Salar de Uyuni

3 days. 7 people in a jeep. 1000's of kilometers covered. Driven on salt, lake (yes, literally on a lake), desert, snow, rock, and mountain. Sun-burned and frost-bitten in one day. Slept with 4 pairs of socks on. Slept on a bed made of salt surrounded by salt walls. Spent most of my money on bathrooms. Shared a bottle of wine under the stars. Saw the stars closer than ever before.

When I read of people who traveled in Bolivia before going myself, everyone mentioned that Salar de Uyuni was the best part of the entire trip. I was disappointed when I thought I wouldn't have the time to go, but we took advantage of the holidays and decided to go. There is absolutely nothing else like it on earth.

Part I - getting to Uyuni
We had to take the overnight bus there because its a 12 hour bus ride. We opted for the unheated, non-bathroom containing public buses because we saved 200 B's ($28) that way. It's a good thing that the bus wasn't full because multiple people had tickets for the same seat. But eventually, we all settled in with our snacks and blankets and after passing cans of cookies and pringles around, settled into sleep. Until 2am of course, when all of the sudden, the entire bus started vibrating and rattling due to the loss of a paved road from Oruro to Uyuni (the last 4 hours of the trip). Metal on metal clanged with abandon as we rode over a rocky dirt road, people's bags and bottles fell from the spaces above the seats and actually hit one of the girls sitting beside me on the face, causing her to bleed. We patched her up with the use of a flashlight while the bus continued to rattle, toss, and jump from the bumps in the road. It was one of those moments when the situation feels surreal and you ask yourself if this is really happening to you at 2am in the middle of nowhere in South America? Yup, it really is.
We arrived in Uyuni at 6:30am but they were kind and let us stay on the bus until 7:30am because it was below freezing outside and nothing was open. Eventually, we got off, found public bathrooms (the beginning of my loss of money due to my bladder) and eventually had breakfast where we fed the fire in the fireplace with empty egg cartons. Then, the trip began.

Part 2 - The salt flats
There were 18 of us altogether - some Cali kids came with us. Our jeep had our driver Efrain and 7 of us. We spent the morning driving on the salt flats, stopping to take pictures and marvel at how we stood on salt and its similarity to snow. We ate lunch at the bottom of Volcano Tunupa (i think) and then walked around the shore looking at wild flamingo's and llamas. Then we drove to an island that was full of giant-sized cacti and saw the sunset. On our way to our hostel made of salt, we ran into water. The last 20 minutes of our drive we drove completely in water - we wondered which was denser - the car with us or the salt water. Fortunately, we never found out. We spent the night in the salt hostel which was suprisingly warm. Salt is a great insulator apparently. The next morning, we had breakfast and started driving across the dusty, mountainous land. We saw various rock structures that reminded others of Arizona and then we got to the lagunas. The lagunas are full of minerals and because of that, look different colors depending on the mineral. We got to laguna colorada right before the sunset where we looked out to see the stars but where it was absolutely cold! This hostel wasn't made of salt, and even with 7 people in one room, we all froze. Fortunately, we didn't have to sleep long there because we got up before sunrise on Saturday to reach the geysers by sunrise. They smelled of sulfur but blew hot wind across the snowy desert. For a while afterwards, we drove in snow and dust in a region where it never rains, only snows, because of the altitude (4,500m). 4.5k is almost a 5k - imagine that distance but only upwards instead of forwards. We visited some hot springs, visited more lagunas with flamingos, and then drove through a national park to get back to Uyuni by 7pm to catch our bus back to La Paz. Driving through such unique nature expanses with no outside contact in the middle of nowhere to the beat of Bolivian dance techno music was surreal and a great experience. I don't regret missing sleep for this.
My descriptions don't do this place justice at all and I'm hoping my photos will at least give you a glimpse of these desolate places. They are jarring and inhospitable and also humbling and breath-taking.

Now I am back in La Paz and I think I will take the next 3 weeks to explore La Paz more and try some more Bolivian street food. I'm pretty exhausted of traveling every weekend so i am looking to some more downtime these next few weeks. Spanish classes are over and I plan to spend a few days a week at Alalay, an orphanage organization, and the other afternoons relaxing, writing, and exploring. Tomorrow I go to a clinic that specifically caters to pregnant adolescent women. I need sleeeeeeeep before then!