Salar de Uyuni

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Salar de Uyuni (and the lands surrounding it) is astounding and surreal. The feeling of being on another planet -- be it Mars or one imagination-sprung -- seems to be universal. Though the rides in the Landrovers are crowded and extremely long, there is so much to look at out the windows that the time passes fairly quickly. Still, both the flats and the surrounding mountains are profoundly inhospitable (50 MPH winds (at least on our trip), 3800-5000 meter elevation, rough dirt roads) and the very basic accommodations make this a difficult trip, even though the physical requirements are near nil.

Try to avoid even spending a night in Uyuni, as it is a barren, desolate wasteland that should only be preserved for post-apocalyptic film sets. The wide, dusty, empty streets (except for the rubbish) and biting, sandy winds eat away at the soul. Unless you are only going for a one day trip to Salar de Uyuni (which is worth it, as it´s the best part of the longer treks), avoid it and instead begin in Tupiza. If you do get stuck in Uyuni, consider sleeping in an unheated hostel, or ask to see the heating system, as two girls died there very recently from carbon monoxide poisoning.

The main reason I began and ended in Uyuni is that a friend was short on time and we had to book our tour in La Paz to make sure we got out on the morning we arrived. I don´t recommend this. Arrive in Tupiza (which is apparently a very nice town) and arrange it there with one of the three main companies. In Uyuni there are so many companies that many are unreliable. Ask to see the vehicle you will be traveling in, as ours had several long cracks on the windshield, a side window that didn´t go all the way up and was fixed only with packing tape, and we had four flat tires along the way. Ask plenty of questions, though it might just be the luck of the draw in the end. We saw other groups who ran out of gas several times (and had to buy some from us) or had other mechanical problems.

Don´t go on this tour if you aren´t properly acclimated (several days in La Paz, at least). According to the guides, one girl died from altitude sickness the day before we got there. Camping also doesn´t look safe. Camping on your own is not recommended, as the drivers create their own roads at times and people have been killed this way as well.

DAY 1 (from Uyuni; if you begin in Tupiza, you go in the opposite direction, ending with the spectacular salt flats)

We arrived in Uyuni after a 13 hour bus ride on a local bus from La Paz. The tourist buses are only 11 hours and are worth it. The local bus was cold, wet, loud, smelly... really an absolute assault of the senses. Breaking up the trip would be smart.

We left Uyuni at 10:30 and headed for the salt flats. Overall, there wasn´t that much driving on the first day. On the way we stopped at a train graveyard, but the winds were so intense that we could barely walk, or take photos, for that matter. Victor (our guide) took us on a short tour of a salt factory (see photos) and then we found shelter in a souvenier shop and ate lunch nearby. The food was excellent.

The flats are wonderful and the views from the island at which all the groups stop are astonishing. We couldn´t completely appreciate it because of the winds, but I still took so many photos that I could barely decide which to include on this blog. We then drove to the edge of the flats, but the hostel we were supposed to stay in was full (or likely more expensive than the guide and driver wanted to pay), so we drove to another one and slept in a room together. The hostel we found ended up being fabulous, as it was made almost entirely out of salt (see photos).

DAY 2

Early in the morning we left the flats and the terrain changed completely. We passed through brilliant rainbow mountains (colored from the different ores found within, including borax and sulfur), scenery that is more befitting to Mars, endless desert terrain, and several dying lakes. The wildlife included foxes, llamas, alpacas, picunyas, viscachas, flamingos, and gulls.

At this location, the nighttime temperature drops regularly to around -20 C (-4 F), and for some reason people built all the accommodations with plenty of windows, so have a good sleeping bag and plenty of blankets. I had a 0 degree C bag and two or three warm blankets from the hostel and was only cold after I had to get up in the morning.

DAY 3

We woke up at 5:30 and headed first to the boiling hot springs and then to cooler ones, the latter of which were perfect for bathing. Though the air temperature was still below freezing, twenty minutes in the springs were wonderful.

Most of the rest of the day is driving. Sure, we stopped at interesting rock formations and more lakes, but most of the day was spent dropping off two girls near the Chilean border, arguing with our guide and driver about how many people would be in the car (we lost, as they wanted to send one of them back to Chile, so we had to all squeeze in), and then a 7-8 hour drive back to Uyuni on a different route with better roads but less scenery.

About 20 minutes after lunch we had our third flat tire (the first two were on day 1). Eventually another vehicle passed and we traded them a tire for some of our fuel. Hours later and only 20 minutes from Uyuni, we got our fourth, and by then it was dark. No one would stop to help so we had to sit in the freezing desert for hours, waiting for someone to save us. Eventually someone came and we got back an hour and a half after our bus back to La Paz had left. The power in Uyuni was off and on because of the winds, so we found a nice, cold hostel and passed out.

LEAVING UYUNI

The bus the night before would have done us little good, as there were strikes and roadblocks all around La Paz that night. We left on another bus through Todo Turismo at 8:30 the next morning only to find that the driver (who was drinking beer and partying with his friends in the front) had to hire a local to help him take an alternate route to avoid the strikes. He was brilliant, really. The dirt roads seemed unpassable, as they are eroded by streams and irrigation, but he somehow managed it. We maneuvered around the roadblocks and made it back to La Paz by 9:00 PM.

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Photos

Salt Factory
I had always imagined something more elaborate...

Jump1
We almost had it; with 50 MPH winds, it was too cold to try over and over.

Hostel Room
Nearly everything -- the walls, the floors, the beds, the chairs, are made of salt.

The Group
This was along Lago Blanco.

Hot Springs
It´s well worth going in.

Lago Colorado
We visited several lakes along the way, including Lago Colorado as well as Lagos Blanca, Verde, and Rojo.

Viscacha
It looks like a rabbit but is actually a marsupial.

Fox
As nice as it was to get this photo, the guides don´t really know how to keep the area untouched and pristine, as they don´t keep to the same roads, feed the foxes and viscachas, and clap loudly to make the flamingos fly away.

Weird Plant
Apparently it only grows 2 cm a year.

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