Salar de Uyuni

I woke up at 7h, bag already packed, and headed into town to exchange the rest of my Chilean pesos to Bolivian bolivianos, because we were told that we would have to pay an additional $150.00BOB (approx. $22USD), and I figured it didn't make sense to cross the mountains in to Chile again before going to Peru. But all of the currency exchange places were still closed and everyone asleep...but I couldn't leave without changing Daniel's and my $, or else we wouldn't be able to get into the national park with the rest of the tour group.

Finally at 8, one of the places whose door I'd been knocking on for the past hour opened and changed our money. I ran back to the hostel to find Daniel standing outside without either of our bags. He told me that the mini bus that would take us to the Bolivian border had come back for us 3 times, and Daniel had given him our bags for the mean time... So, we decided to walk to the place where we got our stamp for exiting Chile (just a few Km away) where we'd hopefully find our group still there waiting to cross. ...We just made it before they left!!

After they stamped my American passport that I had used to enter Chile, we drove an hour -all up hill into the Andes- and arrived at the entry checkpoint to Bolivia at 4,400m altitude. I again pulled out my German passport, because Bolivia has the same deal as Argentina where Americans have to pay for the visa (as Bolivians, Argentinians, and some other nationalities have to pay for an American visa). But when went up to get my visa stamp, the official looked at me like I was crazy and yelled at me telling me that I had to use the same passport to enter Bolivia as I had used to exit Chile, and that I had to go fill out the visa application form.

I ended up having to pay $60USD for the visa (less than I thought it would be but still really annoying), and I spent the next couple of hours driving trying not to regret having bought that tour. It's honestly the first time during all my travels that I have ever second thought a decision...and that's because I let myself be pushed and pressured and didn't ever really justify the decision in my own mind.

That first day our group of 10 was split into two at the border and we drove all day in two cross-country jeeps through the colorful Bolivian mountains:

Our guide spoke to us in Spanish (3 of the five of us in our jeep didn't really speak any Spanish), explaining why some of the mountains were white (no, there was no snow on them), or red, or green: the different mineral compositions. 

We visited the Laguna Blanca:

The Laguna Verde:

We drove through the Desierto de Dalí:

We visited some beautiful thermal springs where we bathed (with some other tour groups) in the hot water, looking out over the magnificent landscape:

And then the Geyseres del Tatio:

We visited the stunning Laguna Colorada (with flamingos and llamas):

We arrived at our 'hotel' which was at 5,000meters altitude (16,400feet) at about 5 and sat to drink some maté -a typical South American tea. Unfortunately two ladies from our group were quite affected by how high we were and started showing signs of altitude sickness: vomiting, headache, fainting, drowsiness, etc. After all we were quite high up there!

There were definitely no showers since every drop of water has to be lugged hundreds of Km, and that's not a luxury they spend the little money they have on. So, we ate dinner -soup followed by spaghetti and sauce- played some card games and then got into sleeping bags and under heavy blankets to sleep through a colddd night.

At 6:30 we ate some bread with dulce de leche for breakfast, and at 7h we piled and strapped all out packed to the roof of the jeep and set off for another day of awe-striking views!

We drove to the Árbol de Piedra (Rock Tree):

And drove through the Desierto de Dalí again:

We walked around the Mirador del Volcán Ollague (actually a Chilean volcano):

And then finally We stopped at the Laguna Hedionda (with flamingos and vacuna):

That night we slept in a salt hotel...yes, the whole hotel was made of salt: the beds, the tables, the walls, the floor, the support beams, etc.:

And then the next morning we all got up at 3am and set off in the jeeps to the Salar (salt flat) to watch the sunrise:

And to just check out the amazing Flat made of hexagonal shapes due to the salt form:

We went to a cactus island:

And then also admired the amazingly reflective part of the flat that had just a couple millimeters of water sitting on it:

And then we ended that day in the small town (20,000 habitants) of Uyuni.

We visited the famous train grave yard, and after our guide left, we walked around the city!: