Wendy

Today we were up and out by 5:30am in order to see the sun rise over the 10,000 square kilometers that comprise the Uyuni Salt Flats. As we arrived in the dark, Eddie turned off his headlights and drove by the light of the moon across the bright white expanse. It felt as if we were in the arctic driving across the ice.

We stopped to admire the pinks and oranges of dawn before driving on to Isla Incahuasi, a volcanic rock hill covered with cacti right in the center of the flats. Extraordinary.

As we drove to the town of Uyuni, we stopped in the train cemetary filled with decrepit locomotives  from the turn of the century when Uyuni was a hub for transporting salt, silver and minerals from Bolivia to Chile.

We ended our tour, saying goodbye to our travel companions Alex, Jack and of course Eddie, and checking into La Petite Porte hotel…an incredible haven of taste, calm and comfort (not to mention showers with very hot water!) in the middle of the dumpy, tourist crossroads town of Uyuni.

Alexis

Nous quittons le ´confort’ de nos chambres de sel à 5:30, direction le fameux salar de Uyuni, l’une des merveilles de l’Amerique du sud, pour assister au lever du soleil sur 10 000 km2 aussi immaculés et lisses que le crâne de mon frère. On se croirait au pôle nord (ou sud j’imagine).

Il fait froid mais cela ne nous empêche nullement de nous allonger pour quelques photos, certes pas très originales ici, mais on se marre bien c’est l’essentiel.

Ensuite nous nous arrêtons sur une petite île plantée au milieu du Salar et piquée de cactus.

Petite pose avec Eddie (c’est la lune au dessus), puis nous repartons vers Uyuni et son cimetières de trains (la ville était un hub ferroviaire très important pour l’acheminement du minerais extrait de Potosi).

Nous terminons dans un havre de paix au milieu de cette ville de transit: la petite porte.

Ode à Evo Morales, qui est loin de faire l’unanimité dans le pays aujourd’hui – le niveau de corruption ayant atteint des niveaux inédits d’après les gens avec lesquels j’ai pu échanger sur le sujet. Morales a suscité énormément d’attentes de la part de la population (surtout dans les campagnes), mais son seul objectif aujourd’hui semble être de changer la constitution pour se faire réélire (à coups de référendums)… Classique.

 

Sam

We woke up at 5:00am to go see the sunrise in the middle of the salt flats of Uyuni. The sunrise was amazing and we got to take many fun pictures, taking advantage of the huge open space covered in white. For example, we used perspective to make people seem smaller than others. We then visited an island in the middle of the huge white flats. It was covered in cacti and we had a nice breakfast behind the car. We then set out for Uyuni. Once on the outskirts of the town, we stopped at the train grave. Many old steam engines were just there, rusting. After that, we entered the town of Uyuni where our driver left us and we had lunch with our two Dutch friends: Alex and Jack. After lunch, we found our Hotel which was great! At night, we went to a restaurant which had an old steam engine as a bar.