This is...mi vida

Uyuni and the tundra of the Salt Flats

Ale told me Bolivia was cold and oh my god was she right. Freezing, below 0, no heat in the hostel or pretty much anywhere else for that matter, cold.

I got to Uyuni and tried to look for a cab, this town is the size of a postage stamp so of course there weren´t any, but for 1 am it was pretty lively with 2 stands selling fried things. I was still fairly creeped out, maybe it´s the menacing 20 ft, rusted iron statue of a machine women reaching her claws out to the street that is the first thing I saw when I got out of the station.

But, bundled in my newly bought gloves and hat (sorry Kristyn I lost yours on my first bus in Bolivia)I walked the two blocks to the hostel international and waited outside with the 20 other backpackers who´d just gotten off the train.

I was a jerk and walked to the front of the line and got the first room because I´d called ahead and had a reservation. I actually thought the hostel had an open roof because it was so unbearably cold (wrong) and went to my single room, a bonus, and slept with all of my clothes on, hat included, and hoped I wouldn´t die of hypothermia.

My hypothermia fears were unwarranted because I woke up warm. I headed out to town and got a 2 day Saltar tour with two other girls. The hostel actually had hot showers and after praising all the powers in the universe for my luck I headed out for the tour.

The two other girls were from japan and spoke virtually no Spanish or English. There were also two older couples in the jeep as well, both from Buenos Aires. One couple of active retires were nice and chatty, the other were unstable walking and extremely hard of hearing. Which was nice because I got to hear everything in Spanish repeated twice.

To the salt flats. The salt flats were warm in the day and beautifully surrounded by mountains. Pure, blinding white and hard and crunchy to walk on. Bolivia sells the salt internally something like $7 USD for 1000 kg, not a money making venture. And only 15 to 20 people work the flats, but hand at any given time.

We went to an "island" of the fish. A large hill 2 hours into the salt, covered by ancient Cati with birds and butterfly's. I had a winded, maybe I'm suffering from altitude sickness because I´ve had a headache for the entire day, hike to the lookout. The 360 degree view spectacular, pure white and mountains shouldn´t be so stunning but it is.

More later....this is to long already.

entrada de Stacey @ 6:22