Salar de Uyuni (Boliva)

This is a true story

Day 1

We woke at 6:30 as our bus was supposed to leave at 8am.It left at about 9. We had Rossi down to wave us off and the poor little blighter even ran after the bus for a bit. We drove for about 3 minutes and then had to stop at the Chillian boarder. That took about an hour. Back on the bus again for another hour untill we reached the Bolivian Customs, which is where we waited another 2 hours for our 4X4 to turn up. The one we got didn´t look as good as the other ones around but as long as it got us from A to B. Myself and Ing got seperated from Paul and have to share the next 3 days with 2 French people and 2 Spanish.
They are 2 couples well into their 40´s and don´t speak English. We set off and hadn´t gone more than 20km when the axle of the car fell off. We were stood on the side of the road for ages while they tried to fix it. I knew they wouldn´t be able to but couldn´t speak Spanish to tell the driver so.
We piled into another 4X4 but had to stop a few times to put water in the engine as it kept over heating.
We stoped at some geysers which were pretty cool and some thermal springs, but I couldn´t get into them as my bag was still on the first 4X4 with my towel in it.

We are staying in an old army camp tonight and it is bloddy freezing. I have 2 pairs or trousers, 3 pairs of socks, 2 tee shirts, 2 jumpers, a jacket, 2 hats and a pair of gloves on and I am still numb.

I went outside and saw 3 shooting stars. I made 3 wishes.
1. That it was warmer
2. That we got a better 4X4 tomorrow
3. That the people we were with spoke English and were 20 years younger.
It´s going to be a long night

Day 2
None of my wishes came true. We had breakfast and headed off to see The Pink Lagoon, which we were ment to see yesterday but were running too late.That took about 20 minutes and then we had to stop at the enterance to the national park. Our new driver, Louise, opened the hood of the car and found a hole the size of a tennis ball in the radiator. No wonder it was over heating yesterday.Once again my Spanish failed me in being able to tell him it was stuffed. We drove back to the Army camp where we spent over 2 hours trying to get the radiator welded. At about 12 we started off again from the same place we should have left at 8am. We did have a problem free hour untill we ran out of petrol. Well it wasn´t so much of running out of the stuff, as loosing it. The screw at the bottom of the petrol tank had fallen out, hench all the petrol with it. After Louise had stuffed the hole with a bit of plastic, we had to stop 8 different 4X4´s and sifel 5 litres of fuel off each of them. We had a spot of lunch on the side of the road and started heading towards the Salt Hotel. The Hotel is made entirely of guess what... salt. The chairs, tables, beds, everything and we had purposly booked with this tour company as it is one of only 2 that allow you to spend the night at the hotel.

It was all looking good untill the engine blew up. The hole was back in the radiator, there was no petrol in the tank and somehow the battery was dead. At this stage it was getting pretty dark and we were 8km from a tiny town called Manila, so it was decided that Louise, the French chap, and myself would walk to the town for some help.It only took us an hour and a half but it was well below zero degrees out. The place only has about 15 houses in the town but one of them turned out to be a "sort" of hostel. Not exactly the Salt Hotel, but a bed none the less. Louise went back with another car to tow the remains of our 4X4 and the 4 people still in it, back to us.
Once again I looked for shooting stars but it was too cloudy.

Day 3
Miricals do happen. A 4X4 turned up for us just after 9am. We loaded up with all our bags and Louise, but left the clapped out car behind. It was by far the best day of the trip and we even stopped off at the place we were ment to have stayed the previous night to have a look at it. The Salt Plains are pretty spectacular and take hours to cross.



In the middle of it all we stopped at Isla del Pescado, which is a large island full of cactus, which was mad and then headed towards our final destination which was Uyuni.
We nearly made it. We could see the town. But the jynx that has followed us since the start of the trip struck once again. It turns out we had once again ran out of fuel but when the new driver got out of the car it worked out that we also had a flat tyre. Louise changed the tyre while Mr. New Driver got a lift into town to get some petrol. The trip cost us US$90 each and it took me an hour to get US$30 back. Not bad for no Spanish.
We met up with Paul again and the 3 of us decided to get out of Uyuni as quick as possible, but in trying to book our bus tickets to Sucre, we were told that the 7pm bus was full and the next one wasn´t untill the same time tomorrow. The town was an absolute dump and none of us wanted to hang around even for the night.I jokingly ask a cab driver how much it would cost us to get to Sucre and he told us US$8 each. The bus was going to cost $7 and would take 11 hours. He said he could do it in 7.
It´s a deal. It´s a steal. It´s sale of the century.
If we had got the bus at night we would have missed some of the most spectacular, beautiful and amazing scenery that this world has to offer, and we got it all in the comfort of a cab (on dirt roads worse than three 4X4´s had clapped up on us) and eating the drivers coco leaves.
I think when I return to Sydney and have to get a cab from Surry Hills to Edgecliff and the cabbie asks me for $15, I am going to smack him.