San Pedro, Chile to Uyuni, Bolivia

San Pedro de Atacama... fab place - really loved it. Just a dozen blocks across, all buildings one storey and made of adobe. Great place to chill out and lots to see - first morning we walked out to an atacaman settlement and trekked to top for fantastic views. That aftenoon on a tour to Valle de la Luna to watch the sunset and walked up sand dunes to get to top. We met Amit & Katrin on the tour and we went out for dinner. We started off with happy hour caipis and mojitos then went on to have a menu del dia with local musicians playing... v. fun night but probs one caipi too many. (note for Ben & Amit... ensalada...) :-)

Monday to Wednesday - border crossing into BoliviaJust taken the most amazing journey overland into Bolivia across desert and salt flats in a 4x4.
We left Monday morning at 8am and 12 of us took a mini-bus to the Bolivian border (Bolivian vehicles aren't allowed into Chile). At the border we changed to Toyota Landcruisers, 6 in each. We travelled with Nicky, Steve, Joel and Diego. From the border to Uyuni there were no roads, and if you're lucky there is a gravel-dirt road but most of our journey here we had no clue which way our driver Xavier was going to go.

Memorable moment when we set off in jeep across desert, Steve's Ipod hooked up to stereo with Red Hot Chilli Peppers booming out - great feeling - such a wild landscape.

Stopped off at several lagoons - some with flamingos though they weren't very pink as there's not many shrimps around in winter (yep still somewhere in winter but it's lovely and sunny and warm in the daytime)

Will finish this tomorrow or later this week. Uploading photos whilst I type this so do check them out on flickr. Salt flats were amazing. And Bolivia is another world entirely to the other South American countries we've visited.