Saltdesert & a bit of Bolivia

Atacama was exhausting but definatly worth the sweat and energy. The day after the biking we booked a tour from San Pedro to Uyuni in Bolivia. This tour included the border crossing, many lagoons and the famous Salar de Uyuni. The border crossing was on 4600 m which caused a big headache for the most of us...and again I have to admit that border crossing for people out of the US is just 10 x worse than for everyone else... they always have to pay, at least 3 times more, ... but this is because they charging south americans the same so it is just fair sport...
At the first day we drove to a lot of lagoons, red, blue, green and viollet. They have different colors for different reasons, some of them have got special types of salt in them, some others differnt types of algae. Then we stopped at geysers, which was really stinky because of all the sulfur shooting out of them....but still really interresting to see how it bubbled. In the late afternoon we arrived at our accommodation, it was pretty basic but we were told that before!!I know!!! it was just that we were on 4300m and there was no heater, double gassed windows or anything simillar!!!the toilets were nice....at the beginning, but after 24 people been to it at least once...mmhh one can imagine I think. Anyway the evening was realy nice because an american guy brought his guitar and additional he wasn´t the only one to play the guitar pretty perfect....so we had a nice long evening of singing until we didn´t know any lyrics anymore. My night was hot and even a bit sweaty because I was the only one with a sleepingbag ready for minus temps ; ) proved and tested in nepal.
The next day started with a big stone which has a funny form. Other stopps were a look out point to see a vulcano which was actually a bit smoky. Afterwards we stopped at another lagoon and several times at interresting places in the dessert.
Our second accommodation was way better and most important warmer, with a shower and a toilet one just had to share between six. Had a three course dinner, and quite a few beer before we finally started having an even bigger gig than last night...and longer...and louder...
The next day, was the shortest time wise, but the biggest attraction wise. We went to the Salar de Uyuni....and it was wide and big, really really wide & big and white...you couldn´t see the end of it, which meant that everything started reflecting on the ground, e.g like the sky or far mountains....stunning...
after a 40 min drive we stopped in the middle of the Saltdesert at a hill, which was full of cactuses. But the main reason why we stopped, was a different one...
....because everything around you has the same color and appearance, we were able to start playing with the perspective....check out the pics...unbeliveable what you can do with a few people, a lot of salt and a camera...
After 3 hours of taking pics and posing, we had enough and headed of to Uyuni.

Uyuni is a little town close to the Saltflat, which makes it a little town with millions of travel agencies...
We had a last nice dinner with a couple of people from the tour, which was in the same time the first local dinner for us in Bolivia. As soon as it gets night in Bolivia you can find many many little shops everywhere, where old ladies selling ¨The Hamburguesa¨ which from that night on was supposed to become our basic dinner for the next couple of days.... it is a little burger with salad, tomatos, onions and fries on top, for 1,50bs which is approximately 15 dollar cents......awesome, cheap and delicious oh my goodness these hamburguesas are sooooooo goood and cheap....but, and this might be the reason why not everyone is having them, it looks a bit dodgy in which environment they´re made, and it propably is...but for people with a strong stomach, the best bargain in Bolivia. Ross and I we left Uyuni the next day to Tupiza. That sounds pretty easy and fast, but it was really lucky that we got the bus.
I gave up my laundry the day we arrived, same as Ross, and the lady said until the next morning 8 o´clock it would be finished...so at the morning we wanted to leave there was no laundry lady...but our bus was supposed to leave at 9. and because I gave up my whole stack of clothes, we had to wait.....8:30........ .. 8:45 ....8:50 then I decided to go to the busstation and change our tickets but they said there wouldn´t be a bus to Tupiza the next 2 days......shit...it looked like we would get stuck in Uyuni.... but then I saw this massive amount of luggage people were waiting with for the bus...so I thought maybe we could be faster than they would be able to load the bus. So I ran back to the hotel, Ross just got the laundry and had started packing...so we packed as fast as we never packed before, grabbed our bags and ran back to the busstation.....and...........people were still sitting there...YEAH juuuuhhhuuuu lucky.....
In the end the bus was 1 1/2 hours belated... and took 10 instead of 6 hours, but we were never more happy about the fact that a bus was too late....
Many regards and the promise that the next post will come faster...
Simon