Day 1 of the tour started at half 10 where we met the other four in our group and packed everything into the jeep. We were really lucky with our group, we got on so well and were made up of English, Irish, French and Honduran.
So, off we went.
Our first stop was a strange one... The train cemetery. A huge playground full of rusty old trains that were used to carry minerals to the coast.
Once we'd had a nosy and climb we jumped back in the jeep and off we went to the salt flats. The hexagon shaped ground lasted for miles, it was crazy. I kept expecting it to be cold because it looked so much like snow and ice but in the sun it was sweltering.
We had lunch in a hut in the salt flats and afterwards spent what must have been over an hour taking photos and cheesy group shots... It felt like we were there 15 minutes until we checked the time! Time flies when you're having fun.
When it got into the late afternoon we continued through the flats to Fish Island Isla Incahuasi... A huge island filled with cactus. We spent an hour climbing to the top, admiring the unreal views and making our way back down. This was one of my favourite places of the trip... It made me feel like a big kid in another world.
When we left it was getting late so we started our two hour drive to our hotel for the night, not before stopping off to catch the sunset although by now the wind had kicked in and we kind of all just wished we'd watched from the car!
We spent the night in a 'salt hotel' which was hilarious because it was just someone's house with salt all over the floor... We shared a bottle of red over dinner, shared our horror stories from our trips so far Cartagenas mud volcano got a lot of laughs... Moral of the story = don't go and had an early night before another day of crazy sights.
Day two didn't start too early... We had breakfast at 7 which consisted of a lot of dulce de leche and set off for 8. I won't bore you with a huge description of what we did because the photos speak for themselves but starting from after breakfast we stopped off at one of the many volcanoes on our trip and played around on the lava formations from its last eruption 500 years ago. We visited the most beautiful lagoons and the never ending amount of wild flamingos that stay there until migration season. We finished it off with the highlight of the day Laguna Colorada.. A pink lagoon, again full of flamingos. It was beautiful!
Our hotel was ten minutes from here and we spent the evening in a shared dorm with our group after dinner and another bottle of red wine and tea and biscuits.
Day three didn't start quite as well as the day before... We had a four o'clock start after a terrible nights sleep due to the altitude... Almost 5000 meters above sea level. A few of us started the day feeling sick and dizzy... Even the dulce de leche topped pancakes couldn't help us feel better! We set off at 4.45 and saw some geysers... Smelly, steaming geysers. It was so early and it was freeeezing but yeah, they were cool. The Salvador Dali desert followed, named after him because of the strange rocks that resemble his paintings... And then the thermal baths!
Before we finished our tour and dropped off the other four at the Chilean border we still had time to see two more lagunas... Laguna Verde and Laguna Blanca. Both looked like paintings and didn't feel real. It was the perfect end to three perfect days of being driven around in a jeep listening to great music, acting like children and not having to worry or think about anything for once! I can honestly say that nothing about the salt flats is overrated... It's by far one of the best places I'll probably ever get to visit.
We said bye to our strangers turned friends as they crossed to Chile and we spent the next 6 hours sleeping and reading back to Uyuni. We had one more night here before we travelled to Potosà the next morning... The highest city in the world!
Thanks so much for reading!
Amiee x
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