Salar de Uyuni

Next up, the next destination should be called Bolivia. And what's a better way to get into this country than with a three-day tour to the largest salt flat on earth, the Salar de Uyuni?!

So, after some thorough on-site analysis in San Pedro, we booked a tour and waited early in the morning with our bags, Colin, and Nim in front of the hostel for the bus to take us to the border. We set off at 6 AM, steadily climbing higher with the massive Licancabur in view, until we finally reached the border station to Bolivia shortly after 7:30 AM. Since the border only opened around 8 AM, we enjoyed a hearty breakfast: guacamole rolls and coca tea, at an altitude of 4,600 m. Quite substantial and definitely the highest breakfast of my life so far. When the border officers finally started their work shortly before 8:30 AM, we continued to the other side. Bolivia – new country, new adventures, I was very curious and the tour already felt special, and we hadn't even boarded the jeeps that would maneuver us through the salt flats yet. The next days were entirely going to take place in the Altiplano, the high plateau that stretches from northern Chile over Bolivia to Peru with an average altitude of 3,700 m above sea level, one of the highest inhabited areas on earth. As a Central European, it's hard to grasp the altitudes you're dealing with here. On the Bolivian side, the 4x4 vehicles were loaded, backpacks on the roof, and the travel group consisting of 6 people plus driver was seated inside the 4-wheel drive vehicle. When one of the beers we had brought suddenly lost its contents due to a pressure drop during loading, Colin and I quickly decided to waste as little as possible and emptied the contents of the can with a loud hiss directly into our mouths from the tiny hole. An unexpected