Uyuni (Pans) and Tupiza - Bolivia

Heading slowly towards the Argentinian border we hit Uyuni, a desolate place in the middle of desert like conditions renowned for its icy cold winds. Strange though, this is a truly beautiful area and we've seen some of the most amazing scenery anywhere on the trip. Another friendly town, which like everywhere else we've been, if you chat to the locals their extremely friendly in return. This is a military town and we were right next to the base. Waking to the marching and singing drills it was quite surreal, if you were out and about at 0800, you had to stop, remove your hat and it was an offence to take any pictures. We stayed at Tonito Hotel a great place which held the title of the best pizzas in Bolivia, they were good and along with an all you can eat American style breakfast we were sorted for food.
A thoroughly enjoyable full days outing here was a visit to the Salar de Uyuni, one of the worlds most eerie and stunning sights. Deadly quiet, a whispering breeze, blindingly white and a cobalt blue sky and me, truly it was incredible. These salt flats are the largest in the world at a height of 3653m they cover 12,106 sq km. The thickness of the salt ranges from 3 metres to 27 metres and there are piles racked into 1 ton pyramids all awaiting collection. All this combines to play tricks on your minds eye which is great for photography. This is also the main area for salt extraction and the Colchani operation is nearly 20,000 tons of which 18,000 tons is for human consumption.
First we stop off at the steam locomotive graveyard at Pulacayo that were originally imported to transport ore. Another eerie place with two lines of engines and wagons. Great for photography.
After the salt museum and markets we head a couple of hours into the flats and reach an island where we stay for lunch. Covered in huge cacti, it's another strange sight being surrounded by pure whiteness. We then head off out into the whiteness in our 4 x 4 's to play with the cameras and the numerous optical illusions we can conjure up. A brilliant day out made even more fantastic by the sun going down creating an explosion of colour, with the moon out at the same time, mind blowing.
A great way to finish the day.....pizza and wine.
Moving on from Uyuni we head across country to Tupiza on one of the most spectacular drives of the trip. Given a choice of driving back to Potosi on tar macadam roads at a distance of 400 km the team decide to short cut along the old Pan American Highway, twisting, turning, switchback, single track dirt track road, but only 200 km. Spectacular Grand Canyon type scenery, twisting, turning, canyon bottoms, riverbeds, climbing high over peaks. Reds, blues, purples, yellows, every colour imaginable, but slow going on dusty gravel roads until we pulled up behind a bus with a flat tyre, single track....we just had to wait. Dusk then darkness made the track even more treacherous, headlights and top spots on full we finally pulled into Tupiza twelve or so hours later. What a journey, one that won't be forgotten.
Tupiza a totally chilled out town with a much slower pace of life which is exactly why we did just that. Geoff, Vanessa and I just trawled around town chatting to the locals, mooching around the markets. Vanessa found the renowned lady called Doña Wala selling her famous charque- filled tamales ( cornmeal dough filled with jerky ) had to be tried, were delicious. Her stall was packed and she sold out pretty quickly. After a couple of nights here we again move on, but that's another story ...

Adios

Tony x

1-7. Steam engine graveyard
8. Heather and I locked in the toilet after a refusal to pay much to everyone's amusement
9-21. Messing about on the salt flats taking crazy pictures.
22-24. Incredible weather scenes
25-26. Geoff, Stevo and I .....The grand finale courtesy of Stevo.