The journey to the Salt Flats begins — Tupiza, Bolivia
The day started with an early breakfast and at the table next to us was a nice couple, they introduced themselves and asked if we were going on the Salt Flats tour today, so it turned out that Rob and Birdy (Emma) were going to be our buddies for the next few days. We were very pleased! The hostel owner came to grab us, saying it was time to leave and we met our guide and cook for the next few days, an adorable older couple called Ponchito and Filomena. They were very happy people and looked so typically Bolivian. She had a nice skirt, a colourful skirt and long plats, down to her bum almost, tied together at the bottom - the only thing she was missing, was a Bolivian hat. We set off and Ponchito said that today would be a long drive, with not too many stops for photos, but that we shouldn't be disheartened by this, because the following days would be a lot more fun! As we were in a comfortable Toyota Landcruiser, it didn't phase us. In the car we were chatting lots to Rob and Birdy, getting to know lots about them and their trip. They are from Leeds (which was a lovely surprise for me and made me remember happy uni days!) and they are travelling for four months in total. It was a really fun car ride and we all got on well. Ponchito was great at pointing out various wildlife, from vicuñas to llamas, he told us a lot about the scenery and generally seemed like a fantastic guide! We, or the girls more so, loved the llamas!! A lot of them have colourful tassels on their heads, probably to identify who the owner is and they have enormous eyelashes!!! So adorable. We were told that previously, llamas as well as donkeys were heavily used for transport and would sometimes have to travel for 20 days to carry salt and other items. One of our first stops was the "Quebrada de Palala", a spectacular jagged rock formation. In the area you can get very high winds and also in the rain season the water erodes a lot of stones, often leaving remarkable rock formations behind. We were climbing quite high along the road, dans the scenery was just spectacular! The mountains are enormous, some of them resembling volcanoes, others very barren, some with bright hues of red, orange, brown. It just seemed that every corner we turned, we would see something new and fabulous! Apart from the wildlife, there were also a lot of giant cacti everywhere. It made us realise just how huge Bolivia is and how much there is to see... Ponchito was telling us about the natural riches of Bolivia, how much gold can be found and how economically stable the country would be if only there was enough expertise and the people weren't so complacent about studying engineering and weren't so lazy. We stopped at more outlooks, with incredible views of the valleys and our first lunch stop was in a little village with about 20 inhabitants. Fill got to work on the lunch and produced immense culinary wonders - we had rice, potato, schnitzel, salad and dessert! She is just a master and we were so happy to have her!! After lunch we spotted some kids playing a game and went to join them. It consisted of throwing rocks into a designated small ring made of other rocks. We tried our Spanish a bit to ask them their names and my favourite was a little two year old boy, whose five year old brother took great care of him. We gave them some lolly pops and pears and they looked extremely pleased! We continued our trip and were stopped by an old man selling a giant egg, it turned out it was an ostrich egg and we bought it to have for breakfast the next day. Although later we did find out that it is illegal to have them, oops. After this we continued on our journey and after some more lengthy driving, we reached a "ghost town", San Antonio, at an altitude of 4690m. This had some really interesting ruins, all dating back to pre-hispanic times. Once upon a time it was famous for its gold mines and wealth, however according to local legends the devil came to rule here and forced the inhabitants to flee! Shortly after we entered the national park and made our way to the first overnight stop. It was a cool little brick house, in the middle of a village. Around the accommodation were a lot of grazing llamas and once again we laughed at their colourful tassels. We had a room to share between four and were happy to see that each bed had three hugely warm blankets. It was a nice set up, just no hot showers, that was the downfall. Filomena made us some tea and biscuits and we chatted for a while, then some local children arrived and some and played a few traditional songs for us, which was lovely. After it was time for dinner and she had prepared a delicious soup to start with and then a beautiful lasagne, which was fantastic! She is definitely a whizz in the kitchen!! We were all pretty tired and so had an early night. We tried to tell scary stories with a torch, but everyone had the giggles too much.