Uyuni, part dos

Here are more pictures of the bizarre landscapes from the rest of our three day tour in the Bolivian Altiplano. During the tour we started at an altitude of 12,000 feet and during the trip we got up to 16,600 feet. So we were really huffing and puffing at certain points. The last two days of the trip were a lot of driving with short stops for pictures. In true South American style, there were seven of us plus a driver crammed into an SUV only meant for 6. We managed to have a good time, though. In our car were the two Brazilians, two girls from Czech Republic, one girl from Slovakia, and us. Oh, and our Bolivian driver. So there was an interesting mix of languages going around.

 

a hungry fox

flamingos- there are only a few in this picture but there were hundreds over the entire lake

just to give you an idea of how far away from everything we were

it was very cold and windy up here!

Seth being Seth, again

Arbol de Piedra (Rock Tree) This rock was formed this way from the wind



The second night we stayed at a hostel even more basic than the first one. And much colder. I´m not sure how cold it was that night, but the next morning the puddles outside were frozen over. We slept with all bundled up, even with hats and gloves. Seth also happened to get pretty sick again in the middle of the night. He can sure pick the best times for that to happen. So we didn´t get much sleep and had to get up at 5am to leave for our third day. Luckily, he was already feeling better by that afternoon.

 end of day 2- the entire group at dinner in the hostel/shelter

we taught everyone how to play the card game spoons- we had to improvise with dice since we didn´t have enough spoons

day 3- geysers at 6:30am. there were several sets of these huge geysers, as well as boiling mud

natural hot springs in the desert- we had planned on getting in but it was only 7am and so cold...

our group

resting vicuna- we saw lots of wild ones all over

Laguana Colorada (Red Lake)- Normally its much more red, but since there wasn´t enough wind to stir up the red minerals inside, we saw a mirror finish instead. There were lots of flamingos at this lake, too.

llamas

This place is called La Ciudad Perdida de Italia (Lost City of Italy). It was named that because the rocks look so much like buildings in a city. We climbed to the top of one to get this picture.

More from the lost city. These rocks have also been shaped by the wind.

Seth and I in the Lost City

Some type of rice plant that is grown in the desert

Seth and I on the edge of a canyon. There was a little stream with llamas way down at the bottom.

We got back to Uyuni around 6pm on Monday, the 25th. Since we weren´t able to take showers for our entire 3-day trip, the first thing we did was find a place to clean up. After that, we went out to dinner with our group from the trip. All seven of us were taking the same train that night to Oruro (on our way to La Paz) and had lots of time to kill. Our train left Uyuni at 1:45am. So we sat at the pizza place, then used the internet until they closed at 11pm. We walked over to the freezing train station and waited. Time went by pretty quickly since there were several of us waiting together. The girls from Czech Republic were nice enough to share a sleeping bag with us while we waited. Finally our train came (it was just as cold on the train) and we arrived in Oruro around 9:30am. From there, we immediately took a bus to La Paz, where we are now.  We got here around 2pm on Tuesday. So, needless to say, we were absolutely exhausted when we got to La Paz. More about La Paz in the next post!

Trying to stay warm in the train station. These are the girls from Czech Republic/Slovakia and an unidentified Bolivian to my right.

Getting off the train in Oruro before heading to La Paz