After the Pantanal we headed to Uyuni so that we could visit the Salt Flats, a complicated journey that involved a bus, a taxi, and three flights (one of which was on a propellor plane, a first for both of us . . . although we felt a lot safer on it than we did on the first flight . . . that plane decided to plumet suddenly leaving our stomachs somewhere above our heads! And this, incidentally, was what we had swapped the  “death train” (it is actually called that!) for, so we managed to swap the death train for the death plane . . . hmmmmm. We survived though, so that was nice

We arrived at the “airport” in Uyuni (the plane simply landed in a clear space beside the town) early in the morning and got talking to a family from Cork who had also been on the flight with us. As all of us wanted to visit the Salt Flats we decided to go around the tour operators together as 5 have more bargaining power than 2 or 3 people would. One of the first tour operators we spoke with said we could leave at 10.30am that morning (which was in about 20 minutes time!). As we´d all been up since 5.30am and were adjusting to the new, very high, altitude (4,000 metres!) we decided to wait till the following day. None of the operators seemed to have guides that had more than a few words of English (and all of us had limited Spanish) but we were assured by a group of Dutch girls we met returning from their trip that it was more about the landscape and that understanding the guide was not overly important.

So the next day we set off for our 3 days and 2 nights travelling on, and around, the Salt Flats. Although the scenery was indeed spectacular, and although Colm got to swim in an insanely hot thermal bath while it was -15 degrees (this resulted in parts of his hair turning to ice . . . I, sensibly, contented myself with only dipping my feet in) we agreed afterwards that it is the first thing we have done that we would not recommend. The majority of the 3 days was spent in a jeep that bounced along the non-existant roads (this resulted in me being very car sick for the last 2 days – not fun) and most “stops” were really only 10 or 15 minute photo ops and then it was back into the jeep again for another few hours of non-stop bouncing.

We do seem to be the only ones we know of, yet, who weren’t overly enamoured with the trip, which is now firmly part of the “Gringo Trail” . . . but each to their own.

We did enjoy our two days in Uyuni though (one before and one after the trip), not least because of the bustling market (which was clearly there for the inhabitants and not just the tourists as there were simply not enough tourists to justify it´s size). It was also an experience to see that the majority of woman (including the younger generation) still dress in traditional clothes - this included a bowler hat (!) perched atop two thick black plaits which hung rope like down their backs, layers of brightly coloured peasant skirts, aprons and blankets pinned around their shoulders (-15 people!). We haven´t yet discovered where the bowler hat tradition came from but we´ve got some good photos which we´ll upload as soon as we get a chance. The women seemed to run 99% of the market stalls, juggling selling their wares with either crocheting more goods, peeling potatoes for dinner or whipping meringue in large basins – all while minding two or three children – now that´s multi-tasking! Everything was carried on their backs, whether it be their children or heavy loads from the stalls, using brightly coloured blankets. The men, we assume, were the drivers on the tours and working elsewhere outside the town as it wasn´t as if they were sitting around drinking while the women worked (or at least not as far as we could see!).

The hotel we stayed in, Tonito Hotel (which was lovely), is also home to Minuteman Pizza, a restaurant started by a guy from Massachusetts and his Bolivian wife. It was not only the warmest place in Uyuni but also served the nicest pizza we´ve had since we´ve been away. They also did lovely breakfasts and crumbly chocolate chip cookies Eating there and hanging out in the coziness while reading travel books and planning our next stop was definitely more enjoyable than freezing our bums off in the Salt Hotel we stayed at the first night of our trip – novelty not withstanding – Colm even bought a Minuteman t-shirt!

So if you do head to the Salt Flats, be sure to stop by Minuteman Pizza to thaw out afterwards