Keeping warm with wine!

Hola from Chile where we crossed the border yesterday from Bolivia. Since last blog we took the bumpiest bus ride ever through the night to Uyuni where the following morning we began our 3 day trip of Salar de Uyuni ,otherwise known as the Bolivian Salt Flats. Our bus ride had a lot of potential to be the most exciting and comfortable bus journey we had taken so far , however we should have known by the hour delay due to bus being still serviced that this wasnt the case!

We were given our inflight meal before we got on the bus due to the delay and our chocolate snack and cup of tea and then we boarded our reclining seat, oxygen, movies and toilet bus and settled in for the night. Jo and myself had the back two seats - right beside the toilet , but we werent too worried about this as one of the perks of this company was that the toilets had air extacters in it - however they didnt mention the flood of pee on the floor from people trying to pee on the move!!

The general vote on the bus was that people wanted to sleep so movies were put on hold and we all reclined put on socks and hats and blankets and settled down for the night. About 20 minutes into the journey the road ran out and the rest of the 8 or so hours were spent bumping along the stony gritty gravelly no flat ground in sight road! Stuff was flying everywhere and I am still amazed that some people actually managed to sleep throuh this journey!
So we arrived in to Uyuni early the following moring not so refreshed and went in search of our tour operator for the Sal Flats tour. Eventually got there and realsied that they werent as organised as we thought theyd be - working on Bolivian time! So about an hour later than planned after having being led around the town to get entry stamps into Chile, pawn off slightly ripped 20 dollar notes (this is almost impossible to do in South America , they check them wioth a fine tooth comb!), get some greasy scrambled egg and rent some sleeping bags that would suffice for the upcoming minus 20 weather we were soon loaded into our Toyota Landcruiser - old school model ! Ther was the 5 of us and one other guy from London who had the pleasure of travelling with us for the 3 days!

Our driver Wilson packed up our bags on the roof and the food in the back and soon we were on our way , first stop the train cemetery! her we climbed aboard some rotting rusting trains and took some ´pretending to drive trains´photos and then we were off again. The day followed in this typical fashion of Wilson stopping blabbling somehting in Spanish and us all climbing out to take phots , Jo and myself getting a bot of a workout each time as we had to clambber form the very back row of seats.

We saw some pretty amazing stuff along the way, you think the landscape isnt changing as you drive through what basically is a sesert but then you look out the window nad realise that every half an hour or so there is a dramatic change in whats happening on the ground, suddenly you feel like youre on the moon or that the place just got hit by a meterote shower , next youre driving across a pile of thick salt and then you see a mountain made of 7 different colours! Hopefully the phots will do it justice.
The actual salt flats are truly breathtaking as is the island where there are catuses growing everywhere including one that has recently died but was over 1000 years old. That night we stayed in a hostel made of salt , including hte beds and sat on stools made our of dead cactus - luckily not prickly! Here we had a bit of time to spare so I decided now that we were in the desert and the ground was relatively flat Id attempt a run - within 10 minutes I was freezing and felt like my lungs might actually be bleeding but managed to keep going for almost 20 minutes so hoping that little bit of trainign at altitude will make up for the serious lack of exercise recently!!

In this hostel - hotel we had a hot shower - quite a treat in Bolivia and we had a great night mingling with another jeep group that were from the same tour company as us and we knda went in convoy with for the 3 days. The salt beds turned out to be quite comfortable and we would gladly have enjoyed a lie in if it wasnt for the 5.30 breakfast call! We had to be up at this time in order to get to our next destination in time for were not sure what!!The day continued with the usual stop, hear the quick mumbled explanation in Spanish, clamber out, take some phots and quickly hoip back in before we freeze! We arrived at our accomodation for the night at about 3.30 and within 2 minutes of arriving we had decided the only way to get through the night was with alcohol so off we went in search of the nearest shop which in the middle of the desert surprisingly happened to be a 1 minute wask away. Between the ten of us we bought out basically her entire supply of beer, 2 bottles of classy rum and 2 bottles of Bolivan wine - this turned out to be surprisingly drinkable! We also bought about 15 bars of chocolate - basically there was nothing else to do here except warm up with some alcohol, play cards, eat chocolate nad try a fight for a place with 15 other people around the only source of heat in the whole building. This place was colder than the ice hotel so needless to say we put off going to bed as long as we could and then squashed 3 people into 2 beds to try and maximise body heat for the night! We were woken up at 4.40 by the drivers and told we had ten minutes to be ready - luckily we were all fully dressed so this wasnt too hard to accomplish!

The jeeps were packed up under the starlight and we huddled in under our sleeping bags trying to ignore the fact that we m,ight lose our toes in the cold - we were very proud of Damien who in true Aussie style was still sporting flip flops in these temperatures!! After a slight mechanical delay with one fo the other jeeps in our convoy (for some stupid reason they dont use anti freeze in the radiatiors here) we arrived at the natural geysers and realsied getting up at this unearthly hour and freezing was all worth it for the chance to see them in thier true beauty as the sun was rising through the steam. They were pretty smelly but gave off some good heat! After a few more stops at some coloourful lakes and the most amazing sight of flamingoes in the wiold in the middle of Bolivia we arrived at our treat - 25 degree thermal water baths ! After a quick as we could change into bikinis in the freezing cold beside the lake we jumped in to be greeted by the nicest feeling in 3 days - warmth at last!!! We all agreed this was a highlight of the tour, even better than the white chocolate bon bons we got served for breakfast afterwards!

The tour ended later that day when we were dropped at the Bolivian -Chile border. Soon we were at border control where I was a little worried about the bag of coca I was stillc arrying in my day pack. i quickly dispersed of this before the sniffer dogs boarded the bus for the check! Safely through the border we arrived int he cute town of San Pedro de Alcatama and this is where we are chilling out, doing laudry, enjoying hte sun and backing up photos until tomorrow morning when we will board a bus for Salta Argentina. After a shaky start here - we had planned to leave on next bus to Argentina but guide book misinformed us of bus schedules and turned out we couldnt get a bus for 2 days , followed by the news that all the ATMs were out of action because the power was off in the town and that we couldnt change the dollars we had as they had a millimetre rip in them we resigned ourself to relaxing nad enjoying the time we were given to spend here. Luckily the power came back on a few hours later nad we made a dash for the ATM machine before it got cut again! We cooked a meal for the first time since leaving home and were settled into bed by 8.30!! About to upload some photos now , will try my best to get as many up as possible! Until Argentina hope all is well with everyone, lotsa love J and J xoxox