To end our time in Bolivia we met up with our spanish school friends- Claudia, Vish, and Paul and started a three day journey to the Salar which is the Bolivian salt flats in Uyuni, which is also in the middle of the desert. I am so happy we got to experience this with such amazing people. We piled into a jeep and drove across massive vast space. The salt flats were unbelievably white for as far as the eye can see and so bright that sunglasses were needed.
The salt on the salar is excavated for use, but isn't exported as much as I would have expected. The salt is super cheap so it's not very profitable.
We spent three days exploring catus hills and huge rocks in the middle of the hot desert. We saw blue, red and green lagunes and hundreds of flamingos. Our last morning we woke up early to see gysers as the sun rose. Frost covered the ground next to the hot gysers. 
After the gysers it was time to cross the border to chile. The difference was immediately noticed. We went from unpaved roads across Bolivia to paved highways and roads with emergency exits. Our bus driver said "welcome to civilization." not a funny joke after loving Bolivia so much.
Prices were also a shock to the system in Chile. We went fro paying $4 in Bolivia for a hostel to $14 in Chile. We now switch hostels to save an extra dollar or two.
The people in Chile go out of their way to help you and are so kind. We have explored Santiago and eaten completos (which are hot dogs filled with anything you can imagine.) We have experienced the Chilean Pacific ocean while eating seafood and having the best Chilean wine in Valaparaiso for Hilary´s birthday. I got a taste of Patagonia by going south to Pucon, where we repelled from waterwalls and enjoyed the volcano beach.
Chile was interesting to research before coming here and then while we were here learning more about it because of their brutal history. The economy in chile is grower very fast but people are still getting paid the same and are increasingly unable to buy the things they need. The gap between rich and poor is so huge. Embarrassingly I was trying to make a Brittany Spears concert in Santiago at the beginning of our Chile trip (we didn't make it because of the prices of flights, so we took a 20 hour bus ride instead.) We would have seen the concert at the national stadium which is the place where thousands of Chilean citizens were held and tortured during the Pinocet regime.  It´s just crazy thinking about how recent that was and now soccer games and huge concerts are held there.