After San Pedro 🇨🇱 we actually only came because it was a cool way to drive to Uyuni in Bolivia 🇧🇴. Namely by 4x4 jeep over 3 days and 2 nights. After being picked up by minibus from the hotel, we soon reached the border, where it took a long time. First 2 hours waiting at the "Checkout Chile", then breakfast was served (why not while waiting?!?) before the vehicle change at the "Bolivian Checkin", where the value of my German passport was once again made clear to me. I got through in 30 seconds, but Juli was rejected because she was missing a document from Colombia. After our guide talked to the border police, we were able to continue/start the journey!
In the 7-seater 4x4 SUV from guide Patito (little Duck 🦆😃), we sat together with a young doctor couple (Caro & Johannes) from Würzburg and two Chinese people (Vincent & Corie, pilot & stewardess 😊) from Hong Kong, who by the way had to spontaneously put 150 USD each plus 10 USD for photocopies of their IDs and visa applications on the table. It was going to be a great group!
Before lunch, we visited Laguna Blanco and Laguna Verde and splashed around in a thermal bath. Then we were at geysers at almost 5,000 meters altitude, which led to more or less altitude sickness (headaches) for all of us. The highlight of the day was Laguna Colorada, before we arrived at our hostel at an altitude of 3,600 m. Completely exhausted, we fell straight into bed after dinner! On the second day, we visited different rocks that fascinated us only when we climbed on them. Then we went to Laguna Negra and the Anaconda, a river that looks like a snake when viewed from a high rock. After lunch, we mainly had to cover distance... except for a stop for local beer 🍺 ! Our second hostel was a salt hostel directly at Salar de Uyuni. Everything was made of salt!
We had to leave at 4 am to see the sunrise 🌄 from a cactus 🌵 island. Even though we were already at Salar de Uyuni, it took over 1 hour to drive to the island and it was only over salt! It was incredible! As far as the eye could see, there was only salt! About 4-5 meters thick on a lake as big as from Hamburg to Hanover multiplied by Hamburg to Bremen! It was the highlight of the tour! We took so many funny pictures and the atmosphere was great!
Then we went to Cementerio de Trenes, where we suddenly discovered our names on an old train - even if Juli was spelled with a Y. In Uyuni, our paths then separated, as we stayed in Uyuni while the others returned to Chile on different routes. This tour was an adventure, and a great one! It did cost a lot of energy, but the sights were absolutely worth it, and we had a great group of fellow travelers as well as our amazing guide and driver.
In Uyuni, the next day, luckily there was a street market, otherwise the waiting time for our night bus to La Paz would have been rather boring.
