IV. SA Bolivia/W1a: Salar de Uyuni & P E

Fr, 10.03. San Pedro de Atacama - Reserva nacional Eduardo Avaroa - Comunidad de Villa Mar
That morning was the start of an epic 3d/2n trip to Uyuni Salt Lakes.
After 1h border control which was actually quite near to Mauricio's home we left Chile and headed to the Bolivian border Point Hito Cajón. We got a really tasty breakfast there, changed to a 4x4WD jeep, put the luggage on the rooftop and hit the bumpy Bolivian gravel roads accompanied by already really cold and chilly weather.
Including our guide Jesús we were 7 people in total, all only speaking Spanish - perfect learning conditions for me: Maribel from Gran Canaria in Spain, Karina from Sao Paulo in Brasil, Matias from Santiago in Chile and the couple Gusman and Florencia from Montevideo in Uruguay. We also had another time change, gaining 1h from 6 to 5pm.
As we were again at an altitude of 4-5.000m we drank a lot of mata tea and ate mata leaves. Apart from that, typical food for the Uyuni region is Quinoa and lama meat which is really healthy and a bit spicy.

That was our program on the first day; the landscape and lagoons were amazing but so hard to describe that I only mention the bullet points and you can enjoy or see it on the pictures below ;)
- Reserva Nacional de fauna andina
- Laguna Blanca/White Lagoon, 4.400m
- Laguna Verde/Green Lagoon & Volcan Licancabur
- Norte del & Desierto/North & Desert of Salvador Dalí
- Agua Termal/Termal Pools Polques
30* temp max 15m stay due to high altitude of
4.300m; if longer might feel dizzy and sick
During lunch time we had heavy rain, later even gravel and snow :O
- Geiseres/Geysers de sol de mañana with only 5*
- Laguna colorado/colourful lagoon incl flamingos
For the night we stayed in Mallku Villa Mar at an altitude of 3.500m in pretty cold rooms, 1* outside temperature and heavy rain but still nice experience and bearable with a lot of tea and 3 blankets :)

Sa, 11.03. Comunidad de Villa Mar - Puerto Chuvica
This was the programm on the second day; that day was mainly about awesome rock formations:
- Copa del mundo/World Cup Statue
- Ciudad de Italia perdida/Italian Lost City
- Camello formaciones de rocas/Camel Rock
- Laguna Negra,Catal,Misteriosa + Cañon de Catal +
tawas /Black, Catal, Mysterious Lagoon + Catal
Canyon and birds
Lunch was taken in Alota and that day with the rain before we had a lot of adventurous river crossings, saw a km long rock line and many Quinoa farms as well as lamas.
- Valle de las Rocas/Rock valley
- Comunidades altiplánicas con llamas y alpacas/
local villages with lamas and alpacas
- Iglesia y Mercado San Cristobal/church and markets
- Cementerio de Trenes/Train Cemetery
At night we had some Israelian neighbours - loud, noisy and always partying :P

Su, 12.03. Salar de Uyuni
That day we had a pretty early start at 4:30am to visit the must see and highlight, Uyuni Salt Flats; herewith the programm of the third and best day:
- 5am Salida de sol/Sunrise at Isla Incahuasi in the
middle of Salar de Uyuni; lots of water everywhere
and awesome colours + reflections
- Hotel,Museo de Sal/Salt Hotel, Museum which can
already be seen 180km away and is really stunning
-->1st typical photo shooting :)
- Ojos, Montoneros de Sal/Salt Eyes, Hills
-->2nd typical photo shooting :)
- Half an h drive on jeep roof through salt lake
- Comunidad de/Community of Colchani with craft
markets and salt production, really interesting
We were all so covered in salt everywhere including white sprinkles on the clothes ;) Good tip for all of you: regularly refresh your sunscreen if you want to avoid my redish tomatoe face afterwards, the sun reflection is pretty strong with the white salt flat :P
We then enjoyed a delicious last lunch at Jesús' private home and could thus also get some local experience before we all had to say goodbye after 3 really amazing days :)))

As the pretty small town Uyuni was not really nice, I decided to already take a 4h bus to the mining town Potosí in the afternoon. It was a cool and scenic ride with some small stops at villages where locals and typical Bolivian women with kids tried to sell us ice cream, chocolate, empañadas etc. It was also here where I met Felix who would turn out to be an awesome travel mate for the next couple of days.

Mo, 13.03. Potosí
Potosí is a town of 190.000 habitants located at an altitude of 4.070m and is Bolivia's most famous mining town. It is one of the highest cities here and there is hardly a person not feeling the altitude, everbody chewing on mata leaves - even I had to admit that things should be done slowly and could definitively feel a stronger and quicker heart beat walking up the many hills :P
In the 16th century it was due to its 'Cerro Rico' (Rich Hill full of silver) one of the largest and wealthiest cities in America - there was so much silver extracted that you could have easily built a bridge to Spain and would have still be able to carry more silver across the bridge. Still nowadays, there is the saying 'vale un Potosí' (worth a Potosí). However, the working conditions in the mines were so bad that I did not want to support it by booking a tour to visit the mines: During their 3 centuries lasting colonial empire the Spanish killed more than 8 Million African and indigenous Bolivians due to the bad working conditions (18y 12h shifts 4m no daylight, dynamit explosions + the altitude sickness etc) - and still today, the situation did not change that much. Potosí was with 200.000 habitants also the largest city in the world but had a severe decline in the 19th century and nowadays it is rather zinc extractation.
That being said we preferred to explore the town centre which was surprisingly beautiful. Especially the 'Plaza 10 de noviembre' convinced us with interesting architecture and the 'Casa de la Moneda' shows all the Bolivian history.
There were also typical Bolivian fireworks during the day as well as parades in the evening. For breakfast in the morning we had typical Humitas - in banana leaves wrapped sweetcorn dishes, either salty with cheese or sweet with raisins; really yummy :) For lunch we enjoyed a typical Almuerzo Menú with veg soup and pollo/chicken. Pollo is also a very typical and delicious meal here, for sure always served with some kind of potatoes.
In the late afternoon we then took the 3-4h bus to Sucre, arriving in the late evening.Read more