Headed into Bolivia...

These are the photos from our first day in Bolivia. We crossed the border at 10 in the morning, where we loaded the surfboards onto a Toyota 4x4 for the trip across the altiplano to Uyuni. The terrain is rough and dusty, and the road (track? trail?) on the bumpy side - but the scenery is out of this world.
It's a fairytale landscape unlike anything we've seen before.

The day included visits to two altiplano lakes and some thermal hot springs. The first lake Laguna Blanca, is home to flamingos and appears white due to the high concentration of borax. We then traveled on to Laguna Verde and the Licancabur Volcano. Laguna Verde has high mineral levels of Arsenic, Lead and Copper giving it a bright green color. Both of these lakes are at 4400m (14,400 ft).
A mid morning visit to the thermal hot springs (Termas de Polques) gave us an excuse for a bath and some time out of the truck. The water was lovely and warm, but getting out was difficult - cold wind and nowhere to get changed made for some fun balancing acts!
After our bath we headed to the Solar de Manaña geyser basin, to watch some bubbling pools of mud spit stinky gas into the air. These are at 5000m (16,400ft) - which left us all a little out of breath, and happy to be back in the truck as passangers with minimal physical exertion!
After lunch we visited Laguna Colorada - a beautiful red lake filled with 3 species of flamingo (James's, Andean & Chilean). The lake is colored red by algae and has bright white borax islands that create a startling contrast.
Our acommodation for the night was in a basic adobe building - no heating, so we pilfered extra blankets from the room next door... All of us slept in our hats as the outside temperature was -15 centigrade (5 farenheit)... (really really cold)