05.07 - Day 16 - Red Lagoon to Uyuni, BOL

Somewhere near Red Lagoon to Uyuni to Overnight Bus

Monday 5th July 2010

Damn it’s cold and dark. Two days of journeying South means a 5am start in order to reach Uyuni at a decent hour. First stop is an area from which geysers spout forth. These seem very eerie in the pre-dawn light. No one dares to get too close to the dark ominous holes from which the steam pours. A flat tyre for our 4x4 is fixed using in part a makeshift jack of nearby rocks.

Still before breakfast we arrive at a hot spring which has been funnelled into a large rock pool. After two nights with no heating and no hot water this helps reheat our inner cores. Following breakfast our last lagoon stop precedes hours of driving splintered only by more rock climbing and lunch in a lush green valley – the scenery very out of keeping from the rest of the tour.

Back in Uyuni for 6pm and with our return bus to La Paz at 8pm we have a farewell dinner at Minuteman “the world’s highest pizzeria.” The early start hours previous ensures a lengthy nights sleep on the bus.