Uyuni

To escape Cochabamba for a little while, Alyssa and I headed to the town of Uyuni, which lies to the east of the large salt flat of the same name. The trip was half bus, half train, which was an awesome ride... We saw flamingos (huge!) and lots of birds on the way, as well as a spectacular sunset. Since neither of us had digital cameras anymore, there are no pics to show at the moment (the banner of this blog is a pic of the salt flat, though, to give you an idea...); we did purchase a "Canon" point and shoot film camera and some film, which I think actually gave us a much greater appreciation of our surroundings, made us really look at things rather than try for the best shots, etc.

It was bitterly cold at night and windy during the day, but the sights were spectacular... we visited the Isla del Pescado in the middle of the salt flat, thus named because in the rainy season, when the entire area is covered in up to a few feet of water, the reflection in the glassy surface makes the "island" appear in the shape of a fish. It´s all covered in cactus and has lots of ancient coral reefs to climb on, as well as volcanic rocks strewn about.

We spent a night in a small village at the base of the Volcán Tunupa, where there were lots of llamas milling around, miles of loosely constructed rock walls (with plenty of rocks to spare in the surrounding fields), a very excited puppy, and of course no heating. The next morning we hikes up to see the remains of some mummies in a cave, complete with ancient pottery... most of the other goods had been sacked long ago. We then climbed up to the first vantage point to see the (inactive) Volcán Tunupa, with its immensely impressive crater. We were hurting a bit on that hike, having come from Cochabamba the day before at about 2600 m to Uyuni at about 3700 m. It was well worth it though, and our awesome guide Walter basically ran circles around us while carrying our small pack for us and not drinking any water.

Pics to come on my flickr site once I get the film developed and put onto CD, or the nice Frenchcouple we were with sends us some digital pics that they took for us.