Touring The Worlds Biggest Salt Flats

We began our adventure to the Salar De Uyuni, Bolivia’s huge salt flat desert in a quaint little town called Tupiza just an hour north of the countries border with Argentina. Walking the streets of Tupiza we felt like we’d been transported back in time to another era, almost all the women were wearing traditional Bolivian dress and they looked fantastic. From head to toe they each wore a small black bowler hat, their long hair braided in two pigtails, a knitted cardigan over a waist length lace blouse, a huge calf length A-line skirt with hoops for essential hip enhancement (to impress the men!), woolly orange tights and open toe sandals. This is the Aymara women’s signature style and they never stray from it.

Photo Credit: Luchalibrabol.com

Tupiza sits at an elevation of 2,990m ASL so we stayed a couple of days ahead of our tour departure to climatise to the altitude. During our tour of the salt flats we’d reach 5,000m ASL so it was sensible to take our time and not risk the dreaded altitude sickness. We stayed at La Torre Hostel which was lovely especially as they had a Mini Schnauzer, it was also home to the La Torre Tours office. We booked a 4 Day/3 Night tour that enabled us to see plenty of sights and wildlife along the way before arriving on our final day in the Salar De Uyuni.

Day One

"Llama cactus."

We were a little apprehensive about our tour as it involved between six and twelve hours a day in jeep with two to three other passengers we'd never met. Our agent matched us perfectly with Simon and Miranda also from London, around 30 and a GSOH. We met at our jeep at 8am where we were also introduced to our driver Jose and our cook Hilda (aka our Bolivian Mum for the week), everybody seemed very pleasant so excitedly we set off on our four day adventure hoping for the best!

Our first stop was to admire a view across a beautiful rocky canyon like landscape similar to the Quebrada De Las Conchas near Cafayate and then a couple of hours later we were allowed to wander freely in a field of Llamas. Brilliant!  We were very intrigued by their bright earrings and necklaces so were thrilled when Jose told us they wear them for their birthday aka The Llama festival. 

We stopped for lunch in a tiny village in our convoy of six jeeps, Hilda and her fellow cooks were very prepared and after our first of many 'banos naturales’ lunch was served indoors. It was a better than expected tasty first meal of rice, salad and a lentil stew. All good so far!

The afternoon was mostly driving and we were surprised to reach another viewing point overlooking a lake at a height of 4,855m ASL, the highest we’d ever been on land before. 

Unfortunately our jeep was having little tyre trouble and we were concerned to see Jose in his overalls laid underneath the car with the other drivers crowded around. It was a very blustery spot to be stranded in and we were all a little tense as one by one others jeeps stopped for photos and left without us - Jose was still under the car. 

Eventually we were on the move just an hour or so behind our convoy by the time we arrived at our accommodation. We had been warned numerous times by the agency that the accommodation would be very basic so we had very low expectations. They really talked the place down though as our shared room was fine with giant single beds overloaded with cosy blankets. It was five star in comparison to the mountain lodges we'd used whilst trekking in Nepal.

"Ready to roll?"

Next on our daily itinerary was afternoon/evening tea and biscuits. Each jeep group were given their own table of treats which caused a lot of playful banter over biscuits. With the jeep tours you pay more depending on how many people you share with, we were in a group of four but in our convoy there were also a couple of groups of five. It made us laugh that we drank and ate from china cups and plates whilst they were all given plastic. We also had cream filled biscuits and they just got plain. Maybe on a private tour for two you get a red velvet rope and slippers?

"Hot coca tea to help with the altitude."

Our evening meal was a real treat: beef steaks with delicious gravy and mashed potato - yum. Hilda was earning herself some serious brownie points! Jose ate with us too so we were able to quiz him via Simon (our nominated translator) about lots of stuff including the fascinating Llama birthday. We really wished we hadn’t though as the festival requires each farmer to sacrifice one llama to Pacha-mama so that next year they’ll raise lots of healthy llamas. Not really the kind of birthday celebrations we were thinking of.

"Llama crossing."

We were tucked up in our Pyjamas, fleece lined sleeping bags and multiple blankets by about 10pm exhausted from all the delirious giggling we’d been doing due to the altitude, we were still at 4,400m ASL. It was a cold night but thanks to the layers none of us noticed however, warm blooded Steve got so hot he just slept in his pants under one blanket!

Day Two

There was only one opportunity to shower during our tour and we’d have to wait until day three for that so it was a Glastonbury style wet wipe shower for us all before breakfast. Being British we were very pleased to be able to enjoy a decent cuppa before the days activities. We were back in the jeep by 7.30am and stopped fairly quickly to admire some llamas wearing their finest earrings. They really are curious looking animals.

We drove through quite a few villages of varying sizes from 150 to 400 people and learned about their main types of farming usually llamas or quinoa. Each pueblo was very remote and just a small cluster of grey stone houses where the bus to Tupiza would pass through once a week so locals could fetch or trade supplies at the market. All the women wore the traditional dress that we’d first seen in Tupiza, even as they herded the llamas in their borderless fields, we struggled to fathom how far these shepherdesses walked in a single day as we always saw them miles from any village.

"Bird watching."

Mid-morning we arrived at a beautiful laguna where some flamingoes were enjoying brunch, very exciting! They were quite far from the shore but it was a fascinating first glimpse at these unique looking birds. We didn’t stop for long though and Jose promised us we’d see hundreds over the next three days.

Next up we were in for a real treat - an outdoor thermal bath with 30ºC waters at 4,550m ASL. We were all eager for a dip and a bit of a bath given that we hadn’t showered for a while! 

"Do not disturb."

There were only a couple of other tourists in the pool with us so it was really relaxing and the view was incredible. After 25 minutes we didn’t really want to get out but Jose was ushering us on again, apparently we had a very busy day ahead and we couldn’t lounge in the ‘spa’ all day. 

As promised we were taken to another laguna with a few more flamingos to ogle. Brilliant! After our quick flamingo fix we drove to one of the most stunning places we have ever seen in our lives, the Laguna Verde. 

When we arrived only 20% of this lake was bright turquoise but within 20 minutes the wind had blown or the sun changed (science happened) and the entire lake turned bright turquoise a section at a time as if somebody was peeling a layer off the top of it. The mountains in the background just added to the beauty of the setting. The best bit was that Hilda had cooked up another tasty lunch and we ate on the rocks overlooking this beautiful but deadly lake. Its full of arsenic so even though it looks inviting you definitely don’t want to swim in it.

Also at this setting Vicky experienced a natural face peel - the bright sunshine, strong winds and dry air were super harsh on exposed skin. Take Vicky’s advice and remember your sunscreen, her skin was red, rough and dry in loads of patches for about a week afterwards. Lets not forget those chapped lips. Attractive!

"Muy linda!!"

A couple of hours later and we found ourselves hopping out of the jeep into a very unique landscape, a bunch of geysers were literally gushing plumes of eggy smelling steam above the ground. It was really interesting to cautiously peek down into the holes and see the bubbling mud, it wasn’t the most beautiful of sights so we didn’t hang around long and we still had more driving ahead of us.

Our final sightseeing spot was another beautiful lake, Laguna Colarado - this lake was red with huge white salt patches and full of flamingos! 

"Laguna Colarado."

We spent ages photographing the flamingoes as we were able to get quite close and they really didn’t seem to mind our presence, the algae here was far too tasty to care about us pesky humans. 

We walked around part of the edge of the lake stalking flamingoes as we went. 

Little did we know we were being stalked too, a huge llama was following us and when we turned to look at him he stopped, when we looked away he walked closer to us. Eek! 

"Stealth llama!"

Also, ahead of us was another llama laid right across our path. It was quite intimidating, especially for Ryan and Vicky who were wearing red and we weren’t sure if like bulls, the colour red made llamas mad. After a short game of ‘what time is it Mr llama?’ the five of us lost our nerve, giggled and ran away!

Llama drama survived we clambered up the rocky slope to our awaiting jeep and embarked on a very short drive across the almost desert like landscape to that evenings lodgings. This tiny village was probably the most remote place we’d ever stayed and as soon as the sun went down the temperature dropped below zero.

"Thou shall not pass!"

Again we couldn’t shower so we layered up, drank loads of tea and played cards whilst Hilda prepared us another feast. Let’s just say that for the two vegetarians in our our group dinner was interesting, Steve and Vicky had the popular South American dish of Lomo Saltado which is chopped meat and sausage with french fries and gravy. Instead of the meat portion poor Miranda and Simon got bananas, not plantain - banana! 

By 7.30pm most of the other tourists had retired to their rooms but as a competitive quintet (we’d gained another group member in the evenings in our Canadian friend Ryan) we stayed up a couple of hours before cold and tiredness took effect. The accommodation was very similar to the previous evening except colder and Steve once again slept in just his pants but on top of the covers. How does this man not feel the cold?!

Day Three

We were one of the last tour groups to leave on the third day and Jose took us to Laguna Colorado again to see the flamingos again, we were in awe of how many there were and clicked away happily. 

It was a fantastic start to the day for us!

Most of the morning was spent in our jeep as we crossed through a road that the locals had dugout to be their trading route with Chile. Along this route we met a cracker loving Chinchilla who was very cute. 

Hilda fed him crackers for our amusement before we continued on, a couple of hours in and the landscape change to an open plain with no huge rocks insight. The girls desperately needed the loo but there was nowhere a lady could go. 

Another two hours later and we arrived at a glassy perfectly still laguna which mirrored the reflection of its surrounding mountains perfectly. Plus, there were a few discreetly placed bushes to act as ‘banos naturales’. 

"Still waters."

We also visited a couple more lagunas that morning and they each held their own charm, one had flamingos right around the edge of it although the hotel also there made us a little dubious as to why the flamingos were so close to us. 

Next we made our way towards the only semi-active aka still smoking volcano in the Andes. We admired it from distance in a quirky rocky landscape whilst we enjoyed our lunch.

Jose was keen to get a move on so we obediently hopped in the jeep for the final leg of that days journey. Our destination was the Salt Hotel where a hot shower awaited us and we couldn’t wait. On the way we drove over the single railway track that links Bolivia to Chile, the tracks were perfectly straight and disappeared into the horizon in both directions. It was quite surreal and great for photo opportunities. 

When we arrived there were only three girls in the queue for the only shower so we’d timed things pretty well and the four of us sat patiently awaiting our turn on the wooden bench outside. The shower was worth the wait as three days without hot shower was tough going. 

We were much closer to civilisation now and this village had quite a few hotels in it plus there were more tourists here than in our initial convoy. The hotel was cool, all of its bricks were made of salt and it was really warm inside. It even had bar so as we weren’t suffering too much with the altitude we decided red wine and beers were called for. We settled at our window table for more cards, Simon and Miranda increased the stakes by offering up their prized Toblerone! 

As it was our final night everyone was in high spirits and we even got given another bottle of wine to enjoy with dinner - bonus! Jose and Hilda joined us for a small glass which was really nice and we were told about the plan for our final day at the Salar de Uyuni. An early start of 5.30am awaited us and Ryan was going to join us our jeep to join in our 'loco photos'. 

Day Four

By 6.15am we were doing star jumps as the sun rose over the Salar De Uyuni, it was great fun and we were all surprised by our own energy. It was Jose’s idea and he happily laid on the ground taking our photo. 

We were in such a unique setting, all around us was white salt and it took us a while to comprehend that it wasn’t snow and we weren’t cold. The salt rocks were really chunks and the flats were covered with hexagonal formations which gave them a jigsaw like appearance. 

Photoshoot number one complete we drove across the flats to the quirky cactus island which was great fun, as the name suggests its a random island in the middle of the salt flats covered in cactus. 

We really enjoyed our pre-breakfast amble around the island as it held fantastic views to help us understand the scale of the salt flats. 

For breakfast Hilda had baked us a cake and it was delicious, each group’s cook had made a cake but some were more elaborate than others. To our delight Hilda had gone to town with a jam and cream filling with a dusting of coconut shavings for us. It's not everyday you get to have cake for your brekkie!

"A sneek peek behind the scenes!"

After breakfast we headed to our own little (big) section of the salt flats for our final photoshoot. Again Jose volunteered as photographer which was a relief as none of us had a clue how to manage the whole perspective thing, we also had difficulty focusing a couple of our cameras and suffered some battery issues.

"A little blurry but you get idea!"

We took a few props along with us which admittedly were mostly food items. Jose was an absolute pro and had many creative ideas of his own. Our shoot took a couple of hours as we were having loads of fun!

"#Classic"

There were also a few big holes in the salt flats, somebody in our group wasn’t looking where he was going and stepped in one with his right foot and had to go shoeless for a while. Can you guess who it was?

"What happened to your shoe Steve?"

Of course it was Steve! Hilda was crying laughter at him and even found it more amusing than Vicky.

"Square salt!"

Satisfied we had some decent shots we were back in the jeep for the final leg of our tour, slightly bemused that we’d actually survived four days in the middle of nowhere and really enjoyed it. The tour was a fantastic experience, everyday was different and we were extremely lucky to have a fun group to travel with. 

"Adios Amigos!"

Hilda prepared us our final lunch in Uyuni which as usual was lovely and then we said our goodbyes as we headed our separate ways. We planned to spend a night in Uyuni in a private room with hot showers which was a really good decision, Uyuni is not as bad of a town as people make out and we felt refreshed the next morning ready for our bus journey to Bolivia’s old capital, Sucre.

There are a few ways to tour the salt flats and its even possible to do it it one day from Uyuni. It's possible that soon there will be many hotels here increasing visitor numbers and changing the experience, we saw one luxury place under construction already.

Have you ever visited the Salar De Uyuni? How was your experience?