Salar de Uyuni

The world´s largest salt flat just happens to be in the south west of Bolivia and it is meant to be one of the country´s highlights. So obligingly I signed myself on a 4 day tour of the Salar.

There were two 4x4s going into the Salar, so the 12 people who had signed up were going to be split up into two groups. There were 3 English couples, 5 French people and myself. I suppose it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out which group I was going to end up with. So it was Bon Jour, ca va and On y va into the wide blue & white yonder...

Well anyway it was an amazing 4 days - the salt flat itself is a dazzling white desert like affair where you nearly become blinded by the light. On the second day we drove by many salt lakes with diverse amounts of bird life (feathered), finally ending up by sunset at base camp Lago Colorado, whose waters are as red as an Irishman on his first day in the sun. Day 3 saw us getting up at the ungodly (and unsatanly for that matter) hour of 4.30 am to witness some exploding Geysers, which were situated at about 5000 meters. There is nothing really to prepare you for the cold of a Bolivian dawn spent about 200 meters higher than Mont Blanc. On the last day we had a leisurely drive back to Uyuni where I was to wash the dirt of 4 days from my battered body. Things I learned during the journey:
* What a French shower REALLY means.
* That the French and the English don´t actually mix that well (Just watch the masks fall when it comes to sharing not much food between two groups...)
* Tarot is a common card game in France (and it is not an offer to read your future)
* "Ronfler" is French for "to snore"... Go figure.