Of all the places I have visited, the most impressive is the salar de uyuni, the world’s largest salt flat, and its surroundings. This area is so unique and amazing that it is hard to find the right words to describe it. I will try anyhow.

As we visited at the end of the rainy season, part of the salt lake was still covered in water. While I imagine this to be disastrous for the vehicles (they are driving them through salt water!), it added still another dimension to our visit. Driving across an endless expanse of shallow water over the salt was an almost disorienting experience. It was difficult to discern the horizon and everything seemed to be melting into each other. It truly felt like another world.

We then continued to the dry part of the Salar and were immediately blinded by the pure white that extended to all sides. At some points, we saw only white salt all the way to the horizon. We also saw an old bus again and again — though I was never quite sure if it was just a fata morgana — as it was crossing the salt lake. I couldn’t quite understand why anybody would drive a bus across a salt lake, until I understood (and felt in my buttocks) that driving on the salt lake is more comfortable than on any actual Bolivian road. Completely smooth riding.

We continued our three-day trip after a cold night’s sleep and crossed the international railway line to Chile on the second day. The crossing is unmarked, naturally, which really isn’t a problem as there was only a thrice-weekly service during our visit. What a great chance for a photo! The tracks just extend straight towards the horizon with no distraction or even usage in sight. I would not dare just standing on train tracks over here in Europe but this is just one of many Bolivian delights.

Wherever we went, we continued to see weird, intensely green patches of shrub in the midst of what is otherwise mostly a desert. It looks a little like moss from the distance but quite different with a closer view. It is dry and hard to the touch. With the help of Google and Wikipedia, I can even provide a name: yareta, a slow-growing high-altitude plant. It grows at a rate of just one millimeter per year which means that many yaretas are over 3,000 years old. When I saw it during our trip, however, I was more mesmerized by its intense green color than by its ruggedness and survival skill. What a contrast with the sky!

We also came across a multitude of unique lakes. Laguna colorada looks fairly normal in the morning but during the day the sunlight combined with certain algae turns it a deep, bloody red. The contrast between the white borax and the red of the lake could not have been more striking. We spent the evening wandering around the lake admiring the colors and long shadows. The light at this altitude is really special, drawing sharp contrasts and stark lines. We also saw laguna verde, a lake that turns green during the day. In this instance we actually saw the transformation with our own eyes. Within minutes, the lake went from translucent to bright green. Unfortunately, I am color-blind and couldn’t really see the green very well. I am told it was a very impressive sight, though. See the photo and judge for yourself.

And these are just parts of the amazing scenery we saw! We saw a geyser field, visited volcanic hot springs, saw an active volcano spew smoke, danced with the locals for carnival, saw lots of flamingos and stroked a vicuña. We also got lost in the dark because our driver was new and didn’t know the way. (The cook, who knew the way, was sulking and refused to answer our questions.) And we spent three days with a great bunch of Chileans and Argentinians who warmed to us markedly when they realized we spoke Spanish.

If you ever get the chance to visit the salar de uyuni, do not hesitate but take it immediately. This is one of the most amazing sights you will ever see. See all photos of the trip.

• Warm showers — you don’t know what you’re talking about unless you’ve ever showered in freezing cold mountain water pumped directly to your shower from above 4,000m (~13,000 ft) without any heating because the gas bottle is empty again.
• Potable tap water — it may not sound like much but have you ever had to use bottled water for brushing your teeth?
• Hygienic food — I am going to spare you the details. Use your imagination.
• Heating and insulation — ever spent a night at 4,500m (~15,000 ft) in a ramshackle hut without any heating?
• Toilets that don’t clog — do you put your used toilet paper into the bin? You think that’s gross? You do know that’s what half the world does?
• Fast, reliable transportation — bliss is a night in a museum-piece Bolivian bus as it rattles over unpaved roads for endless hours. What’s an easy three-hour train ride for us would be an arduous twenty-hour bus ride for most of the world.
• Fast Internet — now this may not be as important to most people as it is to me but my new high-speed DSL connection surely does save my day.

We complain and complain (and that includes me) about everything. In fact, we have a pretty darn good life.

PS: I’m back in Germany and just moved to Hamburg. If you’re around, come visit me!

Early the next morning — at 6am, to be precise — we get to the bus station and are startled to find a huge group of travelers waiting for the same bus. They speak a language that sounds vaguely familiar but that I do not understand a word of. They look neither Western nor Latin American. They are extremely easily confused, cluster around the bus’ baggage hold while their bags are loaded on — blocking the entire process — and are only moved out of the way by a long-haired dude that manages to herd them into their seats.

Suddenly, the long-haired dude comes to us and starts talking to me: turns out he is the tour guide of a group of Turkish travelers from Istanbul who do a six-countries-in-three-weeks trip through South America. He is the only one in the group who speaks English (along with another guy who spoke pretty good German). Also, turns out that none of them — not even the tour guide — speak a single word of Spanish. Do I speak Spanish? “Ohhh, you do? It would be soooo nice if you could translate for us.”

So, in the weirdest twist of events I have ever seen, I suddenly find myself translating for a group of Turkish travelers on the Bolivian-Chilean border, high up in the Andes on a pass above 4,000m and asking myself WTF!?!?

Now, with that excellent guide of ours, we set out to look for caimans — specifically the endangered Black Caiman — at night, on the nearby lake. Since the caimans’ eyes reflect light, this is quite easy: you grab a strong flashlight, get on the lake, shine it around and see where glowing eyes appear near the surface. However, you do not really see them — just their eyes — and considering that there are dozens of them, it is quite easy to miss one. We then got really close to the shore of the lake, looking for the caimans — and obviously hit one with the canoe. Immediately, it jumped away from its position, shaking the boat, waking me up from my bored half-sleep (I was thinking “Where the hell are the darn things??”), passing literally within centimeters and getting away from it all.

I mean, not that we were in any real danger (you can even swim in the lake — caimans prefer smaller animals to humans as food) but this is still a moment that isn’t easy to forget.

It gets all the more amazing, of course, if you are standing on or near one of the region’s many natural wonders, such as the Salar de Uyuni — the world’s biggest salt lake and an unimaginable expanse of sheer whiteness, all the way to the horizon; the Laguna Colorada — a lake that is colored shades of red, full of pink flamingoes and has a blinding-white shore of Borax islands; or the unbelievable Laguna Verde — that changes color halfway through the day, from crystal-clear to glowing torquise.

This scenery is truly amazing and an experience you will never forget — and, at only US-$ 65 per person for an all-inclusive three-day tour, cheaper than a night in a hotel in many other countries.