169. The Coolest Adventure this Year

 

 Monday, 5/27/13

By far, one of our greatest adventure day of our year.

Chad got no sleep on our bus ride. I got was lucky with 2 hours. Steve slept like a baby the whole trip. However, adrenaline kicked in early as we anticipated our trips to the largest salt flats in the world named Salar de Ununi.

We arrived frozen at 6 a.m. We stiffly followed the crowd past closed stores until we found a room with lights on. We went in, found a great price for a 1 day tour, and booked it. With toes frozen we were directed to the only open café to eat and chat with other tourists. We then bought the bus ticket for a return trip later that evening to  avoid stress and then visited shops until our land cruiser left at 10:30.

The female tour agent liked us quite a bit and put us with another group that paid more than twice our price for their trip. When we entered the vehicle we let out a shout. The same people we traveled form the border of Peru to La Paz in a private bus were in the backseat. We warmly greeted those two Americans and then met two Australians on the trip. All in all, we had a fantastic group of people.

We made a stop at the train cemetery. All the old trains from 100 years ago were dumped there and have not been touched since. We spent some time taking creative snapshots then headed off to our next destination.

We stopped by a tiny town that specialized in the processing of salt from the salt flats. We observed the process and each bought I tiny bit of it for 12 cents. I’ll make some nice Bolivian bread out of it.

We then entered the salt flats! Gorgeous and mind-boggling. We arrived to mounds of salt in puddles of water that are later cultivated by tractors to be refined at the tiny town we just passed.

Moving forward, we voyaged 1 hour to a photo-op area. We were almost in the middle of the salt flats. You could barely see mountains in the horizon. We took advantage of the mind-twisting landscape to get creative with some perspective shots. Chad and I had quite a lot of fun with this. The other tourists got a kick out of our charisma. (Pictures of these fun shots are farther below in the blog, so scroll down and observe our fun.)

Lunch time. We headed to an island exactly in the center of the salt flats. Usually provided lunches through tour companies are not filling. Not this one. We were served an omelet, rice, vegetables, tomatoes, cucumbers, and soda. There was plenty for seconds.

We thought the salt flats were gorgeous. Now add huge cacti and rocky climate to a vast expanse of white with snow-capped mountains in the background. This view has only been rivaled by the Grand Canyon in my entire lifetime. We made sure to capture the views to cherish forever.

Oh, I saw a vascuva, a rare Boliviann rabbit. Oh, we also saw some rare relative of the llama and alpaca named the vicuña. Nice.

 

 

We climbed back down the island and climbed into the jeeps for our next destination. We were headed to the middle again for more photo opportunities. All of our trips were filled with laughter, jesting, and meaningful conversations. The chemistry of our group was spot on. Not to mention our tour guide was top class.

After begging for more time, we took a few more wacky pictures. Check ‘em out.

We then were amazed by a hotel totally made out of salt. After checking out the salt chairs and tables, we headed for the last leg of our tour.
 

 

Our last stop was to enjoy the gorgeous sunset. Just like during Machu Picchu, we had perfect weather all day (although it was unexpectedly freezing)—the sunset was no exception. We took more group shots, hopped back into the truck, and ended our tour by exchanging e-mails  and saying warm goodbyes.

We then topped off our fantastic day with our first good meal of Mexican food. Mmmm mmmm good!!

We are now back in the bus. We are due back in La Paz at 7 a.m. I just can’t help reminiscing on our magnificent day. What a blessing. What a way to end our adventurizing!

**Keep adventurizing!...I know I will!**