We woke up at 5am for our last day in Bolivia, packed our stuff and went for breakfast. Jo was the first one from our group to come. Megan and Simone were also sick during the night. When the French car group arrived, they also had 3 sick people. We personnally had funny and weird tummy but didn’t get sick. It may just be our brain playing tricks on us. It may be altitude, tiredness or food, but impossible to really know what caused this.
Breakfast was simple but in good, cereals and yogurt, bread and jam. With everybody sick around us, nobody didn’t really feel like eating this morning.
5:30am came and the adventure continue for one-hour drive, it was a really quiet ride. Between the sick and the cold (it was freezing) nobody was really in a good shape nor mood.
We made our first stop at the geyser. It was still night but we could see smoke raising up from the ground. We were still at approx. 4900m with -15°C. We stayed 5min or so and kept on to our next destination, the hot spring which was a 30min drive.
Hot spring
The hot spring temperature is 38°C and it is usually a 40min stop to dive in and enjoy sunset. Nobody of our group was really into it, so we just used the toilet and head on.
Our main concern was that going in or out would be super hard with such low temperature. But you feel more adventurous than us, you will most certainly enjoy it 🙂
Salvador dali desert
7:20am: After 20min ride we stopped at Salvador Dali dessert which is just a picture spot as we didn’t get to hike in it.
Laguna verde
8:15am: “Laguna verde” a salt lake located at 4300m altitude with an area of 1700 ha. The laguna is supposed to be green as per its names. It is due to minerals in it unless the red lagoon that is red due to seaweeds.
border crossing
8:30am: It is the end of the tour and time to reach Chile but the group remains.
We went out of the national park, for this you need to get you entry ticket stamped out (so don’t through it away once you get it). You then fill a form of declaration (Name, passport, reason, money, and so on…) (only for the one going to San Pedro de Atacama)
At 9am we past the Bolivian border where you line up in front of a small building (immigration office.) Once we get our stamp, took our packs from the car, it was time to say goodbye to the Jo, Megan and Simone (that have another 7h back to Uyuni).
We then went on a 23-seater minibus to way the next departure for the Chilean border around 10am.
We waited the bus to be full and left at 9:52am. It is a 5min drive to the Chilean border where you wait one hour or so to get in the control area. Then you get your passport stamp and go through bag checking (they opened all the bags, and you can’t bring any fruit with you). It took altogether 15min to went through immigration.
11:05am we are out and driving to arrive at noon at the bus terminal in San Pedro de Atacama
our feeling
We loved the tour, the landscapes are gorgeous and you really get to see a lot. But what made the most of your trip was our group. It would not have been the same without Jo, Megan, Simone and Patricia. We had such a great time with them and look forward to meet then again for another adventure somewhere else in our amazing world.
“A journey is best measured in friends, rather than miles.” – Tim Cahill
