out of the fish bowl...

We were FREEZING when we got to Uyuni. I couldn't feel my toes - a good reminder that it's winter in the southern hemisphere. Desperate for some warmth, we sat in the sun along with some Brits and waited for the Colque Tour office to open.

That morning, we embarked on a 3 day tour of Bolivia's salt flats and multi-coloured lagoons. Our driver, Juan, really should have been named "Speedy Gonzales". Throughout the entire tour he HAD to be the first to arrive, wherever the destination was suppose to be. On the second morning, he was going so fast he screwed up the axle of the Land Cruiser (this tour was done pretty much completely off-road), and we had to stop a couple times so he could fix it. This was the first time I had seen someone take a sledge-hammer to a car for fixing purposes. Nonetheless, it worked! And although we had to stop, he managed to still catch up and pass the other cars in the tour convoy.

Anyways, the salt flats were amazing. All you could see for miles around was a plane of salt and mountains dotting the distance, and everyone once in awhile you would come across an "island" oasis covered in giant cacti. I'll post pictures when I get home - it's hard to describe what this all looked like.

Something I definitely did not expect to see on this South American trip was flamingos. And yet we saw flocks of them... at well over 4000m. Amidst the mountains in Bolivia, there are lagoons of varying colours and many of them are home to flamingos. I don't know about you, but usually I think of some place hot, like Florida, when I think of flamingos. Not mountain ranges 4km above sea level of a land-locked country with temperatures that drop to -20C in the winter!

Highest altitude I have been at: 4850m (air is thin at this altitude, do not attempt to do any running)

Note1: always bring a deck of cards when travelling
Note2: there is no such thing as a set of international rules for the game of "ShitHead"