Uyuni Tour Day 1, San Pedro de Atacama to Laguna Colorada, Bolivia

From San Pedro I joined a 3-day tour to Bolivia, which would take us past some altiplanic lakes, over the Uyuni Salt Flats (the largest and highest in the world) and finally to Uyuni in Southern Bolivia. There were 11 of us signed up for the tour, a strange collection of 5 Kiwis, 2 Irish, 1 American, 2 Israelis and me. A minibus was laid on to take us to the Bolivian border, a tiny outpost at about 4100m altitude next to two altiplanic lakes, Laguna Verde and Laguna Blanca, named for the colour of their waters. We departed early, and the lakes were still frozen in places when we arrived at the border.

From here on, we'd be travelling in 4x4 vehicles, so we were split into two groups. After getting our passports stamped and paying the entry fee to the National Park, we had a light breakfast then loaded our kit onto the Landcruisers. Our first stop was a thermal spring, though in the cold wind nobody dared to bathe, only our feet felt the warm geothermal heat bubbling up from the depths. From there, we had quite a bit of driving to do across the altiplano. The landscape here was pretty bleak.

Our journey took us past a small salt flat where we stopped to take some experimental photos, then past some geysers, and finally on to Laguna Colorado, a large altiplanic lake where flamingos grazed on the biomass which gave the water it's pink colour. We were to stop here for the night, and had almost the whole afternoon free. Instead of walking along the side of the lake, 3 of us decided to attempt to scale a nearby mountain. At the base we were already over 4300m altitude, and the mountain looked at least 1500m high. Sure enough, the altitude made it hard work, we were about 100m shy of the summit but past our turnaround time, so made the wise decision to head back. The sunset was beautiful, pastel shades of pink and thousands of blues above the lake. However, it was getting a bit chilly and the wind was numbing our extremities. Fortunately, we arrived back at the ranch (a very basic hotel) shortly after the last rays of sun had faded from the sky, and just in time for dinner. Our guide and driver took the oppportunity to have a moan at us for being late, he enjoyed moaning.