Salt Flats Day 1

Today we start our Salt flat journey. Our driver and Guide Leo, picked us up around 11:00 and we were off. We were all five of us, the doctors, Danny, Steve and jeremey and Sarah and I are in a 4x4 Jeep. It might be a long few days.

We start out visiting and old train graveyard. There were many broken and rusted trains and parts. It was pretty nifty, but I am glad that I got my tetnis shot before I left. We climbed over a few and then decided to head out.

Next we drove through the salt flats and stopped at an old Salt Motel. It smelled a little odd. I don´t think I would want to stay there, but it was an interesting place to visit. It was completely made of salt. I went a shopping and bought some weird salt boxes. We´ll see if they make it home. Inside the museum/motel, there were some intersting sculptures. We took some pictures.

The next stop was fish, or fishermans island. In the middle of the salt flatts, nothing around, out of nowhere, there is a coral island covered in 1000 year old cacti. There cacti grom 1cm a year and some were 1200 cm tall. It was different. We hiked around a bit while Leo prepared our lunch. After lunch we took some nifty pictures on the flats. That was a lot of fun. The doctors are a hoot.

Once that was over, Leo drove us to our basic hotel. When they say basic, they mean basic. Sarah and I used wet wipes to shower. There was only one working toilet but after dinner, there was no working toilet.

We went on a walk around the property. We walked through a heard of llamas and up to a cemetary. The doctors were trying to tell us which bones we were looking at. Thanks guys. Then, we were walking and we could hear a car coming behind us. However, there were mo streets and no sidewalks, but we all still, in unison moved over as if we were walking in the middle of the street. It was funny, especially when we all noticed what had happened.

At dinner, we walked in and there were three other groups staying here with us. We were the last ones in. Then two kids came up to me and asked if I wanted to hear traditional Bolivian Music. Everyone glared at me because I said yes. I felt bad because everyone told the kids no. They were jsut trying to make a little money. Well they were in need of some more practice and everyone glared at me. it was loud and took up about 10 minutes of everyones time. I was not going to crush their dreams. Then it was off to bed for an early morning.

03/29/2008