Salt Flat Tour HELL

I decided to start this 'amazing and beautiful' tour from Tupiza, as everyone I had met had told me that the tour was a little longer- 4 days instead of 3, to use Tupiza Tours, they are a little more expensive, but VERY reliable, and will provide a better experience. Also tupiza is more beautiful than Uyuni. The only truth from all that was the fact that Tupiza is beautiful!
DAY1
Woke up nice and early, very excited about seeing the salt flats, the tour is supposed to be fantastic.. so i wake up enthusiastically and dress in lots of layers and prepare for the cold nights nearing -20 degrees.
We all set off, in a jeep which looked like the worst of all the ones that were leaving. Windows celotaped shut.. all a bit dodgy, but we were sure we would be fine. Nice and sturdy! As we left Tupiza the views were just stunning! the scenery changes so much, red mountains, yellow mountains, grey mountains, all next to eachother... how can it all form like this. Also absolutly nothing for miles... its beautiful to see a country not poluted by civilization. About 2 hours in i am looking out the window when i see a long metal tube coming out of the car. hmmm what could this be.. then it falls out. So i quickly call to the driver to stop. He hadnt noticed, so thank god i did before we all noticed as the car would have given us a quicker ride down the mountain. We all get out to explore what happened. It turns out that the tube that came out was something that went in the axle i think. But on the end of it, it had the circular plate which normally has the 4 screws that go into the wheel to hold it on! Basically.. if i hadnt seen this thing fall out, a few meters more and the wheel that i was sitting on would have fallen off. It also happened to be the wheel by the cliff edge, and physics would mean that if we lost that wheel, we would be taking a short cut to the bottom, rather than being stopped by hitting the cliff! Anyway... the driver then sent us up the mountain searching for the screws... Of course we arent going to find them!! but we look anyway... we find nothing.. so i look at my recipt where it says jeeps in good condition.. if there are any problems the company will send another at no extra cost.
OK.. so we are getting another Jeep, but lets consider the first problem... HOW? We are in bolivia, in the middle of the mountains,.. of course there is no radio, no phone reception. So we wait for a vehicle going the other way.. which only happens once in a blue moon, the cook gets in to go to Tupiza to get another jeep. We therefore just have to sit in the car and wait... a long time. After 3 hours, the driver gets frustrated and leaves us too. At 4:30 arrive the cavalry...(we broke down at 11:30). The next jeep arrives with about 4 blokes in it, as well as the cook, and our driver. they move all our stuff to the next jeep, and then they start fiddling with the 'new jeep' with the wheels, and put on a new clutch disc. SO.. we hope this is the end of our problems.,.. We leave after 5 hours of waiting. It is almost 5 oclock, and we have to go another 6 hours to get to our Hostal where we are staying the night. I am pretty annoyed at this point, because it means we cant see anything out the window for most of the journey because the sun sets at 6:30! I thought we should start again the next day, but the driver didnt seem to agree, or apologise for the delay!
Anyway, this new jeep.. interesting replacemen. It was smaller than the other, also the windows and doors didnt shut properly.. (this would be important for later!)
So we drove through the night.. freezing cold beacuse of the gaps in the doors and windows... suddenly we stop. Ok... everybody out! We need to push the car up a hill! It is stuck in the sand!
This was a bit fun.. good to get out the car after sitting in it for about 10hours, but it was Freezing. We get the car out the sand and carry on... and then we start passing ghost towns. The driver wants to stop, but that would mean we just have to get up at 4am to catchup with the other group. we ask how far the place where we are meant to stay is.. and he says its an hour. So the we decide to just keep going. An hour later, we stop in another town.. the driver and cook start running round this dead ghost town made of mud huts knocking on doors till they find somewhere we can stay... This is NOT where we are supposed to be.. but it will do.. it is 10pm and the driver is tired. It is very basic accomodation, basically a bed and nothing more. I didnt expct better, so i wasnt complaining, and it was marginally warmer than the jeep! We dont eat dinner, because it would take 2 hours to make, so we just have some bread and tomatoes! then bed.
DAY2
We wake at 4am. Breakfast is pretty crap, the boiled water isnt very hot, so that means no tea or coffee--, also just bread and orange jam, which tastes like orange peel! apparently the driver had been up last night changing the tyre.. so this meant that today was going to be interesting.
We start driving and see a few ruins, catch up with another group, which i thought was the group doing the 4 day tour too.. but apparently not.. we see some ruins, then make our way to Aguas Calientes. (hot springs) the driver says we will be there at 2pm... hmmm... he keeps saying 2 hours more.. but we never seem to see these waters. We stop to make lunch in a ghost town.. but then decide its not a good idea, coz all the kids start coming out, facinated by us, so we move on and find a lagoon and eat there. This company saved themselves by serving us hot pasta! I was worried we would be livng off bread and tomoatoes the whole 4 days!
After dinner we start travelling, stop at lagunas and stuff... which i am sick of seeing now! But the driver only ever gave us about 5 mins.. and then started herding us back in the car. This is very frustrating, as we are spending the entire time in the car. Anyway.. we arrive at the hot springs at 5pm. We want to go swimming, but if we do that we cant see the 'amazing laguna Verde' So we drive an hour to see this, and maybe we can swim on the way back... The laguna is of course like any other, and i am not impresse, but everyone else in the group had been desperate to see it! We drive back to the hot springs to go swimming, but then the driver starts telling us we might get sick, we shouldnt.. blah blah blah.. so we test out the water and decide its not hot enough, plus the sun has gone down, so it is getting colder by the second. In our itinary we were also supposed to see Geisers too... but now it was dark.. i asked if we could go tomorrow morning, beacuse we cant see anything in the dark. Reply: No i havent got enough petrol!
So we go to the geisers, the driver turns on his lights, and says... there you go... Geisers!
Couldnt see anything.. culdnt take any photos.. Very angry.. I just wanted to get to the Hostal.
We start driving after having seen the smoke shadows(geisers) and after an hour.. VEGAS! Lights!! we see the hostal.. there are loads of cars, lights,.. looks promising.. hopefully warm.
NO! Colder than the night before, and then we dont even eat till 10;30pm because we arrived there so late, plus the food is cold! I end up sleeping uncomfortably with all my clothes, and still cold! - I forgot to mention.. this entire time we were driving we were stoping every 30mins so the driver could check the tyres were still screwed on properly! Which made us even later than we already were--- which was 2hours to start with !
DAY 3
Friday the 13th... not a good day for me.. and certainly a bad start!
We do start well.. on time, with all the other groups.. we go to Lago Colorado, which is pink, because in the summer it is full of flamingos. I reach into my pocket for my camera... its gone!
I jump in the car with the driver and go back to the hostal which is luckily only 15mins away... and look for it in my bed.. not there.. but luckily find it in my sleeping bag! (i had to sleep with it, because i have been told that the people who work at these hostals rob you when you sleep!)
Everyone else is actually quite thankful that i had lost it briefly because it meant that they were left at the laguna for longer than the usual 5 mins. When i get back.. i try to take a pic.. but guess what.. the camera doesnt work! Also, getting in the car earlier had ripped my new trousers on the frickking seat!! I was not having a good day!Also the driver started complaining to me about now he wouldnt have enough petrol.
We then drove on, saw the dali rock.. but i had no camera.. i was so gutted.. the area was really good for taking pics.. but i couldnt take any! Luckily the Plich couple I was with took some and will email them. We were hurried from here to another laguna, and i remembered i could use my phone as it was pretty good, 3mega pixels! Also it took panoramic pics.. turns out its better than my camera. .. I also kept fiddling with my camera lens,.. and finally got my camera back into action. In time for some pics of some flamingios.
After lunch we just started rushing, and driving like crazy... to our hostal.... we were all so angry, because we arrived at the hostal at 5, which was early, and we had had to rush all the lagunas etc! As it turns out, hostals are first come, first serve! So we kind of forgive the driver, also it is a fairlky good hostal.. beds and floor of salt! There is also a salt hotel.. but you have to pay for that, but this was pretty good. It was on the edge of the flats, so went for a walk and watched the sunset. That night was pretty good in the hostal, but got pretty drunk, as i had brought a bottle a whisky for keeping warm, and then i caused a huge argument with some Israilis about why there was a war in Israil, and how it should be solved! Not good... but this place was pretty nice and warm, so went to bed early, ready for an early start to watch the sunrise!
DAY 4
We got up very early.. drove into the flats... and i have to commend our driver here.. he was very good, did it very quickly so we were first. Sunrise was beautiful, all the mountains turned pink! Then we drove to the cactus island in the middle. This was good fun too, took loads of pics and stuff, and enjoyed the short walk. Then our driver started to hurry us again! this wound me up so much.. but as it turns out he drove us out to the middle of nowhere, wheras other grouos stayed at the island, and we tooks loads of the comedy pics. He let us stay here as long as we wanted.. so we were all pretty happy. Finally once WE were ready to leave... we drove to the salt hotel, which was pretty cool to see, with everthing of salt, took some snaps, and then went to the edge of the flats for lunch. There.. it was pretty uninteresting... just lots of souvenirs...
Finally at about 12pm, we headed for Uyuni.. everyone overtaking us, and outr jeep shaking like its about to fall apart.. still stopping often to check tyres...
We start driving through what looks like a rubbish site... there is rubbish everwhere! then i see the sign.. 'Bienvenidos a Uyuni'
Oh my lord! I am so happy i started in Tupiza! Uyuni was an absolute dump. the whole place was mud huts, and no one! We also visited the train cemetary... which was quite amusing, especially as someone had written ' remember who built these trains' and drew a british flag!
Anyway.. hell started here again. A french couple had come with us here and had paid the agency to orgainise bus tickets for them to La pAz from there... this adnt been done, and the driver had no money on him to pay back the couple, or buy them tickets! Also it was hell for me as i wanted to go to Salta... but no buses.. they all went through tupiza first, so i thought i might as well go back with the driver and cook.
We set off.. and he says we will arrive in tupiza at 9pm. It is 3;30, by the time we leave uyuni. Then he stops beacuse he wants to eat in a restaurant.. but too expensive so we drive on. I have to say the road was pretty interesting. I woulndt really call it a road. More like land, with lots of car tyres from where everyone goes it freestyle. If we broke down here i think i would cry! It was pretty cool though, as we went through a bit of desert... lots of sand dunes.. a huge truck was half buried, and i hoped the same wouldnt happen to us, as only 3 of us left to push instead of 8! I was the only tourist going back. So i was quite lucky to have the car to myself.. but it was quite lonely!
Everytime i asked how much further, he would ask me the time and just say however long was left till 9pm... but soon it became 10pm, and i was getting pretty frustrated!
We eventually arrived at 10:30pm. Me an unhappy bunny, as it was too late to get a bus to the border to argentina, also the hotel charged me double of last time... luckily this morning i spoke to the owner and got a discount because of the trouble on the tour! Now i am just waiting to go to Villazon, from where i can move onto salta.. cant wait to leave right now... especialy as that trip was so hellish and now i have a cold!
Also i had had to lend the driver money to pay back the french couple, and this morniung have had a huge fight to get it back...
Anyway.. on i go.. hopefully more luck on the next leg of my journey!
Gota go, as my bus leaves in an hour.. and i dont want to miss it! Ciao!xxx