Uyuni Salt Flats: Rainbow lakes and Llamas sporting fancy earrings

There is always a travellers check list for every new country you visit. Argentina, you should eat copious amounts of steak, drink good wine in Mendoza, watch tango in Buenos Aires and visit Iguazu falls. Check! Chile is looking out over the colourful hills of Valparaiso, enjoying Pisco in Santiago, frazzling to a crisp in the driest desert on earth. Done! We now have a whole new set of boxes to mark in Bolivia. The number one of everyone's list is to visit Salar De Uyuni.

This is a huge, old lake that has a thick, salty crust that looks exactly like snow. Everywhere we go there are tour companies offering tours going here, and we decided to take it from Tupiza, as I mentioned in my last post.

I can't really put into words the things we saw and experienced over the 4 day tour, it was all so breathtaking. When I look back at the photos, the landscape still looks awesome, but doesn't really do it justice!

The tour from Tupiza consists of 3 days of travelling through national park and the highlands in Bolivia, and the final day spent on the salt flats.

Highlights for me included getting up close with some incredibly cute and proud llamas, bathing in hot springs surrounded by mountains, the Colorado lagoon which is a lake that's bright red because of the algae where flamingoes hang out, and finally the morning spent on the salt flats.

We did the usual perspective photos, and when it was time to head back, the driver let all 4 of us sit on the roof. As we were driving a huge flock of flamingoes flew over head, so we followed them for a while, before branching off.

I will never forget the amazing pleasure of unfolding out of a truck after several hours driving, nor will I forget the white, furry little fella in the pictures below too quickly!

If only crossing things of a list was always this much fun to do!












































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