No question: We have been warned!
On the one hand because of the incredible landscape, which you can encounter in every part of the area. On the other hand because of the adventure we will be going to have: Far away from each kind of 'civilisation' and going in jeeps, which had their best times several tens of years ago.
    And we experienced everything like anticipated First of all some statistics: In four days we made about 1000 km. This took us about 29 hours in the jeep. We killed a dog, had two forced stops because of water in the electric system, one blown rim (as you can see in the picture), three punctures and a destroyed suspension. (Bad) Luck did we have, when the rim blew up and the jeep was near to overturn. But our driver Abdrés had a very fast reaction and saved us. And he did his best in every minute of the trip. Without him maybe we would still wait for a backup car or some new spare tires! He wore his working suite almost every hour of the four day trip and his effort to make one 'new' wheel out of four old ones would never have took place in Germany.

Eight people started this rallye. The driver Andrés and his wife, who was our chef on the tour. And six tourists: one french couple, two bolivianos aged about 70 ('We are Japanese, but we live in Bolivia for about 50 years!') and we. The both 'Japanese' left us at the chilenian border and went with another tour into the chilenian Atacama desert. From Uyuni, we drove to the near salt lake 'Salar de Uyuni', with about 12.000 km² the biggest salt lake in the world. On the salt lake we visited the island of Inkawasi with all its incredible cactus, which only grow about one centimeter per year. The highest cactus is more than 12 meters. So you can easily calculate its age. The salt lake is located at an altitude of more than 3600 m. The highest point of our tour was at about 4600 m. You can imagine how cold it got at night. Without a good sleeping bag the trip cannot be recommended.

We spent our first night only a short way after leaving the salt lake. There were hot showers, which no one used and electricity between sun set (6.30pm) and 9.30pm. The next day, we went on through astonishing nature, which we haven't seen like this before. We reached Laguna Colorada (a reddish looking lake at about 4300m), which we reached just before sun set. So there was time enough to take some pictures, although it was really getting very, very cold and windy. Its interesting red color is obtained from algees and plankton, which grow perfectly in this inhospitable environment. We had no water in our accomodation, but because of the servere cold nobody was in the mood of taking a shower. After a hot soup and spaghettis everyone got fast into his sleeping bag. Nobody took of his clothes off and we went to bed completly dressed.

The next morning at 4.00am we got up and at 4.30am we left the hostel to visit some geysires, which are only active very early in the morning. Nobody knows, why we reached them at 5.30am (it was completely dark) and why Andrés wanted to wait an hour until sun rise (for the best pictures). And all this at about -20 degrees in a car without heating. We had a short, but hard discussion about this and went on ... but only half an hour, until we had the next puncture.

So, we had to wait for the next jeep and had to hope to get their spare tire. Our spare tire was used the day before. Meanwhile we were not only a bit cold as you can guess. But the nature was really breathtaking and made good our anger. We had our breakfast after the tire repair near some hot springs. After this we went on to the Laguna Verde (the green lake, which get's its color based on copper oxides, and to the volcano Llicancabur, which is located right on the border between Bolivia and Chile. The nature, the light and the colors here on about 4300m are nameless. Everything looks unreal and if it was painted by a gigantic brush. After a short repair of one of our suspensions we went back in direction towards Uyuni. The first part was just going back on the same road, but near the Laguna Colorada we took another trail with really astonishing views (and sometimes even animals)! One last night in a hostel (this time we took a shower!!) and a last dinner (according to bolivian standards) of the really good chef and the next day we arrived back at our starting point Uyuni.
We will remember this trip forever, not because of the all the breakdowns but because of the views and we would do this adventure anytime.