When we told people that we were going to South America, nearly everyone said, "Oh, you have to do the 4WD trip across the Salar de Uyuni!" Our Rough Guide said that this trip was a good way to go from northern Chile to Bolivia, while crossing the Uyuni Salt Lake (salar) and the southern altiplano, or high plains, of Bolivia. While we decided we'd surely prefer a 4WD adventure to just taking the train into Bolivia, we still couldn't imagine what was so great about high plains and a giant salt lake. Boy were we in for a surprise.

The adventure started in San Pedro de Atacama in Chile. There are several tour operators to choose from, so we made the usual rounds and chose Expediciones Estrella del Sur. This company is small and friendly, and though we experienced some of the problems Rough Guide warned about with all companies, we were happy to only be sharing our 4WD vehicle with only two other travelers, Eva and Austen, an English and Italian couple who were perfect travel companions for us. We crossed into Bolivia at a tiny immigration shack and for the next 2 1/2 days we were endlessly impressed by the altiplano, with some of the most unusual and stunning landscapes we've ever seen.

Colorful lakes appear suddenly as we drive on a dirt track through a tan desert plain. Laguna Blanca, an eerie white lake, reflects the jagged mountains like a mirror and Laguna Verde contains arsenic, which makes it a creamy jade green. Laguna Colorada is tinted pink with algae. There are no villages or facilities for hundreds of miles. It's just us and the land. At 5000m (15,000ft.), we watch steaming geysers, and mud boil in rock holes. We have altitude headaches and Brad has Bolivia belly, but sitting with our feet in warm hot springs relaxes us. The mountains are painted reds, yellows and browns with mineral deposits, then turn to alpine peaks, covered in snow. Llamas and their cousins graze on the tiny patches of desert shrub. Rock formations sprout out of the desert in odd shapes and Inca stone walls zigzag in the hills. Thousands of flamingoes feed in the lakes, seemingly out of their element, but clearly it's us who are in a terrestrial land. Our young Bolivian cook says very little, but she feeds us well and Herman, our driver, somehow knows the way along the dirt plains. When the tyre constantly leaks on the first day, Herman fixes it. At one point, we sit for three hours in the middle of nowhere while he takes the tire apart, patches it, and tries again. After the trip, we learn from other travelers that they had the same problems with the tires. These 4WDs really take a beating out here, so it's clearly part of the adventure.

We pass through three sleepy villages, spend a night in a 'hotel' made entirely of salt and wake up on the third day to an endless white horizon, the Salar de Uyuni. Though the biggest salt lake in the world at 9000 square kilometers, the salar is hardly a lake, as the top layer is a thick, hard crust of salt which supports the weight of our car! Being the end of the wet season, the surface is mostly covered in a shallow layer of water, making it look like we are driving across an ocean; the surrounding mountains reflecting perfectly on the surface. Locals from the salar's surrounding villages gather the salt into small pyramids, effectively drying it out for transport to salt processing yards. It takes nearly half a day to drive across the salar, stopping in the middle to see thousands of phallic cacti reaching skyward from Isla de Pescado, or Fish Island. We stare at our surroundings in awe, blinded by the bright white salt, now knowing what all the fuss was about.

The adventure finished in Uyuni, a cold, desolate railway town, where we caught the midnight train and a morning bus to Bolivia's lively capital of La Paz, the highest capital in the world, at over 3500m (10,500ft.). Driving into La Paz is a stunning sight, as the city sits in a hole in the mountains, buildings spilling down the hillsides on every edge of the mountain 'bowl'. We settled in for a week in the comfortable Hostal Copacabana, right in the middle of all the action. In the heart of the city, goods are bought and sold right on the streets, shoeshiners await customers, bus attendants shout out destinations as they whiz by. Bolivia's indigenous roots live on, as we can see in the dark faces and traditional dress of the Aymara women. We wandered through the Mercado Buenos Aires for hours, a market that stretches for 30 city blocks selling everything on the street that you would normally find in supermarkets, clothing shops, hardware stores, pet shops, fabric stores, stationary shops and more. The witch's market offered something more spiritual; herbal cures, good luck charms, protective talismans, and dried llama fetuses as offerings to the spirits. Ewww! At the Museo de Coca museum, we learned all about the sacred and highly nutritional coca leaf, which the Bolivians use in important ceremonies, as a natural stimulant (like coffee), for medicinal use, and in herbal tea. We also learned about how the rest of the world uses coca for inclusion in pharmaceutical products, Coca-Cola and of course, cocaine, which has put coca in a negative light. Back on the streets, we delved into delicious Bolivian food: llama steaks, savory meat and potato pastries, fresh squeezed juices, sweet popped corn, spicy chicken and rice dishes, tiny peaches, and toasted nuts. Yes, Boliva suits us just fine!

Travelers Tips:
**High altitude tips: Don't overexert yourself. Walk slow, take breaks. Drink Mate de Coca (herbal tea made from coca leaves). Take ibuprofen for high altitude headaches. The headache is caused by brain swelling, and ibuprofen will reduce the swell and pain. Drink lots of water!

**In central areas of big cities like La Paz, take your laundry directly to the lavanderia instead of handing it in to the hotel. Your hotel usually just hands the laundry over to the lavanderia anyway, so by taking it yourself, it will be cheaper and handed back to you much faster. Price is per kilo of clothes.

**You don't need a doctor's prescription to buy antibiotics in Bolivia. If you have a minor illness, such as long-term diarrhea (giardia), look up your symptoms in your Rough Guide's health section or talk to the pharmacist for recommendations of proper drugs.