Highlights of the Tour

Our 3 day tour to the Salt Flats and Atacama desert was phenomenal! We had an amazing adventure and saw so many interesting sites. Our guide was great and we also had some pretty cool people in our group. 

Here are the highlights:
- The train cemetery-- seeing and climbing on old rusted trains from the 1940s that were used to transport silver
- The salt factory where we learnt all about the way the salt is processed
- The salt flats themselves which are the largest in the world stretching over 10,000 square kilometers-- we took a lot of silly photos and drove to the very middle of them! The feeling was surreal as we were in the middle of nowhere and for miles and miles all you could see was white flatness.
- The fish island (on the salt flats), that is home to hundreds of giant cacti, humming birds and rabbit like rodents. We hiked to the top and could see a 360° view of the flats.
- Sleeping in a hostal made of salt bricks and in a bed made of salt.
- Lagoons-- we went to several lagoons over the three days, and each one was unique. They are home to 3 species of wild flamingos which were spectacular to see. One lagoon turns red during the day because of the large amounts of plankton being stirred up because of the wind. Another turns green because it contains 70% arsenic. Overall the lagoons were very neat, and beautiful!
- Seeing vicunas and andean foxes
- We saw many volcanoes along the way, some active and some dormant which were quite cool!
- Driving through the desert was amazing, very rustic and a new experience to be in the middle of absolute nowhere. 
- On the second night we stayed at a tiny hostal that was right by some hot springs, so after dinner we walked to them and sat in the relaxing warmth while enjoying the stars (which were stunning).
- Going into the crater of a semi-active volcano and seeing the geysers and steam jets-- possibly the weirdest and most unique part of the trip.