Day 2

We are woken at 5am, breakfast as usual consists of stale bread and butter. Today will be a long day of desert crossing by Jeep, from Laguna Colorada, to the "shores" of Uyuni Salt Flats, stopping in the most interesting places as usual.The first stop is at” Arbol De Piedra” (Tree Rock), a group of rocks in the middle of the desert, characterised by bizarre shapes and sculptured by the elements. As you can see from the picture, this wind-braded rock has been shaped into a 10m tall tree like shape.

We drive north through the volcanic arc .Nicely shaped rocks and gentle hills dominate this part of the altiplano. We arrive to another lake, Lagunas Altipanicas, full of flamingos. We are amazed to see so many pink birds living it up in the icy alkaline waters at nearly 40000m elevation. They often spend the night with their legs frozen in the water and they will be free again only when the sun will melt the ice on the following morning. After a few hours, we arrive on a sandy hill, from where an active volcano, with smoke on the top, can be seen. The altitude is slowing decreasing, here we are below 4000m, but the desert is getting even more nasty.

Now the soil is replaced by a thick layer of salt, not clean and extended like the Salar de Uyuni that we will cross tomorrow, but still quite impressive. After hours of driving we finally, stop at a small village, for a bite to eat, this village has a population of 10 familes, one shop, nothing else, I befriend two small children, they are intrigued by my digital camera. Once again we had soup for our lunch.

We continue on our journey, the drive is long and boring, nothing much to see, only dunes of sand, just before sunset, we arrive to a small village called Cubica, where we spent the night. Far away, the immense salt flat of Uyuni, blends into the horizon. pictures of the giant cacti populating the hills all around.