Bolivian Altiplano Day 1

Welcome to Bolivia!

and spent a good 5 hours driving around the desert on this side - note a Bolivian guy was driving, not me.  It's absolutely spectacular, it's hard to do it justice through writing or pictures but I'll give it a go......

First stop was Laguna Blanco.  The lake is turned white by salt and borax.  Anyway, quite spectacular back drop of the Andes mountains I hope you agree.

Next stop was Laguna Verde, turned green by copper.  Both these lakes are formed by water in the ground, not from rain - last rain was in February.

Next stop was the Dali desert, again, I can really do it justice but the vast expanse is just staggering!

And getting us around to all these places these drivers 

In these cars which have over 430,000km on the clock!

Then on to the hot springs where they've built a little swimming pool, very warm water, about 40C.  But too many people and not enough water :o).  Still, again some amazing scenery.....

Shame a fat bloke had to stand in front of it!

The swimming pool

An uninterrupted view

It's also here that you realise that when they say this place is empty of tourists it really is I a relative sense.......

Anyway, after this it was off to the highest geysers in the world.  We crossed about 5000m elevation on our way there and they are at about 4850m.  Not as many as in Tatio but some pretty big ones.

Now, in Tatio they warn you not to get too close to the edge.  In Bolivia however they apparently do not care.  As far as I could tell from the guide, if you fall in, "bye bye!"

But I didn't, and now we are resting up at our 'hut' bit it's not so much a hut.  We got a decent meal and plenty of blankets.

I suspect that they over dramatised how tough this trip is but I'm less than a day in so I'll wait to say that for certain.

We did however break the car to the extent that a crowbar was needed.  Not quite sure what but hopefully it's fixed now

And what of the altitude sickness?  Not too bad really, I'm kind of tired but it's also been a really long day.  Worst part of all this is the wind, I feel like I've been sandblasted!

So after some lunch it was off to Laguna Colorada.  A home for many many flamingoes.

They clearly like the view!

It actually wasn't that cold but the wind was fierce!  Hence the protective gear!

And finally a desert sunset

All in all an amazing day, some great people to travel with in the car, a couple of Aussies (Daniel and Katherine), a Spaniard (Javier) and two Germans traveling before starting university (Roman and Adrian), along with a bunch of good guys in the other cars.