Day 1

We booked the trip to find out what the southwest part of Bolivia can offer and we were especially interested to see the salt desert. Our jeep left at 10.30 am with six passengers: a lovely American couple Molly and Barry, two Danish girls Nadia and Lisabeth, Thomas and I. We made a great team during these three days, as great as my Machu Picchu team.
On the first day we visited some tourist attractions of the region, including an astonishing island in the middle of the salt flats. It was full of huge cactuses (up to few meters high) which I have never seen in my life before (in the picture). We climbed the cactuses hill and as I was in an excellent company, I enjoyed myself a lot.
We arrived in our hotel in Villa Candelaria at 6 pm and after dumping our rucksacks in the rooms, we visited the village. Then we had dinner; Barry opened a very nice Bolivian wine which he bought in the morning. There are solar panels in Villa Candelaria and electricity is available only from 7 pm to 10 pm so we spent some time in the candle light, so great :) Our hotel, as all other buildings in the region, was made entirely of salt blocks. Such a fantastic experience...