EXPLORING: Salar de Uyuni - Salt flats with crazy photos

Day 56: La Paz, lunch and ladrones (thieves)
Arriving in La Paz after dark Mark thought it necessary to save us each Bob 4 on a taxi ($0.40) so he took us on an hour long marathon walking tour across the beautiful yet hilly city, finally settling on Hotel Tambo de Oro (Tambo of Gold) opposite the bus station where we would departing from the next even, thus avoiding another over pricey taxi ride - phew.

First thing in the next morning, very excited about the meal Kerry was sponsoring us, we asked the hotel to book us a table for us at the best restaurant we could find in the guidebook. With our booking set we went about exploring the city and its great markets which are strewn across the streets of La Paz as the city streets become one big market by day.



Later that day we fortunately caught a taxi to our intended luncheon spot because what Mark thought would be a 10 min stroll a couple of blocks down became a 35min taxi ride! Chalet La Suisse turned out to be an awesome posh restaurant way off in one of the wealthy southern suburbs and as posh as it may have been they didn't seem to mind our scruffy looking selves wading our way through their patrons dressed in smart suits and ladies who looked like they had spruced themselves up for lunch with Lizzy the second. Mark and I did of course politely remove our head band's/bandanna's for the occasion but that didn't really do much to improve the unshaven, zip-off pants and touristy Alpaca top look we were all sporting.



Our orders were placed with an almost palatable air of excitement; imported beer, starters, mains, dessert, the lot! Man oh man did the food live up to all expectations - I just wanted every mouthful of that medium rare Argentinian steak to last forever! If only it wasn't going to be another 4 or so months of stringy sinewy Lomo Saltado on rice before we cycled out way into enjoying an Argentinian steak for every meal. Quite ironically though Kieren did spot a little worm come crawling out from underneath Ross's lettuce during his starters something which we have never encountered while enjoying one of our many dodgy roadside meals. The restaurant owner was very apologetic about the worm and brought Ross a fresh starter but I'm quite sure she was relieved the homeless people had found the stray worm rather than one of her posh patrons.

Now with our tummies overly satisfied we stepped out of our fantasy world and not into a taxi but a 'colectivo'. Back in the centre Ross and I set about the market looking for the hawker selling just about every second-hand childhood figurine you could think of, who we had spotted on our marathon walk the night before. However, as I crossed the road and the traffic separated us momentarily Ross was distracted by a lady pointing up at something simultaneously accompanied by a crowd of men who began to bump and frisk him, but Ross reacted quickly sticking his hands in his pockets, so when the traffic had cleared they all already vanished empty handed. Ross, now a little shaken, and I later did find our favourite figurines so we were now all set for our trip to the salt pans.

Day 57 to 59: Salar de Uyuni and much more
We spent that night on a really bumpy bus waking up in Uyuni where we immediately a secured tour to the salt pans for later that morning.



After a hearty breakfast we then spent 3 days with 8 other tourists from Chile, Brazil, Italy and the UK between 2 4x4s bouncing around the Bolivian hinterland:

- visiting a train cemetery







- running around the Salar de Uyuni salt pans taking many many perspective pics









- spending a night at a salt hotel which was probably colder than the ice hotel in Sweden





- exploring a once under water cave that had only been discovered in 2003



- crawling into another called the Cave of the Devil that had once been a burial ground



- traversing the worlds driest desert, the Atacama Desert, which looks like a moon landscape (see if you can spot us below)



- spotting a steaming volcano, a mountain of seven colours, Vincunas (endangered wild Llamar like animals) and pink flamingos







- marveling at tree like rocks and lakes some filled with cyanide turning them green in appearance







- playing with geysers and swimming in hot pools









Sadly though after all that fun, on the 3rd day, the tour passed near the border with Chile so we had to bode a very emotional farewell to Ross who was now heading off to Chile with the 2 Chileans. Ross is due to continue his onward world trip flying out of Santiago, Chile to New Zealand soon so this seemed a good opportunity for him to make his way down. We'll hopefully see the Chileans and Brazilians again along our cycle but no more Ross until we are reunited in London summer 2010! Thanks bud - hasta pronto!

Due to a few car troubles we arrived back in Uyuni too late for us to get a seat on the bus so I now sit in 'asciento X', the isle, with my head on Kieren's feet and my shoulders poking into the ladies thighs sitting on either side of me. The lady on my right looks like she could be Che Guevara's great grandmother, wearing at least 3 dresses one on top of another and an eye patch, and is cough up something horrible so I just hope I don't wake up with 3 dresses and a deceased granny on top of me. The bus has now begun to shake too violently for me to see what I am typing as we have hit the stone and pothole ridden dirt road back to La Paz and the below freezing temps outside have begun to seep up through hard cold metal floor so here's to hoping I soon pass out!



If you look carefully at the pic below you may even spot the egg-yolk that I have saved in my beard as a snack for later..



Pics courtesy of Ross and I can be seen here.