From San Pedro de Atacama (Chile) to Uyuni (Bolivia)

After my two days in San Pedro I set off on a three day trip to Uyuni (Bolivia), visiting the most amazing places.

We started off from San Pedro and travelled not only the 47km to the Bolivian border, but went up from 2800 to 4500m. The border was only a small post in the middle of many high mountains, but buzzing with people: lots of tourists doing the boarder formalities and switching from the bus to jeeps.

After breakfast at the entry of the Reserva National de Fauna Andina Eduardo Avaroa, we did set of to the Laguna Verde: a turquoise lagoon in the middle of nowhere. Already here we all agreed that the money spent on the tour was worth every penny!

Next stop were hot springs were we could go for a swim surrounded by the beautiful countryside.

This was followed by a few geysers (which unfortunately were not very active at the time we passed).

The last stop of the day was the Laguna Colorado: a Laguna colored with white, red and blue - changing colors depending on where you stand and surrounded by majestic mountains. We stopped for the night at the hostel next to the Laguna at 4500m.We did a beautiful small walk along the Laguna and watched the thousands of pink flamingos standing in the lagoon. The sceneri was just incredible!!

This walk, combined with a few (too many) cookies once back, were to much for me: I suffered terrible altitude sickness (terrible headache). So after a bit of vegetable soup and a cup of coca tea I went to bed.

The next morning I felt much better (although not yet perfect) and we set of on day two. This was a journey through wide sandy desserts, small stony roads along the mountain sides. We went past the Árbol de Piedra.

Lunch was in a small village in the Bolivian altiplano. After lunch we travelled through valleys and villages were the campesiños are cultivating their land and thousands of lamas are grazing where ever there is something to eat.

In the evening we arrived at our hostel in Puerto Chuvica, a small village overlooking the Salar de Uyuni.

The 3rd day was dedicated to the Salar, this waste landscape of salt, covering more than 10'000 square km. The views were simply unique!
We visited the national park of Isla Incahuasi - an Island in the middle of the Salar - a wonderful, peaceful place, with great views of the Salar and covered with cactuses.

We did get to see the salt crystals, a salt hotel and finally the manual production of salt in one of the small villages next to the salar.

I have seen a lot over the last months, but the landscape here were very impressive and among the most spectacular I have seen over the last few months. The colors, switching from warm to cold colors, the altitude, the blue sky and the animals (viguñas, lamas and pink flamingos) made these a special three days.

A small hello to my travel companions in the Jeep as well: Sebastian, who actually travels through Chile but decided to do this excursion to Bolivia. And Paloma and Juan from Spain who were wonderful Spanish teachers during the whole three days: muchas gracias!