No Fixed Plans

We were meant to be leaving the hotel at 8:30 but we didn’t leave until 8:45 due to me accidentally sleeping in and only waking up to reception calling my room phone at 8:35 (oops 😬)

However this didn’t end up affecting anything as we still arrived in Uyuni at 12:30. 

Everyone but me had signed up to take professional photos on the reflective parts of the salt flats (our route for the next few days didn’t go to the part) so everyone still had time to go and eat before the 2:30 departure. 

After they all left I had went to go and eat- I went to a place that my ceo recommended and had pancakes and a banana peanut butter smoothie, all for about $7.50AUD (it’s really hard to find a meal in Bolivia for more than $10AUD) and then went back to the hotel to shower and reorganise my bag as most things just got quickly shoved in that morning. 

After then waiting for it to hit 5pm (7am Melbourne time) I tried calling my mum, who took a few times to answer. Confusing, given it was 7am on a Saturday. 

We got off the phone at 7:30pm Bolivian time and I decided to go get takeaway pizza so I knew I’d be back when the group got back (they were due back between 8:30pm and 9pm and the ceo was doing a meeting after everyone ate- they were getting pizzas delivered). 

We all ate, listened to the plan for the next few days and they all showed me the photos they had taken on their phones before we all went to bed. 

The next morning half of us had a late-ish breakfast in the hotel before going to repack our stuff for an 11am checkout. Most of us then went to look at a souvenir shop and to the grocery store for snacks for the next few days before looping back to the hotel, stopping for coffees on the way. 

At 11:45 our ceo showed us the folded map she had properly and explained where we would be stopping before the 3 jeeps that had been hired turned up and we all split to go onto the salt flats. 

Our first stop was at these abandoned train tracks where we could all climb onto the trains and take photos. We then walked over to these sculptures that had been made from recycled train parts before attempting  to get back into the jeeps. The issue was is that one of the cars was having engine problems and when we went over, all three of the drivers were attempting to fix it. The 4 that were in the car revealed that they had stopped on the way there and the driver had picked up something for the car before they continued. After about 20 minutes (and our ceo making a few angry phone calls to the provider with no answer), they finally got the cars fixed.

We then made a stop at a place that had a labyrinth for us to go through and sculptures made out of salt. After the labyrinth and taking photos, we all then headed off to take perspective photos on the salt. 

We took about 1.5 hours doing this as we were all having fun setting it up. 

We then went on this solid dirt mountain that was a pretty common walk/hike while on the salt flats. On the way down, our ceo showed us the way to an archway that wasn’t as well known about. 

We then headed to an area near the hotel where we could watch and take photos of the sunset. Before the sun started setting our ceo did a meditation exercise with us and had brought some alcohol for us to cheers with but it turns out that at one of the stops, the drivers had bought some local alcohol and 7up as an apology for the start of the day and prepared us all a drink. 

We then headed to the hotel, had dinner and we all played a few games before going to bed. 

The next morning we all had to get up early as we were leaving at 6:30am to start crossing the desert. 

The first stop was at a local quinoa place where we all looked before continuing. 

We then went to an abandoned railway track where the ceo took a video of us all pretending to be a train. 

We then went to a shop near a local volcano that sold llama sausages which most of the group got. 

We then continued driving into a protected area that had hundreds of flamingos in the lake. 

This is where we had lunch that the drivers had set up for us. 

We kept going, stopping at a mountain and all of us quickly getting back into the cars due to how windy it was. 

We continued on to a lagoon that between 3 and 4pm looks more red than any other part of the day (which is the reason we left so early). We saw more flamingos, took advantage of the bathroom stop, and then continued on to the hotel. 

After getting to the hotel, we all chose to pay for the wifi before showering (the previous hotel didn’t have hot water whereas this one did). 

We all had dinner, played cards then went to bed

The next morning we packed up the cars for the last day and headed for the hot springs. On the way we stopped as we saw a heard of llamas on the street so we stopped to say hi. 

We then continued, spent about an hour there and then set up for lunch. 

After lunch the ceo set up the envelope for the tipping, majority of us choosing to just give majority of our left over bolivianos to them and just saving a bit for the bathroom stops. 

We then headed for the Chile boarder, stopping at the green lake and the white lake for photos.