Southern Bolivia

Our ultimate destination at the end of the road trip was Chile, and we still had a long way to go to get there! So the day after the salt flat was spent driving, but luckily we were driving through some of the most beautiful scenery that I've seen. We made our way through desert and mountains, all at about 3600 to 4000 meters high, so it was absolutely freezing! Even so, we stopped frequently at the many lakes we passed, all covered with flamingoes. Each lake seemed to be a different colour, from blue, to green, to pink. We saw interesting rock formations, colourful mountains, volcanoes, and disused railways. We also saw some of the local wildlife such as alpacas, desert foxes, vicuñas, and vicachas, rabbit like rodents that hop about on their hind legs like kangaroos.

After spending the night in a freezing hotel with only hot water bottles for heat, we got up before dawn to make our way to Chile. En route we stopped at some geysers, where steam was escaping from the ground at high pressure, or bubbling up through syrupy mud. They allowed you to get pretty close to them, which didn't seem too safe but that's Bolivia for you! I was quite glad when we left to go to our last stop in Bolivia, a hot spring. I didn't fancy getting out of the water into the freezing air, so I just dangled my legs in and enjoyed the sun and steam warming me up. Finally we headed to the border with Chile where we were heading onto San Pedro de Atacama.Read more