We knew that there was a bus leaving for Uyuni at 7 am. We could not buy tickets for this bus, as the girl at the office had not informed us well. We thought it would be a good idea to try our chance to find a ticket. We paid the pension and left the hotel at 6:20 in the morning. We took a taxi and came to the terminal. The terminal was quite busy but chaotic. We found out soon that only one ticket was left for Uyuni! We had to buy a ticket for Potosi to make a connection from there to Uyuni. The bus was stinking, it was soo loud and we were sitting at the very back of the bus. It was absolutely full!! Well, finally we came to Potosi with a couple more Brits, came to another bus terminal, got our ticket for 11:00 (which turned to be 11:45 at the end!)...Everyone around us was eating something, ice cream, melting down from the mouths of the kids, as they were cleaning their hands with their clothes and hair(!),
fruit gels, pop corn, chewing gum...I had some apple with me, so we had something before we boarded the bus again. We knew that we were not going in a nice road but we had no idea about the bus. The bus came, they loaded the bags onto the top of the bus and the bus seemed horrible horrible! It was a short one, quite dirty, people had squeezed the chicken bones onto the edges of the windows on the bus, there was a woman´s half naked picture under a lubricant advertisement!!!It was pretty interesting. Plus the music they turned on was soooo loud!!! I love my IPOD so much, especially for such bus rides. And the road...it was not paved at all,
it was horribly narrow and curvy...It took about 8 hours for us to reach Uyuni. When we were there, we were cold, hungry and desperately looking for a place to sleep and a tour to join! When we were desperately looking for a taxi (good that we could not find one), an African-Guanaian guy approached us, asking if we wanted to have a Uyuni Tour. We were so tired that just jumped to his offer, he took us to the travel agency, Sandra Tours
and told us that we could stay at nearby El Salvador Hostel. We sat down, made the deal for 72 USD, including the hostel stay at Uyuni, the whole safari with meals, accomodation and the transfer to San Pedro de Atacama, Chile...The hostel was just next door, we went there. It was a dirty and stinking room, did not have hot shower etc...They gave us another room to shower, Thank God!! Piril was able to have them done a nice cheese toast with tomatoes and I had some pop corn as dinner! We crashed that night...
We woke up in the morning, met a French gentleman who has been to Turkey many times and ended the conversation slowly when he started
talking about "Kurdistan" and "Turkey is not Europe"...Then we packed, went with our Guanian friend to the border post at Uyuni, paid 15 Bs, had our stamps to exit Bolivia and met our travel companions. The car was a big SUV, 4WD, Toyota. There was a girl sitting next to the driver, two other guys were from Argentina, two guys were from Brazil. Piril and I long discussed about who the girl on the front could be, whether the girl friend
of the driver or the cook...I decided that with that nice nails, she could never cook! It did not took us long to find out later that she was a tourist just like us, from Ecuador!!! We picked up the 17 year old Ester, the cook from her home! Well, we started with the cementerio de los trenes. The driver was called Jorge and he seemed pretty unwilling to explain things to us...Later, he took us a place where we could buy some artesanias as gifts and buy some snacks. Well, later we came to an unbelievable place, breathtaking...Uyuni Salt Flats...Imagine a Salt Flat, totally white, wet, the sky is a darling blue...The reflection of the sky on the Salt flats was simply amazing. Then we went to a Salt Hotel, right in the middle of the flats and took some pictures, as it is a museum now. Then it started snowing! The driver guide took us to a place called "Isla del Pescado", the fish island, but it was an island full of cactuses actually. The cactuses look like fish, so it was called like that.
As soon as we reached there, the weather changed, it became very warm and sunny! So, after taking off our excess clothes, we took great pictures from the top of the Isla del Pescado. There were maybe 50 4WDs around the island! That was the place where we were going to have our lunch, so decided to wait for the lunch. It was very good, salad, beef and rice...After the break, we hit the road again...The road changed all the time, but it was definitely not a road for a regular car and a regular driver! We were sitting behind the driver this time, so it was comfortable. However, at the first moment we boarded the 4WD, there was a CD that they were playing. In the afternoon, I realized that the same song was over and over...It was a song like "ay ayayayayayaayyy" and it was playing all in my head...Anyway, when we were approaching to the accomodation place, the Ecuadorian girl complained about the Salt Hotel, as she
was promised to stay at a Salt Hotel and Jorge told us that we were not going to stay at a Salt Hotel, as the other tours going faster than us could go to San Juan and grab the rooms! It is so funny, first come is first served, the earlier the better, you cannot reserve as the places do not have telephone! He showed us a Salt Hotel, it was a lone hotel in the middle of nowhere, so we moved away. Then we came to San Juan, checked on several hotels but none of them were available. Tired and fussy, finally we found one and took our stuff. The girl, Piril and I were going to stay the same room, with no electricity, not much water etc...The first thing I did was to go out and buy some wine, as I was tired and needed some relaxation! He had our dinner with our friends,
there were some gringos who drank gallons of wine and in the middle of the night, they were alll drunk! The Ecuadorian girl snored like a lioness (!), I woke up several times for bathroom, took my headlamp and found my way to the bathroom downstairs,(due to too much wine!) when it was raining cats and dogs!
Anyway, we woke up the morning, had our breakfast and hit the road. The whole road was pretty bumpy that day, the songs were all the same,
Jorge was as unwilling as the same but we had new friends, Cayo and Evandro, from Brazil. Piril was sitting next to Evandro and she used his shoulder as a pillow, as he was very very nice guy! We saw Laguna Colorada, Laguna Blanca, several small lagoons, flamingos, and a beautiful nature with mountain ranges...The weather kept on changing and it surprised us! In the evening, we arrived at a communal hotel, which I found comfortable, 7 of us slept in the same room, and I used my body warmer kit for the first time! We chatted with Evandro and Cayo in the evening, I shared my wine with Evandro,
we had a horrible spagetti soaked in margarine, with an ok sauce...It was cold, I could hardly sleep but we were able to pass that night too...We hit the road at 5 am this time, because we were going to see Laguna Verde and pass the border...At about 7 am, we made a stop at Thermal Waters where we were going to have breakfast. The girl prepared 2 eggs for 7 people, I saw and complained! Then she did not give us small plates to eat Corn Flakes and the eggs! Jorge said that nobody gets plates! I got one by force, I´m sure he hated me but I needed a plate! Then we saw the Laguna Verde and came to the border. We said goodbye to our friends, especially to Cayo and Evandro, the shoulder man, and took our bus for San Pedro de Atacama in Chile. We are hoping to meet Evandro again in Sao Paolo!
San Pedro de Atacama was an oasis on the middle of Atacama Desert, it was extremely expensive and hot. We found a hotel with private bathroom for 60 USD, had a dinner for 25 USD, we bought tickets on TURBUS to Santiago de Chile for 67 USD etc...The bus was at 8:50. The hotel we stayed had a nice garden, we came back to the hotel, showered, packed and went to bed.
The morning we woke up, Piril had an upset stomach, she had a very light breakfast and we took the bus.
The bus journey took exactly 24 hours! We were happy because our friend Gustavo was going to meet us. We met him at Tur Bus Alameda Station at Santiago and our Santiago days has begun!
We paid 75 Reais for the cab, which was a sign of an expensive country after the other Spanish speaking cheaper brothers. (75 reais is about 42 USD). We arrived in our great hotel, opened our bags in our room which was on 24th floor(!) and called our friend Evandro, whom we met in Uyuni Salt Flat Safari. Evandro came to pick us up for going to a nice bar in an hour time, the place was packed with young people...We had caipirinha and caipirinska there, which were both excellent drinks (second one is made with vodka which was our favorite). Evandro had brought a friend, so we chatted all the evening. 
Portuegese and Spanish are very similar, but the Portugese pronunciation is much more different, so it is hard to understand Portugese for me...However, Evandro´s friend spoke Spanish...At the end of the night, we had a great sleep in our great room...I felt like I would love this country, though I only saw a little bit of it...
We saw a place which was selling ¨salgados¨ with ´suco´...Salgados is sort of flaky pastry, made of dough and filled with ham and cheese. Piril had some pizza, juice and salgado where I chose some pan con queso (cheesy bread) and decided to have some omelette. They brought me an omelette which is well enough for two persons with a huge ham-rice mountain as garnish... It was horrifying, so had a litlle bit of it and just took a picture!!! After feeding me with some coffee, we walked around the important parts of Sao Paulo. The favorite part of the city was Mercado 
Municipal, where you can have the legendary huge sandwich ´mortadella´. It is huge, dough filled with tens of layers of ham and cheese inside...We had a slice, I saw funny tropical fruits and great breads. We had a great fruit salad with some mortadella, got our dinner as mozzarella sandwich and some mortadella and finished the city tour 
by going to a nice museum of art. The city looked ugly, it is a giant city with its 17 million population, mainly industry and business...There were lots of homeless people sleeping on the streets, the city was grey and lacked a character unlike Buenos Aires or Santiago. Every city has its charm, though Sao Paulo gave us a feeling of loneliness, sorrow and a sense of being lost. We had a nice cup of coffee at a nice
area of the town, given some cheerful hats for the carnaval and spent the evening quietly in our hotel room. We had only one day in Sao Paulo, the next day was our journey to Amazon!!!
However, I would prefer Bodrum or Antalya to anywhere in the world!!! We came back to the hotel in the same very evening, took some rest in the evening and became ready to see the city of Montevideo! 
