Bolivia is a different world. We notice it directly as we cross the border. It is chaotic, dusty and there´s much more streetlife. The women are dressed like dolls, wearing kneelong skirts, colourful knitted tops and an apron. Their hair goes down to their bottoms, is done in two plats behind the ears and on top of that they wear a bowler´s hat. The whole thing makes a colourful picture. Everyone tries to sell their products on the side of the streets, if its potatoes or toiletpaper and anything in between.

We stay in Tupiza, 3 hours across the border for a couple of days, where we do a horseback ride through the mountains, with amazing views!

The next day we go on a 4-day trip to Uyuni, to see the biggest saltlake in the world. We are with 5 people, 2 from France, 1 from Germany and us, accompanied with Carlos, the driver, and Patricia the cook.

Around 9.30 we are on the way, after a small detour back to the hostel to pick things up. As soon as we get out of Tupiza, the scenery changes into beautiful mountains, dustroads and small rivers to cross. We have a lot of hours in the car, with a stop every now and then to take some pictures. We have lunch in between the Llama´s (Cómo se llama?), which tastes really nice (our bowels might disagree...) and then we head on towards the place we spend the night. Around 4.30pm, Patricia gives us the choice: keep driving for another 2 hours, ór spend the night nearby and get up at 4am. We choose the first option.

Nearly two hours later, we are not even close to our final destination, and we are all feeling cold and tired. It starts to rain, which doens´t improve the visability and Carlos´ manic way of driving. Next thing: overheated motor. We all get prepared to push the car or help in another way, but luckily the problem is solved in less then 30 minutes.

We arrive to the border of the National Park, where we have to pay 150 Bolivianos to enter. We all have our money, but our driver needs a card to enter, and he doesn´t have it. A lot of buerocracy follows, time goes by, and a lot of phonecalls later we are allowed into the park. 20 minutes later we arrive at our final destination, Quetena Chica, at altitude 4600m. Here a dinner is prepared quickly and soon we find our beds.

We get woken up at 5am by some nice Bolivian music, which doesn´t impress our German friend... he yells out a mix of German and Spanish swearwords and it goes quite! Breakfast is served at 6.30am, and shortly after that we leave for a long drive. We drive through mountain passes, see several beautiful coloured lakes and many many flamingo´s. Around lunchtime we arrive at the Termas, a natural hot water pool, where we take a swim.

After, a delicious lunch is prepared by Patricia, and we then head on to the geisers at an impressive 5200m altitude! On the top there are really strong winds and it is snowing heavily. It is not the place to take your time for a stroll around, because it is freezing!

Around 3pm we arrive in Huallajara, at 4350m where we spend the night. There´s a little market where we walk around, followed by a few games of ´s***head´ with Spaniards, French, Swiss and German people. For dinner is Salchipapas, a traditional Bolivian meal with fries, sausages and some vegetables all piled up one plate. Nice!

The deal for next morning is; if it still rains, we have breakfast at 4.30, leave at 5am. If it doesn´t rain, it´s a relaxed 6.30 start. Somehow, it could not be dryer outside, or earlier in the morning... We head out at 5am, watch the sun come up on this very very cold morning. We pass the 5 lakes and a big treeshaped stone, and even though the scenery is still amazing, we feel a little sore on the bum after nearly 1000km in the car. Our last stop for the night is Colchani, we stay here in a ´salt´ hostel. Literally everything there, is made of salt. The walls, the beds, chairs, tables, everything!

We then drive up to the Salar to have a look, it´s not far away anymore. An incredible place! Because of the rainyseason, there´s 3 inches of water on the saltlake, so we can only go on it with our flipflops on. It is clouded, and far away you see the mountains and the dramatic clouds above it, in a perfect reflexion in the water. It is white as far a you can look and it is really amazing!

The next morning we get up earlly to see the sunrise at the Salar, followed by a nice breakfast. We get the oppurtunity to make some pictures and then drive back to Uyuni where our trip ends at the train cemetary. A really good and special couple of days!