Serious Adventure Tour!

Wow! What an amazing four days! We have arrived safe and sound to Uyuni, after spending four days in a jeep with six other people. Yaaa! My ass is sore! Glad to be here and the journey was fantastic. Let me break it down for you....

So after spending a lovely day by the pool in Tapiza, we joined up with 10 other people for our tour. This included the 4 Americans in our jeep, and in the other jeep...3 South Africans, 2 Londoners, and 1 Italian....and a partrige in a pear tree!!! There was also 1 driver and 1 cook for each jeep. We left bright and early on Sunday morning(which was actually our latest start...9am...for the next 3 days). The jeeps were fairly old, 3 in the back, 3 in the middle and the driver and cook up front, but we had enough room to be fairly comfortable. Four days was just the right amount of time. The first day was quite adventurous. For most of the day(and the rest of the trip actually) we followed a dirt track, not a road, over mountains, through valleys, and over rivers. It is the rainy season here now, so sometimes it was a little dodgy, and we passed a few vehicles along the way that were stuck in the mud. One had to build a bridge over the ditch with dirt and branches so the trucks could cross. Luckly we had a fantastic driver with loads of experience and we had no trouble at all. The view was amazing and the landscape was constantly changing(pics to come...no cd rom in this entire town!). Our first night was spent at 4200 meters! The highest I have ever slept for sure! You can sure feel the atitude at this height and breathing was a little hard. But I felt great up to this point.

The next day(starting at 5:45am) we continued our journey and got to see the ruins of a small city in the mountains. I think (as the driver spoke only spanish) that people lived there until about 200 years ago, mining siver from the surrounding mountains. That day we reached a height of about 4900 meters. At this point I got a headache and didn´t feel so hot. But it didn´t take me long to get over it, and by lunch I was back to normal. We got to see Laguna Verde, a very cool green laguna, and take a dip in some thermal hot springs. Very good to soak in after being in the jeep for 2 days. After the springs we drove higher into the mountains and all of a sudden we were in the middle of a snow fall! So crazy. We got to the gysers and got to see it amidst a layer of snow. This quicky led to snowball fights, Tracy making snowangels and me making snowmen. Very fun. We all felt like little kids again. As quickly as the snow came, as we drove, it was gone again, and we reached our 2nd nights stop. We stayed near the Laguna Colorada, at a height of 4300 meters.

In the morning(wake up call around 6am) we visited the Laguna which was a cool rose colour and had tons of pink flamingos in it. The views were stunning. A rose coloured lake, surrounded by mountains, with pink flamingos and llamas! What a beautiful sight. Next we drove on and the landscape changed to huge open areas of sand and funky rock formations. We got to climb all over them and take tons of photos. Continuing on our drive we saw something called the Sun Dog. I have never seen anything like this. It was like the northern lights, but in the day! It was so beautiful. With the endless sands, blue skies, white fluffy clouds, and gorgeous colours of red, yellow, green and blue in the sky. Absolutely amazing. A couple more lagunas, a hail storm, another area of funky rocks and lots of photo ops finished off the day. Because of all the rain, we had to have a change of plans and tour around the salt flats to a place called San Cristobal, where we spent the night. Because it was our last night on the tour, we had a little wine and even made an apperance at the local bar(made out of a huge old steel drum).

Our last day we got to sleep in a little, getting up around 7am! We left San Cristobal and drove to Uyuni and on to the salt flats. Because of all the rain, the entire salt flats(around 12,000 sq kms) was covered in about a foot of water. We drove right out onto the flats to a hotel that is made all of salt. Tons of photo ops here. With less water it creates a wicked mirror effect with the sky and clouds, but there had been lots of rain, so it didn`t quite have the same effect. But it was still amazing and me and Trace had fun taking photos. After lunch we headed back to Uyuni to end our tour. It was a fantastic trip and worth every penny. Imagine 4 days, 3 nights, accomodation, all meals, water and transport for only $105 US. Fantastic.

So tomorrow we head to our next destination, a city called Potusi, where they still mine in horrendous conditions. We can actually take a tour of the mines. Should be very facinating. Will also try to get some pics up. I have hundreds! No cd roms here. I have so many amazing photos. I don´t know how I will choose which to put up!

Take care all. Ciao ciao.