What´s that sulfur smell?

Before Jason was in the picture Ryan and I had only half considered going to Bolivia. The visa fee is $135 and we figured we could find similar activities in Peru and Ecuador etc. Then Jason came and brought a Bolivia guidebook. A few hours of flipping through the book and all of our mouths were watering: First on the list of must see slash must do activities was the Uyuni Salt Flat which is located in southern Bolivia and is the largest salt flat in the world. IF we could ever get there that is. The worst border crossing of the entire trip took place at the La Quaica to Villazon border and spurred Ryan and Jason to both give the Argentine government a tongue lashing via email. Ill describe the whole day(s). A ¨six hour¨ bus ride from Salta to La Quaica turned into a ten hour ordeal. That was just the beginning. We walked to the border and got in an abnormally large line, the line was moving in little spurts though so we were optimistic. WRONG! four hours later we were still waiting in the same line about seven and a half feet further up from where we started. We were finally frustrated enough to walk up to the window and see what was going on, which was of course nothing. There was one person in the EXIT window taking a siesta in between every single person. Remember we were leaving...no reason for anything to take place except a glance at the passport and a stamp. We made the decision to bail on the night and come back first thing in the morning. This led us to wake up at 530 for the 7 oclock border opening. We got there at 545 and were 5th 6th and 7th in line. The people in front of us had slept there. At 7am a border official arrived, saw the line, which was now around 30-40 people long, walked inside and promptly sat down at his computer and most likely clicked through pictures on facebook. Only after angry knocking on the window at 730 did he finally come open the window, and then that was only to yell at the person for knocking. Another 15 minutes of adjusting his profile and then it was time to get down to business. At an average speed of one person every 5 minutes he stamped us out. I have never in my life witnessed such incompetence. Really it was an embarrassment for Argentina. After the Argentines wasted 18 hours of our time, the Bolivia people processed our visas and had us on our way in less than 30 minutes.

Back of the line

Front of the line.

So far Bolivia has been everything we had hoped for, cheap food, cheap buses, cheap hostels, and awesome activites. Argentina and Chile wreaked havoc on our budget and its nice to be back in a country where a meal costs a dollar and a bed costs five. SO..back to the salt flat. We decided to take a 4 day tour of the Uyuni Salt Flat and the surrounding desert. Our guide, cook, Ryan, Jason, two Australians and I set out only half knowing what to expect. What we got was 4 days filled with stunning desert scenery, lakes, lagoons, geysers, hot springs, a hotel made of salt and the biggest salt flat in the world. Here are some of the highlights.

Walking down into Ghost Town

Didn´t find any ghosts but we found a bunch of these guys.

Do the math. Thats almost 16,000 feet.

Note the middle sign.

La Arbol de Piedra- The tree of stone

A red lake.

A green lake.

It was windy around the green lake.

Thousands of flamingo.

They have to get a running start.

Geysers!

Relaxing in the hot springs post playing in the geysers.

Sunrise on the salt flat.

Artistic shot. Look in the glasses

Hotel made of salt

Strongest Pringles can ever.

Remind anyone of Monkeys?

How bout now?

Digging for crystals

76 carats

Tastes good too

The price you pay for the good crystals.

Museum made of salt.

We were pretty upset the greatest country in the world was not represented.