Salar de Uyuni a must see place in Bolivia

Before coming to Bolivia we knew it was a love or hate it place so we really tried not to expect too much from it and we haven't been too disappointed but we haven't really seen a place that wowed us enough to comeback and visit another day.  Until now, Salar de Uyuni with over 10,000 square km's its the largest salt flat in the world, driving on it is surreal. You can drive in any given direction and not hit another person or thing for miles. The only thing that keep us from getting lost was the road impressions left from all the tours that past before us.

the old hotel playa blanca now a museum

soaking up the rays

no Canadian flag so go Korea

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Now about the road to Uyuni from Sucre, was what we expected, poor condition and took about 7 hours, making a stop in Potosi to get gas and we got the gringo deal. The place charged us $1.20 per liter well over double the price locals pay. Asked why the price difference he told me because we are near the boarder (Potosi is in the middle of the country the nearest boarder would be Chile, about 500km's away) so we gave in because of the stories we read of gas shortages in Uyuni. Now we reached Uyuni, just before 5pm and decided to top up the gas tank before hitting the flats, same thing they wanted double, but with the advice from Celine another traveler we meet on the road we offered the gas attendant a tip of about $3 and he agreed to sell us at the normal price. Now it was getting dark so we decided find a hostel to spend the night in the dusty town before hitting the flats early next day. After a cold night sleep in the secure parking lot of a hostel ($8) we drove another 45 minutes to the town of Colchani, where we entered the salt flats and you are greeted by large pools of water that we navigated carefully around, when we noticed a Subaru driving right through them and we just followed. After that we were on the flats and we didn't know what direction to head but when I put on the sunglasses I could make out the path.

camping on this great

moon and the sun

picture says it all

 love Salar de Uyuni will be back someday

Before arriving on the Salar, we saw tones of funny travel pictures and a large amount of them seemed to be taken in Salar de Uyuni, don't know why but when we talked with a traveler in Sucre that had just came back from the flats and he mentioned to us his tour guide takes the most amazing funny pictures with props and everything (i guess the guides make the funny pictures). So we did our best to take some funny shots spending over an hour of doing stupid things for your enjoyment. After we made a visit to the Hotel playa blanca, no longer in service but a museum with a collection of flags at the front marking another great photo opportunity. We drove around the flats exploring a few islands and before sun set we camped near Isla Incahuasi, with a breath taking view of the sun set. There was a RV camping near by so we weren't alone which made us feel a little better not being thing only people out in no where. That night was freezing but was well worth the experience and the moon was huge. 5:30 am we could see the light from the sun over the horizon and the moon in the opposite direction 6:00 am bliss we saw the sun rise and the moon fall.

Bumpy road to the capital city of Sucre and picked up a stranded motorist

Before leaving Cochabamba, we asked a few locals which road to take to Sucre all told us to take the road towards Santa Cruz, was shorter and a good gravel road. I should have known better when a Bolivian say good gravel road that means passable by 4x4. The first part towards Santa Cruz, was ok paved but a few rough patches here and there but at the turn off for Sucre it turn for the worst. This was the longest dirt road we have driven on to date, in total about 5 hours of 20-40 km's of bumps and dusts everything was covered in thick dirt and the sienna felt like it when through a massage from a sumo wrestler squeak and rattle. We even picked a stranded local with his family that got a flat tire and had no spare tire and took him the next town about an 1 hr away need less to say this road didn't have very much I wouldn't recommend this road to anyone take the longer way around.

After arriving we asked a local women to point out the direction to the centre, she quickly asked if we spoke English, "Yes" and she jumped into back of the van and pointed us to central, even though she was heading the opposite direction. To date we have met so many nice people while traveling and like to thank them all for taking time to directing us on our way. Some have told us to follow them, some have got in the car even we know how hard it was for them because of the language problem but thank you too you all! After finding central was easy with help but finding a place to stay would be a different story. It was Sunday so not too busy after 2 hours of searching it turned out we would stayed at the first place we check out and the owner even offered to pay the parking at secure garage 2 blocks away. It was the Bicentenario hotel for anyone interested had a roof top kitchen with great views. We stayed a week at $11 both per night with shared bathroom. Our cable tv was down so it was ideal for me to catch up on the blog with the on and off internet but what do you expect for 11 bucks a night. 

Herbie in Bolivia

best desert in town with a great view all this for only $4

the view with desert

Sucre, is a great place to walk around in August warm sunny days and cool nights and we did walk around finding great saltena restaurants, parks and even explored some hill side with great view and even better restaurant. Overall we would have to say for a primer tourist destination of Bolivia Sucre and UNESCO site it still needs to clean up its act, its not like La Paz with so much activities and culture it can stand to be dirty but Sucre, needs to be a clean colonial city and it is in the centre but just 2 or 3 blocks out side the square garbage and the smell of urine line the streets its too bad because with alittle work and care of the people the city would be a great place to stay but than again that wouldn't be Bolivia. Next on the to do list is Salar de Uyuni the largest salt flats in the world.

we thought we had found a camping but was protesters

check out this toilet over a sewage opening

ahh!