The wonder of the Uyuni Salt Flats

With flights in South America being notoriously flaky, we were getting slightly nervous about our flight to Uyuni as we couldn’t check in online and had little (read ‘no’) luck contacting the airline. We decided to head to the airport early so we could work on a plan B if plan A wasn’t going ahead.

Check-in went smoothly, planes seem to be taking off every 15 minutes or so, so we started relaxing. However, a few minutes before boarding was supposed to commence, we were told that, due to the current weather conditions in Uyuni, our flight was approximately 700kg overweight. Initially they decided to randomly select 10 people and bump them off the flight. This caused a mini riot because everyone going to Uyuni had some sort of tour or trip booked for the following day. While we were (fortunately) not selected, there still no news on boarding and the plane was even further delayed. Through broken Spanish we finally found out the captain decided we are all leaving, but minus our luggage – this will be sent on the morning flight. While a slight inconvenience, both Adrie and I were just happy to get to Uyuni tonight. While we might miss our tour leaving at 10.30am, we can always try and arrange something else.

As it turned out, the flight was quite unremarkable with almost no turbulence and only a bumpy landing. Due to the extended delays, we only got to our hotel close to midnight and went straight to bed.

Salt Flat Tour – Day 1

Neither of us had a good night’s sleep. It was partly the heat (Bolivian hotels tend to have at least three blankets plus a duvet), but also partly the worry of whether we will get our luggage and make our trip. We just wanted to brush our teeth and take a shower.

The agency we booked our tour with came to the hotel every half an hour to check whether we can pay and commit to the tour. Obviously we could not leave without our bags, so we kept asking them to come back again in 30 minutes…

Finally, at 10am the airline dropped our bags off safely!! I dived for my toothbrush while Adrie quickly went to pay for our tour. We unpacked, showered and packed again in 30min and were all set!

Our next three days would be spent driving through the Bolivian Salt Flats and the national park and onto San Pedro de Atacama across the border in Chile. We met our guide, Jaime, and driver, Eddie, in his gold Toyota Landcruiser which was swiftly dubbed Goldilocks.

Joining us would be two others – American MBA student friends Geoff and Jessica. I was stoked – I was dreading this trip because I had read that there would normally be six to a car plus the driver and guide. There were only four of us! I had the whole rear section to myself to stretch my legs while the other three had lots of space on the back seat.

Our first stop was the train cemetery just outside Uyuni. The town used to be an important junction for trains heading to the sea from the mines in Potosi. However, since the war with Chile in the late 1800’s, Bolivia has been cut off from the sea, which resulted in the town’s decline. If it wasn’t for the salt flats on its doorstep, Uyuni probably wouldn’t be on the map anymore.

All the trains look quite gloomy – rusting hulks almost eaten up by the desert. I was surprised just by how many people (tourists) there were though. Tours from Uyuni, both multiday like ours or just single day trips, are very popular. I wasn’t expecting to be alone but the sheer number of 4×4’s was a bit disconcerting. The last thing I wanted was clicking cameras all day.

As we drove onto the salt flats, thankfully the crowds diminished as everyone went in their own direction. The salt flats cover almost 12,000 square kilometres so I guess there is more than enough room for everyone. Interestingly, the salt flats are also so flat that Nasa uses its surface to calibrate satellite orbits. A true geological wonder.

It was absolutely stunning. It is really hard to describe the strangeness of the place; there are so few places in the world that are this unique. It is often made even stranger by the odd cairn of stones or a cross buried in the salt – the site of an all-too-many car crash on the flats caused by inattentive drivers.

We had several stops on the salt flats, each more fascinating than the last. Obviously we spent a lot of time taking the obligatory cheesy photos so recognisable of this part of the world, where you use props to play with the perspective.

Later in the day when there was a blanket of water over the surface, it created a perfect mirror image and one struggled to tell where salt flat stopped and sky began as the horizon seemed to disappear.

We had a few beers tonight with our new friends and travel companions. Geoff is very funny and his excitement today was infectious. Jessica is a bit more serious but made us laugh with her stories about hiking the Appalachian Trail and lightweight backpacking. However, the funniest moment of the night came from our guide offering to spice up our dinner with some local chillies. Geoff was the first to try and it blew his socks off it was so hot. Not to be deterred, Adrie gave it a go and didn’t find the chili as hot, so she took a bigger bite… The look in her eyes when her face immediately turned red and tears started streaming uncontrollably down her face was a sight to behold! We had some interesting chats around the dinner table, complete with an explanation from Jaime on how to make cocaine from coca leaves and the time he had to eat soup made from llama penis.

As we went to sleep the heavens opened. Storms have been threatening on the horizon all day but now it was coming down with might. We were sleeping in a salt hotel where everything from the tables, chairs and walls are made of salt. Hopefully it would withstand the storm, but we had such a good day nothing could dampen our spirits tonight.

Day 2  

We had to leave by 8am as we had a lot of driving ahead of us today. Leaving the salt flats behind, we headed south into the desert and the mountains. The landscape was simply breathtaking; every time we thought it couldn’t get any better we turned a corner and were treated to another masterpiece from Mother Nature.

Our first stop was a place called the Valley of Mars. It was a series of strange rock formations left by eroded ancient lava flows. Jamie also pointed out that we were surrounded by dormant volcanoes, which we didn’t notice through the low-hanging clouds. As the clouds parted, we saw the most remarkable snow-capped volcano cones.

Next stop was Laguna Canapa and Laguna Honda. Both were full of pink flamingos feeding in the alkaline waters. We journeyed over the most remarkable landscapes of desert, volcanoes, lakes, more desert and into canyons.

One of the strangest sights was the Stone Tree – a rock formation that over the centuries had been eroded by water and wind into weird shapes.

We finally entered the Eduard Avaroa National Park and stopped at Lake Colorada – so named because of the red colour of the waters. We got up close with some feeding llama and more flamingos than you could count.

Our hotel on the edge of the lake was probably the worst one we have stayed in since we left, but what can you expect in the middle of the desert. Tomorrow we have a 4.30am start to see the sunrise and head south into Chile so everyone (apart from me) went to bed before 9pm.

Day 3

Waking up at 4.30am meant it was a little chilly, so we kept our beanies and gloves handy. I have always wondered how accidents can happen on the salt flats or in the desert, especially when it is two cars colliding. I mean, there is so much space, how can you not see each other?

However, driving in the dark this morning I can completely understand how accidents happen. There are no actual roads to drive on, just a series of tracks left by the cars that went before you. Drivers can take any path they want, or create a new one. Sometimes the driver had to swerve quite hard to avoid a big stone, which can be a bit tricky in the dark. Also, not all the cars had proper head or tail lights so it was quite difficult to see other cars. While we were never in danger thanks to our fantastic driver Eddie, I could easily imagine crossing paths with another speeding vehicle.

Anyway, as we crested the ridge at over 5000m above sea level, we suddenly saw giant clouds spewing from the earth. The crater looked like a cloud factory. We had reached the inside of a volcano.

Jamie indicated we were going on a walking tour and we all followed. This was the advantage of having a local guide. Many groups decide to forego the guide and just have a driver for a slightly cheaper rate. But a guide tends to take you into strange (and often very cool!) places that others don’t go to. Plus, he was always handy to take pictures.

Obviously the stench of sulphur filled the air but we got a good close up view of the workings of the bowels of the earth. The ground was spewing up mud water and holes acted as exhaust vents for the heat under the surface. In the early morning sunlight this place was just amazing.

We pushed on to the geothermal hot springs – sadly nothing more than a small swimming pool on the edge of a lake with a change room next door. The pool was fed by clear geothermally heated water (this time thankfully without the lovely added sulphur smells). Adrie decided to take a dip but I hadn’t quite woken up yet…

Our last stop before the border with Chile was Laguna Verde – a green lagoon at the base of the almost perfectly coned volcano, Licancabur. The green colour is normally only prominent when the wind mixes the chemicals in the water and today wasn’t windy! But we were in luck. As we turned the corner, we saw this magnificent green cloudy lake beneath us. It was the perfect end to an incredible trip through Bolivia.

Bolivia has surprised us at almost every turn. The unparalleled beauty of the desert, the bizarreness of the salt flats, the craziness of La Paz – we loved this country!

It has so much to offer and somehow always plays second fiddle to its better marketed neighbours like Peru or Chile or bigger ones like Argentina and Brazil. After a bit of a queue at the border post we left Bolivia with very happy memories.