Salar de Uyuni

2.12.

It is also visible in a 166 dollar expensive hotel that Bolivia lags behind the tourist standards. For comparison, we have already stayed for 11 dollars. But if the waiter doesn't know that wine can also be spoiled, the morning rolls, the cheese and the meat are as dry as Bolivian air, and the shower head is so calcified that the water splashes everywhere, then even 166 dollars are too much. We don't want to complain, we are in a beggarly country, but if they want to make a luxury, then do it properly.

We can stay in the room until 1:00 a.m., which makes us very happy.

After that, we're going to the Salar de Uyuni. What a great landscape! Probably the only place in the world where you can drive in all directions and steer straight ahead for more than an hour without making a turn. Completely flat and no obstacles in sight except for 10 islands on the entire salt flat. We can even afford to not have our hand on the steering wheel for five minutes and speed up to 100 kilometers per hour. ;) Of course, the obligatory photo session with the size differences cannot be missed. After about an hour of driving, we arrive at Isla Incahuasi where we pay an entrance fee to walk around. The views are beautiful and you follow the path through former coral gardens and tall cacti. Unfortunately, the view is obstructed by the parking lot and the paths during sunset, so we decide to drive to the neighboring island, Isla Pescado. The journey takes half an hour until we arrive at the back. While there were still about 10 vehicles on the last island, we are all alone here and can explore the island as we please. I find a suitable photo spot for the evening and we return to our car and eat something. In the meantime, a huge cloud or sand front has appeared over the entire lake and we don't know what to expect. The front is approaching quickly and we can't estimate whether there will be a sandstorm or a mega storm in a few minutes. That scares us, especially since we won't be able to see anything once this front is here and we can't drive anywhere. The next towns would be "only" an hour away. So we let ourselves be surprised... I decide to take a picture of the sunset and Amelia watches the front. When a certain island disappears into the clouds, she will come and pick me up with the car. It's getting tight and I'm done when she arrives. Now the front is rolling over us and we are amazed that it's just sandy fog! When the front slowly passes after about 1.5 hours, we decide to unpack our blankets and sleeping bags. The night is very different for both of us: Amelia is freezing extremely and I am warm. The Milky Way is amazing and Amelia can still get some sleep in the morning after I gave her my blanket and warmed her up.

3.12.

Amelia has severe stomach cramps and back pain. I pack everything together and we have a quick meal before we leave. Once again, we cross the Salar towards Uyuni, which takes about 1.5 hours. Just before departure, there are many hotels that look like industrial plants and of course none of them have any guests. Opposite the Uyuni airport, we have our car cleaned, which is mandatory after crossing the salt flats so that the cars don't suffer too much from the salt. After 4 days, we finally have internet again and use the washing time to inform ourselves about the Swiss elections. Then we have lunch in Uyuni. Once again, there are things on the menu that don't include rice, potatoes, llama meat or chicken ;)

In the afternoon, we drive towards San Cristobal, the last gas station before the big nothingness. The motto is calculating gasoline. They are currently building a new asphalt road, which makes the route much longer. The old road is in worse condition than the off-road tracks - no joke! But they don't open the parts that have already been completed for traffic and you drive for kilometers right next to the new road through sand and gravel, seeing the wonderfully smooth asphalt shining in the sun next door. Even the "detour" has huge half-meter potholes, which you wouldn't expect from an official main road in Bolivia. The large trucks that bring goods from the ports of Chile to the country also have to drive on these rally tracks; the huge clouds of dust sometimes obscure our entire view. While refueling, we realize that we almost lost our gasoline canister: it was lying loose on the roof and came loose from its elastic straps during the bumpy ride. Fortunately, we still have it without which we wouldn't be able to visit the lagoon region, as the round trip takes up more than a full tank. We would have also lost the 30 liters of gasoline in it in the sand. I tie it up firmly again and we now have the canister in sight with one of the rear-view mirrors. For comparison: the area without a gas station is 1.5 times the size of Switzerland and consists only of desert (not that the desert would end afterwards), has not a single asphalt road and also no villages, only tourist accommodations, at most one per hour. We drive for about another hour to the next village called Alota, about 20 kilometers from the turnoff into no man's land. There are 5 accommodations, one of which is closed, one leaves a bad impression, one is fully booked by construction workers, and one has probably quit its service years ago. So the last accommodation remains for us, which is affordable and clean. We drink a wine that we bought in Uyuni (yes, Bolivia has three wine regions) and go to bed without dinner.