Steve's Latin American Adventure: Uyuni and the lagunas 18 Jan

So, after the thrills and spills of the jungle tours, following the advice of my lovely friends from Cuzco, I just bought my bus ticket down to Uyuni.Bus ride was a picnic compared to the "road of death experience", but was pretty bumpy for the last few hours as the road didn't have tarmac. Expected to be swamped by people selling me tours, but in fact, I kind of had to run after a woman who was walking off!! Didn't quite get the rock bottom price but still a good deal. So a few hours later, it was off to the salt flats for day 1 of a 3 day tour ending in San Pedro de Atacama, Chile.

Above is the ever-cheerful Alonso, a lovely guy from Costa Rica. We had plenty to talk about as his parents were from Peru. All seemed to bode well.

And as you can see above and below, the salt flats are quite stunning. More impressive than I'd expected. Walking on salt crystals in bare feet was a bit strange but really nice and cooling on the feet.

The obligatory group photo! With the three great Argentinian guys, Tonga (Gaston), Martin and José who I may be able to meet for a quick fruit juice in BA before I leave, then two lovely Brazilian girls, Natalia and Thaís and, of course, Alonso.

Well, every trick photo ever has been done at Uyuni. This almost worked. Surely get some credit for trying :)))

Muggins...

Sticking my camera out the window to take this may not have been the smartest idea, as it got gummed up with dust and refused to open 2 days later.

Day 2 started with the valley of stones...

Was so peaceful just sitting and enjoying the silence in this place. Did a little ritual which Silviu had taught us when he lead the massage workshop in Cuzco. Start with the feet shoulder width apart, palms down towards the earth and let the energy flow into your hands from mother earth. Breathing in, pass your hands past your lower chakras to your stomach area and offer any remaining energy back to the mother. Arms and palms up to the sky let the energy flow in from father Sky and breathing in, pass your hands down your chakras from head to navel before blowing out the remaining energy/air and throwing your hands forward. Nice....

This is the mountains surrounding the "stinky" lagoon. It only really stinks if you put your foot in it as one rather unfortunate/not very bright? Scandinavian tourist did. Same guy chucked a cigarette butt a few hours later and had to ask him to pick it up. I mean look at the place. You just wouldn't, right?

When they say pictures can't capture the moment, they're sooo right. I was just in heaven looking at this. The greens, blues, greys and pinks and whites were just utterly stunning.

so much so I had to put in two pics....

Every place just had a spectacularly beautiful energy. I could have gone to each one with a tent to meditate for days on end. And we saw them all in a day.

Here's one that Alonso kindly sent me. Cheers mate :)

A privilege to be able to be in these places... Strangely I kept thinking about the Iberian lynx....

Can't remember the name of this stone, but it was an obligatory photo opportunity. Sure there were quite a few other 4x4s around and quite a few tourists, but if you just walked 50m away and looked in the other direction and let your busy thoughts go away, the feeling of these places was just soooo special.

This is the "Red" lagoon... the mountains are rich with different minerals, giving the water this beautiful hue.

Ok, maybe I should have left this out...

Our trusty 4x4.

Just outside the place we slept on day 2 was a stupidly amazing landscape which wasn't part of the tour. We just saw it when we went out to stretch our legs. When the sun dipped below the horizon, it got very cold, very quickly. Does happen in the Altiplano, all over 4000m.

Morning of day 3 was the geysers.

The one below was actually not a natural one, just a borehole used to try to get to water. After seeing another guy run through it, I decided to do the same. My hat must have gone a good 5m into the air... most amusing.

And then my camera refused to open, which is why the following pics are all thanks to Alonso. The green lagoon (not enough wind so not really green)...