We started our 3D2N Uyuni Salt Flat tour today. We met the rest of the tour group in the tour company's office and after sorted out the luggage, we were grouped with a mother and her daughter from Montreal but immigrated from Nanjing 5 years ago. The family travels extensively to many developing countries and we were quite impressed. They were auditors before immigration and due to language barriers, decided to retired at tender age of 38 and travels whenever they can. What a life style! The rest of the group members came from USA, UK, and Switzerland.
The first stop was the train cemetery for steam engines and railcars that had been abandoned after their mining declined. A new railroad had been built next to the old one and international goods and trades depend on it by the Bolivians.
The Salt Flat (Salar del Uyuni) was totally awesome from its sheer size (180km long and 70km wide, the largest in the world). The super white salt flat stretches as far as the eyes can see. We had our first lunch picnic style on the salt flat next to a historic hotel constructed entirely of salt blocks! Our first night accommodation was also in a cabin made with salt blocks, quite an experience. The lunch was very good - better than some we had in restaurants. We took many funny pictures on the salt flat, capitalized on the optical illusion effect on the flat.
The Fish Island was full of cacti that were thousands years old. We were lucky that we could actually climb the mountain on the island this time of the year because during the wet season, the bottom of the island would submerge in 1m of water and visitors can only admire it from afar.
Before we got to our hotel, we stopped on the salt flat to watch a spectacular sunset against a backdrop of mountains.
By the time we arrived at the salt brick hotel, it was completely dark and we were assigned to a two twin beds room. Everything inside were made of salt - the tables and night tables. The floor was also covered with loose salt like pebbles, making it difficult to put things down on the floor. The hot water was heated by solar energy and we're warned that it could get quite hot. At least there was hot water provided. The funny thing was that the hot water was so hot but the cold water control was very poor making the shower either extreme hot or extreme cold, with no in between. Unfortunately, there was no heater inside the room. We felt really cold during the night as the temperature dropped to -15C degrees.
Richard took the opportunity to examine the southern constellations and took some amazing pictures. His fingers were almost frozen by the time he returned back to the room.
Very interesting pics, love them !!
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