Getting High On Salt

Ever since the conception of this trip I have been wanting to visit the famous salt flats of Bolivia - the Salar De Uyuni. I'm not sure if it was the photos I saw, the extreme nature of the place or simply the uniquenss of the place, but this was on my must be done list. It was therefore with a slightly heavy heart that I made my way alone to San Pedro and from there embarked on this important trip without Urvi.

The dissapointment of leaving Urvi in BA while I travelled here was somewhat lessened by the fact that I was travelling with a bunch of great friends. Of course there were Melissa and Claire, without whom I would have not enjoyed this portion of the trip, we have travelled on and off for a while together and I am really thankful for that - cheers guys!!  For putting up with me!! In addition Jamie and Liz were on the trip too, which was great. We then had Si and Jim, Lauren and Liz, Alessandra and Davide and Andrea; all of who we knew from somewhere on the South America trip. This made for a great travelling group and of course dampened any pangs of loneliness!!

The nuts and bolts of the trip are simple. You take a 4x4 jeep from the Bolivian border and drive it for 3 days, 600kms through to Uyuni. The trip maybe 3 days but technically one could compete it in 2 easy days. The altitude of the trip can be a challenge for some and staying at this hieght should never be taken lightly, however I must say after scaling the 5700m Droma La Pass in Tibet I felt fine with the 4000m+ levels we encountered here.

Along the way you are treated to a spectacular array of natural scenes that blow your mind. There are lagoons, barren mountians, deserts where nothing seems to be, volcanos, rock formations so grand that you wonder where and how they were conceived and of course the biggest draw of all, the salt flats.

Imagine a land so flat and White that it looks like a desert of snow, your feet crunch over the 7m of natural salt that spreads out so far that you drive for an hour and your still not at the end. At times all there is in your eyeline is salt and sky. White and blue so clear and clean that it is more of a picture that reality. The jeep heads out in a direction that could be any direction, the vista is the same. This is a place where no photo can express what the eye captures and the soul processes. It is simple and in many way monotonous but the scale just blew me away. I looked out at the barren aching flats and just pondered life and all that I have witnessed to date...

Although I would say the trip is a bit stretched out, it gave us the chance to spend 2 nights under what is the most spectacular night sky you could imagine. The dark deep sky was literatly set alight with stars. Stars so bright that they glowed and burned and together gave the sky a lighter hue. After the observatory tour in San Pedro i was able to make out various constellations and spot the shades of nebula, it was very special

The Salar De Uyuni was place for which I held great expectations, it didn't disappoint! Once again mother earth has thrown up another amazing display of natural awe and variety. Without Urvi it was different and I am sure we will be back this time together!

Sent from my iPod

Feeling Insignificant in San Pedro

I am just one of 6 billions people on this earth,

Our earth is just one of 9 planets in this Solar system

Our Solar System is just one of tens of billions in this Galaxy

Our Galaxy is just one of tens of billions in thie universe


Looking out at the stars that set the dark Atacama sky on fire you gaze out in wonder and awe. I can´t comprehend the size of the universe we live in but gazing out at something so huge makes me focus on things that I can comprehend and are tangible to me...

We are each pretty darn small and insignificant, even less significant than one grain of sand on a huge beach, even less significant than a drop of water in the oceans, yet despite this insignifance we are also important to each other. There are people in each of our lives that mean more than the whole universe, these times when you feel so small you realise wahts so big.

The drama of the night sky in Atacama was amazing, and the power of looking out into the universe like that was immense

Route Update

From Mendoza I travelled to Salta, a nice place to relax if the weather is nice but for me i think that there were better locations we could have been if given the time and route.

I met up with Claire and Melissa (both from the Antarctica trip) and Jamie and Liz and we finally left Chile and headed to San Pedro De Atacama.

As the name suggests, this town is right on the edge of the Atacama Desert, it is the driest place on erath, with 330 days of nonestop sun a year!! this makes for great activities and really dramatic landscapes.

We did sand boarding (which I loved) and also took bikes out in to the desert - that was madness!! it must have been 30+ in the shade!! we also did a star gazing tour which was really great fun, i will post something more about that in a bit!

The basic reason to go into Chile again was to be in the Desert but more importantly it is the southern launch pad for the Salar De Uyuni trips. these trips take you into the most mind blowing salt falts in the world. more about that later too!!!!

Doin the “Dubbia” in Torres Del Paine National Park

It should be noted that neither Urvi nor I are the best trekkers in the world and more than that we are not the kind of people to seek out trekking opportunities everywhere we go, but there are some places that just make you want to get your boots on and get out there. Actually I am becoming more and more interested in trekking and being in nature. It is a beautiful way to see places, and think through your problems. All you have to do is take your route and walk, then look around you and lose yourself in your mind.



Alongside Nepal South America probably has some of the best and well known trekking destinations in the world, and within SA, Patagonia is right at the top of the trekking league. This is a total Mecca for trekkers all around the world, and we were lucky enough to be here at the best season (thanks to Urvi’s planning). One of the best places to trek is Torres Del Paine National Park. Situated in Chile it is a beautiful combination of stunning mountains, ice glaciers, lakes and rolling moss covered hills. the most popular walk to do here is called the W, so called because it makes a W shape between 3 significant land marks – the Torres Del Paine (three stunning mountain peaks that literally tower out of the ground) the French valley (Glacier surrounded valley that cut up to a wonderful view of the range) and the Glacier Grey (a huge glacier front that opens out into a beautiful lake with icebergs bobbing around it. These 3 main locations are joined in the W shape.



This walk takes 5 days and 4 nights to complete, and covered over 75kms. To do this trek you base yourself in a town called Puerto Natales which is about 90kms from the national park. There we got things ready, got food etc and embarked for our trek.



There are 2 main options for how to do this trek, either you can pack your tent and gear and camp, which is the cheapest and most authentic way, or stay in the Refugio’s (park lodges). We opted for the latter simply because, for us trekking had to be enjoyable and I didn’t fancy carrying 20kgs of gear for the average 7 hours of walking per day. The winds are fierce in Patagonia (its famous for this) and again we didn’t fancy walking for hours only to sleep in a tent that might blow away (we saw some that did!)



All in all the trek is very weather dependent, and we were really blessed with amazing weather throughout. We even got a day of rough winds to give us the perfect authentic Patagonian experience.

Our route took us as follows:

Day 1 – arrival to the park, trek to Torres Del Paine Mirador (view point), stay overnight at Refugio Chileno – 15kms total
Day 2 – trek to Refugio Los Coures – 12km total
Day 3 – trek to French valley, visit Mirador, trek back down to Refugio Paine Grande – 28kms
Day 4 trek to Glacier grey, stay overnight at Refugio Grey – 10km
Day 5 return to Refugio Paine Grande, and take Catamaran ride on lake to meet the bus – 10km



We loved the trek, it was tough in parts and just walking this far is a challenge, the 3rd day was real tough with over 25kms and some horrible rocky boulders to overcome, but the scenes and the weather made up for everything, anytime we felt fed up with the walking all we had to do was look around, and be refreshed by the scenes that greeted us.



Because many people undertook the trek in the same way that we did, we ended up meeting a number of people each night. It was a great way to make new friends and to share travelling stories. In particular we trekked with a French Canadian lady from Montreal – Suzanne, a Canadian guy – Terry, and a couple from Poland. We also met an American couple that we had met in Nepal about 5 months ago! That was a real nice surprise!



What amazes me is that people come from all parts of the world just to walk to W, it is a special place and a trip of a lifetime for some. We arrived did the W and walked on – this journey of ours is full of special experiences, and we have to keep thinking about just great it is, we join up what could be a 100 amazing trips into one. The W was a great challenge and a great achievement, and I would rank it up near the top of the treks that we have done. The variety of the environment and the quality of the lodgings make it a real pleasure.