Salar de Uyuni

After Marie left us to travel home to Australia (via Santa Cruz where 4 terrorists were caught at the airport the day she passed through), we caught yet another, bumpy, overnight bus through the desert from La Paz to Uyuni. Upon arrival in Uyuni we were mobbed by tourist agents trying to sell us tours to the ¨Salar¨. Uyuni´s major attractions are the incredible salt flats which are the largest in the world and although incredibly beautiful, climactically challenging!!

Somehow, within a dazed, sleep deprived, half hour we were booked onto a three day tour in a jeep with four other travellers. Five of the six of us were again Aussies!! It seems impossible to go anywhere in the world without encountering others from the land down under! However, despite the lack of cultural diversity, we were fortunate to have an absolutely fantastic group with which to explore the wonders of the salt flats! We even stuck together for several days after the tour finished.

Tim doing what he spends most of his time doing whilst travelling


The crystalised salt flats

We piled into our jeep with our lovely husband and wife (driver & cook) and set off on our next adventure. We were all pleased to have a driver that was not only friendly (although spoke no English), but drove safely and without alcohol unlike many of the other drivers in the convoy of jeeps that travelled the same route together. In fact, our driver managed to get us to most of the destinations before most of the other vehicles giving us a much better experience than we would have otherwise had. Our first stop was the ¨Train Cemetery¨ where there are many ruins from all of the old rainways used to transport Silver from inland to the coast. Next it was a very basic salt processing plant. We were relieved to hear that the salt from Bolivia was only sold domestically after we saw part of the processing involving workers standing in the salt with filthy feet.

Cemetario de los trenes


Cacti on an ¨island¨in the salt lakes

Next was what we all had come to see. The salt flats were around 12,000 sq km of pure white, at an elevation of 3650m and surrounded by mountains. During the wet seasons, the mountains cast brilliant reflections upon the lakes. Our accommodation that night was in the ¨Salt Hotel¨ in which almost everything is constructed entirely from salt including the beds, tables, pillars etc. Unfortunately, even the food seemed to consist largely of salt... which is almost to be expected! Outside the temperatures dropped to -16 degrees but we were kept nice and cosy in the salt hotel.

We had a ball taking fun photos on the salt flats

Pillars of salt inside the ¨Salt Hotel¨

The next day we reluctantly woke up at 5am (which was actually a sleep in compared to the following morning!) to see the sunrise over the salt lakes. The days activities revolved around visiting various volcanoes and lakes, all of which were stunningly beautiful.

Tim at the ¨Red Lagoon¨

The final morning was a chilly 4.00 am start. Although we grumbled at the time, we were glad to again be the first ones to arrive at sunset to the geisers and later to be the first to the thermal springs where we were brave enough to stip down and have a bath (although the air temperature was still well below zero).

Renee freezing at 5am by the geisers

...Followed by our first wash in days at 6am in the thermal springs




Laguna Colorado


Arbol de piedra

We were then taken to the ¨border¨of Bolivia and Chile. It was really just a shack in the middle of the desert where an official stamped your passport. From this remote site, the official entry into Chile was more than 50 minutes drive away. Here we entered the town of San Pedro de Atacama which is an oasis in the Atacama desert. The price of everything about tripled as soon as we entered the town, which made us immediately investigate bus options to exit the town. Unfortunately, there was no bus for the next four days (making the town a literal ¨tourist trap¨). As a result, we ended up getting a private car with some of our new Aussie friends and crossing the border into Argentina the next morning.