Welcome! Bienvenue!

We have created this site so that family and friends can follow us during our bike expedition from Quito to Ushuaia! We hope you enjoy following along online as much as we'll enjoy every day of this adventure!
Nous avons créé ce site afin que nos familles et amis puissent nous suivre au cours de notre expédition VTT de Quito à Ushuaia! Nous espérons que vous aimerez lire nos aventures en ligne autant que nous allons en profité!


08 October 2008

Biking across the Salar de Uyuni












On our way to the Salar de Uyuni, we bushcamped near a meteorite crater “Miguel y Alex Tejada”. It was a pretty amazing sight, especially with the Volcano Tunapa (5400m, now extinct) in the background.













We biked around the base of the volcano to reach Tahua from where we had this amazing view of the Salar.


The next day we cycled 100kms (60miles) across the salt desert.

We took hundreds of photographs as you can imagine. Sean stopped off at the local "jacuzzi" to soothe his tired legs!

This was a very special day on the bike...the salt crunching underneath our tires as we cycled along...you can see how we covered up to protect ourselves from the strong rays of the sun:

The Salar is so flat and so enormous that it’s easy to get lost as you have very few points of reference. One of them is the peculiar Isla del Pescado(Fish Island) with its giant cactuses. Its the largest island in a group that forms an isolated oasis-type ecosystem within the salt pan.

The landscape against the background of the salt pans that extend as far as the eye can see makes it an ideal place for photography fans, so it was also the perfect stage for a fashion show of the latest mountain bike clothing!











We stopped for a night in the Salt Hotel which is made entirely out of blocks of salt: beds, chairs, floors, walls, tables.
This was our dinner table!


We have a few more days in Bolivia before we leave the Altiplano and make our way to Argentina!!

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hello to the Bolivian Daltons!

Amazing pictures of the salar, the cactuses and especially yourselves dressed like the Daltons on a bike ride.
Very pleased to see that the Andes trail is also a lot of fun.
Excellent.

Jacques

Chris said...

Absolutely stunning pictures of the salt plains... I subconsciously immediately wanted to grab my own camera...

Anonymous said...

takes me back. looks amazing. I can't believe you got to cycle across the Salar - it must have been some fun following the map!!!
At least you couldn't complain about a lack of electrolyte!
Marko