I am currently in Santiago, Chile via Uyuni, Bolivia. I had an opportunity to take a 3 day jeep trek through the salt flats of Bolivia as well as the San Pedro de Atacama desert in Chile. Day one began in the early afternoon. The crew contained a driver, cook and 6 tourists including myself. Two of the people I was with I had been traveling with since Lima, Peru for the past 2 weeks, so I knew it was going to be a good time. We headed to the salt flats and I was blown away by how huge it was. It is apparently 12,ooo sq km in size and all solid white salt, it is the remains of an ancient salt lake. Without sun glasses it was a blinding experience, fortunately I was well equipped. The most interesting thing is that there is no point of reference in terms of distance, so it is a fun place to take pictures, people in the distance just look like small people. There was a town which processed the salt, albeit very rudimentary, as well as all the buildings are made out of salt blocks. Now I love salt, but I think this was a bit overkill. Cruising through the flats we blew a tire and swerved a bit before coming to a stop. The following day was mainly driving, blew a second tire. We passed by several lagoons which has several species of flamingoes, I clearly could not tell them apart, I think it is just a farce. An interesting part of the 
day was seeing strange rock formations in the middle of the desert. The wind and sand eat away at the bottoms of boulders moreso than the tops, leaving rocks looking like trees and mushrooms. That night was fairly painful. We spent the night at about 4600 meters or 13800 feet. The temperature dipped well below freezing to about 12 degrees F. I had on a shirt, fleece, coat, gloves, hat, 2 prs pants, 2 prs socks, sleeping bag, and two fleece covers and I was still freezing my ass off. The next morning we went to see geysers and thermal baths in the middle of the desert, I decided that I was not interested in stripping down and swimming as ice crunched under my feet, I will leave that for people who are completely insane. We finished the third day seeing a green and red lagoon, due to the type of algae and then got dropped off at the Chilean boarder. The ride into Chile was certainly noteworthy as well, we decended about 2000 meters (6000 feet) in about 40 minutes. The road was unnecessarily steep and had emergency runoffs every 500 feet in case someones brakes gave way. All in all it was a worthwhile trip. Well until next time.
day was seeing strange rock formations in the middle of the desert. The wind and sand eat away at the bottoms of boulders moreso than the tops, leaving rocks looking like trees and mushrooms. That night was fairly painful. We spent the night at about 4600 meters or 13800 feet. The temperature dipped well below freezing to about 12 degrees F. I had on a shirt, fleece, coat, gloves, hat, 2 prs pants, 2 prs socks, sleeping bag, and two fleece covers and I was still freezing my ass off. The next morning we went to see geysers and thermal baths in the middle of the desert, I decided that I was not interested in stripping down and swimming as ice crunched under my feet, I will leave that for people who are completely insane. We finished the third day seeing a green and red lagoon, due to the type of algae and then got dropped off at the Chilean boarder. The ride into Chile was certainly noteworthy as well, we decended about 2000 meters (6000 feet) in about 40 minutes. The road was unnecessarily steep and had emergency runoffs every 500 feet in case someones brakes gave way. All in all it was a worthwhile trip. Well until next time.O
