Day 196 - Atacama Desert, Bolivia/Chile

CROSSING THE ATACAMA DESERT FROM BOLIVIA INTO CHILE (16/07/09)

Our final day of travelling across the desert. We got up way before dawn since the geysers and other geothermal phenomena are most active at this time. Unfortunately the temperature at this time of night had dropped to a rather uncomfortable -20ºC, hence the lack of smiling. It was, however, amazing to get so close to a geyser, the power and noise it made was incredible.

As the sun rose it turned the sky beautiful colours, despite the geysers attempts to disguise it with it´s sulphurous steam.

Standing in the steam was a double hardship - not only were we freezing cold but the smell of rotten eggs was almost overpowering.

Bubbling mud-pots can be quite a hazard before dawn with the impaired visibility caused by the steam. At least one tourist has been accidentally boiled to death in the past. Oh well, there are plenty of them...

At last the sun made an appearance over the horizon bringing with it some well needed warmth. With any luck it would raise the temperature to a sweltering -7ºC over the course of the day.

Liz wrapped in as many clothes as she could at the frozen edge of another lagoon.

You know it´s cold when Adam puts on a wooly hat and gloves.

Another ancient volcano bordering the rather unoriginally named Laguna Verde (green lagoon).

The end of our Jeep trip. Rather than returning to Bolivia with our car we opted to be dropped off at the Bolivia/Chile border and catch a bus from here to the Chilean town of San Pedro de Atacama. Our driver assured us we would have no more than 45 minutes to wait but we should have known by this point never to trust a South American when it comes to times...

Three hours later we were still waiting for a bus- freezing cold from inactivity at about -5ºC. Liz would probably have looked considerably more miserable if she had known at the time that we still had another three hours to go.

Day 195 - Atacama Desert, Bolivia

THE ATACAMA DESERT (15/07/09)

Early in the morning we left the salt hotel and the salt flats and began our trip into the Bolivian section of the Atacama Desert, the driest desert in the world.

Most of the trains from Uyuni have stopped running through lack of demand but twice a week a freight train makes the 40 hour run through the desert and into Chile.

Part of the reason why the desert is there is the regions strong volcanic activity and large volcanic ridges.

Strange volcanic rock formations such as this are testament to ancient violent activity.

As we gradually climbed higher the weather got colder and colder. Finally we reached this lagoon, three quarters of which was frozen over.

Hardly able to stand the biting cold and icy winds we stayed out of the car as long as we could to look around. Adam still had plenty of time to try his weight on a bit of ice and get a wet foot though.

Picnic lunch by the lagoon. Adam looks a bit miserable because he had picked up a stinking cold.

The next lagoon we visited was home to a large colony of pink flamingoes.

We felt very priveledged to see these beautiful, elegant birds in the wild once again, although the vast majority of the colony had migrated north to escape the cruel winter.

As we watched another group flew in, returning with the beginning of spring.

A Degu, closely related to Rabbits and Chinchillas.

One of the Atacama´s most famously eroded rocks - the Stone Tree.

Wrapped up as warm as possible against the sub zero temperatures we still had trouble feeling our extremities. Sometimes it felt hard to appreciate the beauty over the excruciating cold, but we managed (most of the time).

Day 194 - Salt Flats, Bolivia

TRAIN CEMETERY AND UYUNI SALT FLATS (14/07/09)

Before heading to the famous Salt Flats we made a quick stop at Uyuni´s Train Cemetery where, rusting away, lie at least a couple of dozen old locomotives. Mostly of British construction they represent a long past time when Bolivia was an important mineral mining nation and many trains a day would pass through Uyuni headed to destinations all over South America.

Not having the same paranoia about health and safety as we do at home the Bolivian authorities are more than happy to let visitors climb all over the rusting metal - if you hurt yourself it´s your own fault.

Some of the old steam trains were huge and must have been very grand and powerful in their time.

Adam, the child that he is, was keen to climb in and on as many of the trains as possible.

The strong winds blowing off the desert made this more scary than it looks.

What could be a scene from almost any arid region of the world - except that the bricks of the building are all made from salt.

A mound of salt at a small salt processing plant at the edge of the salt flats. Very little of the salt is processed and taken away, although this will probably soon change. An estimated 50% of all the World´s lithium is thought to be contained in Uyuni´s Salt Lake and now this element is increasingly in demand for the manufacture of high efficiency batteries.

You do not have to drive far before you are surrounded by a sea of white stretching as far as the eye can see in all directions.

One of the famous qualities of the salt lake is it´s potential for creating illusions in photographs. I don´t suppose you can call Adam under the thumb, but maybe trodden under foot.

Adam often dreams about food this large relative to his body.

Liz could actually probably eat a packet of M&M´s larger than herself.

Adam and his bargain price Bolivian guitar. The sound is good but the construction is so cheap that even if he was this small it probably wouldn´t take his weight.

After all the fake pictures it seems strange to see us standing on something real - mounds of salt.

Floppy decided to come and join Liz and enjoy some of the fresh, salty air.

One of the guides lent us this toy Grizzly Bear to terrify Liz with.

The small amount of rain that falls each year onto the salt plains quickly evaporates but as it does it cracks the crust creating these strange pentagonal and hexagonal patterns.

Right in the middle of the salt lake is Fish Island, so called because apparently it is fish shaped when viewed from above. Before the enormous salt water lake evaporated about 40,000 years ago it was a large coral reef - now all the rock forming the ´island´ is made up of fossilised coral.

Now instead of tropical fish and coral Fish Island is home to the one of largest species of cactus in the world growing to as much as 12 metres (about 36 feet) in height.

The cactii really are enormous! What is even more impressive is that they only grow about 1cm (half an inch) per year meaning that this example could be around 1000 years old!

Posing for comedy photos with cactii can be dangerous - always remember when pretending to hug a cactus not to actually do it.

Liz getting it right, convincing but no holes in her arm.

Part of the reason that they can live so long is that almost nothing can eat them through their fierce, spiny defences.

Literally in the middle of nowhere.

Getting the right angle.

The salt lake is incredible, stretching for miles is just plain white salt but it has an amazing, mysterious beauty.

Bricks made of salt ready to construct another salt hotel on the outskirts of the salt flats to cater for the increasing number of tourists visiting each year.

Our own Salt Hotel. Chairs, tables, walls, floors and beds are all made of salt. Needless to say the chairs are extremely uncomfortable, luckily the salt beds have non-salt matresses.