Sucre, Potosi and Uyuni

After an adventurous bus ride, we arrived in Sucre. The city is completely white and built in colonial style. Despite tiredness, we signed up for a city tour. Since we were the only ones, it turned into a private tour. We learned a lot about the past and present culture, including the drinking game 'SAPO'. On the last day of the year 2016, we visited the Casa de la Libertad, a museum about Bolivia's independence. In the evening, there was a barbecue at the hostel. The whole hostel sat together comfortably, ate salad, meat, and chocolate banana. Then, a few minutes before 12 o'clock, we went to the main square and waited with hundreds of people for the new year. We ended the night in the Irish Pub.

On the first day at noon, we looked for a way to get to Potosi. Since it was a holiday, it was a bit more expensive than usual. When we arrived in Potosi, we met two other backpackers - Martin and Aaron - and together we looked for accommodation. Since everything was closed, we had to search for a long time to find something to eat. Luckily, we even found an organization that offers tours of the mine. So, on the second day in the morning, we went into the mines. It was very exciting to see under which conditions these people have to work, where they shop, and what they believe in. In the afternoon, Julia went to Ojo del Inka together with Martin and Aaron, which unfortunately was not accessible due to an accident shortly before. Carole enjoyed a relaxing day in town.

The next day, the four of us took a bus to Uyuni and booked a tour to Salar with transport to San Pedro de Atacama. There was nothing else to do in this place, so we played cards. The tour started the next day. The first stop was the Cementerio de Trenes, where many old, rusty trains provided a good motif for photos. Then, we went to the Salar (salt flats). There was lunch in front of the salt hotel, and we took hundreds of photos. We also tried perspective photos. Since the ground was a bit wet and quite salty, we looked really dirty afterwards. The next stop was the Cactus Island. In the middle of the salt flats, there is a stone island with hundreds of cacti. We spent the first night in a salt hotel. The next day, we visited various lagoons with thousands of flamingos. Unfortunately, the weather was quite cloudy, and we were glad to have shelter at the Arbol de Piedra. The Laguna Colorado was still beautiful to look at, although the colors would have been much more intense with sunshine. The third day started at 4 o'clock in the morning with breakfast. Then, we visited the Sol de Manana geysers. The landscape there looked like Mars. After that, we could relax a bit in the hot springs. We continued towards the Chilean border. After some turbulence when leaving Bolivia, we were able to travel to San Pedro with a brand new bus. The difference in the roads couldn't be bigger. After waiting for a little over three hours, we were finally able to enter Chile.