"Salar de Uyuni", Salt Flat Tour, Tupiza, Bolivia
March 29-April 1, 2016
"Salar de Uyuni" is the world's largest salt flats sitting at an elevation of 3600 meters (12,000 feet) and spreading out 12,000 square km! 30,000 years ago, the "salar" was a huge prehistoric salt lake covering most of southern Bolivia which eventually evaporated leaving a high altitude desert ringed by volcanoes. It is uniformly flat and sparkling white all year round. Neil Armstrong saw it from space and thought it was a glacier. The salt flats is one of Bolivia's most awe inspiring destinations and a truly surreal experience!
Our Accommodations in Tupiza - La Torre Hotel
We chose to start our tour leaving from the small town of Tupiza and stayed at La Torre Hotel.
It was a nice option for a few nights stay.
Photo's of Tupiza
After leaving Argentina and crossing into Bolivia our first stop was the small dusty town of Tupiza. Surrounded by colorful mountains Tupiza is a laid back place used mostly by travelers to start their salt flat tours. Despite its more recent spike in tourism it still retains a traditional vibe with simple everyday life unfolding as you wonder the quiet streets.
We also opted for a tranquil 4 hour hike in the nearby mountains.
"Salar de Uyuni" Salt Flat Tour
The salt flats can be visited either from the town of Uyuni or the town of Tupiza doing a 3 or 4 day jeep tour through the high altitude desert and visiting the salt flats. We had read about multiple problems with the tours leaving from Uyuni including drunk driving and poor food. Instead, we opted to take our tour leaving from Tupiza which uses more upscale agencies with great reviews from travelers. The two most popular operators in Tupiza are Torre Tours and Tupiza Tours. Our tour was a 4 day/3 night adventure in a 4x4 land cruiser and included a driver (guide), a cook, all meals and accommodations.
Day 1
We load up our land cruiser jeep at 8:00am and meet the other couple we'll be sharing our time with. They happen to be a really nice Canadian couple who now live in Panama. After leaving Tupiza we climb quickly in elevation and within an hour we're in the high altitude desert with the Andes mountains in the background. We see lots of llama, vicuna (a type of wild llama) and ostrich birds called suri. We stop at a small village for lunch and then continue onto the ruins of a 300 year old pueblo which was established for mining in the area. We finally end our day in a pueblo where our hostel is located. Its basic shared room accommodations but its comfortable. We're already at 4,000 meters (13,000 feet) and will roughly stay at this altitude for most of our trip. Luckily we only experience some mild headaches and nothing more. We enjoy dinner and chatting with the group and then off to bed early.
Day 2
We wake at 7:00am for breakfast and its a chilly morning in the high desert! Today is a busy day with many stops. We start with a visit to a llama corral, a stop to see some geysers followed by a visit to several lakes including: a white lake (containing sodium bicarbonate), green lake (turned this color due to its toxic content of arsenic) and a red lake (due to a particular kind of algae). After hours of scenery overload we arrive at another pueblo where our hostel is located. Our accommodations tonight are several "motel like" units strung together where probably over 100 of us are staying. Basic but comfortable. We're literally in the middle of nowhere and the terrain feels like we're on another planet. We're at our highest elevation of approximately 5,000 meters (16,000 feet) and the evenings dip to about -6 this time of year. Thank goodness we have sleeping bags!
We wake at 7:00am for breakfast and its a chilly morning in the high desert! Today is a busy day with many stops. We start with a visit to a llama corral, a stop to see some geysers followed by a visit to several lakes including: a white lake (containing sodium bicarbonate), green lake (turned this color due to its toxic content of arsenic) and a red lake (due to a particular kind of algae). After hours of scenery overload we arrive at another pueblo where our hostel is located. Our accommodations tonight are several "motel like" units strung together where probably over 100 of us are staying. Basic but comfortable. We're literally in the middle of nowhere and the terrain feels like we're on another planet. We're at our highest elevation of approximately 5,000 meters (16,000 feet) and the evenings dip to about -6 this time of year. Thank goodness we have sleeping bags!
Day 3
We wake again at 7:00am for breakfast. Its another chilly morning. Today we descend a little in elevation and make our first stop to view a gathering of unique rock formations in the middle of the desert. Then we drive onward through miles of barren desert that seems to go on forever with the colorful mountains constantly in the foreground. Its dry, dusty and seems a bit bleak but beautiful in its own unique way. We eventually arrive at the edge of the Uyuni salt flats but can only see it off in the distance. We carry onto our final accommodations for the trip...A "salt hostel". Its the most unique place we've ever stayed with the walls, tables, chairs and floor made of salt. We enjoy our last dinner together of lasagna and wine and feel somewhat overloaded by all that we've seen. Its off to bed early since we wake at 5:00am for sunrise on the flats.
We wake again at 7:00am for breakfast. Its another chilly morning. Today we descend a little in elevation and make our first stop to view a gathering of unique rock formations in the middle of the desert. Then we drive onward through miles of barren desert that seems to go on forever with the colorful mountains constantly in the foreground. Its dry, dusty and seems a bit bleak but beautiful in its own unique way. We eventually arrive at the edge of the Uyuni salt flats but can only see it off in the distance. We carry onto our final accommodations for the trip...A "salt hostel". Its the most unique place we've ever stayed with the walls, tables, chairs and floor made of salt. We enjoy our last dinner together of lasagna and wine and feel somewhat overloaded by all that we've seen. Its off to bed early since we wake at 5:00am for sunrise on the flats.
Day 4
Its our final day. The one we've all be waiting for...to visit the world's largest salt flats! We wake at 5:00am and drive about an hour in the dark across the salt flats to an "island" called Incahuasi which is a small cactus filled hill in the middle of the flats. Here we climb to the top of the hill to watch the sunrise across the sparkling white salt flats. Its a magical moment. The sheer vastness of the salt flats can't be explained but its awe inspiring to look across and see miles of perfectly white salt spread out before us in all directions. After getting our fill of the landscape we head down the hill and have a breakfast picnic on the flats. We then drive further to a remote spot where we get creative and take some funky pictures! We stand in the middle of the "salar" in amazement of its size and the fact we are here as spectators...What a great end to a fabulous experience!
Its our final day. The one we've all be waiting for...to visit the world's largest salt flats! We wake at 5:00am and drive about an hour in the dark across the salt flats to an "island" called Incahuasi which is a small cactus filled hill in the middle of the flats. Here we climb to the top of the hill to watch the sunrise across the sparkling white salt flats. Its a magical moment. The sheer vastness of the salt flats can't be explained but its awe inspiring to look across and see miles of perfectly white salt spread out before us in all directions. After getting our fill of the landscape we head down the hill and have a breakfast picnic on the flats. We then drive further to a remote spot where we get creative and take some funky pictures! We stand in the middle of the "salar" in amazement of its size and the fact we are here as spectators...What a great end to a fabulous experience!