Translation of fascination in German

The places we have been to were very different from the one we saw in the other country. It looked less poor and much more orgnaized although not every one could tell the difference. Funny.
We joined the mass and climbed it. The stones were a little slippery and I doubt that this place is accident free. Climbing big slippery stones was not an easy task but we managed it slowly.
We decided to make a one day trip to Bolivia, which turned out to be the correct decision. Instead of driving all the way up to the Salar de Uyuni, we stayed close to Chile and visited the area of the lagoons.