I have read about the beautiful lagoons and the expansive salt lakes of Bolivia and made it a point to do a 3 days 2 night tour on a 4x4 jeep across Salar de Uyuni from Chile into Bolivia.
However, I have also heard a lot of stories about agencies not delivering what was originally promised, or squeezing more people than they should (usually up to 6 pax in a jeep), as well as the infamous drunk and speed maniac drivers, and was thus extremely careful in choosing the agency of choice for the 3 days tour.
Finally decided on one, which was much cheaper than the other agencies that offered similar, and whom also promised that there will be a maximum of 5 people in the group whereas all other agencies indicated 6.
Day 1 : Laguna Blanca, Laguna Verde, Hot Springs, Geysers, Laguna Colorado
We were picked up at 8am from our hostel in a mini van and departed towards the Chilean border and the Bolivian border to process our documents, before being transferred to a 4x4 jeep at about 10.30am.
I was so glad that there were only a total of 4 of us on the tour (Pieter from Holland, Ingrid from Chile, Pedro and I), as we see most of the other jeeps being packed like sardines!
Our driver, Wilson, was a young Bolivian chap, and gave us a quick introduction of the places we will be visiting for the day.
After about 10 mins drive, we arrived at a National Park where we paid our entrance fees.
Laguna Blanca
Totally mesmerising! We stayed here for a while to take some photos before heading into the cabin located next to the lake for our breakfast.
Laguna Verde
By this time, it was starting to get cold outside as we had ascended in height (approximately 4,000m above sea level) and started piling on our jackets and scarf to keep warm!
We quickly took the photos we needed and jumped back into the jeep and headed off.
Hot Springs
We found out that this was the Hot Springs where we can take a dip in the small pool with water approximately 39.5 degrees celsius.
All of us hesitated against doing so as firstly the pool seemed pretty cramped with people, and secondly, the atmospheric weather was rather chilly.
Instead, we walked towards the nearby lake, which was equally breath taking and took some pictures.
Geysers “Sol de Manana”
Next stop, the Geysers. It is very different from the Tatio Geysers in San Pedro de Atacama, as most of the Geysers here were gurgling mud and only some with water. However many of them had coloured rocks / sand around it.
Laguna Colorado
Our last stop for the day, we arrived at Laguna Colorado at 3.30pm, where we had a late lunch and where we will also be spending the night. It was a refuge, with simple accommodation, and as we were told that the nights will be extremely cold, both Pedro and I requested for a sleeping bag on top of the already 2 blankets that was provided on our beds.
We had a quick lunch, before taking a walk towards Lake Colorado. Lake Colorado was a beautiful lake filled with red. The red hues were due to plankton in the water, and there were also a number of pink flamingos at that time feeding on the plankton.
By nightfall, Pieter developed more symptoms of Altitude Sickness (we were at 5,200m above sea level), and was given some coca leaves to take to relieve some of the symptoms. I had developed some headache, but still manageable and so took an early night’s rest and slept at 9pm, especially when we had to be up by 5.30am.
It was an extremely cold night! Even with a sleeping bag, I still felt cold and ended up drowsing in and out of sleep for the next 8 hours and struggling to keep warm even with 2 layers of clothes.
Day 2
Pieter was still feeling unwell from the symptoms of Altitude Sickness, and after a quick breakfast, we made our way down in height in the hope to relief his symptoms.
My headache had gone by then, but about 2 hours into our journey, I realised I had left my mobile phone at the refuge! Bummer!!!
I remembered I had left it on my bed, and even though I had lifted the sheets and the pillow before I left, I didn’t notice it there, and guess it must have fell on the floor while we were packing.
The unfortunate part was that as we were in the middle of the desert, we were told that we will only be able to call in to check at about 2pm,. So I had no choice but to wait.
Sights on the 2nd day failed in comparison to the 1st day, as there weren’t much to see except for Valle de las Rocas, an area filled with canyons, as well as some small villages such as Sao Cristobal.
We were also informed by Wilson that we will be staying in Uyuni, instead of a salt hotel in Colchani. This differed from the itinerary as Wilson said that it would cost additional to stay in a Salt Hotel, when according to the pamphlet from the agency in San Pedro de Atacama, it was supposed to be included. So he suggested that we speak to the agency in Uyuni when we reach in the early afternoon.
When we arrived in Uyuni, we spoke to Felix who managed the Uyuni office, who said that the Salt Hotel was not available because the person who takes care of it is not well (This story was definitely different from the one provided by Wilson!).
Knowing very well that we will not be able to stay in a Salt Hotel, we made the best of it and managed to get Felix to throw in 4 bicycles for us to ride on the Salar (Salt Lakes) tomorrow morning as compensation.
We also asked about my phone, and he said he will radio in that night to check with the Refuge.
So we had the balance of the evening free to explore the town of Uyuni.
Uyuni
Compared to the other villages that we had seen along the way of our tour, Uyuni is a much bigger town. Not very developed, with a mixture of stone paved and sand paved roads, and low rise simple brick houses as well as small little shops dotting the whole town.
There was only one area which was more developed and that was around the clock tower, which had a square with a number of restaurants in the area.
It was a rather bustling town though and I noticed a number of tourists in this town, mainly here to do the Salar de Uyuni tour.
Day 3
We woke up at 4.30am so as to leave the hotel by 5am to catch the sunrise at the Salar, and to also avoid the crowds that comes in various jeeps later in the morning.
Salar de Uyuni
After about a half hour drive, we arrived to find cone piles of salt in front of us. It was only about 5.30am in the morning and there was already people working and mining away!
Wilson shared with us that the entire surface area of the Salar is about 12,000 square kilometres, and at the point where we were, it was about 2-3 metres deep of salt.
Ojos del Salar
A small lake in the middle of the Salar. We saw that it was bubbling and assumed that it was possibly thermal. Wilson said that the lake is actually cold and the bubbles are resulted from gas that comes from the nearby volcano.
Salt Hotel
This is the very 1st Salt Hotel that was built on the Salar. It is fully built from salt, with even the tables and chairs on the outside made out of salt!
Salar and other Perspectives
Cycling across the Salar
Wilson stopped in the middle of the Salar and off loaded the bicycles from the jeep. He said that he will await us at Isle Incahuasi (Fish Island).
It didn’t look that far when we got off the jeep, and for the first 30 minutes, we were all very upbeat and excited to be cycling across the expansive Salar with no one else but us on it.
However fatigue soon got to us, especially when we were cycling at 3,660m above sea level. So for the balance 45 mins we paddled slowly and ushered each others on, and stop from time to time for a water break.
We must have cycled for over a total of 5km to reach Isle Incahuasi where breakfast was laid out on a salt table and awaiting our arrival. Finally!
We saw a couple of cyclists at this stop, and we were very impressed how they can be cycling across the Salar for long hours with massive packs on it, when we were already so tired out just with 90 mins of cycling!
Isle Incahuasi (Fish Island)
The view on top of Isle Incahuasi was truly breath taking, seeing the sea of white extending for miles around us!
Salt Museum
Train Cemetery
Not much to be seen here except for some ancient trains which are no longer in use. Apparently these trains were previously used for transporting cargo between the main towns.
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