Salar de Uyuni – surroundings we’ve never seen before

So, we finally made it to Uyuni. We had booked a one-day-tour with Red Planet. There are many agencies that organize tours to Salar de Uyuni. After reading the reviews, we booked ours with Red Planet because they seemed most reliable and consistent. We arrived to their office and could leave our bags there, change clothes, use the toilet, etc.

We were happy to notice that we received a private tour since no-one else had booked a one-day-tour for that day. :D We started by driving to a train cemetery. It had old, rusty trains that, according to our guide, had belonged to UK before and that USA used afterwards and then left there when they didn’t need them anymore. We climbed on the trains and took some pictures there.

Long way from Puno to Uyuni – how a strike changes your plans

For once we had a quite tight schedule for a few days. We had arrived back to Puno from Cusco to continue our journey to La Paz, Bolivia. We had booked one night in Puno because we could not cross the Bolivian border in the night. But then… We heard that there would be a strike/road block in Puno the next two days and no buses would come or leave Puno during that time. We had already been in Puno before and really didn’t feel like spending two more days there. Even if Johan and Maria would’ve also been there 😃

We discussed the issue with our hostel’s (HomeCenter Puno) receptionist and they told us that there would be a speed boat going from Puno to Yunguyo, close to Bolivia’s border. The boat should have left at 7am, but it left around 7.20am. The ride should’ve been 3,5 hours, but it was about 5 hours. We were expecting to come to a harbor, but instead we stopped in shallow water. Everyone was wondering what happened and then we noticed a small ROWING boat with two people in it. We then realized that the rowing boat was there to transport all apprx. 40 people and the luggage to the shore. The boat was leaking and the bottom was covered in water. We came to the main land and there the rowing boat couple wanted money. We had asked before if we had to pay anything extra and the hostel said no. We felt that it was not okay to ask the passengers for money – the couple should’ve asked the boat company for extra compensation instead.