Bolivia!: The Salt Flats

And now onto the second half of our Bolivian adventure: THE SALT FLATS! 

To take a tour of the Salt Flats we had to bus from La Paz to Uyuni, Bolivia. Uyuni is in South East Bolivia and was a long 14 hour bus ride from La Paz. We arrived to Uyuni groggy and disoriented after getting little sleep from the long bus ride. Our tour guide met us at the bus station (by bus station I mean the street corner where it dumped us off) and then took us to the tour office. Shortly after we begam our three day tour of the Salt Flats. The tour company put us in an SUV with a tour "guide" who would basically drive us around for three days to all the places that we were going to see. Once again because of being broke Peace Corps Volunteers we could only afford the cheapest tour possible which left us with a bit of a questional "tour guide" who was quite odd and didn´t really tell us anything about what we were seeing. There were a few weird problems such as the car overheating, our driver almost falling asleep at the wheel, and almost not having a place to sleep the fist night. But thankfully we made it out alive and surprisingly we all formed a bit of a soft spot for our very odd tour guide after spending three days straight in the car together.

In our car it was us 5 Peace Corps Peru ladies plus one really sweet Colombian girl that we got along really well with. Oh and there was our odd tour guide driver as well. On the first day we ended up meeting a group of 4 guys from Peace Corps Paraguay. When you are a Peace Corps Volunteer you will always have an instant bond and connection with another PCV no matter what country they served in. We got to hang out with the Peace Corps Paraguay guys and it was a lot of fun to talk about our experiences and the differences/similaries between serving in Peru and Paraguay. 

While on our tour of the salt flats we of course saw the famous salt flats themselves as well as many beautiful lagoons, mountains, rock forests, geysers, and on the last day we got to relax in some beautiful hot springs. My favorite sites were the salt flats, the "mountain of 7 colors", and the "colorful lagoon" which was literally a lake with every color imaginable! We literally drove for 3 days straight and saw only nature and and a few tiny little towns. No cities or highways at all. 

First few of the salt flats! Which was actually when our car almost broke down. 

It looks like sow but it´s pure salt!

On our lunch break on the first day we stopped at a house that was made of salt! Even this llama is made of salt. 

Salt house. 

We got to take some fun photos in the salt flats :)

Another fun salt flat photo 

On the first night we slept in another house made of salt. Even the bed fram was made of salt!

The quite village in the middle of nowhere that we slept in on the first night

I love my Peace Corps friends :)

A pit stop in the middle of nowhere. 

Flamingos at one of the many lagoons we saw. 

In front of the "mountains of 7 colors"

Part of the rock forest

La Laguna Colorada (the colorful lake)

Photos don´t even do it justice! 

Relazing in the hot springs with our Peace Corps Paraguay friends on the last day of the tour.

In conclusion I would just like to say that South America is (in my opinion) the most beautiful and geographically/culturally diverse continent in the world and I am so thankful to live in this part of the world!! I´ve fallen totally in love with every country in South America that I´ve spent time in and I look forward to exploring even more of South America in the futre!