Man it was a crazy ride and I am sure I am not going to capture the insanity but I will try, so here we go. . . . .
Day 1)
After we decided at 4pm the day before to go on this tour Anna and I wake up apprehensive for the day. What will the tour be like? We really didn´t do any research. Who will we be spending the next 4 days with? We have no idea. Where are we going really? Haven´t got a clue. But we get up early because we have to make it to the bank to get out the money for the tour before we leave. Searching the town the only place we can find to get out money it this one bank (there are no ATMs in the entire town) and there is a line up of gringos hoping to get money for their own tours that morning. A very slow process which almost makes us late. And you can only get money out on your credit card and they charge a 5% fee damn it. A very weird system but we jumped that hurdle, we said goodbye to our friend Patcho and we wait for the tour company to show up, who eventually arrive in the form of a young Bolivian woman with a baby on her back. She leads us up the road toward a super shitty station wagon. Anna and I turn to look at each other, our worst fears in our eyes. But we walk on past the station wagon, thank the lord, and on the the tourist office where we meet our three fellow travellers. They included an American named Kaye (who we had met earlier in the bank line up) and two Aussies named Hugh and Madeline. We sit and chat for a while, waiting for the tour to begin. Now I have to say right now we lucked out in the extreme. Those three turned out the be the best fucking traveling companions Anna and I could have dreamed up. We got on like 5 peas in a pod, although we expected that from the beginning because the Aussies were packing a guitar. Finally our 4/4 shows up with our intrepid driver Alehandro ( have no idea about the spelling so I am just kinda sounding it out). We pile our bags on top in a tarp, grab some coca leaves and (smart on anna´s part) some toilet paper ( a travellers best friend in these parts) and we were off. We drove out of town past streets of mud huts and then just turned up a dryish river bed which I suppose is a road in these parts. Then we start climbing and climbing, up and up and up. Now anyone who knows my fear of driving (Ian I am thinking of you) will maybe be able to fathom my inability to look anywhere but straight ahead as we wound around the craziest cliff roads ever. I just had to be prepared for death I told myself. With each pass I felt he was taking the road too far on the out side but I he does this all the time so I guess who am I to question. It was breathtakingly beautiful. Red and brown and yellow jagged cliffs and hills spread out below us, cut up only by valleys made of what looked to be old lava runs and cacti everywhere. We finally reached the top of the pass and I began to breath again, despite the fact that breathing was getting harder and we set out descending the other side, down into a magnificent landscape of mountains and valleys. We eventually reached a small stretch of mud brick houses that contained a four shelf store that we stopped at and started chatting with the other tours that were starting off too. Lots of nice people. We decided not to stop there for lunch which was a good idea because an hour later we reached this huge green field amongst hills of brown that was just chock a block with llamas and donkeys of all shapes, sizes (ie including a ton of babies) and colours. We stopped to have lunch and while the driver was getting the food out we ran around and took pictures of llamas and tried to get close enough to pet them although they would have none of it. Then we were off again, although at this point I have to add that the driver had one of those tape adaptors that you can plug an ipod into so the entire trip we were rocking out to Anna and my tunes which really makes any road trip that much better. After the llama field we speed out into the scenery which was both desolate and beautiful yet always changing, kinda hard to describe. Mostly highland desert, we spent most of the trip above 3000 meters or 10000 feet, much of the trip was up above 16000 feet which is fucking high and hard to breath and move at. And I mean speed out because our drive seemed to be descended from a long line of race car or rally car drivers. He over took all the other tours who left before us. We began to laugh at everyone eating out dust until the first tire blew. It was at an ok time because it was on a hill so you could find some where to pee with a bit of privacy. Al (as I will now refer to our driver although that is not what we called him I am just to embarrassed to try and spell his name over and over). He started to change the tire, which he was experienced at we would learn but the jack sunk down in the sand and we had to wait for the other cars to catch up to use their jacks to finally put on the spare. While we were doing this the other travellers all got out and hung out and started playing games. Good times. We then had to use an air compressor that was part of the engine of one of the other cars (everyone helps each other out there in the desert) and then we speed off leaving all of those who helped us in our dust. We continued on through the most deserted landscape I have ever seen. We passed this seven house town, which Al told us only made any money off of raising Llamas and selling their meat and wool for everything else they needed. They couldn´t grow a single crop up there, not one thing. We were always passing these little mud houses in the middle of nowhere, I have no idea how people live out there or what they do, or how they cook or anything. the only thing to burn is this lichen that is going extinct because everyone is burning it. We stopped to help a motorcycle driver whose battery had died. Al helped him fix it and then gave him a running start all the way down the road.
Finally around six we reached the tiny village that we were spending the night in. We were staying in this small housing unit that was owned by a local family, there was another tour group staying in the house as well. And by house I mean tiny mud and clay brick structure that had a tiny court yard, our two rooms the eating room and maybe two other rooms for the family. The kids from the family were pretty funny, they were obviously used to travellers and kept asking us where were from and stuff like that. After we arrived we wandered out into the town and found a bunch of the other travellers and hung out in a field, chatting and talking to some of the local kid. There was a storm closing in and the sun was setting fast all red and orange over the hills and mountains around us. (we were at least above 4000 meters at this point) It was really weird though invading this town. All of these (mostly) white tourists speaking (mostly) English, while everyone else around lived such a different life. You could tell that some of the kids didn´t like us being there, one of my friends was taking a picture of the sunset and one of the children got upset that they were taking a picture of his house, which they were but only because the sunset was above it. And another kid, a young entrepreneur, rented us a soccor ball to play with for 1 boliviano. Other kids seemed much more interested and some didn´t seem to give a shit. After it finally got dark and damn cold we headed into get tea. The five of us and the five other people from the other group all crowed into this little room with two tables. The Aussies pulled out the guitar and we began what would be the best night of the trip. Hugh and Madeline are amazing musicians, he rocks the guitar and she has the best voice I heard in a long time. They write all their own stuff. So we spent the next couple of hours drinking tea, eating dinner and passing the guitar around. The other group were amazing too, they all joined in on songs they knew, like bob Marley and Tracey Chapman and they sang us some hilarious Spanish songs (although only one of them was from Spain, one from Holland and the rest from Israel.) One of the Spanish songs basically goes, I want a boy friend I want a boy friend, I am so hot I am so hot, etc they preformed it with quite a bit of flare. We just had the best night ever, and were all laughing and smiling as we got ready for bed, all brushing our teeth in the one washroom while we took turns peeing behind a curtain.
Day 2)
We walk up early but not to early to rain. We eat our (not so good) breakfast and drink our tea and we are off. We start by heading over to this ghost town. It was huge and crazy all of these old piled stone walled buildings all falling apart. It was apparently a Spanish founded mining town but was abandoned when the mine gave up. It was really cold and wet out with patches of snow everywhere. We begin to travel over steep up and down roads that are bumpy, rocky and muddy as hell. We run into this other group whose four wheel drive had given out, we tried to help them but they ended up by having to head back the roads were way to bad if you didn´t have four wheel drive. We start climbing and climbing again into the rain and snow clouds. Up until almost 5000 meters. We are all chewing coca at this point to try to assuage the effects of altitude. It actually works pretty well. I have grown to like it quite a bit. And then down again. All I can say is the clouds clear up and it is spectacular! We pass an ostrich too, weird to see in this landscape and we are always passing llamas and wild llamas (that look different) so I won´t continue to mention it. We drive though a couple of little towns and then out on to this giant plain over looked by the tallest mountain in the area. By this time our back wheel is making weird noises and we stop as Al uses his magic and jams a bit of his belt in to fix it but despite his efforts one of our back breaks is shot. We start off again and we pass by the first of a whole bunch of lakes. They are beautiful and clear with mountains reflecting in them. We then head on to this desert flat where they gather borax I think, surrounded by mountain peaks. Just as we pass this random gathering of houses (a truck stop borax mining operation?) Our tire blows again. So we head back to the huddle of buildings and have lunch and hang out at the most middle of nowhere place I have ever been. The only other people there seem to be these 5 guys loading a truck with borax I guess and the saddest dog I have ever seen. He was so matted with dreads that it looked like he was made of felt and had two tails but he was nice and we feed him part of our lunch. We then just hung out and played guitar and wandered around until Al had replaced the tube in the tire and filled it thanks to the dudes working on the other truck. Then we were off again. Towards more colored lakes (ranging from green to red because of the algae that grows on them, they can support it because they are all thermal fed). Because of the algae in these lakes they also support colonies of flamingos which I will tell you is a damn odd sight in the middle of nowhere Bolivian desert cold highlands. And just as we headed over to a stop at some hot springs the tire goes again. By this point we have all become highly attuned to the sound of escaping air. And so we hang out at the hot springs. Anna and I go swimming in our underwear. As Al again deftly attempts to salvage what tire and tube we have left to make one functioning wheel. Coming through again we head off to the green lake and then back through the most Salvador Dali landscape I have ever been in. Mountains with desert sandscapes between them dotted with these crazy tall wind carved rock formations. Then we headed on to some gysers but by this time we had reached about 16100 feet above sea level and the wind was blowing so it was damn cold to get out of the car. Finally about 6 pm we rolled into our hostel for the night, which turned out to be our least favorite place of the trip. It was this long mud brick building built in the middle of nowhere especially for tourists on this trip. It was also the half way point from on end of the trip to the other so there were tons of people staying there who where heading in both directions. It was just too many people for us and too loud after the solitude of the last couple of days. We vainly attempted to search high and low for our friends from the first night but they were staying at a hostel a little further on. So we played some guitar with this guy who brought a ukulele (Andrew Chute he really reminded me of you!). Then dinner then bed for our tried souls. But we stayed up chatting for a while about everything. Really great group as I said before.
Day 3)
We wake up late today, to the sound of Al again hacking away at the rim of the tire to replace the tube. We hang out in the large hallway that serves as the dinning hall. Most other groups have left by this point. We have breakfast and finally we are set to go. We head out over the plain to a huge red salt lake that is just covered with flamingos. Then sssssssssssss the tire is shot again so Al leaves us at the lake for an hour as he goes back to fix the tire again. This guy has the patiense of a saint. I tell you I would have burned the car down by now if I had to change the tire that many times. But it was lucky for us because the lake was just amazing. It was this bright rose colour with a ton of flamingos and huge mountains reflecting in the water. I walk out alittle ways into the lake on a clay sand bar but as Madeline tries to follow me she steps slightly off the sand bar on to what looks like a bit of mud but she automatically sinks knee deep in white clay. I help to pull her out but from then on she looks like she is wearing knee high white boots. We walk up the lake a bit and run into some llamas. I took some funny pictures with llamas in the foreground and flamingos in the back ground. Not a combination I expected to see. there is one tiny stone house on a hill over looking the lake. I guess they own the llamas. After just chilling out on the shore of the lake for a while Al returns all ready to go and we drive around another pink lake with huge icebergs made out of salt and more flamingos. Then as we head onward a huge BANG in my ear as the tube just explodes. So we stop once again. I have decided by this point to take up juggling so I practice with the plethora of rocks at my disposal as Al once again replaces the tube. Then we load back into the car and we very slowly drive off. None of us can quite figure out why were are going so slow because we all know of or drivers love of speed. We head out over a sandy desert and reach a bunch more of those crazy Dali rock formations. We get out and wander around a super surreal environment and take pics then we are off again over the plain. A storm has begun to follow us and we pass a couple of bikers doing the same trip. Now I love biking but that seems a might crazy it is hard to breath up here and the terrain is hard for a car! We reach this crazy undulating rock wall in the desert and decide to stop for lunch. I automatically climb the rock wall and start wandering over the top of it. Trying to reach the tallest point and then over a rock and CRACK my ankle just buckles under me and I am on the ground curled in a ball of terrible pain. I seriously sprained my ankle unable to speak for about 5 min because of the pain. If I hadn't done this when I was 16 I would have though I broke it. But Hugh helped me up and I managed to slowly climb my way down the rock face and wrapped my ankle in my shirt and sit with it propped on a rock as we eat lunch. Damn I felt like and idiot and I was worried about my ability to carry on after the tour, carrying by back pack and all but what are you going to do. (ps I am still limping but it is doing fine!) Another car drives by and stops. A bunch of English guys get out who Huge and Madeline knew from months ago, odd meeting in the middle of nowhere. Their driver gives us his spare tire. Which is good because after we looked at our tire we saw why Al was driving so slow. the tube was practically sticking out of the tire. A bad situation. So with a new tire we were off again. With me taking up the entire back seat my foot propped up on Anna's little backpack with my socks wrapped tight around it like a tensor bandage, there is no ice in the middle of the desert. But I will tell you having a terribly sprained ankle propped up on a nagene bottle in a backpack on some of the bumpiest roads in the world is not the best or most comfortable situation but we still had a good time. We made our way past a bunch more lakes and as the Storm shot down lighting around us we made our way onwards past a huge volcano which marked the border with Chile. We drove over a huge flat plain that started playing tricks with our eyes, making it look like there was a lake infront of us. We reached on small town that was surrounded by these colorful flowers which turned out to be quinoa, their only crop other than llamas, that just wandered around the town and hang out on the basket ball court. We climbed up a valley and finally reached the town we were spending the night in. A tiny village, which also didn't have any ice in the whole town, yet it was the capital of the region. We had a great big dinner and played a bit of guitar and went to bed early because we were getting up early the next morning.
Day 4)
Waking up at 4 am I wrapped the tensor bandage that Madeline had in her big back (which was on the roof the day before) around my swollen ankle and we packed up and we were off. Driving through the pitch dark the Southern Cross beamed down at us from a cloudless sky. We finally reached the slat flats just before dawn and we stopped on this part that was covered with about an inch of water. As we played Tom Waits "old 55" and Nina Simone "Nearer My God to Thee" we watched as the sun rose over the salt flats which spread out infront of us ringed only distantly by mountains. The thin layer of water meant that the sky that was turning a brilliant array of yellows, reds, blues and oranges was mirrored perfectly on the salt flats. We got out of the car and wandered into the most beautiful awe inspiring landscape I might have ever seen. It was is if you were standing in the sky. And it just kept getting better. Finally I just stood in silence and watched the sun slip over the horizon bringing with it a new day. After a while we all piled back into the car and sped out over an enormous pure white plain to the one island infront of us. We had breakfast there. The island was so crazy. It was this rocky oddity that stuck out from the flat white surroundings and it was covered in these huge tall cacti. An bizzar sight indeed. The rest of the crew went climbing out over the island but my ankle forced me to stick to flatter surfaces. But in doing so I found the other group from the first night who had also been searching for us in vain so we had a wonderful reunion. After breakfast all ten of us (who acted like long lost friends even though we had only met that on night) took a ton of pictures out on the salt flats. You can really play with perspective because of the environment so we took a picture that looked like a bunch of us all in miniture walking down the neck of the guitar. It was a ton of fun. Then we set off again speeding out over the flats. I put on "Tiny Dancer" and we rocked out! It was great! We reached the middle where some people had built this tiny building which functions as a hotel all out of salt. Then on to the other side. Leaving the Salt flats behind we entered a tiny town, looked around for a while and then on to our final destination. Uyuni is a weird little town that is basically based around the salt flats. We got a hostel room and sadly said goodbye to our fearless leader and driver and endless tire fixer and wandered out in to civilization once again. We ran into our friends again and hung out much of the afternoon. Then went to bed just before it started to rain. We had been wandering around the market at night just before that, we got some great drink made of Quinoa, and the sky had just been flashing with lighting. So the trip was over and we fell asleep to the sound of rain. Over all probably the most amazing thing I have done so far.
Day 1)
After we decided at 4pm the day before to go on this tour Anna and I wake up apprehensive for the day. What will the tour be like? We really didn´t do any research. Who will we be spending the next 4 days with? We have no idea. Where are we going really? Haven´t got a clue. But we get up early because we have to make it to the bank to get out the money for the tour before we leave. Searching the town the only place we can find to get out money it this one bank (there are no ATMs in the entire town) and there is a line up of gringos hoping to get money for their own tours that morning. A very slow process which almost makes us late. And you can only get money out on your credit card and they charge a 5% fee damn it. A very weird system but we jumped that hurdle, we said goodbye to our friend Patcho and we wait for the tour company to show up, who eventually arrive in the form of a young Bolivian woman with a baby on her back. She leads us up the road toward a super shitty station wagon. Anna and I turn to look at each other, our worst fears in our eyes. But we walk on past the station wagon, thank the lord, and on the the tourist office where we meet our three fellow travellers. They included an American named Kaye (who we had met earlier in the bank line up) and two Aussies named Hugh and Madeline. We sit and chat for a while, waiting for the tour to begin. Now I have to say right now we lucked out in the extreme. Those three turned out the be the best fucking traveling companions Anna and I could have dreamed up. We got on like 5 peas in a pod, although we expected that from the beginning because the Aussies were packing a guitar. Finally our 4/4 shows up with our intrepid driver Alehandro ( have no idea about the spelling so I am just kinda sounding it out). We pile our bags on top in a tarp, grab some coca leaves and (smart on anna´s part) some toilet paper ( a travellers best friend in these parts) and we were off. We drove out of town past streets of mud huts and then just turned up a dryish river bed which I suppose is a road in these parts. Then we start climbing and climbing, up and up and up. Now anyone who knows my fear of driving (Ian I am thinking of you) will maybe be able to fathom my inability to look anywhere but straight ahead as we wound around the craziest cliff roads ever. I just had to be prepared for death I told myself. With each pass I felt he was taking the road too far on the out side but I he does this all the time so I guess who am I to question. It was breathtakingly beautiful. Red and brown and yellow jagged cliffs and hills spread out below us, cut up only by valleys made of what looked to be old lava runs and cacti everywhere. We finally reached the top of the pass and I began to breath again, despite the fact that breathing was getting harder and we set out descending the other side, down into a magnificent landscape of mountains and valleys. We eventually reached a small stretch of mud brick houses that contained a four shelf store that we stopped at and started chatting with the other tours that were starting off too. Lots of nice people. We decided not to stop there for lunch which was a good idea because an hour later we reached this huge green field amongst hills of brown that was just chock a block with llamas and donkeys of all shapes, sizes (ie including a ton of babies) and colours. We stopped to have lunch and while the driver was getting the food out we ran around and took pictures of llamas and tried to get close enough to pet them although they would have none of it. Then we were off again, although at this point I have to add that the driver had one of those tape adaptors that you can plug an ipod into so the entire trip we were rocking out to Anna and my tunes which really makes any road trip that much better. After the llama field we speed out into the scenery which was both desolate and beautiful yet always changing, kinda hard to describe. Mostly highland desert, we spent most of the trip above 3000 meters or 10000 feet, much of the trip was up above 16000 feet which is fucking high and hard to breath and move at. And I mean speed out because our drive seemed to be descended from a long line of race car or rally car drivers. He over took all the other tours who left before us. We began to laugh at everyone eating out dust until the first tire blew. It was at an ok time because it was on a hill so you could find some where to pee with a bit of privacy. Al (as I will now refer to our driver although that is not what we called him I am just to embarrassed to try and spell his name over and over). He started to change the tire, which he was experienced at we would learn but the jack sunk down in the sand and we had to wait for the other cars to catch up to use their jacks to finally put on the spare. While we were doing this the other travellers all got out and hung out and started playing games. Good times. We then had to use an air compressor that was part of the engine of one of the other cars (everyone helps each other out there in the desert) and then we speed off leaving all of those who helped us in our dust. We continued on through the most deserted landscape I have ever seen. We passed this seven house town, which Al told us only made any money off of raising Llamas and selling their meat and wool for everything else they needed. They couldn´t grow a single crop up there, not one thing. We were always passing these little mud houses in the middle of nowhere, I have no idea how people live out there or what they do, or how they cook or anything. the only thing to burn is this lichen that is going extinct because everyone is burning it. We stopped to help a motorcycle driver whose battery had died. Al helped him fix it and then gave him a running start all the way down the road.
Finally around six we reached the tiny village that we were spending the night in. We were staying in this small housing unit that was owned by a local family, there was another tour group staying in the house as well. And by house I mean tiny mud and clay brick structure that had a tiny court yard, our two rooms the eating room and maybe two other rooms for the family. The kids from the family were pretty funny, they were obviously used to travellers and kept asking us where were from and stuff like that. After we arrived we wandered out into the town and found a bunch of the other travellers and hung out in a field, chatting and talking to some of the local kid. There was a storm closing in and the sun was setting fast all red and orange over the hills and mountains around us. (we were at least above 4000 meters at this point) It was really weird though invading this town. All of these (mostly) white tourists speaking (mostly) English, while everyone else around lived such a different life. You could tell that some of the kids didn´t like us being there, one of my friends was taking a picture of the sunset and one of the children got upset that they were taking a picture of his house, which they were but only because the sunset was above it. And another kid, a young entrepreneur, rented us a soccor ball to play with for 1 boliviano. Other kids seemed much more interested and some didn´t seem to give a shit. After it finally got dark and damn cold we headed into get tea. The five of us and the five other people from the other group all crowed into this little room with two tables. The Aussies pulled out the guitar and we began what would be the best night of the trip. Hugh and Madeline are amazing musicians, he rocks the guitar and she has the best voice I heard in a long time. They write all their own stuff. So we spent the next couple of hours drinking tea, eating dinner and passing the guitar around. The other group were amazing too, they all joined in on songs they knew, like bob Marley and Tracey Chapman and they sang us some hilarious Spanish songs (although only one of them was from Spain, one from Holland and the rest from Israel.) One of the Spanish songs basically goes, I want a boy friend I want a boy friend, I am so hot I am so hot, etc they preformed it with quite a bit of flare. We just had the best night ever, and were all laughing and smiling as we got ready for bed, all brushing our teeth in the one washroom while we took turns peeing behind a curtain.
Day 2)
We walk up early but not to early to rain. We eat our (not so good) breakfast and drink our tea and we are off. We start by heading over to this ghost town. It was huge and crazy all of these old piled stone walled buildings all falling apart. It was apparently a Spanish founded mining town but was abandoned when the mine gave up. It was really cold and wet out with patches of snow everywhere. We begin to travel over steep up and down roads that are bumpy, rocky and muddy as hell. We run into this other group whose four wheel drive had given out, we tried to help them but they ended up by having to head back the roads were way to bad if you didn´t have four wheel drive. We start climbing and climbing again into the rain and snow clouds. Up until almost 5000 meters. We are all chewing coca at this point to try to assuage the effects of altitude. It actually works pretty well. I have grown to like it quite a bit. And then down again. All I can say is the clouds clear up and it is spectacular! We pass an ostrich too, weird to see in this landscape and we are always passing llamas and wild llamas (that look different) so I won´t continue to mention it. We drive though a couple of little towns and then out on to this giant plain over looked by the tallest mountain in the area. By this time our back wheel is making weird noises and we stop as Al uses his magic and jams a bit of his belt in to fix it but despite his efforts one of our back breaks is shot. We start off again and we pass by the first of a whole bunch of lakes. They are beautiful and clear with mountains reflecting in them. We then head on to this desert flat where they gather borax I think, surrounded by mountain peaks. Just as we pass this random gathering of houses (a truck stop borax mining operation?) Our tire blows again. So we head back to the huddle of buildings and have lunch and hang out at the most middle of nowhere place I have ever been. The only other people there seem to be these 5 guys loading a truck with borax I guess and the saddest dog I have ever seen. He was so matted with dreads that it looked like he was made of felt and had two tails but he was nice and we feed him part of our lunch. We then just hung out and played guitar and wandered around until Al had replaced the tube in the tire and filled it thanks to the dudes working on the other truck. Then we were off again. Towards more colored lakes (ranging from green to red because of the algae that grows on them, they can support it because they are all thermal fed). Because of the algae in these lakes they also support colonies of flamingos which I will tell you is a damn odd sight in the middle of nowhere Bolivian desert cold highlands. And just as we headed over to a stop at some hot springs the tire goes again. By this point we have all become highly attuned to the sound of escaping air. And so we hang out at the hot springs. Anna and I go swimming in our underwear. As Al again deftly attempts to salvage what tire and tube we have left to make one functioning wheel. Coming through again we head off to the green lake and then back through the most Salvador Dali landscape I have ever been in. Mountains with desert sandscapes between them dotted with these crazy tall wind carved rock formations. Then we headed on to some gysers but by this time we had reached about 16100 feet above sea level and the wind was blowing so it was damn cold to get out of the car. Finally about 6 pm we rolled into our hostel for the night, which turned out to be our least favorite place of the trip. It was this long mud brick building built in the middle of nowhere especially for tourists on this trip. It was also the half way point from on end of the trip to the other so there were tons of people staying there who where heading in both directions. It was just too many people for us and too loud after the solitude of the last couple of days. We vainly attempted to search high and low for our friends from the first night but they were staying at a hostel a little further on. So we played some guitar with this guy who brought a ukulele (Andrew Chute he really reminded me of you!). Then dinner then bed for our tried souls. But we stayed up chatting for a while about everything. Really great group as I said before.
Day 3)
We wake up late today, to the sound of Al again hacking away at the rim of the tire to replace the tube. We hang out in the large hallway that serves as the dinning hall. Most other groups have left by this point. We have breakfast and finally we are set to go. We head out over the plain to a huge red salt lake that is just covered with flamingos. Then sssssssssssss the tire is shot again so Al leaves us at the lake for an hour as he goes back to fix the tire again. This guy has the patiense of a saint. I tell you I would have burned the car down by now if I had to change the tire that many times. But it was lucky for us because the lake was just amazing. It was this bright rose colour with a ton of flamingos and huge mountains reflecting in the water. I walk out alittle ways into the lake on a clay sand bar but as Madeline tries to follow me she steps slightly off the sand bar on to what looks like a bit of mud but she automatically sinks knee deep in white clay. I help to pull her out but from then on she looks like she is wearing knee high white boots. We walk up the lake a bit and run into some llamas. I took some funny pictures with llamas in the foreground and flamingos in the back ground. Not a combination I expected to see. there is one tiny stone house on a hill over looking the lake. I guess they own the llamas. After just chilling out on the shore of the lake for a while Al returns all ready to go and we drive around another pink lake with huge icebergs made out of salt and more flamingos. Then as we head onward a huge BANG in my ear as the tube just explodes. So we stop once again. I have decided by this point to take up juggling so I practice with the plethora of rocks at my disposal as Al once again replaces the tube. Then we load back into the car and we very slowly drive off. None of us can quite figure out why were are going so slow because we all know of or drivers love of speed. We head out over a sandy desert and reach a bunch more of those crazy Dali rock formations. We get out and wander around a super surreal environment and take pics then we are off again over the plain. A storm has begun to follow us and we pass a couple of bikers doing the same trip. Now I love biking but that seems a might crazy it is hard to breath up here and the terrain is hard for a car! We reach this crazy undulating rock wall in the desert and decide to stop for lunch. I automatically climb the rock wall and start wandering over the top of it. Trying to reach the tallest point and then over a rock and CRACK my ankle just buckles under me and I am on the ground curled in a ball of terrible pain. I seriously sprained my ankle unable to speak for about 5 min because of the pain. If I hadn't done this when I was 16 I would have though I broke it. But Hugh helped me up and I managed to slowly climb my way down the rock face and wrapped my ankle in my shirt and sit with it propped on a rock as we eat lunch. Damn I felt like and idiot and I was worried about my ability to carry on after the tour, carrying by back pack and all but what are you going to do. (ps I am still limping but it is doing fine!) Another car drives by and stops. A bunch of English guys get out who Huge and Madeline knew from months ago, odd meeting in the middle of nowhere. Their driver gives us his spare tire. Which is good because after we looked at our tire we saw why Al was driving so slow. the tube was practically sticking out of the tire. A bad situation. So with a new tire we were off again. With me taking up the entire back seat my foot propped up on Anna's little backpack with my socks wrapped tight around it like a tensor bandage, there is no ice in the middle of the desert. But I will tell you having a terribly sprained ankle propped up on a nagene bottle in a backpack on some of the bumpiest roads in the world is not the best or most comfortable situation but we still had a good time. We made our way past a bunch more lakes and as the Storm shot down lighting around us we made our way onwards past a huge volcano which marked the border with Chile. We drove over a huge flat plain that started playing tricks with our eyes, making it look like there was a lake infront of us. We reached on small town that was surrounded by these colorful flowers which turned out to be quinoa, their only crop other than llamas, that just wandered around the town and hang out on the basket ball court. We climbed up a valley and finally reached the town we were spending the night in. A tiny village, which also didn't have any ice in the whole town, yet it was the capital of the region. We had a great big dinner and played a bit of guitar and went to bed early because we were getting up early the next morning.
Day 4)
Waking up at 4 am I wrapped the tensor bandage that Madeline had in her big back (which was on the roof the day before) around my swollen ankle and we packed up and we were off. Driving through the pitch dark the Southern Cross beamed down at us from a cloudless sky. We finally reached the slat flats just before dawn and we stopped on this part that was covered with about an inch of water. As we played Tom Waits "old 55" and Nina Simone "Nearer My God to Thee" we watched as the sun rose over the salt flats which spread out infront of us ringed only distantly by mountains. The thin layer of water meant that the sky that was turning a brilliant array of yellows, reds, blues and oranges was mirrored perfectly on the salt flats. We got out of the car and wandered into the most beautiful awe inspiring landscape I might have ever seen. It was is if you were standing in the sky. And it just kept getting better. Finally I just stood in silence and watched the sun slip over the horizon bringing with it a new day. After a while we all piled back into the car and sped out over an enormous pure white plain to the one island infront of us. We had breakfast there. The island was so crazy. It was this rocky oddity that stuck out from the flat white surroundings and it was covered in these huge tall cacti. An bizzar sight indeed. The rest of the crew went climbing out over the island but my ankle forced me to stick to flatter surfaces. But in doing so I found the other group from the first night who had also been searching for us in vain so we had a wonderful reunion. After breakfast all ten of us (who acted like long lost friends even though we had only met that on night) took a ton of pictures out on the salt flats. You can really play with perspective because of the environment so we took a picture that looked like a bunch of us all in miniture walking down the neck of the guitar. It was a ton of fun. Then we set off again speeding out over the flats. I put on "Tiny Dancer" and we rocked out! It was great! We reached the middle where some people had built this tiny building which functions as a hotel all out of salt. Then on to the other side. Leaving the Salt flats behind we entered a tiny town, looked around for a while and then on to our final destination. Uyuni is a weird little town that is basically based around the salt flats. We got a hostel room and sadly said goodbye to our fearless leader and driver and endless tire fixer and wandered out in to civilization once again. We ran into our friends again and hung out much of the afternoon. Then went to bed just before it started to rain. We had been wandering around the market at night just before that, we got some great drink made of Quinoa, and the sky had just been flashing with lighting. So the trip was over and we fell asleep to the sound of rain. Over all probably the most amazing thing I have done so far.
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