The Altiplano and Bolivian Salt Flats

---

From the day I left El Chalten back in March I'd been looking forward to the trip across the Altplano from San Pedro in Chile to Uyuni in Bolivia. I'd booked the trip before I left the UK because I'd heard that entering Argentina without proof of exit could present problems. Booking in advance had also helped to focus my planning by fixing some dates at around the halfway stage of my trip. The Altiplano would therefore be something of a watershed moment - not just in relation as to where it fits in to my itinerary but also in crossing this great natural barrier: I would be leaving behind the southern part of South America and moving on to a new country and culture.

It's possible to cover the 530 kilometres between San Pedro and Uyuni by bus in about 12 hours but that would be to entirely miss the point (and most of the Altiplano including the Salt Flats). Instead I would be making the journey over 3 days and 2 nights, travelling almost entirely off road in a 4 x 4, Toyota Landcruiser.

The journey began with a short minibus drive to the Bolivian border and then an hour-long climb up to 4,000 metres for the start of the Altiplano. The Altiplano is the Bolivian high plateau of The Andes. For the next three days we would be mostly at an altitude of 4,200, sometimes at a height approaching 5,000 metres and never less than 3,500 metres. The harshness of the environment means that aside for the hostels and salt hotels purpose built for this type of trip and some mining or salt farming there is very little evidence of human impact.

As we set off I had a number of preconceptions and expectations:

1. That the scenery would be spectacular;

The Altiplano has a reputation for some of the most beautiful scenery in the world: lakes stained different colours by minerals and unique indigenous algae, towering mountains, shaded by colourful mineral deposits; sandy desert interspersed by volcanic outcrops; and that's before you get to the 12,000 square kilometres of the perfectly flat, glistening white salt flat.

2. That it would be harsh and barren;

Beautiful yes, bounteous no. It's a harsh landscape and climate in which the density of the mineral deposits often approaches toxic levels - the luminous green of Laguna Verde reflects its high arsenic content. In such an environment surely there would not be much in the way of wildlife?

3. That it would be extremely cold

After its beauty the second thing everyone mentions about the Altiplano is the temperature, in particular how cold it gets at night. Ahead of my trip rumour put the maximum anticipated low at -40.

4. That the altitude would have a significant physical impact

We would climb very quickly out of San Pedro (2,400 metres) up to 4,200 metres. Whilst I'd walked at higher altitudes in Nepal without experiencing too much adverse effect that had been a much more gradual ascent and in line with best practice we had always descended to sleep. Who knew how the rapid ascent would affect us?

5. That accommodation, food etc would be "basic in the extreme"

When even the sales literature tries to manage your expectations by using phrases such as "basic in the extreme" part of you wonders exactly what you've let yourself in for.

And so we set off. We were a group of 6 plus our driver. This of course is the other unknown factor in a trip of this nature - how will you get on with your fellow travellers? Will the group dynamic be ok? Not only would we be spending most of our waking time together in the car we would also eat as a group and sleep together in a dorm. I had some reservations in the minibus on the way up - there were a couple of larger cliques that already seemed fully-formed either from booking in advance or staying in the same hostel. I needn't of worried these groups were allocated together and I was left with the wonderfully diverse leftovers, who turned out to be lovely people and who worked really well together as a group. The other 5 were:

Jo (Joanne) - from East Yorkshire. An English teacher who had been spent most of her career teaching abroad and travelling. A really nice, laidback lady, who was taking some time to travel South America before stating a teaching job in Kazakhstan.

Tan - a physics teacher from Singapore, who had taken a year off to travel. Something of Moss from the IT Crowd about Tan both physically and mentally. Really enthusiastic about everything.

Leonie - German teenager, spending a year volunteering in Buenos Aires. Fluent in English and Spanish. Managed to be precocious without being brattish. Earnest and gauche in the way only an intelligent teenager can be.

Chrystian - Colombian, living in Chile. Spoke good English.

Marie - Chrystian's girlfriend. Very sweet. Colombians have a reputation for being the friendliest people in South America. Having spent time with Chrystian and Marie I can see why.

Our driver's name was Andreas and in many ways he was the star of the show. Certainly he was the one without whom none of this would be possible. A very competent driver who when he wasn't giving us information about the sights liked nothing more than playing cheesy music and simultaneously indulging his twin passions of driving and dancing - "musica, musica... sing Tan, sing..." I was never entirely sure quite how comfortable Tan was riding shotgun.

Our first day took us out to a number of different lakes, each in a gorgeous setting, stained different colours by the minerals. The sky was a deep blue, and thanks to Andreas's expertise we soon seemed to have left most of the other 4 x 4 traffic behind and have the scenery to ourselves. This was just as well since the effort required if you wanted to wander off and find your own perspective was considerable. The colours of the mountains against the deep blue sky were incredible.

After visiting Lagunas Blanco (borax) and Verde (arsenic) we moved onto a thermal pool to soak off some of the dust. The setting was incredible, looking out across a broad valley, stained yellow, white and red by mineral deposits to distant mountains. I could have stayed soaking a lot longer but when we were joined by a party of German naturists I could only concur with the group decision that it was time to move on.

We climbed up into an evil smelling valley to admire some geysers. Whilst not on the same scale as El Tatio, these geysers made up for what they lacked in size by the diversity of their colours and the thick, viscous quality of the mud that bubbled away in their various pools. Again it was thing to see such sights as part of a carefully managed group tour, quite another to be given the run of the place. It was all impressively elemental, a glimpse into forces that are usually kept hidden.

From the geysers we headed off to our hostel - Hostel Huayallajara - for lunch and to choose our dorm. As predicted accommodation was basic, but not lacking in essentials. However, at 4,300 metres and without a sleeping bag one could not help but wonder whether the bedding was up to the task. This was not the only reason to wonder at the bedding - to much hilarity this would be the first and possibly only time that most of us would be sleeping under Disney Princess duvets.

After lunch and a brief siesta - at least the princesses had passed the comfort test - we headed off for Laguna Colorado. As Andreas was at pains to explain to us "Laguna Colorado no es muy Bonita. Es fuckin bootiful". A driver, a dancer and a poet. And of course he was quite right it was "fuckin bootiful". Partly it's to do with size - Laguna Colorado seemed bigger than other lakes, partly it was to do with the slightly later hour which meant we were seeing it in a slightly softer light, but mostly it was due to the deep red colour and sensational wildlife that it attracts. The red colour is the result of algae, which in turn is responsible for the thousands of flamingos who come to feed on the shrimp, who eat the algae. The more you look at flamingos the stranger they become; the pink colour, the rubber hose of a neck, the twig-like legs and over-sized beak combine to produce a creature that is part ugly, part beautiful. However, upstaging even the red lake and the flamingos, were a herd of llama, who had come to graze upon the shore-side moss. Almost all llama are domesticated, although often allowed to roam wild, so whilst they can be spooked given patience their attitude to people tends to be one of either curiosity or indifference. In this case they were happy to munch away and obligingly look up for the camera. Part camel, part deer, 100% wool - it was impossible not to fall under the spell of these bizarre creatures.

We all returned from Laguna Colorado buzzing from our llama encounter and after a decent enough supper (it seemed Andreas could add chef to his extensive resume) settled down with some apprehension to see what the night would bring. Whilst it was cold - when we retrieved bottles of water we had left in the car overnight they were frozen solid it was nowhere near -40. All in all the Princesses duvets, aided by thermal long-johns, jumpers, hats and scarves had stood up well to the task and it wasn't a bad night's sleep.

Day 2 had a similar itineraries to day 1, but a slightly different atmosphere. There were more lakes, flamingos, mountains and memorable scenery but after a day and night of aclimatisation without the headaches or lethargy of the first day. It also helped that we had now bonded as a group, so now we bounced along quite happily to the hits of the eighties or whatever musica Andreas's mood determined. My highlights were El Desierto Del Siloli and the viewpoint overlooking Volcan Ollague. The Desierto is a series of volcanic rocks surrounded by a sea of sand, carved into any number of strange and surreal shapes. The perspective this gives across the sand, against the backdrop of mountains and blue sky, combined with the opportunity to climb and hunt out new angles for photographs makes this perhaps the most spectacular playground in the world. The viewpoint overlooking the volcano somewhat more prosaicly just did exactly what it said on the tin - showed a monster of volcano, seen across a plain of its volcanic debris, with just the occasional puff of smoke to suggest the beast was merely sleeping.

At the end of the day we overnighted at a salt hotel. To be honest I'm still not sure what constitutes a salt hotel - whilst a number of its features were built from bricks of salt, and most of the walls were clad with salt bricks it was not exclusively made of salt and in fact represented a significant step up from the previous night's accommodation - still dorms, but en suite with hot water!

By now we were on the edge of the 12,000 squared kilometres of salt plains that makes up the Salar De Uyuni. These are the biggest salt flats in the world, roughly the size of Northern Ireland. We rose at 4.30 in order to make it out to the salt flats and Isla Incahausi in time for the sunrise. Incahausi is one of several "islands" that are the remnants of extinct volcanoes. Tens of thousands of years ago it would have either been submerged in a vast lake or literally been an island. Then something happened, probably tectonic movement, and the lake disappeared. Today Incahausi is a steep, craggy volcanic outcrop covered in a multitude of cactus.

After an hour-long race across the flats we just about made it in time for sunrise. Whilst the flats had been visible for some time it was fascinating to see the horizon resolve itself and get a real sense of their scale. For me though the real star of the morning was Incahausi, its cactus iand coral-like grottos are provide the perfect frame for the flats.

After breakfast we spent the morning doing what everyone does on the Salt Flats, practicing our trick photography. The unbroken, stark white landscape, robs the eye of a frame of reference, allowing you to create all sorts of tricks of perspective. I don't think we were particularly original but we had a lot of fun setting up shots of giant feet crushing cars, small people standing on hands, being drawn from hats, chased by dinosaurs or surfing on Coke bottles.

We were fast approaching the end of our tour. There was just time for a lunch stop at an artisan market - who could pass up an opportunity to buy another comedy hat? And then we were quite literally at the end of the line - El Cemeterio De Trenes - an elephants' graveyard for Bolivian steam locomotives. There are 20 - 30 engines that must have sat on the outskirts of Uyuni photogenically rusting for the last 50 plus years so that now they are too much the tourist attraction ever to move.

All in all it had been a fantastic three days spent in excellent company. My expectations had been exceeded and some of my preconceptions had been surprised. Accommodation had been basic but not uncomfortably so; it would be a poor trip to the Altiplano if you left with your principal memories being of the accommodation. It had been cold, but bearable. The altitude had caused breathlessness and headaches for most of us but Andreas's liberal distribution of coca leaves had dealt with these symptoms. Marie had been quite ill on the first morning but fortunately had adjusted thereafter. Above all it had been a more diverse and richer landscape than I had expected. The number of llama, flamingos, desert rabbits and vicuna had been in stark contrast to the environment's apparent barrenness and the landscape itself whilst always severe and impressive had varied constantly. As road trips go this had been one of the best. It would be a wrench to go back to travelling by bus.

---

Photos

Laguna Blanco
The milky white colour and haze in front of the mountain is borax

Laguna Verde (I think)
Finally a bird that´s stayed still long enough for me to photograph it.

Another Day Another Thermal Pool
Taking it easy after a hard morning´s sightseeing.

Lago Colorado
The red colour is caused by an algae, food for a shrimp, which in turn explains the presence and colour of the thousands of flamingos that'll live on the lake.

Day 2 - Desierto Del Siloli
Improbable shapes bordering on the surreal carved by wind and sand out of volcanic bedrock.

Day 2 - Mirador Del Volcan Ollague
One of half a dozen active volcanoes in this part of the world

Group photo on the way to the Salt Hotel
Andreas´s Gang. Reading back from me: Leonie, Marie, Tan, Jo, Chrystian.

Perspective Shots on the Salt Flats
The brief was to pretend we were surfing. It´s good to see at least one of us can take direction

Day 3 - El Cementerio de Trenes
Journey's end for us and the trains

Comments

[Chris]

Salt flats etc
Great post, had me laughing out loud; if only there was a shorter way of writing that...

[D MJ Binkley]

Thermal Pools
It is a tough life but by gosh someone has to do it and so it might as well be you! Great photo. Looks like you planned the perfect trip. We can't wait to see the salt flats and the flamingos.

[fromthebottomup]

Thanks for your kind words. I hope you are as lucky with the Altiplano and the Salt Flats as I was. It's a fantastic place - Laguna Colorado in particular.