The photos below are from a 4 day 3 night trip I did from Tupiza in the south of Bolivia to the Salar de Uyuni, massive salt flats a few hundred Km to the north. The trip took us through tiny villages, epic vistas, lagoons, up snowy mountains, through arid desert basins, through mountain streams, and green pastures all at an altitude hovering around the 5000 meter mark. That is 16,400 feet. At that altitude you feel like your head is going to explode. All there is to do is chew coca leaves and gape at the beauty around you. It was difficult to sleep at that height, you kept waking up with a throbbing headache and falling back into strange dreams. Some of the folks from the trip were really ill and uncomfortable for much of the really high parts. I felt like my skull had to expand to let more oxygen in. I figured that why most Bolivians are rather large-headed (literally, not idiomically.. thats Argentinians).
We saw tons of Flamencos, Vacunas, llamas, sheep, and lizards. I was on the hunt for the Gato Andino, a rare alpine feline that looks like a large housecat with a super long tail. Sadly I did not find one.
There was a lot of weird desert plants and cacti. One green mossy plant we kept seeing turned out to grow at a rate of 1mm a year. Some of these things were a meter wide. They were at least a thousand years old.
We ate tons of good food and Nelson, our guide, spoke slowly and clearly in Spanish so that we could understand everything. If you are coming down here I would definetely reccomend his company Tupiza tours. The 4 day trip will run you around 110 US.
Thanks Nelson, Etu, Matteus, Melissa (you saved me with that Dirty 3 CD out there!), Ren, Darit, and Hesham. Entonces...