Trip to Salar de Uyuni in Bolivia!

The three day trip to Uyuni started with a rather anxious border crossing from Chile into Bolivia. The night before I had a nightmare about being caught at the border for my apple fine... a little worried I guess.
Really was unnecessary, the border into Bolivia is possibly the most relaxed border/country crossing I´ve ever been to. Once I´d been stamped out of Chile I knew I was homefree, there was then the ten minute drive to the Bolivian border, which was basically a small shack shed, with a couple of guards and a framed photo of the president. No bags were checked, I could have been packing a kilo of coke, but Bolivia really wouldn´t care.

We had breakfast at the border and then formed out groups for our 4X4 drives. Groups of six, we had an amazing group, Team Toyosa (thats right, not Toyota), named after our 4X4. It consisted of me, Bethany, Australian Jess from our hostel, Dutch Fenna from our hostel, the camp french John-Noel, and the funniest German Mathmatician ever, Timo.
After breakfast we dramatically climbed altitude the rest of the day. Its disturbing looking at food packages swell and burst from the change in pressure, you worry about whats going on in your body.

First day we saw some Lagoons, then a dip in the lovely lovely hotsprings, and finally the Glaciers. Tragically, the glaciers were the highest point, 4900 m above sea level. We´d started off chirpy, happy, bonding, but by the time we reached that point, some of us were lacking in spirit, altitude sickness kicks again. I felt reasonably lucky, I felt like death at the glaciers and couldn´t get out of the car, but Bethany got it far worse. For me, its kind of like having asthma (its weird to breath in and not be satisfied due to less oxygen in the air), coupled with the worst hangover of your life. You feel dizzy, want to vomit, weak, terrible headache. In Bolivia and Peru Cocoa leaves (where cocaine comes from) are legal, and are believed to be a cure for altittude sickness. They taste pretty nasty, but theres always cocoa tea, yum.
After the Glaciers we got to our hostel for the first night. Basic, but we´d been warned. I drank cocoa tea, ate a truck full of Nuerofen plus and sat in bed for a bit with sunglasses until the headache went, then was fairly ok. Bethany crawled from the jeep to the bed and stayed there, from 4 in the afternoon till the next morning. Only a few got it really bad in our group, and she was one. The next day she said she hadn´t felt that bad since she had Meningitis.

The next day was alot better, we all felt better and were going back down, happy days. This day was filled with more Lagoons, alot of Flamigos, a Volcano, highest desert in the world, and mountains. Nice. That night we stayed in a hostel made entirely out of salt, salt floors, salt bricks. Team Toyosa bunked up again and Timo told us about his exel spread sheets for matching what ties go with what shirts. Priceless.

Last day was probably my favourite, we visited what used to be a salt Hotel in the middle of the salt planes. It was shut down because the weren´t disposing of the human waste in an environmentally friendly way. Then were the giant Cacti, and finally the salt flats. You really need the photos to understand why they´re so amazing, but Bolivia isn´t renowned for its speedy internet so you´ll have to wait.

We arrived to Uyuni at three, not the nicest town so we decided to get out of there that night and booked a night bus for 7. It was the first real time I felt like I was in Bolivia. Bolivia seemed alot poorer than Chile and Argentina, and it is. Theres still a large indiginous population here, which was a slight culture shock, still dressed traditionally they fasinated me on first impressions. Poor Bolivia, was all I could think, and I really feel sorry for them as a nation. When they declared themselves independent they lost land to Brazil, Peru and what they hate the most, their costline, to Chile. They do not like Chilians.

Poor Bolivia really impacted me on the worst bus trip so far. To get to my next destination, Sucre, we had to get two buses. The first to Potosi. Bye bye super carma, hello bus from hell. I was travelling with Bethany, Jess, Fenna, Timo, and three girls from another Jeep. Timo and the three girls were in the five seats at the back, which seemed reasonably comfortable, until they were joined by a mother with three kids. Thats a total of 8 people in 5 seats, and the father in the back. The bus was also crammed with people in the isles. All it needed was a few Chickens...
The bus was cold and pretty shit, but for some reason it was damn funny. The road was dirt and bumpy, we were traveling at crazy speeds around mountains by cliff edges. The bus was two hours late, in the middle of the night we woke to the tire being changed. Bolivian buses, I´ve been told, frequently break down.

We just about made our next bus, which was slightly better. Nobody in the isles, but there was still some funky smells. In total we were travelling for about 15 hours I think, with no bathroom. Pain like nothing on this earth...

Finally however we´d arrived to the white city of Sucre!!