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  1. #1
    Fag an bealac!
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    Salar de Uyuni Bolivia

    Salar de Uyuni(salt flats)
    I did a 4 day 3 night trip through the salt flats in southern Bolivia, the trip cost 600 Bolivianos which is around $100 US. included in the price were 3 meals per day, accommodation and an english speaking guide. what we got were 3 snacks per day, very basic accommodation and a guide who didn't speak a word of english, but we didn't really expect anything more cause thats just the way things are in Bolivia.

    The tour starts in Uyuni, a small town with a few restaurants, a couple of chemists, a colourful sunday market and a ton of tour companies.
    with dusty streets and buildings made of mud and straw there isn't many other reasons for being here apart from doing the salt flats tour.






  2. #2
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    looks a bit desperate, what was the atmosphere like?


    Good start, was going to red you the other day but i forgot

  3. #3
    Fag an bealac!
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    so on to the tour

    we started off by stopping at a locomotive graveyard just outside of Uyuni, loads of old steam train rusting in the desert beside the main train track from Bolivia to Chile.




  4. #4
    Fag an bealac!
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    After a 40 minute drive we arrived to the salt flats. looks like snow and is really tough on the eyes without sunglasses.
    a bit of info on the salt flats...........

    Salar de Uyuni (or Salar de Tunupa) is the world's largest salt flat at 10,582 km² (4,085 square miles). It is located in the Potosí and Oruro departments in southwest Bolivia, near the crest of the Andes, 3,650 meters high. The major minerals found in the salar are halite and gypsum.


    Some 40,000 years ago, the area was part of Lake Minchin, a giant prehistoric lake. When the lake dried, it left behind two modern lakes, Poopó Lake and Uru Uru Lake, and two major salt deserts, Salar de Coipasa and the larger Uyuni. Uyuni is roughly 25 times the size of the Bonneville Salt Flats in the United States.



    we stopped for our lunch in a little village made from........... you guessed it salt



    tables and chairs all made from salt

  5. #5
    Fag an bealac!
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    some girls we found stuck to the salt


    with it being so flat you kind of lose perspective, everyone that goes there does a few of the mandatory funny pictures


    in the distance you can see a few islands, they kinda look like they are floating above the ground


  6. #6
    Fag an bealac!
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    this is fish island, named so because it is in the shape of a fish.








  7. #7
    Fag an bealac!
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    i have to say that this was some of the most spectacular scenery that i have ever seen, why people choose to live there is beyond me. there were little villages in the most odd places i would give you the names of these places but as i said our driver didn't speak a word of english and our spanish wasn't up to much.

    this is the old church


    and the new one


    this area is meant to look like the surface of the moon
    didn't look like cheese to me



  8. #8
    Fag an bealac!
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    i can't give you much info on these next pictures apart from it was discovered 5 years ago and its a burial ground



    English people come out of the holes after dark






    view from inside looking out


  9. #9
    Fag an bealac!
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    there were a few lagoons throughout the tour with loads of flamingoes, i saw 3 different types.

    the lagoons kinda stunk, the white you can see is sulpher






    this was the most impressive lagoon called Laguna Colorada(red lake)






  10. #10
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    great stuff Flash. had a mate you lived in Bolivia, it sounds pretty poor and desperate.

  11. #11
    Fag an bealac!
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    yeah its really poor, some of the ugliest people on the planet as well

  12. #12
    On a walkabout Loy Toy's Avatar
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    Absoluely incredible pictures flash and thank you for sharing them with us.

    I half expected to see Clint Eastwood in one of those early pictures with his Sombrero and a piece of straw hanging out of his mouth.

    Hope there are more to come!

  13. #13
    Fag an bealac!
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    we finished off the tour by getting up at 4am and driving in the dark to see some geysers. it was that cold there was ice on the inside of the windows there were much more geysers but i wasn't getting out to take pictures



    we got up so early to watch the sunrise from a natural hot spring, we were questioning if it was worth it or not but when we got into the 30 degree water it worked out just fine




    we finished off the tour by driving through the salvador dali desert




    our trusty steed


  14. #14
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    Quote Originally Posted by flash
    some of the ugliest people on the planet as well
    hope you got some pics to back that statement up mate.

  15. #15
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    Thanks fro the trip report. Some very harsh looking landscapes there.

  16. #16
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    Thank you for a great post, don't think I would like to live there. 100 U$ for 3 days was tremendous value for money. One thing though - what was the food like?

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    Musta been some experience, great pics and tx for sharing them.

  18. #18
    Fag an bealac!
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    Quote Originally Posted by mediamanbkk
    what was the food like?
    The food in Bolivia is ok, just ok. saltenas are a pretty good street snack, i mostly ate chicken and rice, had some bbq llama which was pretty good. it wasn't fine dining but i didn't lose any weight all the same.

  19. #19
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    Great pics. Uyuni looks a bit less desolate than it did in 1989- must be the tourist dollar. Was stuck their for two nights, waiting for transport to Potosi.
    There don't seem to be many of those large hexagonal salt crystals around Flash, they were really quite amazing- about two foot in diameter. I wonder why- there were whole plains of them before.

  20. #20
    Thailand Expat terry57's Avatar
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    Thanks for the piccys

  21. #21
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    Interesting stuff...but looks a bit austere...

    can you tell us why the water is red here?..

  22. #22
    Fag an bealac!
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    The red water is caused by microorganisms in the water, it looks like blood. really unusual

  23. #23
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    Very unique and unusual. Beautiful really.
    Awesome pictures. Would you recommend the tour to others?

  24. #24
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    Great pics Flash,I suppose the P4P scene is limited??

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