Salar de Uyuni

Our tour started in the morning at eleven o'clock. Together with several other tourists, we waited for it to finally start. When the cars were filled, my mood sank once again as we were placed in a car with three Asians (two boys and a girl) instead of other backpackers. Great, this could be interesting. In total, about 15 jeeps with six people and a driver each drove. When we were almost the last car to start because two of the Asians wanted to withdraw money, the mood was completely ruined... But everything turned out differently. The Asians turned out to be three incredibly nice and funny Malaysians, and I believe we had caught one of the funniest cars by far.

The journey started, and the first stop was already at the outskirts of town at a railway cemetery. Here, all the cars were stacked up, and the tourists climbed on the rusty wagons to take beautiful photos.

We continued and soon approached the huge salt lake. Since it was the end of the rainy season, we were lucky to be able to drive onto the lake at all, as it is usually completely flooded and impassable due to the rain. The lake is a whopping 10,000 square meters in size and completely made of salt. The sight was absolutely breathtaking, as we had never seen anything like it before. We drove several kilometers straight onto the lake until we finally stopped and could get out. Without sunglasses and flip-flops, you would be completely helpless. On the lake, there was still about 2 cm of water, and unfortunately, Jonas and I both had leather flip-flops that we didn't want to walk through the saltwater with, otherwise we could have thrown them away afterwards. So we had to take off our shoes and walk barefoot. At first, no problem, but after some time, the light pricking of the salt crystals turned into excruciating pain, and we limped step by step. I was glad that Josef occasionally lent me one of his flip-flops, and I could at least give one foot a break.

But, if you want to have beautiful pictures, you have to suffer=) We had an incredible amount of fun taking photos and took numerous pictures that I can't upload all of them. In the middle of the lake, there was a salt hotel with toilets, a small restaurant, and even sleeping accommodations. Unbelievable... Since the lake is so incredibly large, the cars spread out very well, and everyone had space to take pictures. Our group split up, and now we only drove together with one other jeep.

While we were taking all the photos, our tour guides prepared a great lunch and set up a table and chairs in the middle of the lake for us. Since we, especially the Malaysians, couldn't get enough, we stayed with one jeep until sunset. The view is also indescribable.

When it was pitch dark, we drove to our "hotel". The accommodation is more likely to make it onto the list of the worst accommodations we have ever had. The room smelled incredibly bad, and the sanitary facilities were very basic. At night, I woke up again and felt like suffocating. The altitude seems to affect me much more than I thought and spent half the night on the hallway by the window to somehow get fresh air. I considered canceling the tour because I knew we would be going even higher, but then I was persuaded at breakfast. The Malaysians gave me Asian altitude sickness tablets, and the drivers provided us with coca leaves. You simply put them in your cheek and suck on them. Since coca leaves are one of the basic ingredients for cocaine, consumption is only legal in Bolivia and Peru, and the locals chew the leaves like we chew gum at home. However, the taste is debatable...=)