The high-altitude salt flats, geothermal springs and weirdly-shaped rock formations of southwest Bolivia make up one of the world's harshest landscapes. San Pedro de Atacama, the hub of tourism in Chile's Atacama Desert, is close to the Argentine and Bolivian borders and is the usual point of entry to this region. Local outfitters there offer 3-day tours by four-wheel-drive vehicle, travelling through to the Bolivian town of Uyuni. I chose Cordillera Traveller and fetched up with a great group of young travellers. Here's a light-hearted video of our little expedition, created by Aleh, @thetravellingdork.

From Uyuni, northbound bus and train connections connect to Potosi, Sucre and the Bolivian capital, La Paz.

As with my other 2016 Bolivian & Chilean galleries, many of these images were captured on a Samsung Galaxy smartphone. Other images were taken with Nikon D300 using RAW format, and may be licensed.