Anyone for some salt?

Uyuni,  the town itself is not that impressive. It sits on the edge of the salt plains, is dry and dusty with a few good restaurants and no WiFi connection. I have been spoilt so far on this trip when it comes to WiFi.

Best thing here is a restaurant called Minuteman Pizza. Hands-down best tomato soup other than my Mom’s.

We did a 2-day tour of the Salar de Uyuni from here. Easily organised on the day of our arrival as this place is overflowing with tour operators. 

Like rockstars, we were picked up from our hotel in a 4×4 Lexus. First stop, the train graveyard. A place where old trains go to rest and tourists come to pick up tetanus from the rusting parts. Fun photo opportunities though.

What we all came this far down into Bolivia for – the salt plains. It did not fail to impress.  The terrain is otherworldly, like a surreal dream.

The salt flats are blindingly white and shouldn’t be attempted without sunglasses and oodles of sunblock. The honeycomb shapes can be seen for miles and the vastness can play with your mind.

Anyone need salt? Simply apply tongue to ground and lick.

Added to the mix were an island of large cacti, blue altiplano lakes and pink flamingos.

The blue lakes strike you as you step out of the vehicle and the sulphur smell permeates your nose. This is an artist’s pallett,  with stark contrasting colours. Crystal blue sky, red-grey mountains topped with white snow, darker blue water dotted with pink flamingos and to end it, green shrubs on the edge.

This is how we stepped into the new year. A bunch of mates, around a salt table, seated on salt chairs listening to music through a shox speaker, playing cards. A bit of banana-tasting champagne to toast each other and then to bed on our salt beds, surrounded by salt walls. Fortunately we had mattresses on top of the salt otherwise it would have been a bit of a hard start to the new year.

I did notice the lack of salt at all meals, perhaps they wanted us to collect our own?!