Southwestern Style

I have just returned from one of the "must-do" trips in South America - a three day jeep ride around southwest Bolivia. Six tourists, one spanish-speaking driver, no heating, hundreds of miles of dirt road, and some of the most spectacular scenery I've ever seen.

Salar de Uyuni

First stop, the Salar de Uyuni, the largest natural salt lake in the world. It is estimated to be over 100 meters deep, with a salt crust thick enough for a jeep to drive on. We didn't get to see all 4,633 square miles of it, but even just a little foray is enough to appreciate its vast emptiness. And to get a rosy sunburn.

silliness in the sun

The next day (with plenty of sunblock on), we headed further south into a harsh landscape that surprisingly supports colonies of vicunas, a smaller wild relative of the llama.

Vicunas in the desert

While in the Siloli desert, which is an extension of Chile's Atacama desert, we visited several strange volcanic rock formations like the so-called Stone Tree - a natural hunk of rock whittled into this shape by the wind.

stone tree

There are also dozens of lagoons in this area, most are salty, and most are home at least three different varieties of flamingo.

Flamingoes in flight

The most spectacular is Laguna Colorada, a lake stained red with algae and white with the chemical borax. It's more than 14,000 feet above sea level, so when we stayed nearby in an unheated adobe house, it was an extremely chilly night!

Laguna Colorada

Next morning, we were up before the sun, munching on coca leaves in preparation for our next destination, a volcanic plain nearly 16,000 feet above sea level. Just as the sun rose, we arrived to see the Sol de Mañana geysers shooting hot steam into the morning light.

Sol de Mañana geysers

Afterwards, we went to a nearby salt lake where a couple of hardy souls were enjoying the thermal baths, or even the lake itself. It was 7 in the morning, and so cold that I was still wearing long johns and two pairs of socks. Needless to say, I was not one of the hardy souls.

crazy guy running around a salt lake

From there, we headed several hours further south, to the border of Bolivia and Chile, and the Licanabur volcano with Laguna Verde underneath. In the afternoon, sediments in the lake turn the water bright turquoise, but in the mid-morning, not so much.

Laguna Verde

A quick photo session later, it was back on the road for the eight hour journey back to Uyuni. Exhausted, elated, and utterly enchanted with Bolivia's southwest.

Valle de Rocas in southwest Bolivia