but wouldn't become friends until later on, when we met her again later.
Anyway, onto our tour the next morning, which had a German couple from Munich and also an Italian couple but were that close to the German border that their first language was German, which would become annoying as they decided to just speak to each other in German the whole 3 day trip, even though they could all fluently speak English. So me and Jen just chatted to each other!
Off we set in our 4x4 first stopping at a train graveyard, where all the old trains went to retire and see out their days, only for locals to graffiti them, and tourists to climb all over them. We obviously joined the bandwagon.
Sexy, no?
Jen in the driver bit
You get the idea by now....
Enthusiasm died out a bit for the trains so off we set to the salt flats, first coming across salt minors where the salt first began. They would come and pile up salt, so that the water could drain through it and out to the floor which creates the shiny surface below.
Time for some more posing
Back onto the jeep and to our next stop, a building made entirely of salt blocks, apart from the roof of course.
People had left their countries flags on poles here, sadly I didn't have an England flag, or even a Leicester shirt anymore to drape up there.
Inside the salt building was a little museum, with sculptures which I probably wasn't supposed to do this to.
Definately not this!
Oh well, made for a good photo and off we set again to be surprised to see these crazies biking the whole thing! No idea how long it is but it was a 3 day jeep ride. Good luck fellas.
After relaxing in the comfort of our 4x4 we rocked up to a bit of rock, called fish island because supposedly it looks like the body of a fish (which it doesn't in anyway, it's just their crazy imaginations again). But it was a cool island to see, not only as it was in the middle of the salt flats and had no salt on it itself, but also because it could sustain cacti on it. It was such a bizarre contrast in the landscape.
Exploring the island we found a cool little cave and the seat of stone, modelled by Jen here. The story goes that this whole area was once under water and the salt is what is remaining of the sea which once covered it. And the cave and this seat where formed under water.
Done with the island and back onto the salt flats and time to have some fun with some perspective shots.....
A bit of sky diving with Woody and Buzz (use your imagination people)
And an attempt of eating Jen almost lined up.
Time for another stop and this time a well weird cave thing with some bizarre rock formations.
Looked almost like an alien cave, or the home of mutant spiders.
The view from the cave as the sun set.
However, we did have a tipple of whiskey with the German guys after the Italians turned in for an early night, and then I cracked out the Singani, the Bolivian national drink.
No comments:
Post a Comment