Christmas Day 25th December

So for a difference, I had a very different Christmas Day compared to those that I am used to doing. We went in two Jeeps to the salt flats, and `i was in the second Jeep and had a view of the Jeep in front.

The horizon in the distance was a long way away and emphasised how big the flats are and how far the hills were away.

And I just had to pose for the camera on top of a pile of salt.

\Next was a moment made in salt after the Dakar rally came through the area in 2014.

A view of the two Jeeps.

The Salt Hotel, a building on the flats made entirely of salt blocks. And there were several statues and other items carved out of salt blocks.

We stopped on the whitish place that we could find to take photos.

A picture of the salt showing the hexagonal pattern of the slat flats.

A long shot of the island in the salt flats the we were going to visit, with a slight mirage effect.

The island was covered with cactuses.

A close up of one of the cactus pants in bloom.

And a picture of the same plant from the beach.

And then it was Chrismas lunch cum supper. We had the rest of the day to got the BBQ going, roast the chicken, peel potatoes, fry onions, cook squash etc but much of the preparation work had already bee done by Kim and Gareth.

Some of the hors d'ourvres were great such as these before the gannets pinched all the
food.

Pinayeda...and such a good party game. the striker is blindfolded and spun around. each person has one strike at hitting the box with a baseball and eventually the dos breaks and cascades sweets and small toys to the floor which is the signal for everyone to scramble forward and grab whatever they can.

Followed by me doing an impression of The Titanic iconic scene on one of the many rusting locos and rolling stock in the train cemetery.
                                               

And a scenic railway locomotive / sunset picture. There were so many locos and rolling stock photos but after the few locos yesterday, I restricted myself to just two...but I have another thirty if anyone is interested!

And tomorrow we will have another day.