Salar De Uyuni (World's Largest Salt Flats)

The bus rolled in at 9:30 am. We got directions to our travel agency’s office and walked there. We found out that we were leaving for our tour in an hour. We hurried to take out some more Bolivianos and to eat a quick meal before we left.  

The time flew by and before we knew it, we were loading up the Jeep and hopping in. After the 3 of us got in the Jeep, 3 more travelers followed. We quickly learned that they were from France. Alejandro, our tour guide, hopped into the driver’s seat, made introductions, and just like that we were off. Our fellow travelers were very interesting individuals. Clamont and Naomi spoke nearly fluent Spanish. Clamont knew hardly any English but Naomi was very proficient. The guy, Charles, spoke nearly fluent English and hardly in Spanish. Alex speaks a little French and we all speak some Spanish. We used quite the smorgasbord of languages to communicate and depending on our linguistic needs, we talked to a different person. For example, if we didn’t know how to say a word in Spanish, we would ask Charles (fluent in English) to translate it to the girls in French so they could tell us in Spanish. Let’s just say there were lots of laughs. We also learned that they were going to Montevideo to study at a different University there.

Our first stop was the train cemetery, just on the other side of the city. There were all sorts of old train cars just sitting on the tracks. It was pretty fun to just run around and climb on them. One major difference between tours in the US and tours here is that safety isn’t really a concern, nor is preservation of the thing being observed. I don’t mean that they don’t care but if there was a train cemetery in the US that was part of a tour, there would be workers making sure people didn’t climb on them and things like that. (This is a thought that might be helpful to keep in mind for the rest of this post, as we go on to do much crazier things, all part of a sponsored tour. It is interesting to compare to what would’ve taken place if we were in the states)

After 15 minutes of exploring we were back in the Jeep and heading out to the salt flats. First, we stopped at a local house to pick our meals for the trip. After about 30 minutes of driving, we had started to enter the white. It was hard to disassociate a white ground from snow. It was really easy to look out the window and be unimpressed, who from Wisconsin hasn’t seen a white covered landscape? (Sorry, I realize this might be insensitive given your current freezing conditions, I promise I’m not trying to rub it in. Although, it’s pretty nice to be wearing a tank top as I’m writing this ;)). 

Before we got into the heart of the flats, we stopped to see some natural bubbling springs. They were called “los ojos del sal” the salt eyes.

Five minutes later, we were back in our Jeep. Alejandro kept a pretty tight time schedule. It was a positive though because he always gave us a choice. He would say, we can stop here for 15 minutes and have less time at “x” location, or we can stop for 10 minutes. He was constantly letting us know what our time was worth so we could decide how we wanted to spend it.

Our next stop was an old Salt Hotel for lunch. It has stopped being used as a hotel because of the environmental effects of disposing of the human waste and other factors that arise with a hotel out on the salt flats. It was really beautiful. There were salt bricks just laying around. Arguably the coolest thing about this stop was the platform full of flats. Each flag holds a memory of a world traveler stopping and placing their mark. It provided future joy for travelers of that country. I imagine it provided a sense of connectedness and joy to have a little piece of home. I wouldn’t know because America did not have a flag up (I sadly wasn’t carrying a flag with me, not to self next trip I take abroad, always have a flag on me) but I enjoyed seeing Australia’s and other countries with loved ones or importance to me. It made me feel just a little bit closer to them all.

Not long after arrival, Alejandro called us over for lunch. It was a lunch of llama, quinua, and vegetables served on a salt table with salt chairs. The llama meet was good, it was a tougher meat but very flavorful. I will explain more about quinua later (I know, bigggg cliff hanger)

After lunch was over, Alejandro told us to walk out into the flats, take pictures and he would drive and meet us, wherever we ended up. We headed out and stopped a couple hundred yards away from the hotel to take some pictures.

I should note, Jeremy is feeling much better at this point but he still looses energy quickly. However, he is eating normal meals which are doing wonders for him because now his body is finally getting some the energy it needs to heal.

About a half hour later Alejandro rolls up in the Jeep and we are off to our next stop. There are several “islands” on the salt flats, we drove past a few of them and finally arrived at the one we were going to stop at. We had an hour to hike around in it. The heat was unbelievable. We are at the same altitude as Copacabana (2.5 miles) so I assumed it would be the same mild climate but I grossly underestimated the heat. Climbing around was really fun though. It was cool to be amongst cacti and to look out and see nothing but salt in the distance. I was also surprised to see how much climbing I was able to do. My first time in this extreme altitude I could hardly climb stairs but I was hiking up these hills better than I would back home.

All too soon we were loading the Jeep back up. After about an hour of driving, things were getting noticeably wetter. It is rainy season right now in South America. It was not long and we were driving through about 3 inches of water. The water did amazing things to the scenes unfolding around us. It provided a mirror image of everything. We stopped for a 5 minute picture break right on the edge of flats.

As we drove out of the flats and into the countryside, Alejandro started explain quinua. It only grows at a very specific altitude and arid climate. It is a grain with a very high protein content. There are over 100 different varieties but the only difference between them is the color they are when they grow. There are 6 main varieties grown in the area and the nutritional content of each variety is identical. The sole difference is the color.

We also learned that the salt is not exported because it is so cheap (I think he said 2 Bolivianos or roughly 30 cents per kilo). That made me kind of sad because Bolivia is such a poor country and they have this amazing resource but it’s not really worth much. However, it does bring in a lot of tourism.

After another 2 hours of driving we arrived at the salt hostel we were spending the night at. It was a rinkydink town with not much to see. We walked the whole city in 15 minutes.

We all meet in the dining room around 5 for tea and crackers. I asked Alejandro what time diner would be and he replied “8 or 8:30.” I groaned and he asked me what the problem was. I explained there was nothing wrong; my stomach just isn’t used to eating on South American time. I explained how most Americans eat between 5 and 6:30 and he made fun of me.

Soon enough, it was time to eat. We were served a dish very common in Bolivia, Pique Macho, it was basically like a pot roast. It had French fries, beef chunks, veggies, and hot dogs in it. We also were served bread. Alejandro brought out a bottle of wine as well. After he poured the glasses he explained that we must pour a little out for Pacha Mama “mother earth” to give her thanks before you can drink. This is a tradition we first observed in Copacabana. It is part of the Amaryan faith.

After dinner, we went to bed and prepared to wake up at 7 for breakfast the next morning.

Breakfast was toast and coffee. Much to my excited surprise, they also had hot chocolate.

All too quick, we were back in the Jeep and off to our first stop. 

We went to the Bolivian/Chilean border which is marked by the semi active volcano, Ollajua. It was fun to at least see Chile since we didn’t have time to actually go visit. After this stop, we traveled to the other side of the volcano. The drive was absolutely mesmerizing. The mountains were all multicolored, rich with vibrant minerals that gave them a look that they were painted with water color.

 When we got to the other side of Ollajua, we could see a little plume of smoke, steadily barreling out of it. All of the rocks in these pictures are made from lava. 

After stopping here, we traveled on to the first of 4 lakes we were stopping at that day. The first two had flamingos. 

We also saw a lot of vacona, the llama’s wild cousin. The white on the lake isn’t salt but rather borax. While we walked around, Alejandro took a nap. 

I told him that if he wanted to rest, I could drive the Jeep for a while. He shot that down pretty quick. Then I asked, how about just 5 minutes? And he told me that if it was in our itinerary for me to drive 5 minutes, than I could but since it wasn’t, I couldn’t.

Laughing, we all got back in the Jeep and headed to our lunch spot. We didn’t know where we were going to stop but all the sudden, in the middle of a valley between two mountains, we set up shop. It was really fun to eat in the middle of this serene location. We found a big rock to be the table and we all found our own little rock to sit on. Today we had pasta, fried plantains, and chicken for lunch. 

Similar to yesterday, when we were done eating, Alejandro told us to walk and explore and he would find us.

After lunch, we headed to arbol de pierda, rock tree. Here there were an abundance of cool lava formations. We stopped for 15 minutes for pictures.

Then we continued on to the colored laguna. Alejandro explained to us that it was going to have a red color that only appears mid afternoon. The wind stirs up the minerals that are in the water and leave it with a red color. When he was explaining this to us, I was expected a red hue to the water color. When I finally laid eyes on the lake, it took my breath away with surprise.

We spent an hour here. The time was supposed to be used to walk around the lake. Alex, Jeremy and I decided to play a game of “Who can hit that big rock, using a little rock”

After visiting the lake, we had a short 20 minute ride to our hostel. Actually, Alejandro made it clear that it wasn’t a hostel, it was a refuge. It solely exists to house people who go on these tours. We had our tea and crackers again at 5 and then socialized with another tour group. 2 of the members were from Colombia, one from Portugal, and 3 from Japan. We had to use English as the communication language, which wasn’t always very successful. It was really fun hanging out. It was also really fun exchanging names and listening to everyone try to pronounce names that would never exist in their respective culture.

Soon it was time for dinner, which was pasta with a red sauce and bread. We had a dessert of a half a canned peach. This might not sound like much to you but to us it was heavenly. We stayed up a while after eating to talk. The later it got, the colder it got. I finally understand what they mean when they say a desert can be cold. The temperatures dropped dramatically and if I had to guess, I would say that by the time I went to bed (12), it was mid 40’s.

The next morning we were up 5 for the same breakfast as before and out the door by 5:30. As we drove, the sun backlit the mountains providing a view worthy of waking up for.

Around 6:15 we arrived at the geysers. They were an amazing sight to see, especially with the sun rising around us. The warmth they provided was also very welcomed.

After the geysers we drove to Laguna verde (Green Lake). This lake has the same effect as the red one we saw yesterday but because it was not the windy part of the day we didn’t see the magnificent emerald color.

20 minutes later, we loaded the Jeep back up and drove to the hot springs. I once again asked Alejandro if I could drive and he again told me no. Once we arrived, we were given an hour to spend swimming in the warm water. It was seriously hotter than any hot tub I’ve ever been in. It was the first time I’d been in warm water in weeks. Maybe Cuenca was the last warm shower I’ve had? I’m not even sure.

When our hour was up, we drove for another 2 or 3. We stopped for a few picture breaks. Finally giving up on being able to drive I asked Alejandro if I could at least take a picture in the driver’s seat. He pulled me over, told me a secret and we loaded the Jeep back up.

Eventually, we came upon this little town and Alejandro asked if we wanted to eat here or go on a picnic. Naturally, it was a unanimous decision to picnic. We drove to casa de pierda (rock house). He gave us 30 minutes to explore while he prepared lunch. This is another area with volcanic rock. It was truly gorgeous. It is called casa de pierda because the rocks pretty much form a frame with a few in the middle. The frame has all sorts of “windows” and then at the back end there is a “door”.

For lunch today we had rice, tuna, corn and apples. Not being able to resist the apple, I asked for a knife to peal the skin off so I could eat it.

 Following lunch protocol, after eating we were sent off walking but this time we were told to meet Alejandro at the “door” at the other end of the “house”. This was my cue, Alejandro called me over and told me to get in driver’s side. He asked me if I knew how to drive, and said of course. He asked if I knew how to drive stick shift. Duh, Alejandro! And then he asked me if I said my license, I even pulled it out to show him and then we were off! He let me drive a little loop around the “house” it was so much fun!

After driving, we went out to explore the rock formations. They were amazingly pretty and fun to climb on.

Yeah,  I was up kinda high, watch the video and you can see people at the bottom of the rock (enlarge it to full screen)

After about an hour and a half we met up with Alejandro. 

We continued driving, about an hour later we stopped at another rock formation area but only for 5 minutes to take pictures. This was our last stop, we drove the rest of the way to Uyuni and arrived at 6.

Bart Simpson

Monkey head and bear

Toucan

Once back in Uyuni, we needed to buy a train ticket to the border city of Bolivia. Unfortunately, we got there minutes too late because the ticket office closed at 6. We learned that it would reopen at 9 for ticket sales for the 10:45 train.

We went out for dinner and came back at 9 and waited till 10 for the ticket office to actually open so we could buy ours. After that, we prepared to load the train for the 13 hour train ride ahead. Soon, we loaded the train and we were off.