Salt Lakes Tour - Day 4

After getting to bed after 11pm, not having had a good night´s sleep since the tour started, we weren´t thrilled about the idea of getting up at 5am. But get up we did.

We were quickly in the car, and on the road. It was so cold that our breath froze on the inside of the car windows, so our driver and guide kept having to scrape the ice off the INSIDE of the windscreen!!!

We arrived in the middle of the salt flats about 5 minutes before sunrise and boy was it hard getting out of the car (Anna and Amy didn´t) but I´m really glad I did. It was simply stunning. Hopefully when I get a chance to add some photos to the blogs (we have been only able to use Internet cafes recently) you will get some idea, but really, despite being so cold it felt like my toes were going to fall off, it was a wonderful experience.

The salt flats are the largest in the world, to give you some idea of scale, you could fit Hong Kong in them 10 times over. We went from the spot we had watched the sun rise to an island in the middle of the salt flats which is covered in giant cactuses, some over 900 years old. We walked to the top, then came down for breakfast.

After food, we headed out into the middle of the white and took some fab photos which play with perspective. They really are great, come back in a few days and hopefully I will have them up.

Our final stop was a small town where I bought my first Alpaca item, a scarf, for the equivellent of $A7. It is lovely, and importantly, warm! We had lunch then made the final trip to Uyuni. We are getting a bus to La Paz from here tonight, so to fill in time we found a hostel and had showers - our first since we left Tupiza. It was one of the grottiest showers I have ever been in (thank god for thongs - jandles for you in NZ) but the water was warm and it is wonderful to feel clean, rather than dust crusted.

The tour was great. At the beginning Archie told us it was Adventure Tourisim, to be positive and to be flexible. We have lived by each of those and at times have been freezing and frustrated but overall, it has been a really great 4 days.