Day 3

Day three of the Salar tour started even earlier, at 4am. When we woke and headed out to the car we learned that the battery had died in the night so it looked like we werent going anywhere for a bit. We were fairly lucky with our car. It seemed to only have problems in the morning. On the first day we woke up to a flat tire and today a dead battery. But considering all the breakdowns you see along the way, we were lucky to only have issues in the morning, and not be stranded in the boiling dessert afternoons like many of the groups we saw!

After a quick jump start, we began our hour long drive to the 4950m high Sol de Manana geyser basin. This site covered in boiling mud pots and sulfurous fumaroles would be the site where we would watch the sun rise today. After another short drive we arrived at the Termas de Polques, a hot spring where you can bath in the 30 degree sulfurous water. It was freezing outside and after seeing the small and crowded hot spring (which just didnt compare to the Blue Lagoon in Iceland!) I decided not to get in. Especially since there was no changing room or shower, all I could think about was how miserable it would be to be stinky and wet for the rest of the day. And I had a long day ahead of me, I had to get to Chile!

Our last stop on the tour was to Laguna Verde, a green lake in Bolivia´s southwest corner which sits at 5,000m. The lake wasn´t overwhelmingly green, apparently it gets more green in the afternoon when the winds pick up. Behind the lake was the impressive Volcan Licancabur, which provided a great backdrop for a few last group photos.

Before I knew it I was back to reality, no longer with the comforts of being with a tour group (I quickly got used to having a private driver and prepared food!) I was dropped at the Chile border to fend for myself and figure out how the heck to get to San Pedro de Atacama.