Salt Flat Tour
Let me start by saying that a 4-day tour of the Salt Flat Tours like all the agencies advertise is EXTREMELY misleading. It is not a four day tour of the Salar de Uyuni, the largest salt flats in the world. And honestly, you wouldn’t want it to be. Rather, it is a four day tour of Southwest Bolivia with the last day offering a morning at the Salinas (or salt flats). There are many ways to do the tour: From San Pedro de Atacama in Chile, from Uyuni, Bolivia, or from Tupiza, Bolivia. We opted for the latter option, considering we were already in Tupiza. Most tours will pass the same sights but depending on where you start will determine the order in which you see them. A huge benefit of starting from Tupiza for me, though it is more expensive than starting in Uyuni, is that the salt flats are saved for the last, rather than the first day. Considering they are the main attraction of the tour, I wanted to save them for last - a finale if you will. After all, who likes to see Macchu Pichu and then hike the Inca Trail after? It just seems wrong.
Tours often consist of four tourists in a land cruiser (though your trip is slightly cheaper if you add a fifth person, I highly recommend against it. You will spend a ton of time in the car, and want all the space you can get). You will have a guide as well as a cook and often travel in a caravan of other cars of the same agency. For example, Tupiza tours, the agency with whom we booked, had a caravan of five different cars. While this might appear to detract from the experience with more people, I actually liked it. When we got a flat tire (twice) or our engine overheated (once) there were always other cars around to help us.
Like I said earlier, most agencies offer identical tours in terms of sights. Here is a brief overview of our four days:
Day 1: We headed out for the Quebrada de Palala, a spectacular red rock formation resembling spikes. Afterwards, we continued El Silar or Valley of the Moon where, because of erosion effects, the landscape appears like the moon with peaks and landscapes. We spent lunch in a large flat field full of llamas. After taking pictures with them and commenting on how absolutely adorable they were, we were served sandwiches and tamales with a mysterious meat inside. When we asked our guides what the meat was, we were told llama meat. I wanted to vomit. Everyone else really enjoyed it though. We then continued to Nazarenito, a small gold mining village and Chilcobija, another large mine. We spent the first night in San Antonia de Lipez, a tiny town where we played soccer with some of the neighborhood kids and played cards til going to bed.
Day 2: Today was the longest day of the trip. We departed San Antonia de Lipez early in the morning and headed to San Antonio, an eerie, deserted town that used to be populated with families of men working in the mines. We continued through small villages until Kollpa Laguna, where people had the option of swimming in the hot springs of Rio Amargo before lunch. After, we headed to Salar de Calviri and Laguna Verde. We then headed to a geothermic land known as "Sol de Manana" which has intense volcanic activity and craters of lava and mud in a constant boiling condition. We continued on to El Desierto de Dali, which had strange rock formations in the shapes of trees that we had fun scaling.
Day 3: Another morning of waking up early (all mornings on this trip are) and a sunrise at Laguna Colorada, a bright red lagoon, located in the foot of a black mountatin. Afterwards, we visited another of other lagoons, most with beautiful flamingos walking and flying about. We arrived in Uyuni around 3pm, our first night with real showers (hot water too!) and eating delicious food at Minuteman Pizza (yes, it's as good as it sounds in the guide book)
Day 4: Left Uyuni while still dark, and drove out to the Salar de Uyuni, the largest salt flat in the world, just in time for sunrise. Unfortunately, we were there during the rainy season and a couple inches of water covered the entire salt flats, making taking some of the awesome photos you see, pretty difficult. It was also REALLY cold there. Be sure to bundle up. But the flooding didn't take away from how magnificent the salt flats are. We took the traditional photos, ate in the Salt Hotel, and then headed to the train cemetery for a quick stop before returning to Uyuni where our tour ended.
Day 1: We headed out for the Quebrada de Palala, a spectacular red rock formation resembling spikes. Afterwards, we continued El Silar or Valley of the Moon where, because of erosion effects, the landscape appears like the moon with peaks and landscapes. We spent lunch in a large flat field full of llamas. After taking pictures with them and commenting on how absolutely adorable they were, we were served sandwiches and tamales with a mysterious meat inside. When we asked our guides what the meat was, we were told llama meat. I wanted to vomit. Everyone else really enjoyed it though. We then continued to Nazarenito, a small gold mining village and Chilcobija, another large mine. We spent the first night in San Antonia de Lipez, a tiny town where we played soccer with some of the neighborhood kids and played cards til going to bed.
Day 2: Today was the longest day of the trip. We departed San Antonia de Lipez early in the morning and headed to San Antonio, an eerie, deserted town that used to be populated with families of men working in the mines. We continued through small villages until Kollpa Laguna, where people had the option of swimming in the hot springs of Rio Amargo before lunch. After, we headed to Salar de Calviri and Laguna Verde. We then headed to a geothermic land known as "Sol de Manana" which has intense volcanic activity and craters of lava and mud in a constant boiling condition. We continued on to El Desierto de Dali, which had strange rock formations in the shapes of trees that we had fun scaling.
Day 3: Another morning of waking up early (all mornings on this trip are) and a sunrise at Laguna Colorada, a bright red lagoon, located in the foot of a black mountatin. Afterwards, we visited another of other lagoons, most with beautiful flamingos walking and flying about. We arrived in Uyuni around 3pm, our first night with real showers (hot water too!) and eating delicious food at Minuteman Pizza (yes, it's as good as it sounds in the guide book)
Day 4: Left Uyuni while still dark, and drove out to the Salar de Uyuni, the largest salt flat in the world, just in time for sunrise. Unfortunately, we were there during the rainy season and a couple inches of water covered the entire salt flats, making taking some of the awesome photos you see, pretty difficult. It was also REALLY cold there. Be sure to bundle up. But the flooding didn't take away from how magnificent the salt flats are. We took the traditional photos, ate in the Salt Hotel, and then headed to the train cemetery for a quick stop before returning to Uyuni where our tour ended.
Hey! What tour company did you use and would you recommend it? :) This blog has been really useful for my travels!
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