Uyuni Salt Flats, volcanoes, lagoons & more

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Monday 2nd January - Monday 3rd January

Well it is a good job we bailed on that night bus, because we both needed that toilet until late that evening. Whilst I seemed to settle and sleep, Paul woke up at 3am in pain! Cue another unsettled day and trip back to the hospital the following day. Diagnosed with gastritis to go with his probable salmonella, he was prescribed a different antibiotic and an anti acid. Thankfully our hotel was flexible and helpful, even worried about us, which made things easier to just judge how we were feeling day by day. After some more resting (and much sweating the following night), and another couple of days exploring a little more of La Paz, including Moon Valley, we eventually felt well enough and brave enough to check out and book onto a night bus to Uyuni.

With the medication seeming to work, we were both feeling much more normal and actually enjoyed the surprisingly comfortable night bus down, arriving early on the Friday. This was followed by a couple of cafe stops, booking onto a three day tour, checking in to our far away hotel, bypassing wild dogs, and generally wondering around this quiet, cowboy-western feeling, dusty, old town. We even tried to find the train museum but, as with a lot of this seemingly tourist reliant place, it looked very run down and closed for good; COVID-19 has not been kind here.

Happy with just the one night here (many simply go straight onto a tour after their night bus), we were glad of the quiet time but keen to get going the next morning with our three day tour of the Uyuni Salt Flat. With instant good vibes from our tour guide Dioni, and meeting the friendly enough Russian trio who we’d be sharing this adventure with, we soon found ourselves bouncing along the rocky dirt roads in a 4x4, passing a train graveyard and salt mining area, towards an incredible expanse of salty white land; and the famous Uyuni Salt Flat did not disappoint. Despite the herds of 4x4s and people in them, it was surprisingly quick to loose them a little and feel completely isolated in this white desert; with geometric shaped scars covering the land (where gases and water escape in a natural formation), mirages of water and floating islands popping up in the far distances, the suns intense rays beaming down, and an almost absolute eerie silence. Due to the mirage effect, the trucks we did see passing in the distance began to look like space ships, hovering along with no noise, and it felt like we could be in some sort of Star Wars movie.

A fabulous photo shoot here was unavoidable, with the pure emptiness and vastness of the place supporting weird and funny camera trick photos, that Dioni (like all guides) know exactly how to take. We also visited an island in the middle of the salt flat with huge cacti and then drank wine in the middle of nowhere, while watching the orange and pink colours flow in the sky and turn to dark blue and black. Seeing the stars pop up so vividly was cool too, with a lightening storm flashing away in the far distance, and a full orange moon quickly rising and giving a weird glow across the darkened land. A comfy night in a salt hotel soon lead to a second day of being in awe of the changing yet equally as magnificent landscapes.

Now off of the worlds largest salt flat, we bumped around through dry desert, over old lava-made rock, past smaller salt flats and lots of colourful lagoons, always being surrounded by many volcanoes. We saw lots of llamas, vicunas, viscacha, mice, a lizard, a fox, and hundreds of flamingos, as well as steamy geysers and got to star gaze from a soothing hot spring. The whole tour was really well run, passing amazing scenery with interesting history given, good humour from Dioni all the way through, an expert driver (mechanic, cook, and DJ too!) and two unexpectedly nice hostals. We were lucky with the weather too, as despite it technically being the rainy season, we just had wind (though this was super cold at times!) and sun.

Flying by too quickly, it didn’t feel that long ago since we arrived in Bolivia, yet here we were crossing the border into Chile already. Like many others, we managed to use this incredible tour to end at the border crossing, where we then hopped onto one of the many mini buses, (after some cold standing around in the wind) to take us across and down the other side of this mountain range, into San Pedro de Atacama; the worlds second driest desert! Time to get exploring.

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