I’m in a Wide Open Space

Sunday 18 April
Uyuni – Salar de Uyuni

So we woke up and had breakfast, which again was very random. There was one of the group who hadn’t for some reason noticed that the service in Bolivia isn’t consistent and for some reason wanted specific things and wanted them in a specific time, despite there being little to no chance of that happening. As a result she threw a very immature strop. Some people can be too anal when travelling.

Anyway eventually everything was sorted out. I managed to briefly find out who had won the grand prix that morning – Jenson Button’s second surprise win – and we packed our bags on to the Land Cruiser and set off on our journey. The driver seemed to be very uncommunicative and didn’t seem to speak English, which was a bit of a worry given that we’d paid for and English speaking guide. Of course this set off Miss Grumpy into thinking happy thoughts like we would be driven round by a drunk and eventually crash and die. People started thinking similar thoughts until someone asked me what I thought. “I think we should just chill out and enjoy it – that’s my advice,” I said. It seemed to me to be too much conjecture and not enough facts.

At the first stop the guide started talking in Spanish and by some miracle I managed to tell him that we had paid for an English speaker in Spanish – despite the fact that I hadn’t learnt how to construct the past tense in Spanish yet. Or even the verb to pay, but I was pretty sure I had worked that out for myself. So I just added “-do” after the verb root and “-mos” on to the end and that seemed to work. I also got the word for guide wrong but was close enough with “guido” I like to think. As if by magic he started to talk in almost perfect English and from then on there were no problems. It turns out he didn’t know we had paid for an English guide.

We went to a salt mining town where everything was built out of salt bricks. We went to a train graveyard where everything was built out of grave trains. And then we went to the salt flats. Our driver had us cover out eyes on the approach so that the first thing we saw after the darkness of our covered eyes was a massive expanse of whiteness. We were at the salt plain.

It’s truly amazing just being in a literal sea of whiteness, apparently half the size of Belgium (or maybe Wales). There are a ring of blue-brown mountains in the distance and a beautiful cloudscape in the sky. At the edge were regimented conical piles of salt from where the salt miners had been doing their work. We took some photos and drove off into the lake itself.

80,000 years ago it changed from being part of the Pacific to become a lake in the newly forming Andes. 10,000 years ago it dried out and left behind the salt deposits that we now know. We stopped off at another salt-brick house that seemed to be in the middle of nowhere. We had lunch and this time it definitely was llama stake. And it was pretty good. Nothing too unusual. Though it could have done with a bit of salt...

We took some forced perspective shots, which is the traditional thing to do. The whiteness of the sand means you can do some pretty interesting things. We were chased by dragons. Giant lollipops were licked. Other things were done.

We then set off again and then reached Inca House (Incahausi) Island – what literally was a former island in the lake of water, now an island in the lake of salt. It is covered in giant hundred-year old cacti and that combined with the dark-brown earth and hilly surface contrasts remarkably with the surrounding flat, white, lifeless salt. It is truly amazing to look at and definitely one of the most awe inspiring things I have seen on the trip. Incidentally the place is also known as Fish Island, which was apparently what the Lonely Planet called it and is now the commonly used name. I prefer Inca House.

The island has two resident dogs as well as a rhea. The Australians were confused as to how an ostrich could be native to anywhere else but Australia. We took some pictures of it as it wondered around on the flats. We took some more forced perspective pictures. Then I had the chance to sit on top of the Land Cruiser as we drove off to the next destination. The sun was starting to think about setting and throwing long, straight shadows over the flat expanse of the lake.

We stopped again to take some more perspective pictures. But really it was just a chance for the drivers to break up the monotony of the plains, which caused them to almost fall asleep at the wheel. Afterwards I was in the front seat and would occasionally ask our driver questions, just to keep him awake. After that the rest of the group wanted me to sit in the front all the time so we wouldn’t crash. I didn’t mind, I had more space!

Eventually we reached the edge of the salt plain and were back on to normal reduced-salt land. We met a car coming in the opposite direction and they had some bad news. There was a strike on in the area that meant that we may not be able to take the routes that we needed. If we were caught by the blockades we might be trapped for a couple of days or two, which was bad news for all of us given that we all had connections booked to different destinations that we already had paid for. Interesting times.

As we arrived at our resting place for the night there was a devastating sunset which we took photos of. Our resting place was a salt-brick hotel which was quite nicely done out. We were sleeping in dorms, three guys in my room. The air was cold at night, but the covers were warm and temperature wasn’t a problem. We had a meal of pasta and shared a bottle of wine, and some local children very badly and charmingly played some traditional music using pan flutes and drums. Then it was bed.