SALAR DE UYUNI DAY FOUR

21ST APRIL

We were all up at the crack of dawn once again for our final day. Today was the highlight of our trip although it was hard to think all of the things we’d seen being second best. For our final day we were heading to the Salar de Uyuni, the worlds biggest salt flat, 10,500 km2 of pure white salt! This had been in our first ever Top 10 of places to visit, so we were more than looking forward to it. We had also met so many people who’d raved about it and were now about to witness it for ourselves.

We left well before sunrise and it was freezing, but Hualdo put the heater on full and away we went. The road from the Salt Hotel twisted its way around a vast expanse of nothingness before we finally saw a hill on the horizon which was to be our sunrise destination. Spirits were high and when we finally turned that last corner before the salt plain, nothing could prepare you for
the beauty of the place. It was totally weird, wonderful and surreal. The tyres crackled their way across the salty surface and after around 10 minutes we stopped for our first photo stop and where we were to watch sunrise. We should have been heading to the hill for sunrise but we were a little delayed by Cynthia faffing about with her rucksack before we left, so we weren’t going to make the hill for the actual sunrise!

We were all eager to get out and onto this vast white wonderland but we soon realised why Hualdo and Christina had stayed put in the jeep. It was bitterly cold and no amount of huffing, puffing or moving around could get that blood circulating. Pushing the cold aside we stood and marvelled at the sight around us and I guess some things happen for a reason, we had the place to ourselves and had a very special sunrise. Watching Senor Sol as the sun in known in Bolivia peep his