Salar de Uyuni

Here we go. This is one of the reasons I’ve been wanting to travel to South America to begin with.
We’ve all heard stories, we’ve all seen pictures and since the first time of hearing and seeing those, this place has ranked very high on my list of global must-sees.

In short:
This is one of the most breathtaking areas I’ve ever seen in my life!

From San Pedro de Atacama you can take a 3-day 4×4 trip across the border to Bolivia, ultimately landing you at the salt flats and the town of Uyuni.
Every day of the trip offers new environments and experiences, making the reality of sitting in the jeep for about 8 hours a day an absolute nonissue.

The first day you depart at 06:00 AM and make your way to the Chile-Bolivia border crossing in a van and switch to jeeps after entering Bolivia. This is when the real fun begins.

Side note: The majority of this trip takes you through areas at an altitude of 4.200m and more – The highest elevation being 4.950m on the first day.

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Day one

The first stop after the border is “Laguna Blanca” and “Laguna Verde” – two lagoons next to each other and only seperated by a strip of land, followed by “Desierto Dalí” – a picturesque desert area, named after the famous painter. Two vastly areas that couldn’t be more different, giving you a little glimpse of how much variation this trip has to offer. After the desert it’s time for “Geiser Sol de Mañana”, an area riddled with geysers that are nothing like the ones I saw in Chile, many of them looking almost like mercury bubbling all day long.

The most amazing area the first day has to offer, though, is saved for last: Laguna Colorada.
As the name suggests, it is a colourful lagoon sitting in the middle of a desert, surrounded by mountains. A huge flamboyance of flamingos (yes, “flamboyance” is the collective noun for flamingos 😀 ) uses the lagoon as feeding grounds and offers nice photo opportunities to the interested traveler.

And remember: all of this is located at ~4.300m above sea level.

After the lagoon we went on our way to Villa Mar, a remote little town and also the location of our accomodation for the first night.

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Day two

After an 8AM departure, the second day was very much dedicated to visiting different rock formations, canyons and another lagoon. It was also the day of the longest car rides. Most of the day was spent in the car going from one destination to the next with short breaks for walks through aforementioned rock valleys and canyons.

As so often with these trips, a lot of your enjoyment depends on the luck of the draw – ie. the companions you share the car with, your driver, the weather, etc..
As so often with these trips, I got really lucky. Our driver, Johnny, proved to be exceptionally dedicated, telling us a lot about the environment and often spontaneusly wandering off to pick some hidden fruits from the ground or harvest it from cacti.

Our last stop of the day turned out to be a surprise stop that wasn’t officially on the itinerary (or at least not for us to see).
Timed perfectly, we got to see the sunset above Salar de Uyuni. My first contact with the salt flats and a very welcome surprise.

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Day 3

The day of all days.
An early rise (4AM) to catch the sunrise above Salar de Uyuni.
After the sunset the previous day, I thought I was prepared for the sights awaiting me. Oh boy, how wrong I was.

During all my travels up until this point, I remembered three distinct situations and places that brought (and still bring) tears to my eyes.

Make way for a fourth one.

Very much worth the early wake, the first half of the day was spent walking and driving through the wet salt flats.
I don’t really know how to put the experience in words, so I’ll just drop some pictures instead.

In the afternoon we reached the dry areas of the salt flats with some monuments and museums.

Right around lunch time the tour reached its final destination – Uyuni.
We shared one last lunch together and after that Johnny dropped us off in the town’s center, where we hung around until 10PM to catch the night bus to the …

Next stop:
Sucre
– one of Bolivia’s two capitals (The constitutional capital of Bolivia is Sucre, while La Paz serves as the administrative capital and the seat of government.)