On Saturday morning when Laura and I left San Pedro we made it to the border where we
would switch from our mini tour bus to a couple of 4WD Jeeps. We first had to go through the migration office and for the first time in my travel experiences we were the only U.S. citizens! Let's just say that the Bolivian border police do not care so much for American citizens and after we finally made it to Uyuni to get our Bolivian visas we are each 972 Bolivianos (roughly $135 US) out. A bit of a bummer but the landscapes and views that we have seen and cultural experiences we have had so far on this trip have been incredible. A small summary of the past 3 days entails: lagunas, flamingoes (which only a small percentage of you may know are one of my all-time favorite bird, and heck now I'd even say animal!), extremely cold mountain huts, active volcanoes, off-roading in a Jeep and Michael Jackson. Yes, we were jamming out to Pretty Young Thing, Thriller and
Smooth Criminal as we rolled along the Bolivian countryside on dirt roads...for roughly 3 days straight. It was awesome. Our tour group consisted of Laura and myself, two Belgians, two Frenchmen, 4 Brazilians, 1 young Scottish lady, and 1 nice young woman from Britain. We have all spent quite a bit of time together eating meals and talking (mostly in English, although we've been making efforts to learn both French and Portuguese!) as well as getting up at the ripe hour of 4:30 a.m. to see the Uyuni Salt Flat - the largest salt flat in the world! We did that this morning and were fortunate enough to see the sunrise and feel that morning chill. Our drivers were spectacular and we still can't quite figure out how they had any idea where they were going the entire time. It's a bit difficult to explain if you've never been here but they were literally driving us through the middle of the desert and there would be paths that would jut off in every which direction, some more traveled than others. Props to you, Omar.On Saturday night we stayed at an elevation of roughly 4200 meters and nearly froze. I remember three things from that night, post-dinner: 1)not sleeping, 2)a dog barking and 3)actually fearing frost bite on my toes
(Mr. Deeds, anyone?). Despite the cold, it was absolutely fantastic and not one of us had any problems with the altitude. I'm not sure if we are well-acclamated tourists or if it was the coca leaves we had in our tea on Saturday afternoon, but we sure were lucky! Oh, and don't worry, the leaves are used to help with head- and stomachaches as well as altitude sickness so we were in good spirits and feeling great! That night was extremely cold (similar to January in Wisconsin) and our room was without heat but the next night at a different "mountain hut" at roughly 3800 meters was much warmer and we even got a warm shower. Laura and I have never felt so clean in our lives - it was great.
So far I have noticed that the difference between Chile and Bolivia is extremely visible, not only in the level of poverty but also in the day-to-day culture. The women here are all dressed exactly as I have seen in pictures and as far as I can tell they do not want much to do with us. That is fine with me as long as we can walk down the street and buy the 2 Boliviano ($.20) ice cream cones! And to think I thought the ice cream in Chile was cheap. This is great.
Tonight Laura and I will be heading to La Paz, the capital of Bolivia, and from there we will determine our next adventure! We are both hoping for some electrical outlets wherever we go because our cameras have been snapping away the past couple of days and could use a recharging. Not only that, but we are also staying with 9 of the 12 people on our tour group so we will be in good company! We all managed to get on the same bus (Laura and I buying the last two tickets) for 8 pm tonight to La Paz and from there we will see what's in store! 
Keep praying for safe travels and we'll be in touch!
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