Salar de Uyuni and much more!

Our three days trip to the Salar the Uyuni started with much confusion if we were in the group with an english speaking guide or with a spanish speaking guide, and about the time we would leave, as the scheduled time was long past. In the last moments we got to know that we will be part of the spanish guided tour, which with our limited spanish abilities was a challenge.

Working on sunset pictures in the Salar de Uyuni

All in all our group consisted of the driver, who was also the cook and the guide (he was not very knowledgable in either of these professions), and 6 gringos (2 from Israel, 2 from France and the two of us). The car was a Toyota Landcruiser wich was at least 15 years old, but did the job. At least I was comfortable sitting in the front seat, which was important as we spent a lot of time in the car.

After two redundant stops we drove into the Salar the Uyuni, which is the largest salt flat (12106 sq km) in the world. It is an out of this world place, just flat white ground, blue sky and hardly nothing else. It seems to stretch into infinty and distances do not seem to exist. Streets do also not exist, but travel roads, on which we speeded along. This holded true for the whole journey, and we were very happy that we had the 4×4 jeep, which was able to go through even the wildest countryside.

Our not-so-new Toyota Landcruiser

We stopped for lunch in an hotel made out of salt and afterwards had the opportunity to take some of the famous and funny pictures with special effects, which was a lot of fun. One of the main attractions was the Isla Incawasi, which is a small island in the middle of the salt flat. It has a unique and isolated ecosystem with cacti up to 10 meters high. After watching the sunset in the salt desert we headed to our hotel which was also entirely made out of salt. First I was very exited to spend the night there, but afterwards I realised, that salt can be as annoying as sand. We had it everywhere and our bags were full of salt.

The Isla Incawasi in the middle of the Salar de Uyuni

Us taking some typical Uyuni pictures

The second day was by far the most beautiful day of the trip. First we had the opportunity to visit an ancient city, where the pre-inca inhabitants builded their houses into fossilized corals. For some reason they were all dead (some believe it was an volcanic outbreak) and mumified due to the dry conditions, so you could see the mummies sitting in their homes. Another explanation was that this was a graveyard. Afterwards we headed trough another salt desert (by far not as big as the Salar the Uyuni) and had the chance to see an active volcano from some distance. The landcape changed all the time, and we saw mountains that displayed an unbelievable variety of colours, rocks that were shaped by wind and sand into surreal formations as well as green and yellow plains inhabited by Vicunias, Nandus, and Vizcachas. The absolute highlight were the lagoons. We saw four of them, one more beautiful than the other. Laguna Colorade was the largest, most colourful and most beautiful. It is inhabited by three different types of flamingos, which were feeding in groups of thousands in the lagoon.

One of the lagoons with many flamingos

To see the geysers „Sol the manana“ we had to depart at 5 am on the next morning. We drove for nearly two hours and arrived shortly after sunrise. At 4850 meters above see level, it was freezing cold. It was the first time for Yves and me to see geysers and we were very impressed by the spectacle of nature. Pools of bubbeling mud were gurgeling and wholes spitting and hissing meters of steam. The following stop at the hot springs was a disaster, as so many people were there already, that our entire group decided, it would be no fun to spend the money and go into this tiny pool full with people. Instead we went directly into the direction of the Chilenian border. On our way we crossed other lagoons and arrived at the border at around 8.30 am. There we had to pay our tax for leaving the country😒 and changed onto a bus heading for San Pedro the Atacama in Chile. I have to say, Yves and I were happy the leave Bolivia, but the three days trip was very impressive and beautiful.