Salar de Uyuni

Uyuni, Bolivia

Warning: this post is longggg, and full of pictures. I make no apologies, as it was one of the best experiences we’ve had so far on this trip! It seemed a shame to split it up, so I’ve complied everything into this whopper of a post – I hope you enjoy!

After Sucre, Jo, Eric, Mac & I all took a bus to Uyuni – a tiny little town seemingly in the middle of nowhere, and situated at 3,656m (11,995 ft) above sea level. Yep, we came back up to altitude, but the coldness & constant shortness of breath was TOTALLY worth it. We were in Uyuni to take a tour of the biggest salt flat in the world.

Day 1

Our 3 day, 2 night tour began the following day at 10:30am. The 4 of us, along with two Bolivians vacationing from Santa Cruz, and our driver Alejandro, loaded up our Nissan 4×4 jeep and headed out on our adventure! Our first stop was actually quite close to Uyuni. We visited a train cemetery! Quite literally it was 2 trains – each several cars long – along the tracks that had been abandoned and left to rust & deteriorate. It was quite interesting and we jumped from car to car like it was one giant jungle gym!

After the train cemetery, we headed towards the highlight of the trip – Salar de Uyuni. Over 10,000m2, the Salar is the world’s biggest salt flat. It was once a pre-historic lake that dried up leaving a salt crust that varies in altitude only 1m over the entire surface of the salt flat. Though we had only just driven to the very edge of the salt flat, you could already start to grasp how huge it is. Our first stop was at an old salt hotel for lunch. Outside the hotel is a giant flag monument (with Canada being fairly poorly represented), as well as a giant salt monument for Dakar Bolivia (a huge racing event that routes through Chile, Bolivia & Argentina covering over 9000km).

We had lunch on salt chairs, at a salt table in a room made of salt walls & salt floors. Definitely one of the more interesting places I’ve dined!

With full bellies, we headed further into the salt flat, where we stopped to take the infamous perspective pictures. Honestly, this place was unlike anything I’d ever seen before. It was so difficult to grasp just how huge the salt flat extended. The ground was blinding white in every direction for as far as the eye could see. It was definitely surreal.

Once we had our fun with our cameras, it was back into the jeep again. Our next stop was Intihuasi – commonly known as Fish Island. It’s literally just an island in the middle of the Salar. We hiked for about an hour around this island – being extremely careful the whole time because of the insane amount of cacti! The cacti grow at a surprisingly slow rate: just 1cm per year! The tallest one was 11m, but it recently fell down.

With our hike over, we headed to our final destination of the day: a salt hostel! But first, a quick stop on the salt flat to catch a glimpse of the sunset (unfortunately, some clouds came and made what was once a super blue sky turn grey). Our salt hostel was similar to our lunch stop, except that it had a bit more concrete. We had a pretty awesome private room, with a private bath (but you had to pay 10Bs if you wanted to shower!).

Day 2

The second day started bright & early (minus the bright part… the sun still hadn’t risen when we woke up at 6am). After a quick breakfast at the hostel, we piled in the jeep and started the long drive (by the end of the day, we covered almost 300km!). Our first stop was along a set of train tracks (the same ones that run back to Uyuni & the train cemetery) which provided some cool pictures.

Afterwards, we stopped at the base of Volcano Ollague – a semi-active volcano surrounded by lava rocks. Pacha Mama (Mother Nature) still wasn’t properly cooperating, so we had grey skies again. The volcano & surrounding hills and mountains made for awesome scenery though, regardless of the grey skies! And, we saw some wild vicunas which was pretty cool to see!

Our next stop was Laguna Canapa. This was our first sighting of what would prove to be a rather common animal during our day: flamingos!!!

After Laguna Canapa, it was a short drive to our next destination (and lunch stop): Laguna Hedionda. There were even MORE flamingos here! When I think of flamingos, I think of tropical locations. This place was about the furthest from a tropical location as possible! Relentless gusting wind, coupled with very cold temperatures, and the scent of eggs in the air (from the sulphur in the surrounding volcanoes): this is exactly opposite to where I’d picture flamingos. Yet, here they were, happily striding along in what must be close to freezing water with not a feather out of place. All the power to those flamingos!! (I, however, did not feel the same level of happiness).

With lunch consumed at rapid pace (we ate outside in the wind, and the food was cold in a matter of minutes), we set off yet again. We had a big change of scenery during our next leg: we went from lagoons & volcanoes, to desert & mountains. We even stopped at what is known as the “arbol de piedral” (stone tree). Made from lava rock and shaped by erosion, this stone looked pretty out of place in the barren landscape!

Continuing from the desert, we returned to familiar territory: more volcanoes & lagoons. We crossed into the Reserva de National de Fauna Andina Eduardo Avaroa (REA) and stayed at a hostel overlooking Laguna Colorado. This lagoon is pretty unique because it’s actually red in colour. The colouring is caused by an abundance of plankton in the water. It only averages about 45cm deep too! And guess who was enjoying this weird phenomenon? Yep! Flamingos again!

After we admired the views, we hoofed it back to the hostel to try and get warmed up. This place deserves special mention because it’s the highest elevation we’ve ever slept: 4200m above sea level. It was one of the coldest nights I’ve ever experienced!! (That’s including 4 blankets, & a sleeping bag!!)

Day 3

The third and final day started earlier than day 2! We were awake at 5am, and on the road by 6am! The reasoning for being awake at this ungodly hour was to catch the nearby geysers in action! Solar de mañana were simply huge gusts of steam that spewed from the earth’s surface. They also REEKED of sulphur. BUT, they provided some awesome entertainment: jumping through them!

Just down the road from the geysers are some hot springs. But trust me, you’d never want to swim in these things. Big sulphur pools bubbled & steamed and looked extremely uninviting. It was pretty neat to watch, but we didn’t stay long because we all wanted to get back to the warmth of the jeep! It was COLD!

Our next stop was at some actual hot springs – Termas de Polques. Our group decided to forgo the event, but quite a number of other tourists enjoyed the thermal waters. I’m all for hot springs, but the getting in & out of them with the sub-zero temperatures and brutal gusting wind just didn’t appeal to me!

The second last stop of the day was to more lagoons. Laguna Blanca & Laguna Verde lie in the shadows of Volcano Lincacabur. (Personally, I thought Laguna Verde was a tad on the blue side, but I’ve been told under certain lighting & wind conditions that it actually looks more green).

Just a short drive from Laguna Verde is the Bolivia-Chile border. Mac & I arranged our tour such that we could get a transfer from the border to the nearby town of San Pedro de Atacama, Chile. We had our passports stamped with the Bolivia exit stamp back in Uyuni, which turned out to be an awesome idea as we didn’t have to wait in line with the hoards of other travelers (in the cold wind!).

Practical Information

We booked our tour with Empexsa. We arrived in Uyuni from Sucre at 6pm. From the bus stop, we made our way to Calle Ferroviaria where there are tonnes of tour operators. We searched around a bit and ultimately decided to go with Empexsa because: a) (most importantly) they were the cheapest, b) they could provide Mac & I with a transfer to Chile at no extra cost, and c) they included sleeping bags at no extra cost.

Money Breakdown

770Bs ($110USD) – 3 day/2 night Salar de Uyuni Tour

30Bs (~$4.30USD) – Intihuasi (Fish Island) entrance fee

150Bs (~$22USD) – REA Entrance fee

50Bs ($7.25USD) – Tip for our driver

1000Bs (~$145USD) Total Per Person

This also included all of our meals (which were very good!), a private bedroom on the first night (with private bathroom – also a nice perk as most other tours stay at a different hostel with shared bathrooms), a dorm bed on the second night, sleeping bag rentals, a Spanish-speaking guide, and all transportation (including our transfer to Chile).

This cost doesn’t include extra items like snacks or water (of which we brought 16L between Mac, Jo, Eric, & I), or bathroom stops (which can cost anywhere from 2Bs to 5Bs). If you want an English-speaking guide, be prepared to pay up to at least 300Bs extra.

While Mac & I took a separate transfer bus to Chile, the rest of the group had a long 7 hour journey back to Uyuni (where you can then take a bus or flight to any other major Bolivian city).

Thoughts

Mac & I have seen our fair share of beautiful views during our travels so far, but these 3 days were unlike anything we had ever seen before. I had to keep pinching myself to make sure I wasn’t dreaming! It’s hard to believe that places like the ones we saw exist! There’s so much beauty on this earth and I’m so happy we were able to experience this portion.

The one thing I didn’t especially love was how extremely touristy the tour was. All tours leave from Uyuni at 10:30am, so right from day one you’re constantly surrounded by hundreds of people. This wasn’t an issue at all later on, but at the train cemetery, people were everywhere!!! Once tours started getting further into the salt flat, the density of tourists thinned out a bit, but it was still noticeable at places like the geysers and some of the lagoons.

It should also be noted that this is not an adventure-type tour. Aside from the tiny little hike we did on Fish Island, the majority of the tour involved sitting in the jeep and admiring the amazing scenery. Or when we weren’t in the jeep, we were stopping briefly to get out of the jeep and take pictures of the amazing scenery. That being said, I don’t for one second regret going on this tour. Like I mentioned in the very beginning of this epically long post (thank you to those that are still reading!), these 3 days were easily one of my top 5 highlights of our trip so far!