Salar de Uyuni - !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I can barely begin to imagine what words could be used to describe the sights and experience of the past few days. I doubt any language is capable of doing justice to the beauty and magnificence of the lands we just passed through.

I'll try to describe the events chronologically.

Day One - Leaving San Pedro de Atacama and crossing the Bolivian border

Lucas and I were up and packing our tent up just prior to sunrise and also in time for a stampede of angry german shepherds racing to harrass some unfortunate being. A quick ham and cheese sandwich for breakfast and then into a minivan with some fellow travellers to the Bolivian border. The border consisted of a tiny little shack in the middle of the desert, which is a familiar sight in this stretch of the continent - tiny little stone or mud buildings surrounded by the vast silence of dust and mountains - nothing else (possibly the odd llama). The lowest altitude we reached over the last few days is about 3500 metres, with an average of around 4000. As you'd expect the simple task of walking up a small hill gets the lungs burning and heart pounding.

At the border we all (seven of us - plus driver) piled into an old landcruiser - our transport for the next three days. The rest of the day was a long rocky drive (with plenty of photo stops) through the desert and around the ubiquitous dormant volcanoes. The day finished at Laguna Colorado - a huge flamingo colony in a patchy (turquoise and terracotta) lagoon - another spectacular sunset over the mountains and desert, once again leaving us all awestruck.

Day Two - Lagoons, geysers, eerie stone formations, Hotel Salar

Once again an early getaway to see the sunrise and the copious shallow lagoons (each with its own colour and character). A quick stop at some geysers (hot steam like a kettle blowing up through the ground and mud) and then to the Arboles Piedras (stone trees) - once again a unique and mind blowing assortment of rocks - this is one part where I don't have the words to describe what we saw or the feelings it evokes, just one of those things that you have to do yourself.

I think I'll just have to refer you to the photos - I can't describe these things well enough (plus I want to describe the last day more....). But I'll finish up day two by mentioning that we slept in a hotel made entirely from salt.

Day Three - Drunken driver, the salt lake, Gasolina!!

The plan for the final day was to wake up at 5:30 and the driver would take us out into the salt lake for sunrise. Things didn't go according to plan......

WE woke up at 5:50 and were ready to go by 6:00. Four hours later we located our driver, still drinking from the night before, absolutely shattered, barely able to stand up or speak. We managed to get the car key from him and load our stuff onto the car and drive down the hill to where he was drinking. After managing to coax him into the car we set off into the Salar de Uyuni (the huge salt lake, who knows how many hundred thousand square kilometres of salt). The driver slept and we drove (with very little petrol at this early stage), all piling onto the roof as we sped across the desert (aka the salt lake - it really was a vast flat expanse of nothing but salt, with mountains in the distance). After a lunch break and asking for directions we put the last 20 litres of diesel into the car and set off for what we thought would be a two hour drive to Uyuni across the desert. About 45 minutes into the drive the driver woke up and informed us we were going in totally the wrong direction and he didn't really know where we were, but he thought Uyuni was somewhere to the east. So we did a 180 degree turn and set off for Uyuni (we hoped). About an hour into this phase we finally ran out of petrol. The driver and one of the other guys set off walking to the edge of the salt desert and hopefully some petrol (we had no idea how far the nearest town was). Luckily about an hour into our wait another car was cruising past in the distance. We frantically charged across the desert waving our jumpers in the air and yelling for them to see us. For one moment they looked like they were going to ignore us, but finally they turned in our direction. After informing us that they couldn't spare any petrol they agreed to collect the other two and drive them to the nearest place where they could buy petrol. So another hour and a half later as the sun was finally dipping below the horizon our driver returned in the back of another car with about 5 litres of diesel. Which turned out to be an insufficient amount, as we ran out of petrol again - this time much closer to a little town and we managed to get petrol and be back on the road in about 20 minutes.

While running out of petrol in the desert for a few hours might not sound that exciting, the hour or two that we waited, not knowing how long the others would be or if they would even find us again (it would be almost impossible to find us in the dark), was unforgettable. Although we all knew we would be okay, we didn't know just how long we would have to wait (with our two litres of water between six) for someone to come with petrol.