SALAR DE UYUNI DAY TWO
19TH APRIL
As promised we were up at 5.30 and had breakfast. Breakfast wasn’t quite as impressive as the rest of the meals throughout the tour, but at that time it wasn’t so important. We were treated to a good sunrise over the surrounding mountains before heading upwards towards the village of San Antonio del Nuevo. This was a ruined village which had been abandoned due to some kind of natural disasters occurring there and the people there heard weird noises at night and so it was assumed that the place was occupied by the devil, or some similar under worldly force. Hualdo felt that people would return there someday, as nowadays it was generally accepted that this was basically poppycock and that the noises are just the wind.The next stage of the day was the roughest part of the whole tour, and is once again testament to the engineering marvel which is the Toyota Landcruiser.
This poor old jeep was loaded up with eight people, their luggage, all the petrol, food and water we needed for four days, and yet still managed to traverse its way along one of the rockiest, roughest roads we have ever seen!! In parts it wasn’t like a road at all - more like just picking a random spot in Snowdonia and heading straight up one of the mountains!! We passed through Torreon, a mad volcanic landscape (that’s a phrase you may encounter a good few times in the diaries from this tour!!), for a quick photo stop. From then for the next hour and a half though, there are no photos - we were all busy trying to hang on as we rocked and rolled our way over the bumpy ground at unfeasible angles and wished we all had a bit more padding around our rears!!
After finally descending onto flattish ground, we had a quick stop at the office for the Quetena Chico and Grande National Park. Once again
After finally descending onto flattish ground, we had a quick stop at the office for the Quetena Chico and Grande National Park. Once again