Salar tour

Joshua and I, with our friends from Austria (Katya and Serafin), did a three day tour of the salar (Bolivia's huge salt plane) and surrounding high altitude desert. It was a spectacular, fun-filled three days... perhaps the highlight of my time in Bolivia!

The tour started at a train grave yard, now an awesome jungle gym scattered with all sorts of random rusting parts

Serafin on top of a train

Serafin and Katja Standing by the flags outside the Salt Hotel on the salar. The Salt Hotel is an actual hotel built completely out of salt.
Serafin
Joshua hugging a salt mound. They shovel the salt into these pyraminds to let the water settle, making the dried salt much easier to transport.
The four of us hiding behind a salt mound
Souveniers made from salt Joshua at lunch on the first day... llama steaks and quinoa... yum!
Fish Island... a cactus filled mound smack dab in the middle of the salt flat
The cool cactus on Fish Island
Preparing for lunch
Katja and I drinking a beer in the Salt Hotel... even the furniture was made out of salt Joshua, Serafin and I ontop of Tree Rock. We brought our climbing shoes specifically with the hope of finding a route up this rock. Success!
Flamingos! We saw so many flamgos. It was great!
Reflections on a flamingo filled lake
The many rocks, which were formed by lava and strewn throughout the desert, made for sweeet bouldering.
Handstands on the salt flat
Gotta love the sign. We made our driver stop just to take this picture =)
A volcano reflecting on Laguna Verde. Beautiful!
We watched this sunrise while SOAKING IN HOTSPRINGS!
Alpacas and a baby flamgino enjoying the afternoon More bouldering fun!
The moon over the desert