buses trains & automobiles

i arrived in antofagasta, had a cold shower and went directly to bed!  the next morning, i traveled to calama to catch a train to uyuni, bolivia. the train left at 11pm, 3 nights a week, and it was due to arrive in uyuni at 6pm the following evening. the seats on the train were hard, did not recline and were rather close and uncomfortable. i tried not to imagine how horrible the trip could've been if the train had been sold out. the train trip itself started out poorly - 15 mins into the trip, we were delayed by about an hour for unknown reasons. and then, around 9:30am the following morning, we arrived at ollague, which is the border town between chile and bolivia. we sat in this tiny pueblo for 3.5 hours, waiting for a new locomotive to take us to bolivia. for political reasons, the chilean locomotive is not allowed to enter bolivia.  why they didn't plan ahead and have one waiting, i'll never know :)  we arrived in uyuni only 3.5 hours later than scheduled, having traveled 400km in 22 hours or an average of 13km/hr.  luckily the method of transport was cheap as it certainly wasn't fast, nor comfortable! 

i met up with louis in uyuni (i met him in buenos aires) quite accidentally and we booked a tour of the salt flats together. we planned on doing a 4 day tour (3 days for me as i was heading back to chile to finish the northern part). we headed out in a landrover with a guide and three other guests.

first, we visit the salar de uyuni which is a huge salt flat, about 2,000 square kilometers in size and a range of depth from 11cm to 8m deep.  it was an awesome sensation, driving through all this salt (kind of like snow) with that being all you could see in the distance.  we stopped in a small pueblo where 8 to 10 families pick the salt and truck it to nearby towns (like uyuni) and sell it.  there are also underground salt lakes and rivers which are freezing in temperature!  we had lunch on isla de pescado (fish island) which was filled with cactus plans and coral as it had once been submerged under a salt lake.  we then spend the night in san juan.

the second day involved seeing a couple of lakes (some red and some bright green due to the mineral composition) and some with flamingos!!  we were at a high altitude on the second day especially and i turned quite ill because of it!  we were ranging from 4,000 to 4,600m above sea level on the second day (we started off in uyuni at around 3,600m) and i felt horrid :(  i had a headache, i was freezing and i was sick to my stomach multiple times in the night. we spent the night at 4,278m above see level and the next morning, we climbed to 5,000m to see some geyers early in the morning before slowly starting to descend into the valley.  we stopped and had breakfast and a dip in a hot spring and i was finally starting to feel better again.  by the time we reached san pedro de atacama, at 2700m, i was feeling brilliant and needing some food, finally!  it was a great trip, though chilly at times :)

miss you!

sarah 

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