Uyuni - Salar de Uyuni and Southern Desert

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Our Arrival

We arrived from La Paz at 8:20am and were dropped off outside the Trans Omar office which is on Cabrera and Arce. When we got off the bus we were met by touts offering tours to the salt flats. We went with one of them to their office from the terminal and booked a tour for the same day so didn't check into a hotel.



What We Did

We went on a 3 day, 2 night tour of the Salar de Uyuni, Southern Bolivian desert and Reserva Nacional de Fauna Andina with Expediciones Gaviota. We were met at the bus station by a representative of the Company who took us to their office which was a couple of blocks from the bus office, on the same road, back the way we had just come.

The tour cost Bs. 700 each not including an optional Bs. 30 admission fee to the cactus island, optional Bs.6 fee for the hot springs and Bs. 150 compulsory national park fee.

We booked the tour and stored our backpacks there whilst we got some breakfast at the market by the bus terminal (Bs. 6 for some soup) and got some water for the trip. The tour includes food and drinks with meals but not water during the day.

We left one backpack at the office during our tour.



DAY 1 - We left at 11am. There were 6 of us in the group and our driver Adelio. First we visited the train graveyard where you can climb on old trains. There were a lot of other tour jeeps here when we arrived. Next we went to the town by the salt flats where you can buy souveniers. We then drove around the salt flats, stopping to look at different things like the piles of salt, bubbling water and taking lots of photos. You have the option of visiting a cactus island which is an extra Bs. 30 admission fee. We didn't go but walked around the bottom instead. We got to our accomodation just after sunset. The accomodation was made of salt and we had 3 private rooms for 2 people each. It was a bit chilly but not at night as there were blankets for the beds.



DAY 2 - First stop was a small town with a shop you could buy stuff for the next couple of days. We drove around up to the border with Chile seeing lots of volcanoes and different coloured lakes and saw flamingoes. We visited some rock formations that you could climb on and one that looked like a tree. We were getting higher each day so this day was pretty cold. You pay your park admission fee of Bs. 150 before going to the room for the night. Our accomodation had one more group staying there and this time our group was all in a dorm together. Again there were enough blankets on the beds but it was cold sitting around in the evening. We got a bottle of red wine with our dinner this night.



DAY 3 - We got up before sunrise to visit the geysers which were pretty cool. Our guide then gave us the option of going to the hot springs now or later. We chose later so then drove to another coloured lake with volcanoes in the background. It was a really pretty lake and we had it all to ourselves, the other groups visited the springs first. We then went to the hot springs which were lovely. It was Bs.6 entry including use of the toilets and changing room. We then saw another coloured lake and more volcanoes before stopping at some more weird rock formations you could climb on. We stopped at San Cristobal town before getting back to Uyuni at 5:15pm.



Our guide spoke only Spanish but spoke slowly so we could understand most of what he was saying. He was very friendly and drove very carefully. Our group decided to give him a tip at the end.

There was plenty of food provided and drinks were given with the meals. Bring some water for drinking during the day and evening.

On the first night there were some plugs where you could charge your camera battery.

Obviously you can use the bathrooms at your accomodation but the others along the way you have to pay between Bs. 1 - 5 or go to the toilet outside when you can.

Our trip with Expediciones Gaviota was really good and I would recommend them for a trip. We had heard lots of horror stories before we left about different tours and on the first day of our trip we heard another group complaining to the company office that the wheel had come off their jeep whilst they were driving along. No-one was injured or anything but they were not happy as they had paid for a more expensive tour. Also on the 2nd day a couple of people in another group were complaining about something and they cut their trip short and went back, I'm not sure what that was about though.



Where We Went Next

We got back to the office at 5:15pm and went to the bus offices to book our ticket to Sucre that night. The company Trans Emperador was leaving at 9pm and it cost Bs. 50 each.

Until 9pm we went to Red Hot Bar which is on the main street near the clock tower. They had litre beers during happy hour until 7pm for Bs. 25 and wifi.

I think that Trans Emperador is the only company going to Sucre in the evening but I can't recommend them. When we were getting on the bus no tickets were checked and another backpacker had her bag stolen. It all makes sense looking back, but at the time I didn't realise what was happening. When we got on the bus the guy before us went on closing the curtains as he went, I thought it was to keep the heat in but now I guess it was so nobody could see what he was about to do. He told people to put their bags up the top so I thought he worked for the company. We kept ours with us but a girl behind put hers up. A few moments later her bag was gone and so was the guy. He came on the bus carrying a blanket (but so did every local) and I think he used it as a cover to hide her bag. Lucky she had taken out her valuables before she put it up top. A guy she was with went to talk to the bus company about it but from the bus window it looked like it got a bit heated and the bus employees started sticking their fingers up at the guy.

The tickets were checked just before we got to Potosi where we stopped near a petrol station. I asked the bus guy if there was a bathroom nearby and he said no. I looked around and there was one (albeit a filthy one) next to the petrol station. So I guess he was just trying to be unhelpful.

We were told that we would get into Sucre about 5:30am. We stopped outside their closed company office at 4:10pm and the bus guy got off and opened the bag doors without saying anything. We then realised we were in Sucre already on a deserted street in the middle of the night. Everyone was confused and some local guys went and asked if were stopping at the terminal and came back saying we wouldn't be but were stopping somewhere else (but I couldn't understand where due to my lack of Spanish). We stayed on the bus and a couple of blocks later we drove past the bus terminal and stopped again when the bus guy ran off. We decided to get off the bus there as there was a hostel open opposite. The hostel turned out to be really expensive and nowhere else was open so we went inside the bus station to wait for sunrise. I have no idea where the bus went after that but it was heading out of town.

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