We were pleasantly surprised by Bolivia. After a lot of negative feedback from tourists, we didn’t really expect much. We’d also heard that crime rates were high – there were a few cases of tourists being kidnapped and murdered for money! The least of our problems were the fraudulent notes in circulation and we heard that even ATM machines often have fake notes! Fortunately, we didn’t get any (or perhaps we couldn’t make out?). So we only planned 2 days in Copacabana, 2 in LaPaz, the Uyuni tour, flee to Chile and thereby avoid getting kidnapped!

The Uyuni tour began with a very comfortable overnight bus. The “semi cama” allow the seats to recline at a good 45′ angle. Our guide was waiting for us in Uyuni and we were put in a minibus with Antoine and Celine. We were on our way to the salt flats and it was rainy and gloomy. Fortunately, the sky cleared by the time we reached. We were all given a pair of wellington boots as there was water everywhere. The place looked like heaven on earth! We could see the reflection of the blue skies, white clouds in the water all around and no horizon anywhere.
Max, our 22 year old guide, driver and cook took pictures and videos of us with all sorts of props – toy dinasaur, colourful chairs, plastic bottle etc. Since there’s no notion of distance they made for some awesome pictures 😍
We spent the night in a hotel made of salt blocks including the seating and beds. While it looked unique, I wasn’t at ease leaving our stuff on the salt floor. It was rather cold inside. There were almost 80 tourists and 5 toilets + 2 shower rooms for all. I had to wait in a queue for 45 minutes before taking a shower. At least it was warm 😋
The next morning we left to see the flamingos in a lake on top of a volcano. The landscape was breathtaking. We were left gasping in awe and also because we were short of breath! Max was chewing coca leaves for the high altitude. It was almost 5200m. By now, I was used to the altitude so I wasn’t sick.
On the last day we woke up at 4 in the morning to go see the geysers and spring waters on one of the volcanic mountains bordering Chile. It reminded me of Iceland. Our original plan was to cross over from here but we changed our plans since it had been snowing and the border was closed. When we arrived, it was a sunny day and the borders were open. So we went back to our original plan and crossed the border to Chile. It didn’t take much time and we found ourselves in a tourist bus heading to the driest desert in the world – San Pedro de Atacama. We were asked to put our seatbelts on. We were no longer in a developing country. There were rules to follow.