Salar de Uyuni

We took an overnight bus on Sunday night from La Paz to Uyuni, where were starting a 3 day tour through the Uyuni Salt Flats and Reserva Nacional de Fauna Andina Eduardo Avaroa. The Uyuni Salt Flats were the thing we were looking forward to most in Bolivia (and primarily our only reason for going to Bolivia), and we were truly in awe at the incredible landscapes.

We met with the rest of our tour group in Uyuni (a Peruvian couple and a French couple) and then set off towards the Salt Flats. The first stop on the tour was a train graveyard just outside Uyuni, which was very random. After a quick stop here, we drove towards Uyuni Salt Flats, which at 11,000 square kilometres, is the largest salt flat in the world. It was very cool and surreal driving across the seemingly endless white landscape. We spent the afternoon taking silly perspective photos, and then watched a spectacular 360° sunset. We spent the night in a Salt Hotel where everything (walls, chairs, tables, bed) was made of salt.

On the 2nd day of our tour, we spent the day driving around Reserva Nacional de Fauna Andina Eduardo Avaroa. We visited many lagoons, saw flamingos and chinchillas. Our day ended at Laguna Colorado (famous for its red colour and flamingoes), and spent the night in a nearby hostel. The hostel was at 4,300m above sea level, and, even with six of us sleeping in a room and 4-5 layers of woolley blankets each, was freezing.

We woke up early on our last day to visit the geysers at sunrise at Reserva Nacional de Fauna Andina Eduardo Avaroa. It was really cool to see the geysers and Mars like landscape within an active volcanic crater, but so cold that we couldn't stay very long (-12C). We spent the rest of the morning driving through incredible landscapes, before we finished our tour and crossed the border into Chile.Read more