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Published: September 28th 2010
We got a night bus from La Paz to Uyuni which took around 12 hours and wouldn’t have been so bad if the last 3 hours of the journey hadn’t been on unpaved road! It was ridiculously bumpy considering this bus does this journey for tourists daily and there was no chance of any sleep on that part of ‘road’ - It was literally like sitting on a power plate with the setting to max!
Anyway we arrived in Uyuni early in the morning ready to start our 3 day trip of Salar de Uyuni. Salar de Uyuni is located in the Southwest region of Bolivia near the Andes and Chile, and is the world’s largest salt flat at 4,086 sq miles. The Salar was formed as a result of transformations between several prehistoric lakes. It is covered by a few meters of salt crust, which has an extraordinary flatness with the average altitude variations within one meter over the entire area of the Salar, and the crust serves as a source of salt.
We were to be driven in a huge jeep for the 3 days in a group of six people- Us, an Australian couple, a woman from London
and a woman from LA- luckily the American woman spoke fluent Spanish as the driver who doubled as the guide didn’t speak any English. So we set off on day 1 and our first stop was an old train cemetery, which used to run to Chile, and although you can get the train to Chile from Uyuni, the part we visited is closed now and houses old trains. We then carried on in the jeep to a small local village where they made all their small items to sell from salt- jewellery boxes, ashtrays, mini statues etc. Then we drove for a couple of hours to the Pescado Isla- Fish Island- where there are no fish but hundreds of Cacti and it felt like the desert- the land here is so dry we didn’t think anything could survive but we saw a huge rabbit hiding on a rock! We then had lunch of Alpaca steak (another favourite meat similar to Lllama- Vic didn’t have this), rice and salad before starting the part of the tour we had been most looking forward to- photos on the salt flats! The scenery here is just pure blinding white salt for miles so you
can get some great perspective photos, which we spent ages and had fun trying to master, before finally getting the hang of it before we had to move on. Next stop was to be where we would be spending the night- a small town called San Juan in a house/hostel made entirely out of salt! The bricks were salt, the floor was gritty salt, the tables and chairs had been carved from salt, even the bases of the beds were made from salt! Although it was basic it was pretty cool and our group spent the evening playing cards, drinking some great, cheap Chilean wine and having a dinner of bbq chicken and chips, yummy! The sunset here was awesome too and although it was cold outside we were cosy in our sleeping bags in our little salt room.
We were woken up at 7am for breakfast to start day 2 with a trip to Pasa de Leon which has many mountains and amazing views - It was also the place where we visited the still active 'Volacano Ollagua' and the 'rock tree', a formation of rocks which are shaped like a big tree. Day 2 was much colder
than day 1 but the sun was so bright it looked really warm which made the scenery even more spectacular. After a few photos we carried on to see various lagoons which all housed hundreds of pink flamingos, who feed off the rich minerals in the lagoons, and stopped for lunch where we had chicken, pasta, potatoes and coca cola- loving this food! We then moved on to the red coloured lagoon, ‘Laguna Colorada’ which was surreal as it was bright red. This is also where we were spending the 2nd night so we decided to go for a hike round the red lagoon- it was huge and so cold we didn’t stay outside for too long! We got back to the house where we would be staying to find that our whole group of 6 would be sharing one room for the night- like boarding school! And it was so cold, minus 15 outside and not much warmer inside, we all slept in our clothes plus sleeping bags plus blankets! It was fun though and after dinner of spaghetti and a few games of cards we all went to bed early as the next morning was to be a
really early start.
Day 3 was an early start, up at 4.30 to see the sunrise, which again was amazing, and make our way to the geysers. Geysers are natural spring like holes in the ground which shoot out steam and smell like eggs due to all the sulphur! So we very quickly took some pics there, it was like being on another planet, we had never seen landscape like this and both the sun and moon were up at the same time(as we couldn’t stand the smell and it was freezing) before moving on to the hot springs. The hot springs were natural pools of boiling water and Scott was straight in them! Vic wanted to go in them but couldn’t face undressing in the cold so just took the pictures. Then we drove for a couple of hours until we came to the Luguna Verde- the green lagoon- which again was impressive and looked more like a beach as the salt surrounding it was so white and the water in the lagoon so blue! The scenery on this tour has been incredible, like nothing either of us had ever dreamed of seeing, and at times it didn’t
feel like we were even on Earth but another planet - This has been the most amazing trip, and I am sure the pics do not quite capture the true magic of this remote place in Bolivia!
After a quick stop for lunch we headed back to Uyuni where the tour ended, we had time for some quick pizza for dinner before jumping on the night bus back to La Paz.
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rosana hassan
non-member comment
jump!
HOW did you guys jump so high?!!!!!! I am sooo envious. The pics just keep getting better... Loving it. Somewhere I'd definitely like to visit, although the temperature leaves a lot to be desired... especially as I seem to be the coldest person on the planet (all the time). Absolutely loving the pics and updates. Makes me miss you loads xxxx