The Uyuni Salt-flats

South America » Bolivia » Potosí Department » Salar de Uyuni
May 6th 2008

Published: May 15th 2008

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Moz

Tupiza

Surrounding countryside

We arrived in Bolivia on 22 April at the dusty border town of Villazon, and immediately booked a bus north to Tupiza.

Tupiza is a pleasant town, lying at an altitude of almost 3,000 metres, and ringed by an amazing landscape of rainbow-coloured rocks, hills, mountains and canyons. By the time we arrived, we had been travelling for almost eleven hours, having left Salta in Argentina before dawn. We were in no mood to spend ages searching for a place to stay, so having tried a couple of pleasant-looking hostels that were both full, we settled for a more ´basic´option (the shower was often cold, and as dusk descended, it transpired that none of the lights worked - we were forced to borrow a table lamp from reception).

The room aside we spent a lovely couple of nights in Tupiza. On our only full day in town, we wandered into the surrounding countryside, ate at a pleasant pizzeria, and watched the Champions League semi-final.

The main reason we´d journeyed to Tupiza was to undertake a four-day jeep tour through the Bolivian altiplano to the town of Uyuni, located close to the world´s largest salt flats.

We paid

Tupiza

Condor over town

a little extra to limit numbers in the jeep to four tourists, accompanied by a driver/guide and a cook, and having experienced the limited leg-room during our 1000km trip, we were very pleased to have done so. We were accompanied by a lovely English couple (Martin & Judy), and both the driver and cook were also fantastic.

Setting-off early on the first morning, we passed by remote villages, beautiful lagoons and a collection of mud-pools and fumeroles at 5,000m, the whole time surrounded by stunning mountain vistas and intermittent desert-scapes.

The only downside to the trip was the basic accommodation, although we had been warned of this in advance. Rooms were shared, drafty, unheated, with limited electricity, basic toilets and no showers (except on our third night, when we also got to sleep on salt beds - a new experience for both of us, but perhaps not one we´d rush to repeat). Given the high altitude, it was also bitterly cold at night with temperatures as low as minus ten, but when sleep was impossible, the stunningly clear night-sky provided some distraction.

On our final day, we arrived at the Salar de Uyuni, the world´s largest salt

Tupiza

Main square

flat at 10,582 km². We awoke early to watch the sun-rise over the vast expanse of nothingness - it was a surreal experience. The endless flats mean all sense of perspective is lost, so after some exploration and a visit to the cacti-covered Isla de Los Pescadores, we did what everyone does - and spent almost an hour taking silly pictures of one another.

The entire trip was a wonderful experience. On arrival in Uyuni, we had planned to take a tourist bus (Bolivia´s finest) on an overnight trip to La Paz. Unfortunately, this was fully booked, so rather than face a night on a local bus, we instead opted for a hot shower, a warm bed and a game of cards with our new-found friends in one of Uyuni´s nicer hotels . . . and headed to La Paz the following evening.

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