Salt Flats

After departing La Paz, we stopped in Uyuni to book a 3 day tour of the Salt Flats and surrounding area. I didn't really know what to expect for this tour but it was very epic and stunning.

The first stop of the day was at a 'train graveyard', which was basically just a lot of trains that were no longer in use that we could climb on. After that, day one was spent almost exclusively at the Salt Flats called Salar de Uyuni. These are the largest salt flats in the world and are such a unique site. It was so flat so it really looked like the salt flats went on forever. We took some cool perspective photos and then just got to enjoy the salt flats. We walked around and just marveled at the view. We also stopped at Cactus Island which was literally a random rock island in the middle of the salt flats that were covered in Cactuses... And these cactuses were massive. After exploring the island, we watched the sunset over the flats and then went to our hotel for dinner. We were staying in a salt hotel where literally everything (except the mattresses) were made of salt.

Day two started around 6:30am as we departed the salt flats and headed towards the desert! This day has lots of stops to look at rock formations and stuff in the desert. We saw volcanic rocks, volcanoes, and lots of Lagunas. My favourite Laguna was the Red lagoon which really did look an epic red colour. We also saw lots of wildlife on this day. We saw hundreds of flamingos, 2 ostriches, dozens of vicuña, llamas, and chinchillas. The last stop of the day was at geysers which were cool to see but VERY stinky... like a strong rotten egg fart smell was in the air (it was so bad that it literally made one of the British dudes in our group puke 💀). We then headed for the hotel which was next to a natural hot spring. This was my favourite part of the day. We ran through the cold for about 5 minutes (and by cold, I mean it was -3°C outside) in our bathing suits down to the hot springs. We then enjoyed the very hot hot springs overlooking the stars. This was the most incredible night sky I have ever seen, we could even see the milky way. We saw this epic orange shooting star with a tail that went across the whole sky! Such a magical experience (the run back was cold though)!

The final day had a few stops at some beautiful Lagunas and epic rock formations. My favourite spot was at this marsh look out surrounded by rock faces. It was a very cool spot. Most of this day was spent journeying back to Uyuni. We also got to see the Atacama desert today as we were right near the border with Chile!

Overall this was an epic few days with some beautiful and unique spots that we visited. We are leaving Bolivia and overall, I really liked it here. The people were lovely and the places we visited were beautiful. That being said, we are excited to continue our adventure at a lower altitude and in a warmer location. Bolivia is definitely somewhere I will want to come back to one day as there is so much more I want to see!Read more