22/1/09 - 4 days, 3 nights away.
Met at the hotel 1st thing for the start of the tour & met our guides & fellow group members! There were 2 4WD jeeps with 2 guides, Mama the cook & 8 travellers.
We got unlucky & got the 2 young Swedish girls (Felicia 20 years & Anja 19 years!), much to J's dissapointment! Our guide was called Bernado (only had 1 eye! Good as he was driving!). Went to the market to get a lead for my i pod & some more coca leaves & some smelly cheese!
I pod lead did not fit & as the girls had had their's nicked we only had 2 Bolivian CD's to listen to for 4 days!
Drove along & saw some rock formations, stopped at a small place for lunch which turned out to be Bernado's Mum's house, she gave him some dodgy looking cheese for the trip. We asked for the toilet & they pointed outside & said 'Natural', that's where it all started .
Met the rest of the group after the first breakdown of their jeep & Bernado had to fix it, change the bearing in the wheel. Good start! After many more days of Bernado fixing the jeeps Anja nicknamed him Diablo's Bitch (Devils Bitch), Diablo being the other driver but J wouldn't let her say it to his face though.
Other group were 2 French guys, Father & adopted son (the son later became Chipmonkey), and 2 Austrian girls, one definaylt called Fabienne.
Drove most of the day & arrived at our 1 st night stop in the middle of nowhere. Played basketball with the kids, died due to lack of breath at altitude. The young girls then went on to beat the other girls in the group & won a bottle of coke!
No showers, no electricity just gas lamps, nice dinner cooked by Mama. Chipmonkey left the dinner table in a hump as everyone was talking English & he only spoke French! Very early night in our room with the girls after teaching them to play Black Jack.
23/1/09
Up at 5am for 12 hours driving (with 2 cd's) to the next night stop near Lagoon Colarado!
Saw an active volcano & Pink Flamingo's loads of them.
Stopped for a swim in the hot springs pool, which was like a paddling pool! Still made up for having no shower for a few days I guess!
Arrived & played cards with the girls & drank red wine. My head was still pounding later found out it was the altitude) & J's tummy/bottom was dodgy!
24/1/09
Cried in the morning as rubbish nights sleep & my head felt like it was going to explode. Bernado gave me some tablets for the altitude bless him & they worked, result!!!
Girls named our jeep the 'Coche de fiesta' (party bus) & the other jeep 'Coche de carma' (sleepy bus). Each time we pulled up next to them we whacked the music up & wound down the windows & sung 'Ooopa, ooopah! We later found out that their CD player was broken hee hee!
Arrived at the Salt Hotel, where the whole hotel was made of salt, even the chandeliers! Had hot showers (charge 1 bol!) all except Anja (no surprise there!) then sat & played cards, ate dinner (spag bol) & more red wine & cheeky Vodka's! Went to bed in the dorm with the girls again, made shadow puppets & told ghost stories! Oooooooooh spooky! Giggled lots!
25/1/09
Up at the crack of dawn so we could watch the sunrise over the Uyuni Salt Flats.
The whole place looked like snow & ice as far as the eye could see. Wicked sunrise.
Went for a walk on & around an island to look out before coming down to breakfast out of the back of the jeep, hot chocolate & cereal, yum!
Drove out onto he salt flats & took some silly pictures as there was no perspective.
Chipmonkey was christened after his funny photo where he looked like a cheeky chipmunk, he really didn't get it!
Went to the Salt museum, boring!
Stopped for our last lunch on the way to Uyuni & gave the guys a tip for such a great trip.
Arrived in Uyuni late afternoon on their election day, voting in the new constitution. All the roads were shut but the jeeps drove in anyway & then later got the jeeps conviscated, not to be released until the next day after a hefty fine! Silly guides!
They took me to the doctor to get a certificate to say I needed to get to a hospital for my altitude as this would then get the trucks released. I had a full exam at the docs & he wrote me a prescription for some more Puncaps which Bernado paid for on behalf of the company. This still didn't work & when we left the next day they were probably still there!
Uyuni was a sh** hole no need to go there again. The naughty girls nearly got thrown out of the hostel for bringing boys back & breaking the bed from jumping on it!
Said farewell (for the time being)to the girls & left on the bus the next morning glad to get out of Uyuni!
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