Framedlight

On the second day of our Salt flat tour we got up after a night in the Salt Hotel near San Juan. The bed had a base of salt, but did have a mattress and we slept in our down sleeping bags as it got very cold. Breakfast was good and we had pancakes to fortify us for our 7.30 start. The salt was now mixed with the sand and grit of the Salar de Chiguana. We were not that far out when we came across the railway line. Pauli asked us to walk across while he took the Land Cruiser across. I don't know if this was because the thing would not have got across with us in it (it was a fairly old specimen) or that he thought it safer for us if we walked. There was no road to speak of - only tracks in the sand. I would not have wanted to be driving this on my own. Soon the great Ollague volcano came in site. This is situated on the Bolivia/Chile border and towers to over a mile above the surrounding plain. There is the remains of a road running up it which rises to 5,650m ...