15-09-2011
Feeling a little better so decided to stick to our original plan of going for the three day tour. Along with Jeevan and me there are two sisters from Brisbane, we don't know them too well as they joint the Dragoman tour only for the community trek( we went for the classic Inca trek instead) but I think we will get along fine.
The four of us managed to get on the 3 day tour through the tour company that we wanted, good start so far.
Our tour started with the four of us and Ismail our Spanish guide/driver, the cook is in the other four wheel drive. Stopped at a train cemetery on our way out of town, climbed on top of an old train, had a little difficulty coming down.
Visited Chillima village where salt is mined from the salt flats. Saw the whole operation in process, all manual and quite basic. The man showing us the ropes, filled a bag with salt sealed it with fire and threw it over to us, exactly the same as the ones sold in the shops. I stole a few crystals and ate them, have had my salt fix for the year. The village also has a museum with animal sculptures carved from salt and lots of wares made from salt.
Finally on the salt flats( the highest and largest in the world at over 12000 sq km), I have never seen anything like it. The ground is bright white (hurts the naked eye) and flat as far as the eye can see, above is the brilliant blue sky with not a cloud to mar it. We stopped for some pictures, took quite a few perspective pictures, bridging over the jeep, stamping it, standing over it, then evolution of man among the many others. In some places the ground is so dry that there are hexagonal shapes formed on the salt flats.
Stopped at the salt hotel, no longer in function, would have been fun to stay overnight. Then the Cactus island, the cacti are around 900 years old. While there I noticed the jeeps coming in, they travel pretty fast, didn't realize it earlier as the landscape didn't change when we were driving. Ate a proper meal after two days, felt sick again so slept in the jeep while the others explored the island.
Drove through salt flats to our accommodation for the night. It's a house where eight people are staying, four from another jeep. The four of us shared a room, obviously by now we know each other quite well and I really like the other two (hopefully the feeling is mutual).
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