05/09/2019 – Day 2 of the Uyuni Salt Flat excrsion, Bolivia

We got up at 06:30, packed our things, and were having breakfast by 0700. We had bread and scrambled eggs and apple juice and coffee. Then we brushed our teeth, grabbed our bags, and loaded everything onto the roof of the 4x4. We got driven to a small Quinoa museum, which was in a tiny settlement in what felt like the middle of nowhere! We drove through barren areas where apparently they farm mainly quinoa and some potatoes. They have pink quinoa, which looks really cool!

We drove cross-country and visited a handful of lakes next to each other, such as laguna Hedionda and Laguna Honda. They were beautiful, and to our amazement, were absolutely full of flamingos! They are such a cool colour and were really amusing to watch! We used the binoculars to really see the birds in detail, and took some photos through them too. We had lunch in a hut with a view across a flamingo filled salt lake. We had aubergine, pasta, green beans and carrots, plaintain and sweet potato with a glass of coca cola.

Next we drove to a stone forest, huge sandstone rock formations in the desert that have been eroded by sand being blown across by strong winds. The main attraction is the ‘Arbol de piedra’ or stone tree, a huge 7m rock shaped like a tree! We drove on to the ‘Laguna Colorada’ or red lake. This was absolutely beautiful! The red of the lake contrasted with the blue of the sky, and again filled with many flamingos eating their shrimp. We did an hour-long walk enjoying the view of the landscape. It was very windy, we were in hats scarves, gloves, coats, and still cold. I started to get pretty nervous for the night ahead as we had been warned this would be a very cold night! After our brisk walk we warmed up in the car on our way to our accommodation for the night. We arrived in daylight but it was very cold already! We got shown to our 6 bed dorm and given 20 minutes until we were served tea in a small round room with a little log burner which at least warmed us up a little bit! After tea Josh and I paid the 15 Bolivianos each for a hot shower, to help warm us up for the night ahead. The gas went out on my turn so I stood shivering in my microfibre towel whilst the tour guides sorted it out (we all found this quite amusing!) After showers it was dinner time. We had soup and a tomato ragu spaghetti. After dinner we got into bed. I was wearing a LOT of layers. I wore: a strappy vest top, a thin uniqlo thermal, a merhino wool thermal, a fleece, my puffa jacket, tights, merinho leggings, hiking socks. Then I got into my silk liner inside a fleece lined sleeping bag, under a bed sheet, 3 thick wool blankets and a bedspread. After a good 10 minutes I started to warm up and could feel my toes again. I was dreading needing the toilet in the night and getting cold again! Josh and I watched some Friends via the headphone splitter but the headphone port is broken so we have to hold the splitter in a certain way and Joshs hands got too cold holding it, so we retreated to our podcasts on our phones so we could be completely submerged under all our layers. Some of the others in our group didn’t have much practical stuff at all (I don’t think the Brasilian couple knew cold like it!) so I guess we were the better off in the group and we felt pretty lucky/prepared! The electricity was cut off from 10pm so that’s pretty much when we went to sleep, it is a bit funny sharing a dorm with 4 randoms, and I did hear a couple of people snoring! I think it was quite a broken sleep for everyone for many reasons – the cold, being in an unknown place, sharing with strangers, knowing we had an early start tomorrow e.t.c.