Flamingos, Geyers and Hot springs on route to Bolivia

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We were picked up early from our hostel in San Pedro de Atacama armed with 10 litres of water and set off for our 3 day trip across Chile´s atacama Desert to Bolivias Salt Flats.
There were 4 Jeeps in total on our trip with 6 eager tourists in each. We got lucky as our 4WD comprised of 3 couples, one from up north, one from Jersey, us and Felix our friendly (but strict) driver whom was very experienced and always sober which is exactly what you want when your driving through desert tracks and over mountains for 3 days.

Our tour operator had informed us they would change our chiliean money into bolivian for the park entrance we need to pay and a bit extra for any bolivian souvenirs. Annoyingly on departure they said they had ran out of money which was frustrating as they had told us all how much to change and knew how many people they were changing money for. This meant we had to change our money at the bolivian border which we assumed (naively) there would be some kind of money changing bureau. A short drive later and we arrived at the Bolivian border, a little clay shed with a man for stamping our passport, thankfully this didn't take long at all. With our passports branded we searched for the non existent money bureau. As we couldn't go further without our national park ticket paid for in bolivianos we had only two choices; either a corrupt park official or an old bolivian lady with 3 gold teeth, we chose the park official who royally ripped us all off and that was our welcome to Bolivia.

Slightly peeved our group piled into our Jeep and were off on our way to Uyuni spotting wild Llamas, Alpacas, Flamingos and mountain rabbits on the way. Our hostel accommodation was slightly dubious and located in the heart of nowhere. We had 2 very cold nights and at over 4,000 metres the air is so thin that not everyone got a great sleep. Other than the odd headache we coped quite well with the high altitude and seeing as the rest of our trip in South America was going to be a lot lower all anxiety had gone.



Our 3 day 4WD road trip comprised of roughly 6 hours driving per day through the Atacama desert and over the Andes mountains range stopping at stunning lagoons, lakes, hot springs, geysers and volcanic rock formations. On the last day we were surprised to have stopped to play around at a train cemetery full of Bolivia's abandoned diesel trains from the 60s only minutes away from Uyuni town centre! Finally we arrived at the edge of the Salar de Uyuni, the most beautiful salt flats which made for the most interesting photo opportunities. With so many photos taken on our trip I shall let them conclude this blog... Enjoy!

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