We've come from the bottom one and are going to the three above.

A sheet, two blankets, a quilt and a top cover, warm, but felt like someone was laying on top of me.

The Potosi bus station with a worrying lack of buses.

We were told there was a 1 bs fee for using the bus station. Sounded dodgy to me but the locals paid

These people got off the bus at a place where there was absolutely nothing as far as you could see.

One of the few villages we passed through on route.

This area looked like a proper desert, cactuses and all.

Three and a half hours of mountains then super flat, you could see Uyuni from the last mountain.

The outskirts of Uyuni looks like a western.

Looked like they'd spent some money on the bus station here and there were buses too.

An interesting sculpture, though not quite sure what it's meant to be.

With a pricing strategy like that they are forcing you to drink litre bottles. So I'll just have to.

Away From The Mountains

February 10, 2025 in Bolivia ⋅ ⛅ 17 °C

We had a little bit of a sweat on this morning. We left the hostel just after 6am to get a taxi to the bus station for our 7am coach to Uyuni. We hadn't booked one but there were plenty of taxis on the street, it was just they either had people in them or presumably were on their way to pick someone up. This went on for around 20 mins until someone got out of a taxi right in front of us. What a relief that was, I was already trying to working out when the next bus might be.

So just after 7am we set off on our first coach of this trip. We were the only foreigners on the coach which surprised me as this route is quite a well worn tourist trail. The vast majority of whom are 20s to early 30s. Just as well I can pass for mid 30s so I don't feel like the odd one out!

The terrain on the journey between the two cities changed frequently. From big mountains, to scrub, to desert, to verdant valleys then all of a sudden everything flattened out, as we approached Uyuni.

Uyuni is just under 300m lower than Potosi and sits in a flat basin at around 3,700m. All the streets seem to have a layer of fine sand on them that must blow into the town from the immediate surrounding areas.

We had a pretty relaxed day exploring the touristy bits and some of the adjacent local areas. It does feel pretty safe, but as with anywhere you just have to keep your wits about you.Read more