We decided not to stay in Uyuni, instead booking the top-of-the-line bus ticket to La Paz, the highest capital in the world. It was a 12-hour bus ride and the first one we’ve ever been on that included a line on its ticket for compensation for lost luggage or medical care for an accident.

As we got on, we spotted a girl we had met the night before at the Salt Hotel. I can’t remember her name, but our first introduction to her was her saying, “I’m from Westchester, it’s about 30 minutes outside of New York City…” in one of the most condescending, I’m-better-than-you tones I’ve heard an American muster in the last few months.

“We know,” Lauren and I responded. “We live in Brooklyn.” (more…)

The last night of our three day tour was spent in Hotel Sal, or the Salt Hotel, a building made completely from salt. We’re talking completely. The walls were constructed from blocks of salt - like a big salt igloo - the floors were made up of salt rocks and pebbles, the tables and stools were made of chunks of salt… Even the bed frames and the bedside table in our room were made of salt. It was pretty amazing.

As soon as we got to Hotel Sal, Beth and I made a mad dash for the showers. When we emerged we found tea and snacks waiting for us at a salt table with five salt stools. The crew all sat down to relax, drink Coca Tea, eat cookies, and chat. Beth and I finally learned the rules of the incredibly complicated cricket from Brendan, and Beth and I did our best to explain the incredibly complicated rules of baseball. (more…)

We got up the morning of the second day of our Bolivian safari and rushed to get dressed and packed in the cold.  After a quick breakfast, we waited as Matias loaded up the car, watching a funny episode of a sheep trying to sneak food as the people who ran the hotel kept chasing it out of the kitchen. 

Our first stop was Arbol de Piedra, otherwise know as Stone Tree.  Seemingly for no reason right in the middle of the desert, these tree-like stones jut up from the ground.  They look as if they grew up from  the soil, but they also have that carved-by-water look to them.  We’re still not sure what formed them.   (more…)

Lauren: Beth and I walked to the Pamela Tours office at 8am to begin our 3-day tour of Southern Bolivia. We met our other traveling companions, Katia from Spain (currently living in Ireland) and Brendan from Ireland who we had previously run into on our Valley of the Moon and Valley of Death tour, and our infamous torture-fest geyser tour. We met Marcus, from Germany, for the first time and the 5 of us all piled into the van bound for the Chilean border.

Once there, there were two large tour buses in front of us waiting to get their exit stamps. Our guide went to check things out and came back to inform us that the border patrol exit official was still asleep and we’d have to wait for him to arrive. We chatted in the car for over an hour while cars and tour groups piled up behind us. Finally, the immigration official arrived (Beth: He was pretty obviously hung over), we got our stamps, and took off to the Bolivian border control, an hour away and several thousand feet higher. (more…)