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Published: April 3rd 2011
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On the 8th March we headed to Uyuni for the great Bolivian road trip - the journey across the salt flats (Salar de Uyuni) and desert in the southwest. The journey from Oruro to Uyuni was brilliant; instead of taking a bumpy bus ride for seven hours we took the train, which was very comfortable and offered some great views of the altiplano (flatlands at very high altitude).
The only problem with getting the train was buying the tickets. Instead of simply forming a queue and purchasing tickets we had to take a number and wait to be called; unfortunately most of the Bolivians seemed to ignore this system and the ticket office became one huge scramble to the front. It took the presence of a pretty mean looking police officer to calm things down! After 3 hectic hours we managed to get our tickets though - and we met another English couple who we would end up doing the salt flats tour with.
We arrived in Uyuni at about 10:30pm, so all we could do was dive in to the first place with a room - which was an absolute hole. The next morning was spent looking around
Uyuni for a German guy who had left his passport and 600 Euros at the hostel (we found him, lucky guy!) and booking our tour for the salt flats. Even this was difficult - it seemed that nowhere wanted our business as all the companies shut around lunch time because everyone was hungover from carnival! But after plenty of walking and waiting we eventully booked a tour. After this we chilled out a bit; Uyuni is a very touristy and ugly town with little to do, so the main highlight of the town itself turned out to be a fantastic pizza restaurant!
The next day was the first day of the tour. There was ten in our group (mostly English) so we piled in to two jeeps and headed off on the 1000km road trip. First stop was the train graveyard, a mass of rusting locomotives (also mostly English!) from the early 20th century which had been left to rot in the desert.
From here we headed to the Uyuni salt flat itself via Colchani, a small town on the edge of the salar whose main export is...yep, salt! We stopped for lunch at a hotel MADE from
View out of the window
There was actually lake on either side of the train. salt before venturing out on to the salar. As it was the end of the rainy season the salar was under several inches of water which unfortunately meant the trip had to be modified slightly. We couldn't drive the whole way across; instead we had to stop at a hotel on the salar an hour's drive from the eastern entrance.
However, this meant we got to see the sunset on the salar and this was without question one of the highlights of our time in South America. It's difficult to explain the scenery on the salt flats; however, this is one time when the photos actually do the experience justice. The pure white of the salt with the reflection from the water was set beautifully against the perfectly blue sky. We'll do well to get more spectacluar pictures than this, so we were perhaps lucky it was the rainy season as the water provided the perfect mirror.
We had 2 days left on the tour, but unfortunately we wouldn't go back to the salar. It felt like we had done the best thing first, which turned out to be the case; although that doesn't mean the desert landscape
over the next 48 hours wasn't incredible. The next day we headed southwest towards Laguna Colorada, occasionally stopping to take in the surroundings and to fix the jeeps! It only took 91km before the suspension went! The huge open wilderness was incredible and the geological formations of rocks again gave us some fantastic pictures. Laguna Colorada itself was red with algae and teeming with rare James flamingoes, though they had a tendancy to fly away when the jeep got too close!
We stayed overnight at a refugio 4100m above sea level before a 5:00am start to go to the top of a volcano to observe the smouldering crater. By the time we arrived there it was beginning to get light but we still had to watch our step as we walked around the INSIDE of the crater, making sure we didn't fall in to the 200 degress mud. Another experience we just wouldn't be able to do in England! We then went to another hot spring and again Chris wimped out!#
After a pancake breakfast we drove on to Laguna Verde, a small green lagoon laced with arsenic which is unfortunately shrinking due to global warming. The volcano
behind it was Licancabur, a volcano we had previously photographed on the journey from San Pedro de Atacama to Salta. We then turned round and headed back for Uyuni, an 8 hour journey back the way we came.
The salt flats tour was a true Bolivian experience - raw, not always reliable, but absolutely amazing. The next day we were heading for Sucre, Bolivia's white city...
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Quinn
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Sincerely would appreciate your tour info!
Hello CC on tour! Currently headed to the salt flats with my boyfriend and would sincerely appreciate your advise on tour companies etc! Could you drop me a line? I also have a blog on this site: QVK 3 mos LOA