Went out to watch the sunset on Tuesday night. Not that impressive but I took a few photos and accidentally left the camera on 'sunset mode' all day Wednesday, which accounts for any pronounced orangeness on some of the photos (not all, fortunately). There was a steady wind and it was a bit cold but OK. While out there I tested my lungs at altitude by treating the desolate hillside to acapella versions of a few of my favourite songs. Surprisingly OK (my handling of the altitude, not the songs).
Dinner was pretty OK, in fact all the meals on the trip were fine, despite my concerns. I guess if it's sufficiently basic my quirks don't have a chance to come into play.
Didn't sleep that well. Each car of 6 people shared a room, sleeping with that many people actually didn't bother me, but the bed was terrible. The sheets just wouldn't stay on, I woke up about 2am and fumbled for my phone, read a book on it under what blankets I could retain and finally managed to fall into a slightly fitful doze. Got up about 6:45.
Wednesday was both interesting and dull.
We went to the Stone Tree, which is a rock that looks vaguely like a tree if you squint at it from the right angle and haven't seen a tree for a few years.
There were a number of other largish rocks nearby and everyone engaged in a little amateur rock climbing. This scared me shitless but was quite entertaining at the same time. I had an excessively vivid picture of losing a handhold or my footing and crashing down, probably bouncing once or twice en route. They weren't particularly high, maybe 10-15m, but there were no 'paths' or anything, it was a bit 'take it as you find it'. Bit tiring but especially given the altitude (I can now say I have rock climbed at 4000m, even if I drove 99% of the way up there) I didn't feel I did too badly.
Later that day we got bogged down crossing some outer part of the 'salt' pan. A guy had got a puncture ahead of us, our driver apparently misinterpreted his gesture as a "don't drive through this bit, drive through that bit" gesture and we got stuck. Another car then came up beside us and got stuck too.
No big deal, a certain amount of pushing and digging and we were out. I half suspected it was a deliberate spot of interest added to the trip, but since the other car-load of people didn't get stuck I guess not. We got to the hostel two hours later than the other group, although we ran behind them the entire trip for some reason, and we were only stuck for about 45 mins according to someone else.
We were staying in a 'salt hotel' at the edge of the Uyuni salt flats. The hotel and most of the furniture was all made out of blocks of salt. The floor was powdered rock salt. Basically, it was made of salt.
We played cards - I think the game was called Shithead, though I am not sure. I did very badly but could have been worse given I had never played before. Deeply embarrassed at my complete inability to shuffle, I will have to take five minutes to learn at some time.
Shared a twin room with the Swiss guy. The roof leaked a bit and they shut the lights off completely at about 9pm, but the bed was fairly comfortable and the sheets stayed on so I managed to sleep OK.
Very long day, a lot of sitting in the car and feeling my legs cramp up.
Thursday was also a lot of driving. We left the hotel and drove for about an hour across the flooded salt flat (apparently the largest in the world) to an island in the middle. Amazing views en route though as the water acted like a mirror.
At the island we climbed up some hill with lots of cactuses, taking a number of the inevitable humorous pictures, then out onto the edge of the salt flat for more pictures exploting the open space for tricks with perspective (people standing on each other's heads, that kind of thing).
We then drove about another 2-3h across the salt flats, getting lost en route (my GPS was helpful, if only as a glorified compass), stopping briefly at an old salt hotel in the middle of the flat (this is no longer permitted, that one is now a museum) then eventually getting to Uyuni at about 5pm.
It was pretty smooth driving across the salt flat, if odd to be driving through water continuously. As soon as we got onto the 'proper' road it was obvious just how smooth it was, the 'proper' road was terrible. We suspect, although I hope it won't be the case, that the road to Potosi tomorrow will be similar.
Oh yes, there was an ostrich on the island in the salt flat. I got what I personally consider some quite cool photos, at one point it wandered up to within a couple of meters of me.
Will give my waffly impressions of Uyuni some other time, it's nearly midnight and I should be moving towards bed.
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