Salar de Uyuni: Day 3

So waking up at 5 a.m. in a hostel with toilets that are flushed maybe once or twice a day that otherwise has no running water isn't really the best way to start a day. If it's about -10 or -15 degrees Celsius that doesn't help either. (Aunt Char, I kept the temperature in Celsius so Grandma won't realize how freezing cold it is in this place when the sun isn't up. Don't spill the beans by converting this for her ok. Thank you.) But this really was an awesome day, particularly due to the hot springs at Laguna Colorado. Honestly one of the best feelings I can remember was getting in that hot water while it was still freezing outside. It was like when a hot tub overflows into a pool, but instead of a pool, it's a lake with the sun rising over it that was under consideration for the list of the new 7 natural wonders of the world. (I checked. The voting is over and it didn't make the cut. Bummer I know.) Anyway, it was a pretty awesome place. We started out in the morning with the geyers. 

This place reeked of sulfur, but it was pretty cool. There were bubbling pools of whatever kind of nasty liquid it is that gets hot and boils at geysers. 

As you can see in the background, the stuff was splashing all over the place.

Laguna Colorado. I could have stayed here all day. This is the natural hot spring in the bottom left corner that overflows into the little streams in the middle and out to the lagoon way off in the back. It's supposed to be red at a certain time of day. I believe it's because of a kind of algae that lives there.

More Laguna Colorado.

This is the stream from the middle of the first picture.

Yeah I took a ton of pictures of this place. I was trying to take one that would do it justice but I guess you just can't.

On the road again.... I like how the clouds shadows are cast on the mountains. This is actually the only cloudy day we had.

Laguna Verde. It looks kinda green here, but under different conditions of sunlight and probably some other stuff, it's really really green. It gets its color from minerals in the water and apparently nothing can live in it.

And finally here's the whole group. From left to right: Conrad, Caroline, Brad, Ellis, Me, and Phil.

We drove through Laguna Colorado on the way back from Laguna Verde, which was good because I couldn't get enough of this place.

Ok so driving through this pueblo, seeing llamas literally all over the place, the hills around it, and this stream that ran through it made me feel like I was in the Bolivian Shire.

The Ringwraiths wouldn't dare cross this torrent.

Can't you just picture hobbits living in the sides of those hills?

"Do you remember the Shire, Mr. Frodo? It'll be spring soon. And the orchards will be in blossom. And the llamas will be nesting in the hazel thicket. And they'll be sowing the summer quinoa in the lower fields... and eating the first of the papayas with cream. Do you remember the taste of papayas?" J.R.R. Tolkien.

Ok I'm done now. I promise.

Alright! more fun rocks to climb all over!

We drove through this nice little area on the way back. There were llamas, alpacas, sheep, all kinds of birds, and these rare things that looked like deer crossed with llamas.

Look at the little guy!!!

Ok that's it though. There was a lot more to go of the drive back but we all pretty much passed out for a good part of it anyway. Once we hit the main roads there wasn't much more to take pictures of. 

In conclusion: really cool trip, otherworldly experience at the salar, best view of the stars you'll ever see, lots of crazy rock formations to explore, geysers, hot springs, and amazing views literally wherever you are throughout the trip. Oh and there's a really good pizza place in Uyuni for when you get back.

I don't think I forgot anything big. I highly recommend checking this place out to anyone looking for a more exotic, out of the way sort of vacation. Some people keep going from Laguna Verde into Chile and continue on with more stuff. But bring warm clothes. Definitely bring warm clothes for when the sun goes down.

Next stop, almost certainly Isla del Sol, located in Lake Titicaca this weekend.

Salar de Uyuni: Day 2

I started day 2 off with a run. It was pretty cold but I could see the sun rising over the mountains beyond the salar so that was cool. The stars out here are amazing since it's pretty much as in the middle of nowhere as you can get. You could see the Milky Way and a shooting star about every 5 minutes or so if you were looking in the right place. It gets ridiculously cold at night though, but I had a sleeping bad my host parents let me borrow and the beds have about 5 or 6 thick blankets on them so it's not that bad.

Our first stop of the day was in this rocky area that was created by lava flows from volcanoes. Lots of fun stuff to climb all over and go 'sploring.

This is the first lake we came to. There were flamingos way on the other side.

One of the flamingos came over by all the people for some reason.

Another beautiful lake, more flamingos.

So apparently flamingos aren't allowed here? Or maybe they aren't allowed to fly away? I don't know. This guy in the background doesn't seem to care.

Yeah so this is a really really huge Bolivian flag we're underneath.

Apparently there's about 200 of these lakes and lagoons all around this region.

After a long bumpy ride through the desert we found this: el Arbol de Piedra. You're not allowed to climb on it :(

But you are allowed to climb on everything else!

Oh yeah climbing big rocks and stuff.

But what about the geysers? Laguna Colorado? Laguna Verde? and the pueblo that looks like it came from a Bolivian Lord of the Rings Middle Earth? (Go to Salar de Uyuni: Day 3) and yes I know these aren't in order when you look at the blog because they're in order of when they were posted. I'm just hoping the whole "Day 3" part will inspire all my readers (my mom) to go looking for day 1 first.

Salar De Uyuni: Day 1

Alright. Salar de Uyuni. It's the largest salt desert in the world, and it's a pretty cool place to go to. Really though, you can go to a resort on a beach somewhere in the U.S. anytime, but parts of this trip make you feel like you're on another planet. Now the last few hours of violent shaking on the bus ride to Uyuni from La Paz from around 3:00 until 7:00 in the morning are likely to be some of the most miserable of your life, but the trip is way more than worth it when you get there. We did a three day, two night tour with our own driver and another group of three travelers. We were a bit nervous about who we'd be cooped up in a jeep with while traveling from location to location, let alone sharing rooms with for two nights, but we probably couldn't have had a better group. After eating breakfast in Uyuni we learned that we were traveling with three guys we had met at the bus terminal in La Paz. They were Ellis and Phil, two guys from Montreal, and Brad from Australia. They were hilarious and we all had a great time.

So the trip starts at a train cemetery near Uyuni, which seemed a little random but it was actually pretty fun. They have turned parts of the trains into sculptures, swings, and see-saws and it's all pretty fun to climb all over.

On the swing.

Newton's equation for gravitational force between two objects. There were equations written all over one of the trains. Apparently we weren't the first engineers to visit.

All three of us. I don't know why certain pictures just refuse to turn the right way. I have this one horizontal in my files. Sorry. Just turn your head I guess.

Salar de Uyuni. Salt everywhere. It's weird because you can't stop treating it like it's snow when you're out there.

Some mounds of salt they mined.

Ok this was lots of fun. You can take all sorts of goofy perspective photos here. Just google image Salar de Uyuni and you'll see how cool some of them can look.

This is what happens when Caroline gets angry.

On top of Isla Incahuasi, or the Isla Pescada, or the Fish Island. When this whole place was a sea a long long long long long long long time ago, this was a legit island in the middle of it all.

During the rainy season, the whole salar is like a giant mirror. This is some leftover flooding near the edge of the salar.

I couldn't just not go out there.

The hostel we stayed at for the first night was made almost entirely out of salt.

Ok now go to Salar de Uyuni: Day 2