Day three is all about the salt flats proper, after a couple more hours crammed into the back of the Cruiser we were onto the salt flats, some welcome respite from being bounced around in the back of the Cruiser. The flats are almost completely flat, there is a total of eight meters variation in height across the entire salt flats.
Loading up on our final morning
Immediately noticeable was the vast expanse of nothingness, at some points as far as the eye can see all you can see is salt. Our first stop on the salt flats was Isla de los Pescados, home to giant cacti, from there we headed across the flats in the direction of Uyuni.
Gen posing with a massive cactus
Along the way we stopped for the customary photos of someone small being held by somebody big. Made possible by the massive distance to anything recognisable.
Grant on chips
Gen on chips
Don't squash me!!!
Chip from a Giant
After short stops at the old salt hotel, now no longer used because it was polluting the salar, the salt mines and Colchani for lunch we were on our way to our final destination, Uyuni. Or progress was halted briefly to replace a flat tyre, our second for the trip but after some expert team work by our drivers we were back on the road. The final location we would visit was the train graveyard on the outskirts of Uyuni, a bit of a tribute to the rail history of Bolivia, or maybe a heap of rusting metal, you be the judge.
Salt mine
Yep its f..d
Flat numero dos
Train graveyard
Standard train graveyard pose
Mike, Olivia and one big pizza in Uyuni
To summarise our trip, were we glad we did it? For sure! We didn’t really have too many complaints, the food was all pretty fresh, the salads for lunch were a welcome break from the endless bread of Chile and Argentina. Perhaps my biggest complaint was that the driver seemed more rushed than he needed to be, on some sections of the track we were travelling pretty fast with the second car in our group travelling a whole lot slower but still getting as much time at each viewpoint. All in all though we had a great time, saw some amazing sites and met some fantastic people.