Uyuni

On Wednesday, September 27, 2018, around 7:00 am, we arrived in Uyuni after a long but very comfortable bus ride. I had the feeling that Uyuni exists solely because of the influx of tourists. You could find souvenir shops, tourist offices, and cafes everywhere. Since we had already booked our tour in La Paz, we went directly to the tourist office. After a delicious breakfast at around 10:30 am, we got into a jeep. A jeep can accommodate 6 people plus the driver.

The first stop was a railway crossing with connections to Chile and Argentina. What was special about it was that there were old, completely rusted locomotives from 1940. After taking a few photos, we continued to a small market. There, you could buy "Alpaca" sweaters or cans made of salt and other souvenirs. Then we had to drive another 20 minutes with the jeep, this time over salt, to the "Hotel del Sal". In the hotel, there were tables and chairs, as well as entire hotel rooms made of salt. Our driver prepared our food, so we had lunch there. Afterwards, we found ourselves in the middle of the salt flats. For me, a small highlight of my entire trip. We also took many photos there, but marveled at the vastness of the 20,000 m^2 salt flats.

"Islas de pescados" is a volcano island in the middle of the desert. It is covered with countless cacti. The sight was simply incredible. The sunset was also beautiful as the sky turned slightly purple. We spent the first night in a "salt hotel". Chairs, tables, floors, and even the beds were made of salt.

On the second day, we spent a lot of time in the car because the distances between different lagoons were quite far. We visited one lagoon after another. And each one was more beautiful than the other. It was deserted, you could only see flamingos, alpacas, llamas, and vicuñas, which live completely freely in the desert. During a stop, we even spotted a desert fox wandering alone. The highlight of the day for me was the "Laguna roja". The lagoon actually has a strong red color due to a certain algae.

In the late afternoon, we arrived at our second accommodation. We shared a room with 6 people.

The next morning, I was quite tired because we had to get up at 4:30 am. Before we drove to hot springs where we could bathe, we could see up to 90 degrees hot volcanic springs as well as emitting natural gas. It took a little courage to put on a bikini at 5 degrees and then bathe in the hot springs, but after the bath, I really felt warm again, so it was worth it.

Unfortunately, "Laguna verde", which we then drove to, did not have a green color, so we continued to the Bolivian border after a short stop. This lagoon is also only sometimes colorful due to a certain algae and microorganisms.

3 of our group members returned to Uyuni by jeep. We changed cars and crossed the border into Chile. The destination was San Pedro de Atacama, a small but very touristy and pretty town on the Chilean border.