Overland to Uyuni I

The final tour I booked in San Pedro was a one-way trip through the lagunas, volcanoes, deserts and rocks of southwestern Bolivia to the Salar de Uyuni. If San Pedro was weird, the scenery here was just indescribable, and I won't even really try. Definitely, this is the strangest landscape I've ever been to, and short of visiting deep sea thermal vents and all the freaky critters they support, or actually making it to another planet (both of which eventualities seem extremely unlikely) I don't think I could possibly find myself anywhere more otherworldly.

For the detail-oriented among you: I booked with Estrella del Sur tours, one of only two companies running out of San Pedro that had a majority of positive reviews (the other is Cordillera; the various other outfitters have received a range of complaints from vehicle breakdown through to selling you off to another agency when their jeep isn't completely full). Our trip was fantastic: our vehicle was problem-free and our driver safe, sober, friendly and knowledgeable; the food was both overabundant and tasty, if not gourmet; and our salt flat hotel was located in a village and not in the middle of the flats, mitigating my concerns about its environmental impact (the one(s) in the middle of the Salar need to truck in absolutely everything and have problems disposing of waste).

The pix here cover the sights from Day 1, which started in San Pedro and made it, via the Lagunas Blanco and Verde, a thermal bathing pool, and a field of volcanic vents, to Laguna Colorado, where we stayed in a very basic but totally serviceable hostel/refuge.

Least official border crossing ever. Bienvenidos a Bolivia!

Fox at the border. Rare sighting, so they said,
but with the garbage thereabouts maybe less rare
than elsewhere.

Laguna Blanco, and the first of a billion flamingos. 

Thermal hot spring. Very enjoyable, especially as we were not there in
the thickest of the crush of other tours.

Boiling lava, or water, in one of many open vents of the Sol de Mañana
volcano/geyser field.

Laguna Colorado. That white back there is borax,
not salt. No idea about the red, green, black or grey,
but whatever they are, the flamingos didn't seem
too concerned.

Laguna Colorado.