So this was it, the part of the trip that we had heard the most about, a 3 day 4x4 trek through the desert, including visiting lagoons, geysers, volcanoes, seeing flamingos and llamas, and of course the amazing salt flats near the town of Uyuni in the south of Bolivia.

Most people do this trip heading south, from Uyuni to san Pedro in Chile. As we are generally heading north, we did it the other way, starting in San Pedro. The trip started at 8am with a short bus ride to the Bolivian border.

[caption id=”attachment_55” align=”alignnone” width=”450” caption=”Trish at the Bolivian customs on the Chile/Bolivia border”][/caption]

Then had a quick breakfast in the freezing cold wind and got loaded onto our 4x4, a Toyota landcruiser.    Two french guys, a portugeese guy and a girl from singapore, 6 of  us in total.

The first stop was one of the lagoons, complete with flamingos. Then we went on to some thermal baths, heated by volcanic activity underground. They were about 30degrees and it was a really nice change from the freezing cold wind.

Then some more lagoons and a Geyser  (which only really blows early in the morning, and  unfortunatly we missed it).[caption id=”attachment_62” align=”alignnone” width=”450” caption=”geysers - they only blow when its really cold in the morning”][/caption] [caption id=”attachment_63” align=”alignnone” width=”450” caption=”Butter flat water and windy - but the lagoon is full of arsnic….”][/caption] Our accommodation for the first night was at around 4500m above sea level beside the laguna colorado. [caption id=”attachment_61” align=”alignnone” width=”450” caption=”Flamingos in the Laguna Colorado”][/caption]It was really, really cold. I was also suffering the effects of  altitude sickness, a sore head and a bit woozy. Trish on the other hand was fine.. [caption id=”attachment_60” align=”alignnone” width=”450” caption=”dead llama”][/caption] [caption id=”” align=”alignnone” width=”500” caption=”Trish at the laguna colorado”][/caption]

The next day another early start, and onto some more lagoons, with more flamingos! We also went to the “Stone Tree” in the middle of the desert, and I did some climbing. Kinda scary climbing rocks in the middle of the desert  with no safety equipment, but I am a big wuss anyway.. [caption id=”” align=”alignnone” width=”375” caption=”rock climbing in the desert”][/caption]

That night we stayed in a Salt Hotel, a  building totally made from salt, walls, floors, furniture. Cool place but no insulation!

The next day was the main event, the salt flats of Uyuni. There is an island in the middle of the salt flats that is covered in Cactus plants. One of them is over 9m and 900 years old!

After the island we drove out to the middle of the salt flats… surrounded by white and only white. Very strange and similar to a frozen lake. [caption id=”attachment_64” align=”alignnone” width=”450” caption=”gullivers travels”][/caption] [caption id=”” align=”alignnone” width=”500” caption=”Once you pop you can't stop…”][/caption]

[caption id=”” align=”alignnone” width=”500” caption=”Trish, Shyn, Simone, Jean, (our driver), Peter and Manu”][/caption]

That afternoon we got to Uyuni, said bye to the french boys and the rest of us got a 10hour bumpy bus ride to Sure!