Bolivia - last leg via Uyuni

Leaving Sucre we went towards the border to Chile. We were moving back up to the Altiplano, and the altitude was once again very high and it was desert. On the way we passed through Potosi, known for its mining and for Che Guevara who started his political involvement there when seeing how the miners were treated.

We expected to stay one night in Uyuni, but extended it to go for a tour on Salar de Uyuni, the biggest salt plain of them all. It was a great day out, and our guide had organised lunch for us, which we ate out on the plain. The sun is incredibly strong and one has to be careful not to burn.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salar_de_Uyuni

The next day we set out to go to the border. First we had a drama with filling up the car with petrol. One petrol station, a state run one, gave tourists preference (likely as they pay a much higher price than the locals) and we didn't need to queue. It was a relief to get a full tank as there would be no petrol until in Calama, Chile. It was always going to be a long day to get from Uyuni to Calama, but we started early to do our best.

The first stretch was of a terrible road quality. And we got our first flat tire. In the middle of nowhere, on the dusty road in the desert, Harold changed the tire and we went to the next town to get the faulty tire fixed. We ended up driving with the fixed tire, even though the hole was big and the fixing would likely not take us all the way to Santiago. We arrived at the border, just when the staff went for lunch. All we could do was wait, but it was a small, remote place so we weren't many waiting. We left Bolivia, and then there was a 4km no-mans-land before the Chilean border at Ollagüe.

The very last stretch in Bolivia was close to the Ollagüe volcano. It was puffing a little bit and very beautiful. The desert is impressive, it comes in many different natural states with the common denominator being the dry and dusty environment.